Last week, I wrote a post about some affordable countries in Europe that you may not have considered traveling to. One of those was Romania — one of my favorite countries I've been to in Europe so far. Writing that post got me to thinking about my time in Eastern Europe last summer; it was difficult for me not to add other countries like Hungary and Bulgaria to that post, because I loved them, too.
Eastern Europe has been a fascinating part of the world to me for quite some time, and getting the chance to explore a bit of it for a few weeks last summer only solidified for me how underrated and awesome it is.
Today, therefore, I wanted to share with you some highlights of my time in Eastern Europe — in postcard form.
Hungary
In Hungary, I fell in love with the Budapest, was charmed by the small town of Eger, and had a fleeting glimpse of colorful Debrecen.
Romania
Romania took me by surprise and made me fall in love with it almost immediately. From the rolling farmland and wooden churches in Maramures, to colorful towns like Sighisoara and Brasov, to tiny villages like Viscri, I was captivated by it all.
Bulgaria
Of these countries, Bulgaria was perhaps the most surprising to me. From the mountains to the Roman ruins to the amazingly friendly locals, Bulgaria had much more to offer than I originally anticipated.
Alrighty, who's ready to book a trip to Eastern Europe now? I'm ready to go back.
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Which postcard is your favorite?
Forgive what may be very well be an obvious answer, but how did you achieve the postcard look, photo editing software? I take photos but I don’t mess with them once I’m finished although I love this look!
I actually just made these in Preview, which comes free on Macs. But you can achieve the same effect using any editing tool that allows you to draw a box shape on your photos!
I love your pictures from Budapest. I also fell in love with the city and it is one of my favorites.
Thank you! It’s probably one of my favorite cities in Europe, too.
I love the one from the monastery! Definitely my favourite.
Rila Monastery was so unbelievably pretty! One of the highlights of my trip.
If the purpose of this post is to stir up my travel bug, well, job well done. I’m in East Europe now and there are so many more places to go!
Get out there and explore some more then! 🙂
Dear Amanda,
If you will be able to visit again only one of these three countries, which one will be and why?
I would like to visit them all again! But Romania would probably be my top pick. It surprised me the most!
if you plan to come back to Romania, I also recomand you to visit Targu-Jiu, where the famous sculptural complex made by Brancusi lies and also the surrounding area, where there are loads of churches, villages with picturesque traditions and national costumes makers can be found and also the Danube Bank, with a spectacular view
Thanks for the suggestions! I definitely hope to return to Romania sometime.
Thank you for the beautiful words that you wrote about Romania. Thank you for the wonderful pictures of Romania that you have posted here. In all media I read only bad about Romania and I know that we are not so “black” as we “paint” journalists. Thank you, I, a Romanian woman, whose grandparents died waiting for the Americans to come and save us from Soviet occupation. And excuse my bad English. Actually I do not know English and use google translate. So, thank you, my dear Amanda, because we’ve seen so beautiful. Thank you and for you have visited my country. And you must know that we, romanians, well some of us, still waiting the Americans with open arms.
The outpouring of thanks from Romanians for visiting your country and writing this post about it has been amazing. I am more than happy to share my experiences from Romania – I really did love your country.
The Szimpla in Budapest is such a great pub! I’ve been there several times, it’s an old ruined house you can drink your beer in the rooms or on the gang, really cool and alternative atmosphere! And there is a pub called Szimpla in Berling (Germany) as well managed by the same team!
It’s a very fun and quirky place! I’m not much for pubs, but I did go inside Szimpla just because it looked so cool from the outside. The inside definitely didn’t disappoint!
Beautiful postcards. I really would love to go back to Europe and explore it more, Romania is very high on my “must visit” list.
As it should be! Romania is great. And SO pretty.
I’m definitely ready! Would love to visit Eastern Europe especially Romania, Slovenia and Bulgaria. You’re pictures are truly amazing and should be postcards for sure as they sell the country very well.
Aww, thanks for the kind words, Debbie!
Beautiful absolutely gorgeous photos all of them! If this is what the micro 4/3 cameras are capable of (and you have taken some awesome shots and great angles) I’m convinced the switch from dslr is a worthy one ! Such vibrant colors!
Yup, these were all taken with the Olympus E-PM1, which is what I traveled with all last year. Most people can’t tell the difference between these and DSLR shots!
My favorite thing about postcards (way back before the internet was super amazing) was that you could take a look at where might be interesting to go, and then go there. I’d stroll by the tourist shops in each train station and take a look at where to go from the pretty pictures.
That actually sounds like a great approach!
This is such a clever idea! I especially love the Merry Cemetery and Sofia postcards. It looks like you had amazing weather while you were in Eastern Europe — all that sun-drenched countryside is gorgeous!
Yup, we had tons of sun – though I don’t know that I would always call the extreme heat “amazing”! 😉 Definitely great for photos, though. Glad you liked the postcards!
what a lovely pictures! in case you are ever back – at least one fan of your blog is here:-)
Good to know! 🙂
Beautiful photos! I also fell in love with Budapest the first time I visited and can’t wait to explore the rest of this fascinating region!
Budapest is so amazing! I really need to go back. Maybe I’ll have to fit it into my trip to Europe this summer!