Vampyre Hunting and other adventures

Well, I'm back in England now and it is all over. The concert I went to in Vienna was quite wonderful, aria's from Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Die Fleidermaus, along with other famous works by Mozart and Strauss. The singers were wonderful, the ballet dancers excellent and musicians fantastic. There were ten of them and they played without a conductor which was pretty impressive. I'm sure the percussionist must have had dreams of being in a rock band (maybe he is as well) by the way he twiddled his drumsticks.
The compere was however the star of the show. He sung a couple of aria's himself, and appeared in the first half dressed as a character from The Magic Flute. According to the girls he looked a little like Brad Pitt, albeit with Boris Becker's voice - better than the other way around I suppose. But second half he appeared in a tux and all the women's hearts around me skipped at least one beat!
So that was my final night, the next day was spent catching up on photographs and a final meal, two huge Vienna Schnitzel with fries, to the extent I couldn't eat it all, and a final beer and then to the bus. It only took twenty two hours to get back to London and the slowest bit was coming through the suburbs south of the city. Got to see the white cliffs at Dover for the first time in many years and they are actually quite spectactular. Still had time to chat to a couple of people on the bus, a Lithuanian girl (who seemed disappointed that I hadn't visited her country - maybe next time) and an irish guy.
So here endeth the lesson...I hope those who have followed me around have enjoyed it, and maybe inspired you to visit the places yourselves...And stick around, I'm sure the next adventure won't be too far away!

Had a very strange time in Budapest second time around, as I ran into some of the people I met in Romania. First I was shopping for socks in the shopping centre (Marks & Sparks of course - quality counts) and a New Zealand lady I had met in Brasov suddenly walked up to me! Then later I ran into the aussies I met in Sighisoara. Ended up having a couple of beers in a bar, then went back to their hostel with some cans and got chatting to other people, including a German girl with a scottish accent because her boyfriend was scottish. How odd!
Anyway, it got to about 4.30am and I didn't fancy trying to get back to my own hostel, so just kipped down on an empty bed there, before crawling back for breakfast at 9.30. Two days later I saw someone else I had met from a distance, then later at the station while purchasing my ticket for Vienna, I ran into one of the guys from my night out, along with someone else we had both met in Sighisoara, and they had seen the same person that I saw earlier that day. Budapest is actually a large place, although it may not sound it!
I have fallen in love with it though, and decided that alongside London and Amsterdam, it is a city in which you can do nothing for weeks and not let it bother you. I also met some quite a few english people in the hostel, including a couple of girls from Maidenhead, and spent one day with them rediscovering Buda. I found that whereas with the american girls who liked to eat ice cream at about 3 in the afternoon, these girls preferred to sit down with tea and cakes, and were even considering buying their own tea set when they returned home!
So onto my final stop, Vienna. As soon as I set foot in the place I knew that I was back in western europe, the shops are the same as anywhere you would find in England, France or Canada, and immediately I was missing the eastern climes. It reminds me a little of something across between Prague, with its tourists, and Dresden with its beautiful buildings.
I've visited the picture gallery at the academy of fine arts. They had one great painting by Hieronymous Bosch of the Last Judgment. The demon creatures were very imaginative. The picture gallery at the Kunsthistoriches contains some great Breughals, and another by Furini with the same model as that I saw in Prague. They have whole rooms dedicated to Titian and Veronnese and even a couple of english paintings.
Unfortunately the Third Man museum was closed when I went past, but the Mozart House was great. It is the only house in which he lived which is still standing and was where he wrote The Marriage of Figaro. You get a free audioguide, and they have paintings of the people with whom he was associated. An excellent bit is a holographic summary of The Magic Flute with music, and you get to walk around his old apartment. They don't know what each room was used for, but it doesn't stop them speculating.
Met an american girl here who has been studying opera in London. On Friday I went to a free organ concert in one of the churches, and tonight am going to see the Vienna Imperial Orchestra playing Mozart and Strauss. A bargain at 28 euro.
I have been eating more schnitzel and also another dish of fried chicken with onion, salt and pepper and sauted potatoes all mixed up together. It was delicious. Obviously Vienna is known for its cafes, but a lot of the well known ones are a little posh for my budget, that doesn't mean I haven't been drinking the stuff, only in the cheaper more standard places, and watching the world go by.
The architecture of the palaces is incredible, and the gardens beautifully laid out, but I get the feeling that I might have appreciated it more if I had come before Hungary and Romania. I will briefly go back to football here for a second, as I watched the FA cup final in an irish bar, the actually bar having come from a pub in Cork! Man Utd were robbed by Chelsea, but then Wembley wouldn't be Wembley without a dodgy goal line decision, would it?
Ok, so I'll finish with the pieces of music for this week.

Vienna - Ultravox
Harry Lime Theme - Anton Karas
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - W A Mozart

I've managed to keep my blog football free so far, but as a proud Sheffield Wednesday fan who's side almost scraped into the playoffs following a terrific run of results at the end of the season, I was delighted to see both West Ham and Wigan win yesterday to consign the Blades back to Championship football.
I was therefore expecting to read today that Neil Warnock would be saying something along the lines of "he was disappointed to go down but then everyone expected them to at the start of the season, and to take it to the last game...yadda yadda yadda"
But to read that he's blaming it on Liverpool and Man Utd fielding weakened teams against their rivals, and then the board claiming it was all to do with West Ham not being docked points, all sounds a bit like sour grapes to me. I'm wondering whether it would have been mentioned if they had managed to gain a point at home to Wigan and stayed up?
Sorry guys, its all about winning games in football, and you didn't win enough of them to stay up. Just look at it this way, you've got two more opportunities to beat us next season...or not!

Sighisoara is famous for being the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, and the house in which he grew up for his first four years still remains. A pretty butter yellow on the outside, inside it is now a pricey restaurant, but it is possible to access the upper landing where a bust of the man himself stands, and a dracula related frieze has been painted onto the wall.
The museum of Sighisoara is housed in the clock tower, but contains no information on the impaler. Instead it houses pottery and other objects from the history of the town, although its difficult to tell their importance as the descriptions are in Romanian. It does allow you access to the top of the tower however, and you can see the inner works of the clock, as the cogs go round, and the view from the outside is fantastic. You can see the green hills and valleys all around, as the river winds itself through and small red roofed houses encroach onto the lower slopes.
Interestingly, the bust of the man who concieved the idea of the museum shows him with exactly the same hairstyle as Gary Oldman's Dracula. Spooky!
There isn't really much else to see here, the town is quiet, and if you sit in one of the local's beer gardens you could began to believe that the last thirty years have never taken place. However, that is part of its charm and the charm of Romania as a whole. Although you can't understand what any of the museums are about, or that you have to wait twenty minutes to make a reservation on a train which is arriving in thirty minutes, I think I will miss it a little. Eventually it will catch up with the west I'm sure, but hopefully not too quickly, and not before I return either! I am now in Budapest again after taking a night train and had a compartment all to myself.
The closest thing to vampires I found out here are the bloodsucking insects, and the receptionist at the Sighisoara hostel, who on one drunken evening came on to four of us within five minutes. If she was young and good looking I don't think that we would've minded.
Dracula doesn't seem to be here after all, but maybe on reading this blog he has travelled to Whitby or London and will await me there, or maybe there is another twist.
I have discovered a poem which suggests that the origin of the ashes played for in Cricket by England and Australia may come from a different source to that of a burnt bail:

There once was a man called Vlad
Who in a cape would often be clad
When he began biting necks
The locals were vexed
But when Van Helsing turned up they were glad, were glad
When Van Helsing returned with the urn, the urn
When Van Helsing returned with the urn.

But then again, maybe some things are meant to be shrouded in the mists of myth and fiction. Here are three songs for this week.

Welcome to Paradise - Green Day
Nothing Ever Happens - Del Amitri
0345:No Sleep - The Cardigans

I always thought that I could probably live in any city, but then I hadn't counted on Bucharest. It is I think the only place to which I've travelled in which I could not find a redeeming feature. It is dusty, dirty and noisy.
The half finished roads are flanked by broken pavements, and thats the pavements you can see. The rest are covered in parked cars, forcing you into the road. Road works and other digging is going on everywhere. Drivers sit on their car horns while the traffic police breathe through their whistles and everywhere flies and dandelion spores float through the air.
The park in the centre is like the large back garden of a house where no one has been in residence for fifty years. The stone walls are crumbling, the lake is full of leaves and the patches of grass are overgrown. The ruins of the old palace built by Vlad Tepes in the 1400's are indistinguishable from the new ruins a street away, and the narrow streets are full of closed shops or bargain shops full of second hand clothes and books.
Piata Urinii is a huge circle of unkempt grass, a fountain in the middle spues out dirty water, while around the outside horrible tower blocks loom up atopped with advertising hoardings no where near as tasteful as the ones in Piccadilly Circus. Down the Boulevard Urinii are more disgusting tower blocks with closed up shops and rusting satellite dishes while at the end is the piece de resistance of the Palace of Parliament. An ugly ediface which makes Rome's 'Wedding Cake' look like a Da Vinci masterpiece.
The best part was the hostel in which I stayed, where the breakfast ingredients of bread, cheese, coffee and jam where left out on the kitchen table until the following mornings breakfast because they had no fridge!
After two nights I needed to get back to the refuge of hills of Transylvania and headed to Sighisoara, the birth place of Vlad. Here, the hostel is clean, but roadworks are still abound and the place is full of Gypsies. But at least I've been able to play some pool and ping pong, while drinking beer with a few aussies. Not much here, but at least its better than Bucharest.

Did very little in my next few days in Brasov. Generally just chilled out at the hostel or in the town with people. I did find somewhere for some proper Romanian food however, and went there two days running, once myself then the second time with others because I'd recommended it.
On both occaisions I started with the beef soup which was delicious, full of meat and vegetables. I'm not sure what they had in the stock but it really tasted good. Then for main courses I had sausages in bakes beans, which was kinda like a cassoulet and very french. The sausages were meaty and the beans were big.
The second meal was chicken and mushrooms in a creamy sauce, with polenta. This was also tasty but nothing particularly regional about it I don't think. I was also convinced into having a Romanian aperitif, which came in an earthenware little cup with a handle, and was hot. I was drunk on the fumes before I started drinking!
I also managed to find somewhere serving a Dracula pizza, although it was a bit disappointing. It didn't come dripping with blood, or even with a picture of a vampire on it. It had a few bits of ham and pepperoni. It was nice though and the crust at a bit of bite to it.
Am now in Bucharest, and at first glance seems to be full of roadworks and empty buildings with glassless windows, but I'm sure there are nice parts. Maybe.
Am no closer to finding the vampyre but maybe in the capital I'll have some luck. Now to this weeks songs.

Theme from Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Nerf Herder
Castles In The Air - B*Witched
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2

"Left Budapest 11.35pm 30th April. Supposed to leave at 11.15pm but the further east you go the less punctual the trains appear to be. What are they like in China?
Budapest seems a nice place, from what I saw on the train and from walking some of the streets. A little wet perhaps"

I hope its not too plaguristic, what I've just written but I'm sure I've changed enough! But here I am in Romania, Transylvania, and Brasov to be exact. After spending nights in a hotel room with three girls I went to spending a night in a cramped compartment with three romanian lads.
Managed to snatch some sleep but was awake soon after dawn with a view of an incredible landscape. Tree covered hills with villages nestling in the valleys and on the lower slopes. The buildings and barns looked a little dilapidated, but I'm sure that they were inhabited.
Barely saw any motor cars, mostly horses and carts, while others tended to their large allotment style plots of land, either by hand or by horse. It is a little like going back in time, and if any of you have read and remember my first entry, the total opposite to the scarring of motorways and street lights that I saw in England.
Brasov is a lovely place, nestled up next to the mountains. On my first morning I got chatting to an aussie girl, Hannah, who was travelling alone, so we went up the cable car together to the mountain above Brasov. It was a little like something out of Where Eagles Dare, and even had a telephone where you wind a handle to say you're ready to go up or down.
The view was extraordinary. You look down below to Brasov mapped out with its red roofs and then beyond to a huge flat plain and way in the distance more mountains. Then behind are even higher peaks and snow capped. It is a little like being in the Rockies, but very different, and I have been told, almost Alpine.
Got chatting to a welsh couple from Newport that evening and yesterday the four of us took a day trip out. First to Bran Castle, which is advertised as Dracula's Pad, but he was never anywhere near the place. It was a little disappointing as I expected it to be perched further up in the mountains.
In the late 19th century it was home to Queen Maria, and it is still furnished in a similar style, with wooden tables and chests, and rugs on the floor. It is pretty though, turrets and a bell tower, and windy wooden stairs that go up down and around to various levels. There's even a secret stair. The views are again incredible from the balconies.
From there we went back to Rasnov which has a 13th century fortress and is much higher up. The path up the mountain twists and turns, and at one point you have to climb over a tree in the path. I don't think they worry too much about public safety around here. There's not much to see inside apart from the gift shops and musuem in Romanian, but the swords, rifles and crossbows are nice. A couple of donkeys also appeared at one point. But once again the views are lovely.
Have not really tried any local food yet, but the local beer is excellent. The chocolate is also very good and they even have cherry jaffa cakes here. The last two evenings have been spent around the kitchen table (always the best place) chatting to various different people from around the world.
In terms of my search for the vampyre, I am not really much closer. There are some documents signed by Vlad Tepes in Brasnov town hall, Rasnov had an engraving of people being staked, and unless Dracula's modernised by turning himself into a helicopter rather than a bat, he's not at Bran.
However, and I shudder almost to think as I write, each night dogs have been barking outside and wolves howling at the almost full moon, but most horrifying of all, for the past two nights I have been bitten by something bloodsucking and therefore may only have one more night left. I have undertaken to buy some crucifixes and garlic, but I'm not sure that I'm strong enough to resist any longer. I am growing pale and my teeth are getting longer I'm sure and I have trouble getting up in the morning. What is to become of me? Will there be any more entries..?

Funny the way that friendships form
In the blink of an eye, over long summer warm
Persons thrown adversely together
By freak of nature, unclement weather
Or crafted like a work of art
Through time and learning of the heart
But which will last? And which will fail?
Where short story? Where long tale?
These are things we cannot know
As pace of plot runs ever slow
But you'll find it rushes way too fast
So enjoy the moment, savour to the last.