16 April – To Bucharest (Romania)

We left Budapest (Hungary) early in the morning to drive to Bucharest (Romania) stopping off at Dracula’s Castle. It had rained hard during the night so everything was soaked and then had to be packed wet but it did not rain during breakfast. Due to the muddy fields and access the truck could not be turned in the narrow lane and had to be reversed about half a mile before turning. Sometimes the truck would be driven round the back streets of towns or do a u-turn for us to be told that the driver was not lost but had to take the roads that were suitable for the weight and height of the truck. The landscape again consisted of wide valleys and hills with rubbish thrown everywhere, not little bits, but truck loads so it seemed. The rubbish really spoilt the scenery. The weather was so dull it was not worth taking any photographs!

I cannot remember if I mentioned before that in the towns the gas pipe runs outside the house fence with the gas meter attached to the fence outside or easily accessible on the house wall. I could never see that happening in the UK! Road signs pointed to industrial parks (with EU boards indicating that EU money was involved) but all that was there was farmland. This was not just in the odd place either. It was possible to buy headstones quite easily as they were displayed on the pavement in one village we went through.

Dracula’s Castle was interesting even though it had been modernised. It would certainly take some heating as the windows did not close though the doors were quite substantial. There was some old furniture, pictures, coats of arms and old costumes inside. The day had changed completely by the time we arrived there and it was warm and sunny, not really the time to take photographs when one thinks of the films about Dracula and the storms and darkness that they were always shown in. It did start to rain as we left and I did get a somewhat darker sinister photograph. There was a decrepit glass sided building outside the castle grounds and I would have liked to buy it and do it up as the building looked as if it could really be something special.

Dracula's Castle

The door knob at Dracula's Castle

Dracula's Castle

Dracula's Castle internal stairway

Coat of Armour

Painting eggs by hand

A carved table leg

There was a party, and part birthday party, at the camp that evening. It was the first time we had been able to sit out in the warm in an evening and the best that can be said is that a good time was had by all. The girls went to bed at 0230 hrs but still managed to crawl out at 0700 hrs for breakfast!