021 Mountains, not really Dracula, 90s disco in the supermarket

We are quickly running out of time now. We are in Chisinau, and we will fly back to the Netherlands in 5 days from now, from Bucharest. And we still have to go to the mountains. Luckily everyone told us that Bucharest itself can easily be skipped, because there is nothing to see there, it's ugly, unfriendly and boring. Don't go there, they said.

So we took trains to Brasov, in the Romanian Carpathians. On the way, we had the great privilege of unpacking all our stuff for a Moldovan boarder guard in the night train. Also we saw how they change the wheels on a train to go from wide tracks to normal tracks. The whole train is lifted 3 meters into the air, the wheels sets are driven away, and other wheel sets are put into place.

Brasov is a very beautiful town with a medieval core, right next to the mountains. We walked around in the town a lot, cooked pancakes for our host, and breathed healthy mountain air. I also visited the Bran castle, allegedly the castle where the real Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) lived, although it isn't really true. Good marketing, that.

We also went up a mountain to catch a funicular to the top. We thought. Once again, it turned out to be closed, this time for a one day maintenance. This seems to be one of the central themes of our trip, since this is already the third time we don't get to go up a mountain because the funicular is closed.

To make sure we would at least go up one mountain, we went to another funicular on our way to Bucharest. This one worked. Hurray.

And then Bucharest.

Looking back upon it now, it makes me wonder if all the people who told me not to go there because it isn't worth it, have been to some other Bucharest, maybe somewhere on the other side of the moon or something. I loved it so much I want to go back.
Yes, there is a lot of concrete, and yes, this really big parliament building isn't exactly a beauty. But the buildings in the old town are. And the city is so alive. And I only met really friendly people on the street. And they play really bad disco music everywhere (this is a good thing. It's also hilarious). We we're dancing in the supermarket on the train station, they were playing Scooter. And we weren't eaten by stray dogs. Not even a little.
We also stumbled on a small street off a main thoroughfare, with a glass roof and about 15 very small bars, all with their own set of 3 tables and a couple of chairs outside. And all playing their own, slightly too loud, beforementioned disco music. We spent our last hours and local currency there, before sleeping in our hostel for 3 hours, taking a cab to the airport, and flying home.