thursdaysd

Goes back to Europe, that is. Ever since my last long trip, to South America at the end of 2012, I've been saying that my next long trip would also be to South America, to Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. But somehow, despite actually buying guidebooks, I never got around to producing an itinerary. It finally dawned on me that maybe I didn't really want to go back to SA. Maybe I really wanted to go somewhere else. Maybe Europe? Next thing you know, I had the Thomas Cook rail map of Europe spread all over the breakfast table.

I decided that this would be a "go back to" trip. I would go back to favorite places in Europe, traveling more slowly than usual, so I could enjoy them at leisure. But I would start with somewhere new. South and west Romania. I had visited the north - Maramures and Bucovina - back in 2006, but I hadn't made it to Transylvania in the south. Friends had visited Romania in the spring, and reported interesting Art Nouveau buildings in the west, near the Hungarian border. (Shades of Subotica, the Art Nouveau gem in Serbia, right on the Hungarian border.)

I'm posting two TRs for this trip. One, after the fact, for Romania. And one, possibly real time, for everywhere else. I'm currently in Szeged, Hungary, moving to Budapest on Sunday.

Here's the link for the Romania TR: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...a-take-two.cfm

LancasterLad

Looking forward to reading your stuff, but shouldn't it be on the Europe forum?

Kathie

LL, it is on the Europe forum. Thursdays just posted the link here so her Asia friends can find her report.

Amy

Hi, thursdaysd! I tend to follow you (not in a stalkerish way, of course, but simply because I've gotten so much help from your writings) and saw that you had initial plans to go to Colombia but didn't? I was wondering if you had gotten as far as coming across any small group companies (like Hyur in Armenia--thanks for that one!) rather than just the private guides I keep coming up with.

To keep this in Asia mode--I posted here because I figured it was most likely for you to see--Fodor's does classify Armenia as Asia, and it's important not to get it mixed up with Armenia in Colombia when you're booking flights.

thursdaysd

Hi Amy, nice to hear from you.

No, I was planning to do Colombia on my own. I did look at a group (Say Heque, I believe) when I was planning my Patagonia trip, but didn't find them very responsive. I'm also on the email list for Tucan but didn't use them. I might look at Intrepid as well if I wanted a group tour.

Definitely need to keep those airports, straight, lol! I tried to fly out of the wrong one in BsAs on the Patagonia trip...

I'm busy booking my next trip, but it will be Europe again - my niece is getting married in England the end of August.

Amy

Thanks! I am doing most of Colombia solo (starting out with returning to the Peruvian Amazon) but was hoping to do a two or three day group trip to the Coffee Zone: it's a little pricy to do on a private tour, and a lot of logistics for a short amount of time. Looks like the buses should work okay, though.

I'm kinda needing to get back to Europe, myself; a wedding is a lovely reason.