Andrea goes exploring again!

Firstly, I wanted to start this post by reassuring you that I am now absolutely fine. My homesickness yesterday was jut a blip and I'm now totally back in the swing of things.  I've not yet told you about Tirgu Mures and because I've also been to Piatra Neamt since then I'm going to combine the two into one post. There wasn't a huge amount doing in each place so it's probably for the best to be honest! I arrived in Tirgu Mures in the middle of a downpour, so bad that an umbrella was necessary, there was no way my waterproof was up to the challenge without some assistance! Coordinating two rucksacks, my phone for the map and a brolly is no mean feat let me tell you. But I achieved it 😊.  After check-in, the rain had abated a little and so I did my usual recce. And it quickly became clear that  it would be challenging to fill two days in Piatra Neamt. Checking the weather, it was definitely only due to be good my first day there so I decided to do outdoor things ...

Firstly, my apologies to those who are expecting either a post about Tirgu Mures or my eventful journey from there to Piatra Neamt, where I'm currently located. They will appear here soon (keep your eyes peeled for the journey one, it's going to be a corker!), but one of the things that I want to be on this blog is authentic and honest. We hear so often that social media is so unbalanced because we only get to see the good bits of people's lives and I've been as guilty as the next person of perpetuating this. I see how this affects people around me and it concerns me and so as I've said before, this blog isn't about me only giving you the good bits. I obviously know a lot of the people who have subscribed to my blog, and according to the stats, it's had over 1300 views so I know it's being looked at! In my life pre-Andreagoesexploringagain, the things I discuss here wouldn't necessarily come up in the conversations I would have with some of the known...

So as you'll have guessed, soare means sun in Romanian. I know this as I stayed in Case Soare in Sighisoara; ironic really as I experienced some of the heaviest downpours so far of my trip! In the last week, whilst the temperature hasn't fallen too far, there has been a lot more rain. I say this as the sun streams in through my window (it's currently meant to be raining according to the very poorly named website: accuweather). Unfortunately the rain properly started as I arrived in Sighisoara on Monday. I arrived around 1pm and so decided to brave the weather to have a wander round and get my bearings. I don't tend to take photos on these recce trips and so all I have to share is the pumpkin pie that was the only redeeming feature of that outing!! The next morning, after an evening of constant heavy rain that had settled into heavy drizzle I made my way out again to properly check out Sighisoara. This town is beautiful; it has the dubious honour of being the birthplace ...

Sibiu was the city I visited from Friday last week until today (Monday). I'd struggled to get a hostel bed there despite there being a number of them in the city. Of the last two that had beds available, a review of one really put me off as it described it as basically a man's house that he's put some beds in and you sleep in the corridor, and at the other, check-in closed at 8pm. My train didn't get me in to Sibiu until 8.14pm so I knew that wasn't going to be an option and I ended up getting a studio flat as their check-in was until 9pm. Whilst everything I've heard about Romanian railways is that they are slow, they are supposedly reliable and so I figured that the arrival/check-in time combo would be fine. I got to  Timișoara  train station around an hour before my train was due (this happens a lot due to check-out times at accommodation) and bought my ticket (with cash - I wasn't risking my cards being rejected again!). The train I had to get from  Timi...