Welcome to my travel diary for 2024, which will cover holidays and trips from our new base camp in Brasov, Romania. The 2024 travel plans are being considered. One thing for sure is now I’m a resident of Romania. There are no more 90 day stresses like in the previous few years.
Travel Blogging
Initial travel plans for 2024 are lots of work on catching up with the travel blog and emptying my ideas list. That’s going well, and there have been lots of fresh additions and many updated posts so far. I have a bad habit when travelling of leaving wriggle room for additional information.
Travel revisits last year also left me a long list of updates to add, including Vienna, London and Croatia
2024 Travel Intentions
Between that there will be lots of quick trips to new to me parts of Romana, hiking locally and a few long trips west. A seaside holiday in Croatia is top of the agenda, but reaching there by train opens up lots of doors for new travel destinations. Henry, my travelling dog, is keen to increase his country count.
2024 Diary
Following on from my 2023 travel diary, this is a log of what’s happening and what we’ve done in 2024.
Brasov Our New Home
2024 started with a bang with the new year’s eve fireworks in Brasov, a fun event following on from the festive markets. In Brasov, Ill be enjoying normal life things including eating out, food shopping and some ongoing sightseeing. Also, the occasional visit to the local bars to brush up on my basic Romanian skills and have some fun. Hiking is a big part of the fun here and will be enjoying some good hikes in Brasov.
Day Trip To Fagaras
The first trip out of Brasov of the year was to Fagaras, a small city in Transylvania. Fagaras is a pleasant town with one major attraction, Fagaras citadel. This was one of the more interesting castles in Romania to visit and I really enjoyed. The town has some other things to see, including a cathedral, churches and places to dine out.
This trip made me realise I need to get out of the city more to prevent cabin fever.
Snow Getting Old
One of the key things I learned in this part of the year is snow gets old very quickly. It’s ok in the mountains, but living with it doing mundane chores is not fun after a while. Thus have been hibernating mostly and focusing on indoor activities and spending as little as possible for the next adventure.
Socialising
Another aspect we have improved on this stay was meeting new people. We have joined the Brasov Supper club which meets up twice per month to meet new people. This was fun and met people from various countries. This resulted in an invitation to join Brasov Boyz for a weekly drinking and cigar meet up. I subsequently went to another social event, which meant meeting more people from around the world.
Tweetup
As spring arrived in Romania, the weather improved, and more tourists started coming. This meant meeting some fellow travel bloggers, The Lewis Family for beer o’clock and to meet Henry.
Healthcare
After a few months of issues with my feet walking, I’ve stated navigating the private healthcare system in Romania. It all seems to run well, albeit with lots of running around. Ive seen a specialist, the vampire for blood tests and various scans. I’m awaiting results and hopefully back on form soon.
Dante’s Inferno
Home improvements are nice when completed, but flat-pack furniture can be like navigating Dante’s inferno. I can confirm the instructions are as bad in Romania as in the UK. This resulted in aches, pains and some awful blisters from the screwdriver.
Next…
We Also have a rough Plan from the end of April starting with a Romanian night train. The Plan.
- Somewhere spotted from a train window with pleasant countryside.
- A popular place on Travel Twitter, coffee mentioned lots, but what about the beer?
- A 2nd city with a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the centre.
- A return to a capital I liked but wasn’t in the best frame of mind to fully enjoy.
- Somewhere else seen from the train station. On that trip, half the train moved to the windows to catch the views.
- Return to the island of Vitality