Text & photos © Estrella Azul DURING SUMMER VACATION my boyfriend and I stayed in Budapest, Hungary, for a week. While looking for cities to visit nearby we realized Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, was only a two-hour drive away. We took the M1 motorway early in the morning and, without any...

Text & photos © Estrella Azul AS SOON AS I SAW this sign at Euphoria Biergarten, a lovely restaurant in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, I knew I had to take a picture of it (see feature photo, right). Knight on watch It is a quirky place overall, with sort of a medieval vibe to it, and I am positive that...

Text & photos © Estrella Azul AS MENTIONED in my previous travel article about the European city of Miskolc (Visiting Miskolc, Hungary during the winter holidays), I first visited the Castle of Diósgyőr in 2005, and it so happened that I revisited it every five years after that. Not much visible...

Text & photos © Estrella Azul LOCATED IN BEAUTIFULLY LANDSCAPED forestry and an area surrounded by high cliffs, the Bridal Veil Waterfall (or Răchiţele Falls) is considered one of the most beautiful smaller waterfalls in Romania. Snowy pine-lined forest road A large sign shows the map of the area...

Text & photos © Estrella Azul I FIRST VISITED Miskolc in 2005, and it just so happened that I re-visited this city in Hungary (approx. population 160,000) every five years after that. I don’t recall as much from my first visit as I do from the following two. I guess seeing the city with the...

Text & Photos Copyright © Estrella Azul ONE MORNING LAST DECEMBER, when two bank holidays had us enjoy a long weekend off from work, my boyfriend and I decided to go on a road trip to Hunedoara (Hungarian: Vajdahunyad) and see one of the seven wonders of Romania, Corvin Castle (Hungarian: Vajdahunyadi...

Text & photos Copyright © Estrella Azul AT THE END OF OCTOBER our firm took us on a haunted castle-themed, weekend team building trip to Piatra Fântânele in Tihuța Pass. Tihuța is a high mountain pass in the Romanian Bârgău Mountains (Eastern Carpathian Mountains) connecting Transylvania...