Monday 9th August 2021

Today I begin my migration! No, I'm not flying south for winter, just getting ready to switch to Asda mobile's new pay as you go network, but being all fancy and jargony they call it migrating.

I only found out a few months ago that I needed to do this, and the deadline is mid-September. After that date the old sim stops working and you lose all your credit. It turns out Asda have been planning this for a couple of years - thanks for the heads up, guys! The process involves buying a new sim card, and luckily someone who was heading to the UK kindly offered to pick one up for me. Then it's just a matter of booking your migration date online and waiting for Asda to guide you through the process. This began at 3am today with the arrival of a text message titled 'Ignore This Text'.

My Bulgarian pay as you go mobile is a bit simpler. I top up with 10 leva (about £4.50) and receive 300 free minutes and 2gb for 30 days. More than enough for me; free texts would be handy but somehow they never give those over here. I wasn't sure if those freebies were valid abroad, so, just before a planned trip to Romania, I topped up with 10 leva and went to ask the assistant if my minutes and data would be accessible in Romania. You won't be able to use your phone at all, she said. You only have roaming if you're on a contract. Hmm, back to Asda it is then.

The trip to Romania had been planned for some time, after discussions with my fellow travellers as to where can we get to by train with our covid vaccination certificates. It turned out our options were a little limited as a lot of international train routes are still restricted or even cancelled altogether, so journeying to and from Romania seemed the best option, and since I'd never visited that country before I was very excited to go.

I haven't done any extensive train travelling since my student days of inter-railing, but I think it's one of the lovelier modes of transport, if not the quickest. There's a tremendous sense of being taken care of once you're on board, gently swaying through the landscape to your destination, and even more so on sleeper trains, so we added a couple of overnight journeys too.

Our first day was to be quite a long trek, first on local trains from Dryanovo to Gorna Oryahovitsa and then to the border crossing on the Danube at Ruse, and finally on Romanian trains to Bucharest and on to Brasov for our first hotel. Unfortunately we'd picked the hottest week of the year to travel, with temperatures approaching 40 each day, so even with the windows open it was pretty warm. I like the Bulgarian trains because you have your own little six seater compartment which reminds me of childhood day trips to the seaside from London. (My sister and I would always casually hang out of our compartment door window at stations to deter any other passengers from muscling into our carriage).

Once at Ruse we had to go through passport control, so everyone's passports were collected and we all stood on the platform for half an hour or so until they were returned, then it was on board our first Romanian train. To be honest it wasn't the big international express I'd been expecting but more like a little local metro line type of thing. Our seats were set around an open baggage space right next to the toilet, and with huge windows and next to no air blowing it was going to be a sticky ride. It turned out to be the only unpleasant leg of the whole holiday.

Apart from the horrific heat it seemed to plod along at a literal snail's pace, taking the longest possible route to Bucharest you could imagine. (Later I discovered that this was because the normal route suffered a bridge collapse a year or so ago and so major renovation works are underway). At one point we sat on the tracks in the middle of nowhere before actually starting to go backwards. It turned out some snoozy worker had failed to switch the points and we were heading up the wrong track! Several lads in front of us had been enjoying some beers and a bottle of wine since boarding and inevitably it got too much for one of them. As my friend and I huddled on the one seat that had a bit of cold air blowing down on it, he promptly threw up all over the floor next to us, and then threw up again... and again... His mate deserved an absolute medal as he set about using an entire loo roll to clean up the mess, whilst also helping the ill one out of his ruined clothes and sitting him with a carrier bag to catch any more horrors. The others in the party were more interested in taking the mick out of their unfortunate friend and standing by with mobile phones to catch the all important Facebook moment. I can't remember what time we got into Bucharest but I'll never forget the joy of boarding a beautiful clean fully air-conditioned train for the next journey.

This final trek took us north to Brasov which is in the heart (no pun intended) of Dracula country, and as night fell and mountains came into view, the darkening sky was lit up by flashes of lightning. Perfect!

Brasov was a delicious surprise as it was completely not what I expected. It's huge for one thing but chock full of the most beautiful buildings and has an amazing square in the centre of the old part of town surrounded by restaurants and cafes with a fountain playing in the middle. Our hotel was just a couple of streets back from this so we dumped our things and headed out to eat. To be honest I'd been stuffing such a big packed lunch all day (my two essentials for going anywhere are a substantial food stash and plentiful anadins in case of headache) that I wasn't really hungry, but my eyes were drawn to one item in the dessert section: cheesy dumplings served with cream and jam. The cheesy bit intrigued me, so out of curiosity I ordered them. If ever you go to Romania you must try this dish, it is awesome! It consists of two huge doughnut type dumplings stuffed full of cream and topped by small round doughnut balls, and the whole thing liberally spread with a sauce made from whole sour cherries. Deliciousness on a dish. I later discovered it's one of Romania's traditional dishes, so don't worry, you'll find them everywhere. As to the cheesy bit, well I didn't really taste that, so I'm guessing it was either tiny bits of sirene, or else cream cheese.

Our second day we did a self guided walking tour of the main sites around Brasov, including the fortified walls and towers. All along this section there are cool shady trees and lots of gym equipment for adults and children; something we noticed in other parks too. A lot of the Brasov buildings are hidden behind high walls, but you can peep through doorways and glimpse shady plant filled courtyards, sometimes housing a little restaurant or bar.

Next morning we checked out but left our bags at the hotel while we took a local bus to Bran, where the famous Dracula castle is. It was visited by neither Vlad the Impaler, Bram Stoker or anyone from the Hammer House of Horror film studios, so has zero links to the undead other than looking the perfect location with all the high walls and turrets. Go with this in mind and you won't be disappointed. Being a complete tourist I still came away with Dracula themed pen, pencil, fridge magnet and t-shirt.

The best (worst?) bit was the exhibition of torture devices used to extract confessions in the old days. It was all pretty gruesome as the displays told in detail how every bit of the human body could be stretched, probed and broken in the name of justice. If that wasn't bad enough, even if you confessed you were then tortured again just to make sure the confession was genuine! Being burnt at the stake must have come as a welcome relief.

As we got ready to leave Bran we all suddenly received emergency weather alerts on our phones. I've never had this before and it was a bit scary as it warned of flooding, hail and not to park under trees. As we headed for the bus the skies opened and in seconds we were drenched as we ran laughing and shrieking into the bus shelter.

That night we caught our first sleeper train north to Viseu de Jos. It left Brasov at around midnight, so it was lovely to enter our little cabins with the beds already made up, ready to snuggle down for the night. Each cabin just has two beds set on one side like bunks with a moveable ladder to access the top bunk. There are various hooks and racks (sounds like the torture chamber again!) to hang your belongings on, and in the corner by the window, the table top lifts up to reveal a little sink. At the end of the corridor was the toilet which also had a shower cubicle in it though a bit shabby and basic looking. Fortunately at that time of night it wasn't too roasting, and once the train got going the breeze through the window cooled it even more, so much so that in the early hours I was quite glad to have the little duvet to cuddle down under. I didn't sleep masses but that was more through excitement than not being comfortable, and actually it was pretty nice laying awake, seeing the stars through the window and being gently rocked to the clickety clack of the wheels.

At 8am we arrived in Viseu de Jos and were met by our guide who was to take us round various sites by car that day. I must admit I was pretty tired after the travelling so began to flag as the day wore on, but I'll just mention some of the highlights.

We began by looking at several of the UNESCO wooden churches in the area, which are quite unique in style. They are covered in wooden shingles which are hand crafted from pine and nailed on in layers to give a beautiful gently curving effect to the roof and steeple. Here's one example:

Hopefully you can see from the picture how many thousands of tiles there must be. The cost to make them is one euro for two tiles, and they only last about 15 years. The cost of upkeep must be staggering. The churches were lovely, and had some very interesting icons and pictures on the interior walls, but the best place was the monastery. It's a pretty recent construction but in the old style, and is run by a dozen or so nuns and their helpers, and it was absolutely stunning. It reminded me of Chinese pagodas with the layered roofs and flowers everywhere.

We stopped off at our guide's house for lunch made by his wife. To start with we had meatball soup which was delicious. Romanians are big into their soups, and the menus always feature a decent selection. Something they add which gives it a distinct flavour is a liquid called bors (pronouced borsh). It's cloudy yellow in colour and is made from fermented wheat bran. As well as being very healthy, it gives a slight sour tang to the soup which might sound bad but in actual fact makes it really tasty. So much so that in Bucharest, on the way home, I bought a bottle from the supermarket and have already made a very flavoursome lamb soup with it. After the soup there were stuffed cabbage leaves, and to finish we had cake with coconut sprinkled on top. There were a couple of homemade brandies on the table, much like the Bulgarian rakia, but the blueberry one was really nice, almost like an extra alcoholic sherry. Needless to say we emptied the bottle between us!

Romania still uses very traditional farming methods and the hay is stacked by hand to dry. I don't know if it was the brandy, but as the day wore on, these stacks began to look more and more lifelike and a tad creepy!

We finished the day at a place called the Merry Cemetery which is very close to the Ukrainian border. I missed the introductory talk here as I'd dashed off in search of a loo, but it seems some guy at some point decided to make headstones a bit more informative, and the result is this cemetery full of beautifully bright painted wooden grave markers depicting the deceased. Sometimes the scene shows the manner in which they died, and other times it's a scene from their everyday life or their job. Sometimes both sides of the marker are painted, and this can either be two scenes from the same person, or it can be that there are two people buried in the same plot. Details are also written under the picture, but without being able to read a scrap of Romanian this was of no help to me. Anyway, it's a fascinating place to wander around, trying to guess the story from the little painted snapshots. By the way, don't expect a very cemetery like peaceful atmosphere - it's a huge tourist attraction and was heaving with people when we went, and the streets thereabouts are lined with souvenir stalls and cafes. A very merry cemetery!

It seems this tree took revenge on the guy who was trying to fell it.

Was he a traffic inspector or did he try and stop a speeding lorry Superman style?

Our guide drove us to Viseu de Sus, the town where we were staying the night, and managed to track down the guest house which was hidden in the middle of a rather confusing housing estate. It was all a bit Marie Celeste. We let ourselves into the building and found our rooms via post-it notes stuck on the doors. A woman briefly appeared and asked us what time we'd like breakfast and then left us to it. After showering we headed out for something to eat and then fell into bed ready for another full day.

In the morning we got up to see breakfast of sorts laid out downstairs: boiled eggs, cheese, cold meat, bread, jam, and a half used pot of some kind of cream. There were no cups or drinks at all, but a search through the various cupboards turned up a relatively unchipped cup in which I boiled water via the microwave and thereby made a cup of tea (forgot to mention, my emergency travel kit consists of food, anadins AND decent teabags). The fridge contained a half used carton of milk, a bottle of beer and some Baileys, so I was spared the desperation of having to drink black tea.

We were going on a day trip again so needed to leave our bags somewhere, but no amount of hammering at the owner's door produced any sign of life, so in the end we just stashed everything in the cleaning closet and hoped for the best. Then it was off to a little nearby station for our steam train excursion.

This was something else I was really looking forward to - chugging along through the countryside in an open sided carriage, and when we arrived the station was again heaving with people. I suppose we should have anticipated this, being a Sunday, but luckily we'd already paid for our tickets and printed off the receipt, so we headed straight for some empty seats. That was until a guard stopped us and told us we still needed to queue up to exchange our receipt for actual tickets. Are you kidding?! By the time this was sorted there were hardly any places left in the open carriages, but we managed to bag two pairs of window seats though not near each other. The guard came along and clipped our official tickets and then with an ear-splitting shriek from the funnel the train was off.

Even if you've no interest in trains at all I'd totally recommend this for a day out as it's such a beautiful journey. The track wends its way up a valley, following a river, and passing little clusters of houses with rather precarious bridges for crossing on foot. One such bridge was literally just a round tree trunk laid across the river with a single hand rail, and as we rode past, a woman was making her way over without a care in the world. I'd have probably been sitting astride the log, clinging to the rail and inching my way along!

We passed other steam trains now and then and they always whistled madly to each other, like something out of Thomas the Tank Engine. After maybe an hour we stopped at a rest point so people could use the toilet, and the people working on the train unloaded crates of food and drink to serve from a snack bar if people wanted to buy something. After this break it was all aboard again for the final leg of the journey where we would stop for lunch. As we pulled into the station a group of musicians in traditional costume came to meet us, and continued playing and doing folk dances whilst people ate.

Here they are, going to greet the next arrivals.

Unable to resist, we got up to join in with some of the dancing before being called back to our train by the warning whistles again. Once again we stopped off at the halfway rest point for a toilet break. There was already a train there, just setting off, and we all had to laugh as a woman came flying out of the toilet waving frantically to the train to stop. Luckily the other passengers noticed and the train was halted while she clambered back on board. I guess if she'd missed the train they could always have sent one of these converted vans to pick her up!

Back in town it was time to retrieve our bags. Once more the place was deserted so we just let ourselves in, got our bags and left. A weird way to run a business! Back to the mainline station and our second overnight train, this time the twelve hour journey to Bucharest. The little cabin was still lovely, but it was horrifically hot, and unfortunately the toilets hadn't been cleaned from the previous journey. One toilet was usable but a bit stinky, but the other one was apparently quite horrific, with actual sewage swilling around in the shower tray. Yuck! Better not have too much to drink on this journey. At one point on the journey we stopped to pick up some more carriages and a different engine, so whilst all this was going on we were stationary for quite some time and so able to nip off and use the much nicer station toilets. After another cosy night in the bunk bed, we arrived in Bucharest at about 6.30am where temperatures were already uncomfortably hot. A short taxi ride took us to the hotel which was deliciously air conditioned, and the concierge let us put our bags into a storage room as we couldn't check in until much later. We then headed to the old part of town for a slap up breakfast.

Bucharest looked much like any major city would look early on a Monday morning: muted and clearly a bit hungover and grubby from the night before. The place we were breakfasting at looked quite ordinary from the outside, but as you step through the doors your eyes are drawn to decorative vaulted ceilings, wooden balustrades and stained glass windows. Apparently it was built by a brewery many moons ago though I think it has always been some kind of tavern. Anyway, a nice cool place to enjoy a good breakfast and to relax a bit before heading out again.

This was the final full day of our holiday and we'd booked places on one of the free walking tours in Bucharest. There were maybe a dozen of us on the tour, mixed nationalities, plus our Romanian guide who spoke perfect English and was clearly passionate about her country and its history. Our walk took in some of the large inns with their stone courtyards, lots of huge buildings which were based on French architecture, and small streets which at one time were full of traders. The streets are often named after the type of business which was found there at one time, and we came across a Gabrovo Street, so named for the cloth merchants who worked there and who traded with manufacturers from Gabrovo which at one time was famed for its cloth industry. Sadly it looked pretty run down now and not a good advert for my adopted home town at all. The tour was good and very informative but to be honest I don't think I saw Bucharest in its best light; it was hot, dusty, full of concrete and not very pretty. Maybe at a cooler, fresher time of year it would come across as a nicer place, and of course we only explored a tiny fragment of it.

So that concluded our trip to Romania, well apart from the stonking help yourself buffet breakfast the hotel served in the morning which was absolutely divine! Greedy me made up a couple of pate rolls to take on the journey home, as well as swiping a few mini pastries to snack on. If I'd stayed on any longer I think they'd have had to give the chef a bit of overtime to keep up. The train journeys back to Dryanovo were uneventful, apart from being delayed for an hour and a half at one connection, probably because of the heat, as all the departures were similarly delayed. Oh, and we were finally checked for our covid vaccination certificates as we re-entered Bulgaria.

Before going on the trip I'd been working like the clappers to get the upstairs of the house finished, and thrillingly I managed it. If you check out the YouTube videos (link on the blog home page) you can see the transformation of my bedroom from wreckage with chunks of plaster missing from the ceiling, to clean freshly painted bedroom. And here it is furnished with my things. After two years of looking out of the window at the mountains and thinking one day I'll be sitting in bed in the morning, with a cup of tea, looking at that, it has finally become reality, and I LOVE it!

The other room, which will be the sitting room, although it still has a single bed instead of a settee, also looks fresh and lovely. So, on arriving back home it inspired me to start tackling the kitchen, which is the final room needing major work.

The first job has been to remove the thin ceiling boards in order primarily to clear away all the dirt and rat poop from up there, but then also so I can see the condition of the beams underneath and decide what sort of ceiling I want in there. As usual I just began without much planning and was rewarded with a chunk of board pinging off the ceiling and whacking me right across the bridge of my nose. After checking the damage I then reached for the safety goggles to prevent further mishaps. Here's a little snippet of what is a horribly messy job:

Most of the boards are down now and I spoke with the electrician the other day about putting up led spotlights and then plastering in between the main beams, which I think will look really nice once sanded and varnished. Hopefully he can find someone to do the work, but if not then I'll have a bash myself. Meanwhile, he has been working on electrifying the outbuildings, so I now have some lighting out there and sockets in some of the barns. I'm regretting the 100 watt led bulbs though as they are blindingly bright. So much so that I'm thinking a good winter project will be making some colourful plastic bottle shades to put over them to dim the effect a little.

To get the wiring across to the biggest barn he will need to run cables underground, so today I began lifting the stone slabs and digging a channel for him. Obviously not having learned my lesson from the kitchen ceiling incident, I began work in flip flops until I trod right on a long nail which went straight into my foot, releasing a torrent of swearing from my mouth - thank God there are no close neighbours to hear! After cleaning up the wound I then put some work boots on, but am now hobbling round on a very throbby foot, regretting my impetuosity.

A quick glance at my last blog tells me that as usual I've failed to follow up of things that were in the offing. Those seeds I threw on the compost heap? Well astonishingly they all suddenly germinated in the wet conditions, but of course then shrivelled and died because it turned hot and dry, so no crops there. To be honest, some of my cared for veggies are struggling this year, but I think it's because the soil I've put them in is mainly very light compost stuff which hasn't fully rotted down and so isn't holding the water. One bed which was initially a good 50cm deep in compost now only has about a 15cm layer on the bottom where it's rotted down! Through winter I plan to make a few trips to get tons of compost which can be mountained up in the beds, and next year I'll also be more diligent about mulching around the veggies with hay to help keep the moisture trapped.

The other thing I was about to do was to enquire into the ownership of the small triangular plot of land adjacent to mine. Well long story short, after visiting several council departments I finally found that, being designated as farm land, I needed to go to the agricultural department to look at their land plans and locate the owner. I stopped bothering at that point, but Kamen, the guy who was interested in the land, made his own enquiries and it turns out that officially it still belongs to Stefan who I bought the house from. Stefan, it seems, would need to turn in some kind of documents to get the land properly put back in his name, and isn't showing any desire to do so, so Kamen reckons that eventually it will become municipal property. Apparently they prefer to keep plots of land as pasture for farm animals - what farm animals? The only creatures to pass through there are jackals, foxes and deer, and all they have to nibble on are thickets of scrubby rose briars. So, Kamen and I have decided to just sneakily use the land and no one will be any the wiser. Shhh!