It's Day 15, and we're heading north to Brasov, where we're planning, as I mentioned yesterday, to spend just one night.

By definition, spending just one night breaks our golden two-nights-minimum rule...

The reason is this: Long as the journey from Brasov to Budapest is (13 hours), the journey from Bucharest to Budapest is even longer (16 hours), and judging by the route map, the Brasov version offers you more Carpathians. So Brasov is the way to go.

You can theoretically buy Romanian railway tickets on line. But it's a somewhat fraught business (we had ended up, for example, buying the Brasov to Budapest leg of the journey via the Hungarian rail site). So, given that there were plenty of options, we decided to buy the ticket for this Bucharest to Brasov sector in person at the railway station (just across from our flat, remember).

There seem to be gazillions of different rail operators in Romania, and they all sell their tickets from different outlets. We'd originally been aiming for a Softrans train, but having utterly failed to find the sales point, we decided to go for Regio Calatori instead. Disadvantage: It takes 3 hours instead of 2.5. Advantage: We could find the ticket window...


Anyway, that was yesterday. This morning, we got up, packed up, and tidied up -- and then sat reading for an hour, because we'd done everything well ahead of schedule.

Before heading for the platform, we stopped off at one of the station bakeries to arm ourselves with lunchtime simit (these come without sesame seeds in Romania, unlike their Turkish cousins) and mucenici:


The train is at the platform well ahead of schedule, and there's plenty of luggage space, so we load ourselves on, and watch it fill up.


The scenery starts with a flat bit:



But after Ploiesti, the route is mountainous. Those Carpathians are really quite dramatic: Often snow-capped, and in places perpendicular, like huge fangs:







It's not a quick trip, this one, but it's very rewarding.

Brasov itself is history-laden and picturesque. Small wonder, then, that it's besieged with trippers even in March. We had worried that it might snow on us here, but in fact the weather was dry. Bracing, but far from unbearable. And the cafes provide blankies for those intrepid enough to sit outside:


It is a good place for a post-train walk:








And we had a very cosy space for our one-night stay:






Tomorrow: Budapest...