Our trips around the world…
After many, many years of travelling—primarily backpacking, staying in hotels and apartments, and getting around by trains, buses and planes—we decided it was time to do something rather different from our usual style of travel.We'd already experimented a little. We'd spent a month in Malaysia doing something of a staycation, renting an apartment and settling... Continue Reading →
The final new place to see in Romania was the little village of Sighișoara. By this stage, we were absolutely exhausted, as I mentioned in my previous post, and even though we had two and a half days there, we really didn’t spend much time seeing anything at all.Our tiredness was compounded by yet more... Continue Reading →
By this stage of the trip, we were really feeling it. Nine weeks on the road had taken their toll, and surviving Romania was proving far more exhausting than we had anticipated. The heat didn’t help, and, most annoyingly, school holidays were in full swing—meaning hordes of little entitled children everywhere. Honestly, they should all... Continue Reading →
After the disappointment of Bușteni, we were looking forward to reaching Brașov. Unfortunately, our accommodation wasn’t exactly ideally located. It was way out in the suburbs, leaving us with a fairly long journey whenever we wanted to get into the city centre.But, as it turned out, perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing.The suburbs gave... Continue Reading →
The train from Bucharest to Bușteni was our first experience of Romanian trains. Although the scenery along the way was stunning, it was hard to enjoy while sitting in a four-seater facing backwards, staring directly at a random couple. Why? Why on earth would you design a whole carriage like that instead of just a... Continue Reading →
Our entry into Bucharest was… well, interesting. Interesting in every possible sense of the word: fascinating, frustrating, and very much a what the actual fuck kind of start.Crossing the Friendship Bridge over the Danube set the tone. Construction work was going on, and as we looked out the bus window we saw a fight break... Continue Reading →
Our final stop in Bulgaria was the border town of Ruse. The only real reason we chose it was because we had a few extra days to fill after deciding not to head to the coast. The idea of throngs of people, superheated beaches, and endless parties really isn’t our style, so instead we opted... Continue Reading →
Having had quite a lot of down time in Stara Zagora, we got to Veliko Tarnovo feeling somewhat revived, and hit the ground running. Our accommodation was in a local area as opposed to the old town, which turned out to be perfect, as we weren't subjected to the eye-wateringly high tourist prices for things.... Continue Reading →
After the heat and health issues of Plovdiv, we were looking forward to moving on—especially in a nice, relaxed, cool train. But guess what? The train’s air conditioning was broken. Oh joy! It got so hot that staff started handing out bottles of water to passengers, and more than a few people ended up taking... Continue Reading →
Koprivshtitsa—or as we started calling it, just “Kop”—never happened.We had planned to visit the town in hopes of escaping the brutal heat of Plovdiv and finding a bit of cooler mountain air. Unfortunately, a perfect storm of issues meant that Kop just wasn’t going to happen.First and foremost, Will came down with a bad case... Continue Reading →
2 Travelling Kiwis 