Fall was jam-packed with travel. We took two big tips with friends with only a few days of recovery in between. We started with an adventurous road trip slightly out of our comfort zone. We flew directly from Porto to Belgrade, Serbia and spent a couple days there. Then we took our rental car across the border (hours in line) and into Hungary. We drove all through the pretty wine regions of rural Hungary. Then we crossed the border again (a much shorter line) into Romania. There we did a big loop through the countryside before visiting the capital of Bucharest. After that, we crossed back into Serbia (simple) for the scenic drive back to the airport. Two and a half weeks and 2725 kilometers in all. Even though the currencies and languages are challenging, we found the people in all three countries to be very friendly and accommodating. The natural scenery in all three was lovely. We saw a wide variety of architectural styles as well as miles of corn and sunflower fields. We learned a lot of fascinating history. We also learned that all three countries produce some excellent wines that we liked a lot.
Belgrade & the drive to the Border:
The city is definitely worth a short visit to see the old town portion. The restaurants and bars are good and affordable. Smoking, however, is out of control. There were even cigarette girls in the nice restaurant we went to. The drive to the Hungary border was short and our one stop was to see an abandoned house with a lot of history. We waited in line at the border for almost three hours and the atmosphere was a bit tense but we had no issues once we finally got our turn.
Hungary:
We had visited the fascinating capital of Budapest twice before. On this visit, we wanted to see the rural and wine-growing regions of the country. We spent five toasty days in Hungary and saw Zreged, Eger, Lillafüred, and Tokaj plus dozens of tiny towns. The wines were very good and we loved the old cellars built into the hillsides. We shared the roads with tractors busy harvesting the corn and sunflowers.
Romania:
We spent most of a week driving through rural Romania. Google translate served us well. In some ways it was like taking a step back in time with so many horse-drawn carts, cows, and sheep on the roads. They also have the most hap-hazard electrical wiring we have ever seen. In other ways it was surreal. Check out the “gypsy castles” below. We saw them in several towns but, most notably, in Huedin. Research says that a small portion of the small ethnic group (the Romani) build these mansions competing amongst themselves for the most gawdy. They are testaments to the family wealth gained mostly through common thievery and scams perpetrated throughout the world. We purposely avoided the tacky few tourist sites such as Dracula’s Castle. While it is an interesting structure to drive by, it has absolutely nothing to do with the novel or with the legendary character, Vlad the Impaler, who may have inspired the book. Towns visited included: Oradea, Cluj-Napoca, Sighișoara, Sibiu, Brasov, Curtea de Arges, Bran, and Bucharest. We absolutely loved our winding drive up and over the Carpathian Mountains on the famous Tranfagarasan road and the many brown bears we saw there. Bucharest is a must-see city steeped in recent history. We did a fascinating guided tour that explained first-hand what life was like under communist rule from 1947 to 1989.
From Bucharest to the Belgrade airport:
Our long drive back to the airport included as easy border crossing back into Serbia and a pleasant drive along the Danube river.
