John & Megs continued adventures around the world

On the 10th June we left Dubai to head for Romania. We were sad to leave our luxury hotel but we had throughly enjoyed our stay. We enjoyed Dubai, but would have preferred the weather to have been a little cooler to be able to be out and about more.
Our flight wasn’t until the evening so we decided to go to the cinema before heading to the airport. After a train and a bus ride we were at the airport.
This airport was one of two of Dubais airports. The airport was pretty secluded with minimal transport links. The place was empty! There were 4 flights for the evening in total to give an indication of how quiet the place was.

View of Dubai as we took off into the night

We arrived in Romania at 12.35am (new time zone). The flight was mediocre, Wizz air was a very cheap and budget airline meaning seats weren’t that comfy and the plane rattled during take off. However we landed safely. Locals started clapping when we landed like it was the norm – either happy to be home or relieved Wizz Airplane didn’t fall out the sky?!
We then caught a taxi to our hotel with it being 2.15AM. It was a strange feeling to be in Europe and to see so many European people!
We stayed in Pensiunea Tabu hotel in Cluj for £25 for the night (the cheapest place we could find!) The manager was expectedly a little disorientated to be meeting us at 2AM but the room was clean and comfortable so we had a good stay.

By 10AM we were out exploring by foot. It was a pleasant change to be amongst Europeans and to be in a town so clean and fresh – we couldn’t stop smelling the air as it felt like a cool summers day! (Rather than the strong smell of pollution like in Asia)
The Romanian language was a little hard to follow, not one word was similar to ours but we had a few days to get used it!
The town felt very pretty. Lovely houses and plenty of flowers/greenery which we hadn’t seen for a while.
We really loved walking around aimlessly and admiring the buildings and architecture whilst people watching!

We were lucky enough to catch the end of a opera performance at the theatre. We had gone in to look around and the guard let us sneak in for the end. We weren’t sure what we were watching but we certainly enjoyed what we saw.
At 4PM we left Cluj and headed for Turda, only a hour away on the bus. We were really impressed with Cluj. Every where was clean and every corner we turned had beautiful scenery. The weather wasn’t too hot, nor too cold. Each building or house was unique in terms of design and decoration. There wasn’t any part of the town which uncared for. In-between buildings, shops and restaurants was gorgeous greenery, plants and flowers.
Our next hotel was called Green House, for £14. Green House was a family house which had wooden cabins in their back garden along with lots of chickens. The hut was lovely and the host seemed a nice lady.
After a good nights sleep with a lovely breakfast of Romanian cheese, breads, omelettes and home grown cherries we headed out.

We walked to Turdas Salt Mine.
We had a good couple of hours at the Salt Mines. We explored the tunnels and looked around the futuristic looking mines. There was a salt lake which you could take boat rides on but we opted out.
Later on we went to collect our bags from the guest house and walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to Hunedoara. We then discovered we had missed the bus by 20 minutes so we had to wait 3 hours before the next bus.
We arrived in a rough town but nice hotel called Hotel Rusca for £23. We slept well and breakfast was better than expected.
In the morning we went to visit a castle, Corvins Castle. The castle was very well kept and extremely pretty/medieval. We paid a little extra to take the audio tour which was very good- just a little hard to understand at times with the tour being in a strong Romanian accent.

The views from the castle were equally as good. We ended up spending a few hours there.

That afternoon we caught a bus to Deva followed by another bus Sibiu. By 8.30pm we had reached our Guesthouse, Central Apartments for £30. The apartment we owned by a perky young man who spoke good English. The apartment was lovely and we couldn’t be in a more central area if we tried.
There was a festival on in the street so the square was filled with stalls, music and performances. We headed straight out to explore and to look at what was going on.
The following day we headed back into Sibiu town centre. We wondered around the cobbled roads and walked down all the pathways we could find.

At 1.30PM we caught the bus to Brasov. We reached our hotel, Pension Noemi by 5pm costing £14 for the night.
The following morning we caught the bus to Bran to visit Bran castle aka Dracula’s castle. The castle has existed for over 600 years. Bran castle also represents the castle from the Dracula story.
The castle was very busy so we felt a little rushed walking around but we certainly enjoyed what we saw. We had a walk around the outside of the castle too which was lovely.

Later that evening we caught a bus to Busteni. We reached our deserted hotel, Mona Guesthouse for £10. The place looked like it hadn’t been popular for a while. There was no shops in sight so we frantically looked for some sort of take out food place.

We had no luck so we hot footed into the darkness to find a single restaurant. We ordered takeaway and sprinted back aware of all the bears, wolves and big dogs in the area.
After a good nights sleep we headed out to catch a bus to Sinaia to visit the castle Peles. This castle was certainly our favourite with the detail and beauty of the building inside and out. We even managed to get in half price as we were under 26 – John managed to get away with saying that too!

Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside of the castle and we had to wear bags on our feet to protect the floors but we were certainly pleased to have made the visit.

That afternoon we took a train to Bucuresti where we had booked a air bnb place for two nights. Our host was a friendly chap who spoke great English.
The apartment was fantastic, we had a kitchen a bathroom and a washing machine. The place was clean, comfortable and in a perfect location.
The following day we treated ourselves to a few extra hours sleep before heading out. We then went for a walk and saw the second largest parliament building in the world. The building also has the title of the heaviest building in the world.

Later on we took a walk around the ‘Old Town’ and dipped into the occasional shop to have a nose around.
The following day we were due to leave Romania and head to Sofia by train. The train journey was supposed to take 10 hours and departed at 12.45pm.
The weather was raining and miserable so it was the perfect day for a 10 hour journey by train. We shared a carriage with a couple from London who were really friendly and we were talking to them for the majority of the journey.
We arrived in our hotel/apartment at 11PM – a little small, rather a room than a apartment but it would do the job. The apartment was called Panagyurishte and we paid £17 a night.
The 20th June approached, we flew home with Ryan Air, back to the UK. Home and refresh for 3 weeks then on to Iceland! What a strange feeling going home after 18 months!

On the 4th June we left Hikkaduwa and headed to Colombo by public bus. As always the bus was busy so we crammed ourselves into the seats with the bags.
Typically, we managed to catch the bus with a dodgy bus conductor. Instead of paying for our tickets once seated as we have been the conductor insisted we pay once we reach our destination despite taking every locals payment without fail.
We felt this wasn’t right so we tried to ask locals what would be the conductors logic behind this payment method. The locals were just as unsure as us. The conductor even tried to stop the locals talking to us at this point. Thanks to this easily avoidable scenario we spent the 3 hour bus journey on edge wondering what was planned for us at the Colombo bus terminal.
When we arrived the man didn’t try any funny business which was a relief. We then had to get another bus to the airport to then go to our next hotel.
We arrived at our hotel by 4pm, Sun Up Hotel for £10. We were 2km from the airport which was the only reason we chose it. The place was pretty grotty and we arrived during a power cut but luckily it was only for the night. The hotel had thousands of mosquitos flying about, we were contemplating going to the airport early and sleeping on the chairs there.
After not much sleep in the worst hotel we’ve stayed in by far we were up and about at 7AM. We were at the airport by 8.40AM.
Sri Lanka’s airport system was a little crazy with random crowds of people all over the place. We were a little worried when we went to check in as the woman told us our names were not on the system. Luckily they found our seats and we were sat ready to board by 9.45AM.
After a comfortable flight we landed in Dubai at 3.45PM (new time zone) we then had to catch a bus to our hotel.
Our hotel Suba Hotel was lovely. A stunning room which was clean and comfortable. First dilemma, Megs bag had a ants nest inside! We had to throw everything in the shower since there were so many eggs and ants! – most likely picked up from the previous hotel judging by the state of it!

First we went for some food, we hadn’t eaten for 28 hours! As it was Ramadan restaurants were closed. Fast food joints were open on a take out basis and supermarkets were open. Dubai was hot but it was nice to have a dry heat rather than humid.
On the 6th June we went to visit the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. We took the metro there which was nice and easy to understand what with all the English signs.
We passed through Dubais largest mall, along with the hundreds of designer shops we saw a ice rink, cinema, indoor theme park, waterfall and a aquarium.

We then reached the Burj Khalifa which was equally as impressive. Surrounding the building was a huge fountain display and a stunning view of the city. It was extremely hot, the benches were too hot to sit on! During Ramadan public consumption of food and drink is against the rules so we had to find hiding spots to have a sip of water.

Standard unflattering selfie due to having to take picture at low angle to fit building in!

City view with fountain area outside Dubai Mall

The city felt very clean and modern. The area wasn’t very busy what with people fasting and wanting to save energy.
The following day it was HOT! Very very hot! Going to the supermarket less than 1KM away was a challenge. We decided it was way to hot to venture out, especially as we couldn’t freely drink water.
We decided to spend the afternoon in the pool. The pool was on the rooftop. Despite continuous cold water being pumped into the pool the water was still rather warm what with being in the direct sun light. The pool was fairly small but it was lovely to cool down.
When we felt cooler we went for a evening walk. By night, the locals emerge for food. Restaurants were all lit up and ready for business until the early hours. The city looked ever so pretty too from all the bright lights and the modern buildings.
On the 8th June we went on a sand boarding tour. The rep picked us up at 6.40AM (earlier than expected) and we set off to the sand dunes. By 7.15AM it was 34 degrees! This was going to be a hot day!
We picked up a mother and daughter with us to go on the tour, they were from Switzerland. We drove through the desert and saw a few wild camels!
First we went for a 4×4 ride over the desert. We drove at high speed skidding in all directions. We also flew over high sand cliffs and did several tricks sideways and backwards. It was evident the driver enjoyed his job..make tourists feel sick in the back seat!

When we arrived at the main sand mountains we had a few turns each on the sand board. John went straight into standing up (same technique as snow boarding).

Meg had a few goes at sitting on the board to start with (like sledging) and then progressed to standing. The man named Meg the ‘sand bug’ as she managed to get absolutely coated in sand- the man found it hilarious. We both fell off numerous times but it didn’t hurt. The main effort was walking back up the steep hill on the hot sand carrying the board. We both had a great time, maybe we will progress to snow boarding!

By 11.30AM we were back at the hotel, it was now 43 degrees!

A local man decided to put this on John’s head with the hope he would buy it!

The following day we went exploring. We headed out as late as possible in the hope that the temperature would be slightly cooler.

First we took the metro to the Marina. We admired all the tall and modern buildings along with the sleek walkways and businesses.

Next we went to admire the worlds only 7* hotel! Each room is apparently 2 stories high! Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to spend a night there but we still enjoyed taking a good look from the outside- oh, we also spotted the helicopter pad of course!

We then went to the beach to watch the sun set which really was beautiful. The sands were white, the sea was calm and everything was clean,tropical and warming – paradise!

After watching the stunning sun set we headed back to the hotel. Hundreds of people were getting our food and drink after fasting for the day. The city soon lit up, food outlets and mosques were suddenly crowded – the town felt very alive for 7.15PM.