Up there, where the air is blue, that's where Romanian low-cost carrier Blue Air flies. Despite flying since 2006, they've only just popped up on our radar because of a rumor they're starting London Stansted to Brussels flights--a slightly odd route for a Romanian-based airline.

But it's cheap: For the launch of the London route, they're offering some €1 tickets (plus taxes, of course). Other routes are also going cheap--if not for a euro.

Blue Air have got just eight aircraft at the moment with at least two more on order, and passenger numbers are up over 20 percent on the same time last year. But we don't have any personal experience yet, so all we can hope is that flying on Blue Air doesn't leave you feelin' blue.

Related Stories:
· Blue Air [Official Site]
· Blue Air Reports 49 Million Euros in Turnover [Financialrul.ro]
· Low Cost Carriers coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Andrei Dimofte]]]> amandak 2008-09-25T09:35:33-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/16/25631/1777

It's definitely bear season in the northern hemisphere. Over at HotelChatter they've been spotting bears taking dips in hotel swimming pools in Orlando and Colorado. But in Romania, bears are going beyond cooling off in the pool.

In Sinaia, a whole family of bears recently ambled into a restaurant and, well, sat down at the tables. When they didn't get any service--everyone fled the restaurant--the brown bear and two cubs found the kitchen and ate their fill.

Police and rangers were called out, but the bears had gone before they arrived. They didn't even leave a tip.

Related Stories:
· Bears Sit at Restaurant Table [Ananova]
· Hotel Bears Might Be the Next Hot Trend [HC]
· Romania Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: hasan_e_beton]]]> amandak 2008-06-16T09:15:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/6/13/65244/5005

Funny, we were just considering buying tickets to an upcoming performance of Swan Lake--it's an attempt to be cultured--but then we read about a Romanian version that's being investigated by the Consumer Protection Office.

In case, like us, you didn't know, there should be 24 swans on stage in the famous Tchaikovsky show. But recently at the Romanian National Opera House in Bucharest there were just 16, and one member of the audience made an official complaint.

As far as our rusty Romanian can translate, the Swan Lake show is still running, under the less romantic sounding Romanian translation of Lacul Lebedelor. If you go, you'll have to be prepared to make do with fewer swans than Tchaikovsky prescribed.

Related Stories:
· Swan Lake's Swan Shortage [Ananova]
· Romanian National Opera House [Official Site]
· Romania Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: rayparnova]]]> amandak 2008-06-13T10:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/2/18/7226/75861

Until now, our coverage of Bucharest has focused on Dracula, but come this April, there'll be more scary creatures there: lots of politicians. The 20th NATO Summit will take place in the Romanian capital between April 2 and 4, carefully avoiding the prospect of starting talks on April Fools' Day.

So who and what will we see in Bucharest this April? Well, surprisingly, Russian president Vladimir Putin has agreed to show up, the first time a Russian leader has been there in six years. Along with him, the usual suspects--that is, heads of government of NATO members--will be in town, too.

Whether they'll take a countryside trip to haunt Dracula's region or spend more time at some of the sites made famous during the 1989 revolution (remember Ceausescu?), we are sure to see some pretty Bucharest churches in the background on TV. If the delegates have too much fun, we'll just be grinding our teeth about where our taxes are going.

Related Stories:
· Putin Agrees To Go To NATO Summit [Moscow Times]
· Jack Bauer Travels In The Shadows Of Dracula [Jaunted]
· New York Is Selling Dracula's Castle [Jaunted]

[Photo: mircea tudorache]]]> amandak 2008-02-21T09:30:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/7/3/11516/72061

Remember last year, when New Yorker Dominic Habsburg was celebrating getting the deed for Dracula's haunt? Well, fast forward a year and the castle is going back on the market.

If you're shopping for a $135 million house, you may have spotted a listing over the weekend for the 17-bedroom Bran Castle. The Romanian fortress is better known as Dracula's lair because its former inhabitant, Prince Vlad the Impaler, inspired Bram Stoker's vampire. It is situated on the border between the towns of Transylvania and Wallachia, on Highway 73.

The castle was put up for sale by its ancestral owners, the Habsburgs, to whom it was returned in 2006. Owner Archduke Dominic Habsburg must really want the place off his hands -- he offered to sell it to the state of Transylvania last year, but they turned down his bargain price of $80 million.

We hear Kiefer Sutherland is in the neighborhood. Maybe he should settle down in the 13th-century place -- it would make a great remote torture location for Jack Bauer, plus he'd have room for Chloe 'n' the gang.

Related Stories:
· Bucharest Travel [Jaunted]
· Hotels in Romania [HotelChatter]

[Photo: gus.k]]]> egw 2007-07-03T15:19:54-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/6/25/6734/90427

These Romanian brown bears might look cute, but we've got a bad news story today and they star in it. A group of American hikers wandering through the Carpathian Mountains north of Bucharest over the weekend were attacked by a brown bear who eventually killed one of them, a 31-year-old woman.

We know Europe's nervous about roaming bears--just see the hysteria created in Germany over Bruno the Bear. It's an uneasy truce between dense populations and the few remaining bears. About half of Europe's brown bears make their home in Romania, and although attacks on people are really rare, they obviously do happen; if you're stressed about it, check some tips on surviving bear encounters.

Related Stories:
· Bear Mauls US Tourists [CNN]
· Bruno the Bear Remembered [Jaunted]
· How To Survive An Encounter With A Bear [e-how]

[Photo: tim ellis]]]> amandak 2007-06-25T08:50:50-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/6/21/83819/4961

A reader of the gossip site TMZ got mighty spooked the other day when he asked for a light outside a bar in Bucharest, Romania. Who came to his rescue? None other than Kiefer Sutherland, dressed in black! The "24" star acknowledged what a treat it was to come across other English speakers, then vanished in the night.

Sutherland is shooting a remake of a Korean horror movie called "Into the Mirror." For more Romanian experiences that give you the willies, we recommend the Hotel Lebada, a former Roman fortress and prison located on the spooky St. Pantelimon Island. Most people looking to get freaked out in the region will head for the Carpathian mountains on tours like Haunted Attraction Magazine's Dracula tour or the Company of Mysterious Journeys. Maybe next season on "24," Jack will hunt down and kill the descendants of Dracula!

Related Stories:
· Romania Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Lycos 50 Blog]]]> egw 2007-06-21T08:51:19-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/