After constantly asking ourselves where we will go traveling this summer, the decision is finally here – we are traveling to Romania and Moldova. I am still not sure about these two destinations, as I am a little afraid I will be missing two very important things for me; colorfulness and lay back atmosphere. As you probably know, these two countries were under a hard communism rule in the past and I do wonder how well, this can still be felt.
When I was traveling to Russia, I had this bitter-sweet feeling about the country and the people. Honestly say, I still don’t know if I liked Russia or not. I guess the main reason is, it was very hard to make friends and being a very open person, that bothered me of course.
So, why Romania and Moldova travel?
Like so many times before, Romania and Moldova were not our first joice. Ever since we bought a 4-wheel drive, we were planning to do an overland travel from Slovenia to Georgia and Armenia. But for the trip, we would need at least 3 weeks off from work. Hard times for Slovenian economy meant also hard time to be away from work for such a long time and we ended up with only 2 weeks off, what clearly marked us, its a no-go for Georgia and Armenia.
Disappointed at first, it was time to think where to next? All we knew is we have 2 weeks time and low budget – what actually did help us. Due to our low budget, we canceled everything in Europe, what is north and west from Slovenia, what meant we were choosing from countries in Eastern or Southern part of Europe only.
Where to for 14 days and a 4-wheel drive?
We were exploring some Balkan countries last summer (Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro), and we liked them a lot! That also helped us realised, we want to do some more Balkan exploration and so we have chosen Romania and Moldova for our next travel destination. We both have never been to Romania, neither to Moldova and we were able to find 8 reasons, why this would be our best choice:
- Both countries, Romania and Moldova, are relatively close to Slovenia, what hopefully means, we will not be rushing to much while traveling
- Living expenses in Romania and Moldova are cheaper than in Slovenia, what will make our travel more affordable
- Off-road terrain, what is perfect for our 4-wheeler (woohoo)
- Rich history
- Good food (I know, we are getting demanding, but honestly, isn’t traveling much easier with your stomach being full and not empty?)
- The fact that Moldova is the least visited European country speaks for itself (love less touristic countries)
- Simon and I have never been there
- Meeting the mysterious vampires and getting to know the Count Dracula should be fun 😉
All the above reasons are of course something that we are hoping for and it can happen, that we are totally wrong. Lets just wait and see … but whatever happens, we will let you know in the up-coming post for sure, so stay tuned. Fingers crossed, we will not be eaten by any vampires 😉
