Romania into Slovakia

June 21:  BRAN, ROMANIA.  We saw Bran Castle.  Bram Stoker fictionally wrote Count Dracula, in 1897, based on this place.  Vlad Draculea (who actually ruled in another region) gained the name Tepes, meaning the Impaler.  He ruled in the mid 1400’s and punished his enemies by inserting a wooden stake into the anus, through the body, and emerging through the mouth.  We saw more Americans today since it is coach tour stop!

June 22:  SIGHISOARA, ROMANIA.  We saw a lot of horse drawn carts as we drove through the villages and near farms.  They use them to haul hay, people, and various products.  The houses in the villages in Romania are very close together with fences around them and there is typically a barn in the back.  The farms in Romania have been individually operated as opposed to corporate size farms that we have seen in other countries.  We saw people plowing the fields with a horse or very old tractor. 

We found the area very diverse.  We saw large box stores like REAL and METRO as well as the small grocer or produce stand.  We also saw the Roma (Gypsy) population and their less than desirable living conditions (European Roma Rights http://errc.org).

June 23: near DEBRECEN, HUNGARY.  Ukraine was to be on our list of places, but we had to delete that off our list.  After talking with people, we found that since we are in a rental vehicle, we may not get into the country.  The Ukraine border can take up to 5 hours to get through and between border patrol, police stopping you for whatever reason, and requiring bribes for everything we decided best not to take a chance. 

June 24-25: HIGH TRATAS (Vysoke Tatry), Tatra National Park, SLOVAKIA.  We drove to the north central area of  Slovak Republik, Slovakia, into the Carpathian Mountains.  The High Tatras are the tallest range of these mountains and are only 25 km wide and 78 km long.  Our camp is at the base and the highest peak is 2634 meters.  The EU is spending millions of Euros to get this area further developed as a ski and outdoor sports area.   

We took the lift up the mountain and hiked around.  It was cloudy, then cleared, then cloudy again and it even snowed.  We were amazed at the number of hikers.  We took an electric train along a 20+ km route.  It had a dozen stopping points for hikers to get on, or off, and many areas with hotels and restaurants.  Other than two guys from England, we heard no other English spoken.