The Other Side of the Curtain

We've been in Eastern Europe for the last couple of weeks, starting in Bulgaria, moving to Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, and now we're in Poland.

Jess has been blogging loads, and in another vain attempt to catch up, I thought I'd try to sum up some of the things we've seen, learnt and experienced.

Things we have seen

When we were in India - particularly Rajasthan - we joked that everywhere we visited had a city palace (with displays of musical instruments) and a giant fort just outside town (with a formidable display of weapons).

We've had a similar experience in our travels in European cities - from Sofia to Bratislava, Budapest to Prague - everywhere seems to have had a beautiful old town, with market square, complete with Christmas market. Outside the town (over a river, often the Danube) is a castle on a hill.

This has been great to see - there's something really nice about walking around a cobbled square with a glass of hot wine, eating a sausage. Also, the cities so far have had the highest concentration of pretendable-statues I've ever seen. We have taken a boat-load of pictures pretending to be statues. For enthusiasts, Bratislava is really good for this. Punching above its weight.

Things we have learnt

I'll be honest, my knowledge of the history of some places we've visited, particularly Bulgaria and Romania, was patchy at best before we went there. It has been really interesting to learn about the sometimes painful history of countries I couldn't reliably point out on a map 6 months ago. We've been going to plenty of museums to learn about the places we're visiting - I'd particularly recommend the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest (really, really good) and the Regional Ethnographic Museum  in Plovdiv (small and quirky). I feel like we've discovered the Ethnographic Museum since we started travelling. It is really interesting to see what everyday life was like throughout history in different countries, and notice the similarities and differences.

Things we have experienced

Jess has already blogged about her experience of visiting the Auschwitz Museum; I haven't much to add to her thoughts. But that was definitely an experience, and I thought the feeling I got walking around will stay with me more than the particular information we learnt as we visited the exhibitions. We've visited a few museums and places in cities dedicated to previous atrocities: the mass grave behind the Great Synagogue in Budapest, the Museum of Communism in Prague, and numerous monuments to wars past. Before our trip is out I'm sure we'll experience more of this kind of thing - visiting Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, or the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam for example.

Next week we will have left Eastern Europe behind, and will be in Berlin for five or so days. I know we won't have left behind the experiences of visiting some truly harrowing places, and being reminded of the some of the worst things humans have ever done to each other.

All that said, we've had a really nice time in Eastern Europe. Strolling through the beginnings of Christmas markets, visiting some great museums, and eaten some fantastic food (sausages) : )

We love Romania!

Having only spent 3 days in Romania we weren't sure whether we'd get enough of a flavour, especially as we were in two cities. How wrong we were!

Arriving into Bucharest felt a bit grim. We followed the directions given from the hostel and ended up walking through half built roads with graffitti everywhere.Turns out we just made up our own directions and ended up in the right place anyway through sheer luck!

The hostel was a small friendly place run by a lovely couple who gave us a run down of the city. As we arrived really early we didn't have a bed yet so we headed off the explore.

There were a couple of walks marked out on the map that were really handy to get an initial idea of the city, we walked about 4km that morning and got a lovely introduction to the city. It is definitely a capital and there was plenty to see, including the 2nd largest building in the world (second to the Pentagon). There is the obligatory old town that seems to be a staple in many European cities that comprise of cobbled streets, arty shops and in winter Christmas markets and hot wine.

We visited the Romanian Museum of History, which was undergoing renovations (turns out since 2002!). We were still charged full price just for 1 room. We saw a Roman column that had been deconstructed for the exhibit. The base was easily the size of a room, and had 2 small blue doors in the side that were uncannily like the TARDIS! Round the column height was the story of how the Romans had come and defeated the local people, the Tamans (I think they were called). It was 130 scenes long and really interesting but we did expect more from a museum that size.

However, the Romanian museum people were soon redeemed when we visited a "Peasant museum" down the road. It was a beautiful glimpse into local life in the past. There were lots of demonstations of how life was like, including drying corn on the cob in the sun, milling flour with a huge windmill and how to process sheeps wool into yarn. It was really interesting, and on reflection afterwards it was made even more interesting as we'd seen these techniques still being used in Nepal and India, not looking like they were going to get relegated to the past any time soon...Within this museum was a whole house! It was made of wood and rebuilt into one room with holes in the walls to allow people to look in and see the scenes laid out for us.

After a whirlwind tour of Bucharest full of museums and walking we hopped on a train to Brasov, the main hub for access to Transylvania into easily the best hostel we've stayed at so far. You got a free beer per person per night! it was just a shame we were only there for one night...

Turns out that Monday is the day everything is closed in Romania so we weren't able to visit any of the exciting Transylvanian sights, such as Dracula's Castle and the like. Instead we took it as a nice day off, walked the length and bredth of the town and played in a childrens park.

After this taster into Romanian cities we are both itching to go back and explore even more!

More offal! Yes that is a whole liver!

We're not sure what Martyn's Christmas Market stall sells, but it appears to be invisible...

Our hostel had the right priorities

An egg vending machine!

A traditional Romanian dessert of two ring doughnuts topped with little doughnut balls and covered in jam and yoghurt. Tasty!