{"id":5152,"date":"2012-09-05T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsdavedoing.com\/?p=5152"},"modified":"2012-09-05T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T12:40:00","slug":"pork-stray-dogs-fortress-two-days-brasov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsdavedoing.com\/pork-stray-dogs-fortress-two-days-brasov\/","title":{"rendered":"Pork, stray dogs and a fortress: two days in Brasov"},"content":{"rendered":"
I knew virtually nothing about Brasov before I went.<\/p>\n
To be fair, that is not a rare occurrence.\u00a0 My “research” for most of the places I go these days seems to consist of spending five minutes on Google then downloading a WikiTravel article to read on the train.\u00a0 I could say this is because I prefer local neighbourhoods to tourist attractions, following my intuition rather than a map.\u00a0 There is some truth in that, but usually it’s just because I’m too cheap to buy a guidebook and too lazy to do any reading.<\/p>\n
The small city in central Romania is usually used as a base to explore Bran Castle<\/a>, famously (although wrongly) associated with Vlad the Impaler – the apparent inspiration for Count Dracula.<\/p>\n I didn’t even go there.<\/p>\n Instead, my two days in Brasov consisted largely of wandering around the medieval old town, eating vast amounts of delicious fatty pork, and making friends with the local stray dog population.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’d noticed a significant change in the weather as our train trundled slowly further away from Bucharest.\u00a0 The summer heat started to wane, clouds replacing blue sky as we climbed up into the mountains less than 170km away.\u00a0 It was grey and a little drizzly as we pulled into town, but nothing could dull the attraction of the masterpiece high on the hills above us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, that is a Hollywood-style sign.\u00a0 No, I am not sure why.<\/p>\n Somehow tearing our eyes away, we found our accommodation and headed out to explore the old city.\u00a0 And by “explore the old city”, I mean “find somewhere with food and cold beer”.<\/p>\n That mission successfully accomplished, it was time for random wandering.\u00a0 The town square was bright and colourful, the restored buildings shining in the sunlight that had by now decided to make an appearance.\u00a0 A nearby gelato stall restored the energy lost during the 100 metre walk since lunch, so we carried on to Catherine’s Gate and the (not particularly) Black Church, two of the more famous attractions in Brasov.<\/p>\n Somewhere along the way, a stray black and white dog decided, without even so much as a discussion, that he was in fact my new best friend.<\/p>\n I walked.\u00a0 He walked.<\/p>\n I stopped.\u00a0 He stopped.<\/p>\n I glared at him.\u00a0 He gave me his best “but I love you” face.<\/p>\n And on we went.<\/p>\n