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Deb & I will write a more detailed post when we get a chance, but for now we’ll just say we both survived and enjoyed our first day at our placement. it’s pretty hard work and certainly makes home life seem pretty easy & nice in comparison.

Will write more tomorrow!

This place is a time trip… In a good & not so good way.

My initial impressions of Romania are this:

• they build things well, just don’t maintain them. So many houses, buildings, roads, basically you name it – are just falling down or have been abandoned. But right next door, they’re in the process of building something new. It seems people just say, “stuff it – too hard, let’s just start from scratch” and then go again.
• it’s a big case of the “haves” and “have nots”. There’s some serious money in this country, it’s just that so few have it. Some of the houses we drove past, particularly in the tourist mountain areas, there are some enormous private houses – 4 stories with amazing views. And that’s just their holiday house. But across the road from that, you have a street stand by some poor old man/woman who has a bunch of fruit/veggies/honey/flowers/home made wine that they’re trying to flog to people on their way back from a weekend in the mountains.
• there’s a big police presence – we’ve seen a heap of police cars everywhere we’ve gone, which is both comforting and not at the same time. We’re telling ourselves it’s just because they want to keep things nice. Admittedly, all we’ve seen them do is give speeding fines – although we’re not sure why… it appears to just do what you want. The car ahead of you is going too slow? Beep them and they’ll move over to the shoulder and pass them – 1 lane is plenty!

Continue reading “Brasov, Romania – day 2”

Well we made it finally! The flight from Stuttgart to Bucharest was pretty easy and we were picked up at the airport by a Projects Abroad guy named Daniel. I was so hoping we’d be picked up in a Dacia Sandero (local car – Top Gear joke), but sadly no, just a VW Golf.

His english was pretty good, so he was able to tell us a lot about what parts of the country we were going through.
Continue reading “Buna Romania!”

We decided to do different stuff today as Glen was keen to see some cars and Deb noticed that there was a massive outlet mall with a shuttle bus running to/from our hotel.

Glen will write his bit, then Deb hers. Click the link to read more…

Continue reading “Stuttgart”

After such a massive day at Oktoberfest – Friday was always going to be difficult to best it. I don’t think either of us were up to doing much anyway.

At breakfast we caught up with Johnny and Lena, said goodbye and wished each other all. We booked our accommodation in Stuttgart and made our way to the train station to drop our bags in a locker and see more of Munich.

We’d really seen very little of Munich so we thought we would do a walking tour and chose to learn more about the Third Reich and Hitler’s movements in and around Munich. Some of it was really interesting, such as where Hitler gave many of his speeches in the beer halls, how the buildings he oversaw were to last 1000 years so future generations would know how mighty the Nazi party was and stuff like that. Sadly for a good portion of it, we were bored. The tour guide either makes or breaks things like that and she provided no real colour, no excitement or feeling that you’re standing where thousands of troops marched praising Hitler or that decisions to end the lives of millions were made at the tables we sat at. We tried to recreate that grandeur, but it was difficult given the guide’s lack of enthusiasm. Still – we’re glad we did it, we saw a heap more of Munich we normally wouldn’t have and fluked walking past Lowenbrau Beer Hall – a famous german brewery on the way back where we stopped for lunch.

Food is a big aspect to German culture and I know I’ve mentioned it a few times already. Plus we love food so we’re keen to try new what’s on offer. Deb had a sausage platter with horseradish, mash potato and sauerkraut whilst Glen had a pork knuckle with potato dumpling and sauerkraut along with a pint of the local brew. Deb liked hers but didn’t love a couple of the sausages whilst Glen loved every part of his meal.

Back to the train station, grabbed our bags, bought our tickets to Stuttgart and 20mins later we’re on our way.

I’m writing this whilst on the train for the 2hr ride and the scenery as we go through the German countryside is simply breathtaking. The towns are postcard worthy and the architecture is something to behold. It seems each town must have a cathedral steeple taller than the previous town’s and it’s a big competition.

Arriving at Stuttgart train station, having passed the Mercedes factory an a fair bit of industrial areas, we’re amazed at how big the city is and from the train anyway, it looks to be a great city. Off that train and onto a local one and we head towards our hotel at the airport. It’s cheap for what it is (bloody nice!), literally a 2minute walk from the airport front door and the train beneath, so we figure we have limited time here, this is a good way not to waste it.

Photos are: Hoff Brau beer hall where Hitler rallied support for the Nazi party in the 20’s; our tiny room; today’s lunch; countryside as we fly past; breakfast (also delicious like everything in this country)