Hi, today we are in Brasov which the Lonely Planet guide has dubbed the new Prague, but to be honest whilst its pretty and full of character I'm not so sure about the comparrison.

On Thursday night we went out in Cluj and had a lovely traditional meal and Rich was particularly amused by the fact that Romanians seem to eat raw chillies with their soup. The restaurant was particularly traditional and rustic, ironically we decided afterwards to go for a drink in a nearby bar. The only one with any life in it was called the Fashion Bar and honestly it would have looked pretentious in Clifton. The best way to describe it was a passage way between two buildings draped with fabric to look like a marque with night heaters, leather loungers and plasma TVs everywhere and for the locals this was 'the place to be seen'.

The next day we headed towards a Gorge called Cheile Turzii which was absolutely stunning and surrounded by beautiful limestone mountains. We hope to get a card reader soon and when we do will post some photos on this site. We took a 4 hour trek through and around the gorge (good preparation for me for trekking in Nepal but also our first real exercise since travelling) and at the end of the Gorge we got chatting to three local students. We continued the walk with them and helped the finish off their sandwiches in return for a beer. They had hitch hiked there and originally we planned to camp there but as the light was fading and it was getting cold, we offered them a lift back to Cluji and in return they offered to put us up in their student digs for the night. There were only two rules about guests in the dorms - no foreigners and no girls !!! but they managed to pursuade the security guard to let us stay in return for a small bribe of two packets of cigarettes. The guys room was OK considering it was student accomodation less said the better about the showers and toilets. We were also fed a Romanian traditional dish which comprised of rice and mince rolled in cabbage, baked and then served with thick cream - it was really nice and very similar to a Polish dish my gran used to cook. The guys room was filled with computers and through a student computer network they were able to download the latests movies and music in seconds - this was piracy central it seemed.

On Saturday we left Cluj and drove to the Fagaras Mountains - the students told us about a very scenic road which takes you straight through the mountains but was closed from Mid-October onwards. However thankfully for us it was still open and its the sort of road and scenery that only the Swiss Alps can rival. We climbed to over 2034 metres and navigated 31 hairpins to get to the top. Countless Top Gear style programmes and car adverts must have been filmed here. The problem was that we didn't get to the top until late Saturday afternoon and by the time we did it was very foggy and dark - we couldn't seem more than 20ft in front of the car, so came back Sunday morning to really appreciate the scenery - it really was amazing. In the afternoon we visited a Dam which was equally impressive, I suspect it has featured in many films. There was the opportunity to bugee jump off one side which was quite an extreme drop. Rich and I both agreed that neither of us would do it, me not even for a million pounds. That evening Rich decided that he hated Romanian drivers as none of the cars had their headlights adjusted and driving with your spotlights on seems a national pastime - we were blinded all the way back to our hotel.

Today the weather seems to have turned against us, its rained almost continuously and has been quite cold.We tried to go to Bran castle today but unfortunately its closed on Mondays so our plan is to so back tomorrow and spend Halloween with Dracula......