Our last full day was spent at Parc Aventura in Brasov. It was a day of rope courses and ziplines through the Transylvanian forest. Our travel day meant saying goodbye to our host’s parents. The house had served as an excellent base for our day adventures. We traveled back through the mountain passes in much … More Ziplines and One Last Vlad Visit

Bran Castle’s story is a tale of two characters. The first is Dracula. The book and movie character that most people associate with Transylvania. Stoker never visited Romania, but based on the description in his books and sources he used, Bran Castle was the inspiration. The second is Vlad Tepes. This is the historical figure … More Bran and Rasnov – Brasnov, even

Day 7 of our Spring Break trip would be spent taking in the countryside of Romania with a circuit that included stops in Fagaras, Sibiu and Sighisoara. We began with a drizzly drive to Fagaras and a visit to the Fortress  Castle Citadel. It’s called all of the preceding, but however it’s called, it was … More Transylvania Road Trippin

As the rest of the family finished up the packing, I went down to the Radisson Blu to pick up the rental behemoth. I had reserved a van through Sixt. After walking around the bar for awhile, I finally found the small desk with the small Sixt sign sitting on it. There was only one … More Peles Castle – Not that Pele

We awoke on our last morning in Istanbul and had breakfast at the hotel. It was a good Turkish spread of fruits, cheeses, olives and simit. The van taking us to the airport arrived right on time and we all serenaded the birthday girl with our beautiful morning song. Greene was turning 24 today! We … More La Mulţi Ani

Spring break this year would be spent again with my mom, with the added benefit that she would travel back to Saudi with us for a short stay. We decided to spend a few days in Istanbul. This was to see the sights and give mom a few days to adjust her body clock. We … More Istanbul (not Constantinople)