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Flew from Amsterdam to London, where we changed planes and flew to Bucharest. I'm still not certain of the relationships between all the companies involved, but we had booked a ski package which included transport to and from the ski resort, accomodation, food, ski-hire, lift tickets, and found ourselves in the same mini-van as a tour group from another company that had a few other activities planned. We ended up joining in on their excursions and adopted their tour leader too.
Carrying heavy ski clothing through South America did not seem like a sensible idea. We were planning on hiring gear when at the resort. I had booked into a set of classes starting on Monday, so on Sunday we set out to find clothing. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to hire clothes, so it looked like we were going to have to buy some. Our first problem was money. We had taken some cash out at the airport, but not enough to buy a new set of ski clothes. Nowhere in the resort accepted travelers cheques. Not even the money exchange place (apparently the banks took many months to forward the money, so they stopped accepting them). The hotels took credit cards, but none of the local shops would. There was one ATM machine in the town, and it would only let you withdraw 2 million lei at a time. Thats about $60 US. And it appeared that it would only let you do one withdrawl per day. Eventually I coaxed it (with a few kicks) into letting me take out 2000000L a few times in a row.
Next problem: Finding clothing. On a Sunday morning in a small ski resort, everything was closed. So we caught a bus down to Brasov, the second largest city in Romania ... where everything was closed. Back up in Poiana Brasov, the resort, we found some shops that opened in the afternoon, and finally we managed to get our selves kitted out, and go for a couple of runs.
A day of skiing! I had signed up for lessons, and Katie had chosen just ski by herself. I was very surprised to discover that lessons here were an all day exercise. I had been expecting a morning of lessons and the afternoon free. I wasn't too enthusiastic when I was moved to a class who's instructor was introduced as "Aaron the slave driver". He did work us very hard througout the week, but it payed off. By the end of the week we were making it down a very difficult black run. Though my new ski pants did become quite well aquainted with the snow.
Dinner tonight was a feast of Romanian food in a long hall decorated with an amazing collection of animal skins, antlers, stuffed birds and weapons. We were also treated to traditional music and dancing.
A little worn out from all the skiing (it had nothing to do with the wine last night, really), we took a half day off today. I suspect some of the Poms in the other tour group were feeling worse some mornings however. Their package included unlimited free local beer and wine. It would be tempting to look up that package next time.
Poiana Brasov is in Transylvania, and though I knew it was potentially very touristy, I was not going to pass up on a trip to Dracula's castle. Vlad Tepes was prince of Wallachia (which neighbours Transylvania) in the mid 15th century. Famous in Romania for his defense of the realm against the Ottoman Turks, and infamous for torturing and impaling people, there is no evidence that he owned or even stayed at this castle (properly known as Bran Castle) other than for a few days as a guest. However, many legends link him to the castle, and it is a beautiful castle to visit none-the-less.
After visiting the castle, (and the tourist shops nearby), we took a horse drawn sleigh ride to a restaurant for dinner. It wasn't as much dashing through the snow as trudging slowly along an icy road, drawn by a rather flatulent horse. But it was fun anyway
Katie and I spent the day skiing together today, and I risked taking my camera along
A bus back to Bucharest. Short tour of Bucharest, plane to Gatwick, bus to Heathrow, plane to Hong Kong
To break up the flight back to Sydney, we stopped overnight in Hong Kong, and did a bit of shopping
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