Cork and Kerry A.R.I.: Holiday in Romania

A group from Mallow recently went on a trip for 1 week to Romania with Mackin Travel. We had a wonderful time , the weather was lovely and warm and sunny not too hot mostly and our two Mackin reps Una ans Edel looked after us very well. The currency there is Lei approx 4 Lei to 1 euro even though they are in the EU.
We had a brilliant Romanian Guide Claudia and driver Christian. We toured all over the country on the Carpathian mountains Translavania and stayed in Sinaia, Sibiu, and Bucharest. We visited numerous churches castles and fortresses but the best place of all was for me Drasculas castle. I never realized the the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker was based on Vlad the Impaler who owned and lived in the castle one time. It was later occupied by the Royal family and is now open to the public. It has been adapted somewhat for safety reasons but a lot of the original features are still there in cluding the secret staircase and the inner courtyard and wishing well.
It is absolutely amazing how they built that castle on a rock with no cranes only manual labour.

Bran castle

We found the customs very different such as no vegetables with the dinner , the plates were cold . the meals were not piping hot , the desserts were very rich , no cream and we had to request milk for tea or coffee. But as they say when in Rome do as the Romans do. There were lots of coffee shops some sold only coffee no cakes even!!Prices were reasonable some things quite cheap. There was lovely style in the shops , the dresses were to die for so embellished with glitter and embroidery, not that I have any place to go for such style. I am talking red carpet here.
The main roads were fantastic , every place was very clean, there was a lot of traffic in the cities. The architecture was fantastic, some of the buildings were truly beautiful but so sad to see some really nice buildings crumbling.
In Bucharest there were some massive buildings but lots of high rise flats too, 12 stories high in some cases the bottom 2 stories appeared to have no light.
We through lots of questions at Claudia and she was well able .Anything she hadn't time for she answered the following day or maybe she looked it up.! You would know she had been in the states for a while as she used say I an gonna or the wash room. What I found amusing when she wanted to say that is behind the the building she would that was at the backside!