Romania
After overnights in the open nature, it is high time to find a campsite and have a bath. However, it is not entirely without challenges, as the GPS has once again enjoyed creating a convoluted route that only GPSs can think of to do. We find a nice place where we can camp for the night and just take care of ourselves a bit. Now we don't have to scare the life out of people and look like savages.
Out on the road comes a girl walking with a herd of goats. They have been out grazing all day and now they must return home before it gets dark.
We come through one beautiful landscape after another. The GPS is set to the town of Bran, but has found a route that is probably shorter, but certainly not the one that the normal tourists follow.
Out in the countryside we encounter roadworks, as so many times before. But here they probably started a number of years ago - left the shovels and drove home for a break.
Where there should have been a road, there is now only an excavated pothole. The locals have grown tired of waiting for the work to resume and now shrivel up in the hollow road through their village.
We follow the route and through a half-metre deep ditch of holes and larger stones, we drive through a real Roma village. The locals look extremely surprised at the strange car, but smile and wave kindly back when we greet them nicely.
With a proper KA-KRUNCH, our one front wheel finds its way onto the only surviving piece of tarmac. It stood almost as if on a pedestal of earth, towering 30-40cm above the ground and we managed to maneuver right over it.
Hopefully, the local residents do not have any major sentimental attachment to this piece of asphalt we have now made 5cm lower – perhaps a memory of bygone, better times, when they were offered improvements.
We are approaching Bran, where Dracula's castle is located. The town is a real tourist magnet, and we are certainly not the only ones interested in vampire history.
In fact, the area around the castle is full of people and souvenir shops.
A shopping center with a café is also there.
Since we have found a parking space, we just have to sit down and have a little rest. Now we have driven around the countryside for so long and then we come to this tourist centre. A bit of an upheaval, but that's fine enough. We find a café and order a few pizzas. The menu card is not understandable and the clerk does not speak English. So we order food, it can't go wrong right?
However, Johnny is unlucky enough to get a fish pizza with anchovies. It doesn't go down very well, as fish are preferably just something we look at when we're out on a diving trip.
But down it comes. After a good lunch, we will go up and see the castle.