ABroad

#domore

Saturday 31 December 2016

Leaving our Workaway early... WA5

05:40:00 1 comment
From what we've heard along the way from other Workawayers, is was only a matter of time until we found ourselves in an umcomfortable situation such that we had to leave. Unfortunately for us, our 5th Workaway experience happened to be it... We were situated in some of the most beautiful surroundings in the Carpathian Mountains Romania, our host  family included an elderly mother, her son and daughter. We were throw into a very traditional home which will no doubt be one of the most memorable experiences of our trip. 

This was the first WA we decided to go to from a host request. We were attractive to the family's son specifically due to my engineering skills. He was an ambitious bloke who likes to tinker on little projects. He had made a mobile ski lift, started building a biogas system to capture the methane from his cows and had other repair/steel fab requirements. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to do anything engineering related, other then benchmarking a mobile excavator which he wanted to make to help with the road making and shovelling cow shit. 

 From the initial contact Amy wasn't 100% convinced about going to this WA, but we decided to accepted it since we wanted to go to Romania, and we needed to spend the extra time outside the Schengan zone before Christmas. A couple of weeks later we had a bit more of a detailed look at their profile and reviews (which were all positive), and came across a mention of 16 cats!! We both hate cats so in hindsight really should have pulled the pin, but trying to keep an open mind I really wanted to go and see what it was about. 

 We contacted the host again a month or so out from the stay just to touch base, and their reply was short "sure"... This wasn't very convincing... About a week out we asked for directions to their place and if we needed anything specific. The directions included a 5km walk from the bus station up a road to the accommodation (which would of ended up been an average gradient of 5% I reckon) which we through was strange... We asked if there was any chance we could be picked up because our bags are 20kg - unfortunately not. To make the situation worse it had snowed the days leading up to our arrival so roads were icy and very slippery.

All smiles at the base of the road up to the property! 
The road was ice and surprisingly slippery under foot, there were a couple of cars parked on the side of the road on the way up which had just lost traction and momentum.

A fresh wolf paw print!
The views from the property were second to none!!
They still make hay the old fashion way - back breaking work. Using like an industrial walk behind/self propelled petrol mower they cut the grass in their steep paddocks, then a pitch fork is used to rotate and dry the grass. To cart the grass up the hill and into their barn they used an old Land Rover looking ute. The pitchfork, wheel borrow and shovel was used for 90% of the work on the property. It was bloody steep, and it really opened my eyes to how farming was completed without the aid of machinery. We really take having a tractor and front-end loader back home for granted!
Looking west back toward Bran and Brasov. It was so peaceful here.
Traditional style Romanian building on the property. The buildings were pretty big!
Their 'winter' kitchen... It was a small room with a wood stove which was warm and more efficient to heat then the more modern kitchen in their house..  A couple of the cats had the flu and would sneeze and cough... 
Wood splitting was one of my activities. It was bloody efficient using a tyre to hold a heap of wood and you can just launch into splitting everything in the tyre!
Amy's handy work weaving this fence.
I spent a couple of days digging out this hole for a cement water tank.
Fresh water spring at the bottom of the property. The grandfather of our host used to make his own whisky and spirits for the locals from this stream.
This shepard was outstanding in his field.
Didn't take long for the snow to melt after a good couple of sunny days.
They had a couple of watch dogs to keep an eye out on the place, as well they try and keep away the wolves and wild boar. Our host had never seen a bear, but had came across the wolves a couple of times wandering through his property.
On the Sunday they went to church, and we had our day off. We decided to take the 12km walk down to Bran for the markets and to get a good feed. Have a coffee and relax. It was freezing down in the valley - meanwhile up at the work away we seemed to be above the clouds (it was at 1100m altitude) and we had some ripper sun and fine weather.
Traditional romanian hotplate. 
The hosts had 7 cows already in a barn because the weather had turned cold earlier then usual. Each day they milked 3 of the cows for their own milk, made their own cheese and sour cream. We were't quite used to this pure food and we both had a power spew on the first day, Amy had a couple more chucks and she was left feeling sick most of the time. We weren't left hungry, just such a difference in diet was a bit of a shock to our body - as each meal would include either a glass of warm milk or cheese. Whats interesting is we were eating food which was so close to the source, that you'd think this would have us feeling so much better and healthier...but now days we aren't used to the bacteria I suppose.

 The work was the most labours of our trip, this was ok because we could see everything we helped with was making a difference. We managed to fill up a room of the house with dry split wood for the heating and stove. Amy begun a new fence and she helped finish some concreting on his Biogas system and on a tank cover. We were only there in total 7 days and we were happy we carried our weight and always did the best we could. One annoying thing was that we changed from job to job really quickly and didn't get a chance to sink our teeth into a couple of jobs to finish them... 

 At the end, the diet and cats were too much to handle so we decided we had to leave. Because we were cutting our stay shorter then expected we were left in limbo a little - but decided to head back to Brasov where we had a handful of days up our sleeve before we were flying out to Munich - Germany.

 It was really hard to leave because the family were so grateful for our help, and really did everything to try and make our stay as comfortable as possible. It was a hard week of work, and an experience which really took us out of our comfort zone, I think it made us really appreciate what we have at home with regards to resources and the comfort of living.

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Friday 30 December 2016

Brasov (via Timisoara) - Romania

08:15:00 No comments

Dracula's Castle!
To Brasov (Romania) from Belgrade was something like 15hrs. So we split the big trip into two legs - 5hrs to Timisoara (Romania) for a quick over night stop, before marching onto Brasov. Specifically from Belgrade we had a couple of hours heading west to Vrsac, where we had to swap onto a Romanian train. There was an hour stop over at Vrsac - the train station was pretty rough and half run down, so no coffee... Outside across the street was a little market wagon, no coffee... just a crabby Serb women, so I grabbed a couple of mars bars to lighten the mood.

 Eventually we were on the Romanian train at the border, a couple of blokes came onto the train and grabbed our passports, checked some bags, the rubbish bins etc. maybe for drugs before we were on our way. Instantly Romania seemed a lot cleaner than Serbia. The train often stopped at train stations which resembled old wooden buildings, and wooden platforms where a little Romanian conductor would pop out.

The fields of Romania.
In Timisoara the AirBnB's on offer were limited and we didn't feel like staying in a hostel so we decided to try the first Hotel of the trip - and it was rubbish. No kitchen, no fridge, average bathroom and more expensive than we're used too through the Balkans. Thankfully breakfast was included. We were across town and out of the way but close to the local brewery so we headed there for lunch and a couple of ales. We weren't feeling overly adventurous so after a feed we decided to head back for an early night. 
Fresh and delicious - so far so good for Romania.

Timisoara to Brasov despite being only 400km away, it was 10hr on the train... The train was pretty comfortable and relaxing, other then taking a bloody long time, its convenient and you see plenty of the country and villages. I spend the day going through and editing all of our video footage we had recorded on the trip to manufacture some sort of video montage... by luck, we had our own cabin!


Romanian train systems were ahead of the times - our ticket from Serbia was hand written. 180Lei or 60AUD for the train ticket from Timisoara to Brasov.
We had booked a hostel in Brasov for 4 nights which we hoped would give us plenty of time to have a good look around. Top attractions include Bran Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov itself has quite a bit to do.
BRASOV sign
We woke up to our first day in Brasov and it was snowing! Se we rugged up and decided to head out to Bran, about 30 minutes on a local bus to see whats know as Dracula's castle and some local markets. 
Chimney cake - nom, nom, nom! A big hollow donut about 100mm in dia. 300mm long and 5mm thick coated in sugar and nuts!
Bran Castle
Amy was heading the trip out to Bran Castle because I had bloody no idea about what it was or had to offer. It is a pretty popular place mostly because of the legend Dracula, of which I know nothing about also.... Bran (the town) sits at the edge of Transylvania and Wallachia, its castle is a national monument and landmark. Originally built (the castle) in the 1200's out of wood, destroyed by the Mongols then rebuilt in the 1370's out of stone by inhabitants of Brasov, which then established the town. It was used to defend the Ottomans in the 1400's. In the 1920's the castle became the royal residence for the Kingdom of Romania.


A toucher chair used back in the day.


Actual local bear, a couple of fellas who were in the hostel managed to see one in a paddock on his way back to Brasov from Bran.
The castle itself was pretty small and chilly, the staircases were narrow and steep but the place had a lot of character. I couldn't imagine living in here during winter, it would have taken a forest of wood to keep it warm. Walking around a 700 year old castle in the snow is something you don't have the opportunity to experience in Australia. 

Dracula: Is actually a non-fictional legend dreamed up by many writers but most famously Irish writer Bram Stoker. The story is based on Vlad III or Vlad the Impaler, the ruler of Wallachia (southern part of Romania) during the 1400's - I truly had no idea about the Dracula story or specifics other then what I saw on Looney Toons when I was a kid. Vlad was a man who loved to impale people and during his time of rule (which happened over three instances) he impaled something like 20,000 people. By impale I mean get a big pole and stick it in their behind before hoisting the pole up vertically and letting them slowly slip down the pole, damaging internal organs and eventually causing death..a "good" impaling meant they wouldn't die for a few days. Vlad had no connection to Bran castle other then maybe a visit...
What an impalement looked like for those who cannot visuals it...
A frosty morning hike up to the Brasov sign before a walking tour and some Brasov city exploration.

Looking over Brasov old town from its sign.
Brasov was built up by German colonists who were invited to Transylvania by the Hungarian kings circa 1100 to 1300. Brasov was an intersection of trade routes linking the Ottoman Empire with Western Europe, during these times the German's of the area were able to become wealthy traders and merchants (they were also allowed certain tax exemptions to live here and develop the area). Until WWII there was a 50/50 German/Romanian population, until the Soviet Union forcibly deported many ethnic Germans. Then when Romania became a communist country, the remaining Germans fled back to Germany. I found this info pretty interesting, other then some architecture there doesn't seem much German culture in Brasov now days. 

Brasov is really clean, each morning there are organised people sweeping and cleaning the streets with a bin and stick brooms.
One of the remaining old town gates - the 5 spires on the roof mean that this town enforces the death penalty!
An icey cold old town square after a walking tour - so slippery under foot. The square was where the communist leaders were executed in the early 90's.


Brasov is a modern town with plenty of culture. From what a lot of people said, it is one of the cultural highlights of Romania and a good base to explore the outer regions. We stayed at Kismet Dao Hostel and it was a beauty, breakfast supplied and a free beer each night. Public transport was good, buses throughout the town were affordable with ticket machines at each stop. Other then being colder then expected, Brasov was pretty nice. Next stop was our next Workaway just an hour out the road.
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Wednesday 21 December 2016

Belgrade - Serbia

10:09:00 No comments
Throw back to early November...
Christmas is coming!
One of the "unfortunate" things about travel is you can't see or fit in everything you want to. Comparing our situation to others we've met, we aren't really pressed for time overall (and shouldn't really be complaining). We had organised a workaway in Romania, and it has given us a bit of direction and a date to work to as we traverse across the Balkans. After Macedonia we found ourselves at the cross roads. Bulgaria or Serbia? We could only fit in one..

Travelling to Serbia and Belgrade for me was something I wanted to take a week or more to do as I reckon it has a lot to offer. From Skopje I wanted to head to Bulgaria and explore Sofia, and wander across to the Black Sea before heading to Romania. Amy convinced me otherwise and we decided to take an 8 hour bus to Belgrade for a couple of nights instead then head to Romania and spend some time around Brasov... Hopefully we can see Bulgaria another time.

Overall we were looking forward to heading to Belgrade, since we've spent so much time in the Balkans, we had come across a lot of fellow travellers who've been to Serbia and only had good things to say. Also, we were fascinated to see what the former capital of Yugoslavia looked like and hear its side of the story from the Balkan wars and communism.

Long busses makes my eye go lazy and beard look less dense - more like a goate.
The trip didn't kick off as planned, we missed the first train in Skopje at 10am (internet timetable wasn't correct), so we had to wait until 1pm - we locked our bags in locker and went to the nearby shopping centre to kill some time for a couple of hours, drink some coffee and scab some wi-fi. TIP: always when travelling through the balkans, check train times at the station.

Our first pure Serbian experience was when we'd reached a bus stop to switch buses at Nis, the bus driver didn't speak any English so we didn't realise that we had to do this, but thankfully a local on the bus could translate to us and helped us get off the bus. I was busting for a piss, but as per usual you needed to pay for the toilets at the station... Amy struck up a conversation with a young bloke in a cafe who was telling her how poor the country (and more specifically the town) was while I was flapping around looking for an ATM, we didn't have any Serbian money (dinar) or Euros which would have been accepted, and there wasn't an ATM at the bus station... man... the young Serbian bloke was very kind and tried to give us money but we refused after his poverty conversation....... I ended up jumping the fence around the station and taking a leak up an ally close to the bus station - I didn't want to do that, because spending money in the Balkans I reckon makes a difference, but it was desperate times. We took the small chaotic break in between busses to have our dinner - tuna on rice cakes. I split tuna juice everywhere staining my jeans and Amy's shirt, we were in shambles. 

Off the bus at Belgrade and it was cold!! Directly across from the station was an undercover parking area with a lot of homeless people camped out. This wasn't really what we had expected to see right in the middle of town. 

We had a really affordable AirBnB in Belgrade, $32AUD per night for an entire apartment about 20 minutes walk from the centre of town - the best value for money accommodation of the trip! The host's even picked us up from the train station at 10pm. This was the 8th of November and the night of the US election. We kicked back with a cuppa tea and watch it all unfold on CBS for a couple of hours before hitting the sack after a pretty eventful day.


Day 1 - we kicked it off with a run around our neighbourhood. It was bloody cold and had rained all night so it was a little wet under foot. After breakfast we were undecided on whether or not to do a walking tour so we just wandered into town after brekky to have a look around, we ended up heading to the old fort - Kalmegdan Tvrdjava and the military history museum to get out of the cold and wet!

Starting to get those Christmas feels in the centre of Belgrade - Knez Mihailova Belgrades main pedestrian and shopping street
It was COLD! views from the fortress over the Danube and Sava rivers and what we could see through the fog of Belgrade across the rivers.
Actual armour from a knight - I really found the museum interesting. There was weapons and armour from early Roman times, right through to shrapnel and displays from when the NATO launched air attacks on the city in the late 90's Kosovo War. To conclude our trip through these Yugoslav countries, visiting the museum was really worth it.
Tito! 
Selfie with Tito! 
After the few hours at the museum we were hankering for a feed, and we actually stumbled across Submarine BBQ - the same burger franchise we loved in Zagreb and again it did not disappoint! Brendan was so worried with how expensive this burger place was though in comparison to Zagreb and after a little while of stressing out about cashola Amy realised she had given Brendan the wrong exchange rate, oops! The burgers weren't that expensive after all. After freezing our tits off all day outside, we went on the hunt for some merino thermals but didn't do any good. 


Ahhhh, the YUGO - plenty of these around all the old Yugoslav countries. What a beauty. 

Day 2 - suns out, lets do the walking tour.

Tour meeting place in front of the currently renovated town hall.
First stop -  Skadarlija Street know as the bohemian quarter of Belgrade. Just a couple of hundred metres from the city centre. For traditional affordable tucker this looked like the place. We've had enough grilled minced meat in bread (civapi) with raw onion so didn't check this out. 


Complementary Rajkia, honey flavoured too, not the overly traditional stuff we're used to but the top shelf rather. Happily consumed before lunchtime.
One of the older type buildings in the town dating back to 1850 managed to survive the wars and bombings. Our walking tour host was doing A LOT of talking and it was at this point we lost a few of the group unfortunately.
Zindan Gate at the medieval Kalemegdan fortress. 
Belgrade has a lot of history - the fortress shows many of the people who've conquered and settled, each have had a crack at strengthening the fort's walls. You can see different types of stone and building techniques used from the Romans, Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians etc. 
The statue of Pobednik - a naked bloke and popular attraction is sort of hidden and facing away from the fort purposely by the people of Belgrade because his lack of clothing apparently (naked).
Yugoslavia 1993-94 went through a period of hyperinflation, between October 1993 and the end of January 1995 prices increase by 5 quadrillion percent. This is a fake 500 billion Yugoslav dinar, the largest nominal value ever officially printed in Yugoslavia. 
The Ruzica Church tucked away in the side of the fortress walls, its unique because of it's two chandeliers made from bullets, swords and rifles. Its a humble size but boasts some pretty impressive art!
Amsterdam fries - we couldn't walk past them and they didn't disappoint with a beer of course!
 Nikola Tesla Museum - couldn't miss this sucker and we just caught the last tour of the day! Nikola didn't spend any time in Belgrade but they honour his existence through this museum which houses his ashes and a fair bit of his estate - some of his testing equipment, blank letter heads, his suit.... all the good stuff!
The great man.
Actual one of his flat head screw drivers. pretty interesting stuff!
Tesla's urn and ashes!

It was a pretty good museum, not real big and kinda hard to find. There wasn't anything obvious that said 'Tesla Museum' - oh and they don't have a toilet so make sure you do that first! Inside they ran an English tour which consisted of a short video documenting his life and significants of his work. After the video they have several working model replicas of his original DC motors and experiments. Despite the name - Tesla - and its recent popularity via Elon Musk's car company, this museum does a great job of showing the significants this bloke has had on the world. Something like 700 patents to his name. 


Christmas is in the air, and after the museum we walked back into town to get amongst the Christmas lights before heading back to our apartment for some home made chicken soup Amy whipped up.



Amy and I both agree our visit to Belgrade and Serbia was rushed... we missed out on visiting Belgrades famous night clubs and experiencing some Technofolke first hand along visiting some of the unique op-shops. 

However we learn't a lot about Serbia and Belgrade in particular - it is the second best geological place in the world (second to Istanbul) since its location in between the Danube and Sava rivers and sits on a hill. Because of this significants Belgrade has faced around 115 battles and it has been flattened around 40 times. 
In traveling the Balkans, the Serb's seem to always get the blame for starting recent wars or conflict. And despite being the home of Yugoslavia the monarchy and Yugoslavia the communist state, it seems it's just as, if not worse off then some of its neighbours. Belgrade is a modern city with plenty to offer and see, its very similar to Zagreb - maybe not quite as modern but I think more cultural then Zagreb. 
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