Friday, 11/8. A long day trip north to the mountains of Transylvania. Heavy traffic to get out of the city, which does not have any highway connectors. They have a highway ring, but it’s too far out of the city to be helpful. Someone is expecting the city to grow a lot. After nearly 3 hours we reached Sinaia in the Prahova Valley. “Pearl of the Carpathians” due to the beauty of its natural setting and the elegance of its architecture. Very Alpine. Visited Peles Castle, former summer residence of the Romanian Royal Family. It’s much more like a palace. Incredible artwork and design. I could have spent all day admiring it’s interior. The exterior is fine too, but most of the building is being repaired, so there was a lot of scaffolding.

Next stop was “Dracula’s Castle”, so named only because it bears a striking resemblance to Bram Stoker’s description. The story is that readers of the book (or watchers of the earlier movies) stopped by and begged the owner for a tour. The owner saw dollar signs and began offering tours at a price. Bram Stoker, an Irishman, never visited Romania and never saw the castle. Prince Vlad “the Impaler” (surname Dracula) occasionally used the Castle. Perched atop a 200-foot-high rock, but very close to the town below. For the joy of foreign visitors it was decorated in Halloween-themed style. I asked Dan our guide if Romania celebrated Halloween. “No”. The Castle’s interesting setup was as the home of Princess Marie, the very popular British wife of Romania’s crown prince and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. I enjoyed the factual history more than the mythical one.

Last stop, Brasov. It’s a very old city with a wealth of very interesting architecture. Had a very late lunch in a past dungeon. Hungarian goulash. (Understandably, Romania’s most disliked country is Hungary.)

The drive back was far longer than we expected. Not enough roads, too many cars. Endured a 40+ minute slowdown for no apparent reason. Arrived back at 8:30.

Romanians have placed themselves in my rankings as the worst drivers in the world, mostly due to their unpredictability. They absolutely force other drivers to take preventative measures. Since I’ve noticed that everyone has one eye on their phones, this is scary.

A smoked drink. Burning tea chips.
A smoked drink. Burning tea chips.
The Moorish room in the Palace.
The Moorish room in the Palace.
The Castle/Palace was built late enough to have electricity installed during construction.
The Castle/Palace was built late enough to have electricity installed during construction.
Entrance to Dracula's Castle
Entrance to Dracula’s Castle
Dracula’s Castle
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Thursday, 11/7. Flew out on the day after elections. Some might see it as an escape from countrymen I don’t understand. But we’d booked it long ago.

Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria. On (or near) the Danube. Our flights were long and uncomfortable. As usual. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like to do the things you do like.

An interesting Uber drive from the airport to hotel. Romanians drive like bad F1 racers. Wait too long for a gap, then accelerate until the gap closes. Horns! I don’t remember the last country that used horns so much.

Surprisingly, Romania is the sixth largest producer of wine in Europe. I’m going to experiment.

Hotel is top notch. Restaurant served traditional and most popular beef & pork sausage. Excellent.

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Wednesday, 9/18. Travel to Guatemala City. Ho-hum. Impressive road over and around many mountains. No tunnels and few bridges. Emphasis was on simplicity of maintenance. No photos.

Trip Leader Richard pointed out that Guatemala, unlike most other Central America countries, has had a stable economy for decades. The closer we got to the City, the more prosperous everything looked. The City is night and day different from the countryside, though we only drove through the more modern sections. The City has zones. Some are very, very dangerous, others are the opposite.

I’ve been on this trip six days, three of which have been mostly travel.

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Tuesday, 9/17. Hot, humid day. It was hard to focus. Fortunately our excellent guide kept finding shade. This is not the most famous Mayan ruin, but it’s one of the best preserved, though the early archeologists made several errors in the efforts to preserve it. One set of steps holds the third largest collection of hieroglyphics in the world.

After lunch I walked around the village. Nothing remarkable. The souvenir salesmen were very soft sell, which made the walk peaceful. Everyone seems friendly, but not overwhelmingly so.

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Monday, 9/16. This was mostly a travel day. Left El Salvador, entered Guatemala, left Guatemala, entered Honduras. Customs was unremarkable. Arrived in Copan early enough to visit Macaw Maintain. Hundreds of macaws, mostly in cages. Some were out in the open. One flew over to me and, as is traditional, stole my food (a cookie).

We were told that the village of Copan (along Hondura’s western border) is the only place in Honduras that’s safe. It appears to be a typical small tourist village. Many small hotels/hostels. Shortly after check in we were treated to a violent afternoon thunderstorm, lasting about 15 minutes. Dinner was a delicious footlong burrito, of which I ate half.

Only weeks old
Scratching an itch
Cookie Monster
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Sunday 9/15. A walk around the city. Observed a small protest parade and was entertained when our Trip Leader got one participate to talk about their protest and a bystander decided to get involved. We saw the main parade but it was too crowded to get close. Marching bands, just like the states. But no horses.

After lunch we left town to visit the archaeological site Joya de Ceren. It’s just a small village notable for being buried under volcanic ash 1,400 years ago. Only discovered 50 years ago. Current technology, including organic DNA testing, has uncovered an impressive number of discoveries regarding the village’s makeup.

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Friday/Saturday, 9/13&14. Arrived late because someone who check their bag didn’t board the plane. They had to find the bag. The nicest, most efficient customs agent I have ever encountered. San Salvador’s airport is new, pretty and appears underutilized. The airport parking lot is dirt. Mixed messages regarding the country’s condition. Long drive to the city. Oddly, all the many many many billboards are unlit. In the city pizza ads dominate. Roads are excellent. The driver appeared to speak no English, but he played Credence Clearwater Revival music.

On Saturday I took a Viator Tour to climb the tallest volcano in the country and have lunch beside a very large caldera formed lake. Not a good time. The climb was about 1,700 feet, ending at 7,200 feet. I bailed at the halfway mark of the climb because 1) it was too difficult for my fitness level and/or 2) the mountain was in the clouds. Since the point was to take photos, I didn’t see the reason to wipe myself out. I had a pleasant descent alone while the others continued.

Unfortunately, someone else did go all the way, then spent hours going down. Lunch was at 2PM. The restaurant was several hundred feet above the huge lake. Nice view, but not remarkable. Overall, the day was disappointing. Had shrimp mac and cheese resting on top of a small lobster tail. With the obligatory french fries. Excellent. Met my companions. Very talkative, as is the Trip Leader.

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September, Friday the thirteenth. Not a good day to begin a new adventure.

In looking for a Central America trip, I was attracted to Costa Rica. But apparently so were everyone. This less popular tour is incredibly less expensive in comparison. El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. Mostly Guatemala. I’m going for the birds, flowers, and people. Maya history is wrapped more in mystery than fact it seems. I’m not a fan of theoretical history. There are a lot of volcanos.

The notices from the State Department are alarmingly scary, but posts from travelers are much more encouraging. Indeed, both El Salvador and Guatemala have knocked back the danger substantially in the past year, which the State Department will catch up on in a decade or two. It’ll be interesting to see how things really are.

The group I’m going to be with is odd. Ten travelers, only one couple. 5 of each gender. The Trip Leader’s ancestors came from China.

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Leg pain story: After suggesting that I may return home early due to leg pain, the Trip Leader recommended a visit to a doctor across from the hotel. He prescribed three pills plus an MRI. The pills worked wonderfully. Applying ice every night also helped. The MRI deduced some inflammation in my knee, which happens to most old people and really wasn’t related to my leg pain. The doctor visit, pills, and MRI cost a total of <$200.

Suspending the blog: Two reasons. 1) Simply put, for the few days that I was concentrating on my pain, I grew accustomed to not spending a hour or more each night typing out a blog and prepping the photos. So I stopped. 2) There wasn’t much in Tunisia worth writing about. The Roman ruins were repetitious. Yes, there were Star Wars stops, but they didn’t really rate rapturous excitement. Here are a few photos.

I’m writing this eight months after the fact. Moving on now.

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