Romania

Romania  

Saturday 26th July

Another holiday that started with an all-nighter!!! We got the bus from Stockwell underground station to Victoria train station at 2am, and had to change because some drunk man peed on the top deck. We got the coach from Victoria coach station to Stansted airport at 3am which took longer to get there than advertised; a coach before us had been delayed so our driver was really stressed and kept having arguments with people who wanted to get on with later tickets...it was all a bit unnecessarily stressful. We got there at 4.45am and our flight took off at 6.25am. I managed to sleep a bit on the 3 hour flight, but experienced that feeling of panic when you are so tired you feel ill but know you wont ever be comfortable enough to sleep. 

We arrived at Bucharest airport at 11:30am Romanian time. We had a coffee (very overpriced but needed) and sat outside and realised how hot it was. We then bought a bus ticket to the central station, and it looked exactly like the set-up at Athens airport. We had to validate our ticket and some old lady hadn't don't hers properly so got fined. By luck I had done mine properly but it was guesswork. We arrived at the central station and walked to our hotel which is nearby but took a while to find. The room is huge with a lounge, kitchenette, really nice bathroom and separate bedroom with A/C. 

 

The airport bus

 

We went exploring pretty quickly, as we knew there was a danger of us falling asleep and never waking up! We had lunch (a falafel wrap) in a fast food place in the station and booked our train tickets to Brasov (6pm tomorrow). Then we headed in to explore some of the squares and old city. I think we walked the back route as it smelled horrid, like stale urine, and the buildings were decrepit but there was the occasional really beautiful ornate colonial-style building. Obviously communist systematization and the subsequent revolution have had a massive impact on the city. 

Decrepit buildings, but the potential was there...

 

After a bit of confusion, we found the squares we were looking for with their respective historic interests: the site of the revolution, the communist headquarters, the national art gallery, a very impressive bank, and lots of tiny beautiful churches tucked in between these more imposing sights. I found it quite ironic how there was a MacDonald's sign juxtaposed with the communist headquarters and monument to the revolution.

An ironic use of space...

Beautiful frescos

The bank

 

We found the old town and it was really pretty with little squares and outdoor eating places and ornate buildings. We had a beer at one, and ate at another. We had fresh bread, Romanian bean stew, mushroom stew with polenta, very root salad with grated horseradish and house salad, and wine and water and it was about £8 each. Not dirt cheap (like lunch was) but it had been hard to find authentic veggie food and for what we had, the setting and the service it was good and just what we needed! We were dead on our feet by then : lack of sleep and loads of walking and the heat. 

I was knackered

We found authentic veggie food :)

 

An impromptu find








On our walk back we came across an open air concert in University Square and sat and watched a quartet playing among an audience of people in plastic chairs. We thought we should head back before it got dark though and so walked back to our hotel - a long trek which nearly tipped me over the edge as I was suddenly so exhausted. 



Sunday 27th 

Today has been really good :) we made breakfast in our hotel (porridge and coffee with no means of filter so we had to stop for a coffee on our way to the museum) and then walked towards a huge park called park Herastrau via a museum of peasant life. This was quite good with lots of icons, painted eggs (we discovered these during Easter in Kefalonia!) and clothes but it lacked explanation. There was an outdoor market behind the museum where my mum bought a t-shirt and we had some lunch cooked at a stall - little fish with garlic sauce and some tasty mushrooms (again the selection was very meat heavy). The set up reminded me of the set up in those German markets.  

Meat lovers heaven!

 

We then walked onto the park which was beautiful. The main avenue up to it was partially closed for people to play sports and there were loads of badminton nets and bats and balls etc and families out playing. At the end of the avenue was the Arc de Triumph (under renovation so covered by a giant picture of it!). The park was huge with a massive lake and pedalos and the Museum of village life was in it. This was a bit like the Black Country museum in that you could wander around loads of c18th villiage houses, water mills, looms and churches. They had all once been lived in but brought to the museum from villages all over Romania. They were all very alpine in appearance and feel, but my favourite were the sunken houses: houses half sunk in the ground to keep them cool in summer and warm in winter and also for protection against invaders. Brilliant idea! 

Half - buried houses

 

My mum got locked in the toilet...properly locked in and had to climb over the top in a panic it was hilarious after and we kept walking along laughing out loud whenever we both thought about it...post -event nervous hysteria!!

I'm writing this sat in a coffee and we've just had Ice cream - so needed as its so hot and wearisome walking around. We're getting the train at 6pm to Brasov so are just about to pick our bags up from the hotel. 

We got the train after having a falafel wrap in the Romanian equivalent of MacDonalds. It left a bit late but made up time. It was a proper old-school train and the carriages were little 6-people compartments like in the Harry Potter films! 

Waiting for the train

 

I had a horrid old Romanian woman next to me who started off the 3hour journey by producing a smelly
Picnic of smoked ham, 4 giant tomatoes and a loaf of bread...and then proceeded to lift up her t-shirt to reveal a saggy belly and strap some kind of back support on (which she felt the need to explain to me in Romanian even though I'd made it clear I did NOT speak Romanian). She tried to strike up conversation, and persisted even when I just started blankly at her, but then she got annoyed and started muttering something about me!! She encroached onto my personal space and when I went to the loo I came back to find my bag moved and her lying across 2 seats with her head practically in mine and moaning and groaning about her back. Hmph. 

The views from the train weren't particularly remarkable until near the end when got into the mountains which were stunning. Everything was really alpine and the towns were largely out-of-season ski resorts, and the houses were not dissimilar to those we saw in today's museum of village life. The forests were very Transylvanian (in my mind the word Transylvania conjurers up images of dense, green forests of pointed evergreens cloaking imposing mountains and interspersed with the occasional castle...take away the castles and this was the view).

It warm here still, even though we're in the mountains and it was 9pm when we arrived. We got a taxi to our hotel and the driver offered to take us to Bran (where Draculas castle is) via another cool place I've forgotten the name of so we arranged to be picked up tomorrow from our hotel. I'm looking forward to seeing where Vlad the Impaler lived (aka Dracula). Did you know he impaled people through their rectum?!

We walked into the centre which is about 15 mins from our hotel and shared a piece of mushroom pizza and had a half carafe of wine in a courtyard restaurant. It's midnight here now so I should go to bed!!! 

Monday 28th 

We had coffee and breakfast in the hotel (negotiating bread and jam was a mission, as we didn't want the weird cooked set menus they had, and I went a step too far when I asked for butter as I think they went and bought some and then produced it when we had finished!) Our taxi man came at 10am as agreed and drove us to Rasov to see the fort. We drove along a very flat plain surrounded by forest cloaked mountains, and saw the fort perched in a rocky outcrop from the road. Rasov had a Hollywood style sign embedded in the cliffs just like Brasov! 

The fort was worth a visit. We got a little train up and then paid a small entrance fee and wandered around. 

The train up to the fort

The fort

 

It was basically a ruined village inside fortified walls, with windy marrow streets and little houses. There were people dressed up and stalls selling medieval memorabilia. When we had finished we bought a basket full of blackberries and raspberries from a little stall - yum.

 

We walked down and the drive to Bran to see Draculas Castle. It looked just as I imagined - grey and imposing, surrounded by trees, but was closer to the town than I thought. Our taxi driver managed to get us tickets and jump the queue, but the castle was packed inside as we coincided with a coach party. There were bottlenecks at all of the narrow staircases and passages. It was really pretty inside, and seemed a lot more homely than Scottish and English castles, I can't put my finger on why.  

Bran castle

 

Apparently Bran castle was the castle that inspired the book 'Dracula' which was based on (allegedly and only to some degree) Vlad the Impaler. In the courtyard there was a large pair of scales where they weighed people who they suspected of being vampires; if they were lighter than they were estimated to be (and this weight of stones was placed in one end) then they were a vampire! People used to come and get weighed to get a pass to say they weren't a vampire. There were explanations of how vampires originate and their place in Romanian mythology: 

Romanian vampires were known as moroi ( from the Romanian word "mort" meaning "dead" or the Slavic word meaning "nightmare") and strigoi with the latter classified as either living or dead. Live strigoi were described as living witches with two hearts or souls, sometimes both. Strigoi were said to have the ability to send out their souls at night to meet with other strigoi and consume the blood of livestock and neighbours. Similarly, dead strigoi were described as reanimated corpses that also sucked blood and attacked their living family. Live strigoi became revenants after their death, but there were also many other ways of a person becoming a vampire. A person born with a caul, an extra nipple, a tail, or extra hair was doomed to become a vampire. The same fate applied to the seventh child in any family if all of his or her previous siblings were of the same sex, as well as someone born too early or someone whose mother had encountered a black cat crossing her path. If a pregnant woman did not eat salt or was looked upon by a vampire or a witch, her child would also become a vampire. So too would a child born out of wedlock. Others who were at risk of becoming vampires were those who died an unnatural death or before baptism. Finally, a person with red hair and blue eyes was seen as a potential strigoi.

Romanian vampires were said to bite their victims over the heart or between the eyes, and sudden deaths could indicate the presence of a vampire. Graves were often opened five or seven years after burial and the corpse checked for vampirism, before being washed and reburied.

Among the Romanians, mullo (literally one who is dead) are believed to return from the dead and cause malicious acts as well as drink human blood, most often that of a relative or the person who had caused their death. Other potential victims were those who did not properly observe the burial ceremonies or kept the deceased's possessions instead of properly destroying them. Female vampires could return, lead a normal life and even marry but would eventually exhaust the husband with their sexual appetite. Similar to other European beliefs, male vampires could father children, known as dhampires, who could be hired to detect and get rid of vampires.

 Anyone who had a horrible appearance, was missing a finger, or had appendages similar to those of an animal was believed to be a vampire. A person who died alone and unseen would become a vampire, likewise if a corpse swelled or turned black before burial. Dogs, cats, plants or even agricultural tools could become vampires; pumpkins or melons kept in the house too long would start to move, make noises or show blood. According to the late Serbian ethnologist Tatomir Vukanovic, Roma people in Kosovo believed that vampires were invisible to most people, but could be seen by a twin brother and sister born on a Saturday who wore their clothes inside out. Likewise, a settlement could be protected by finding twins who could also see the vampire outdoors at night, who would have to flee immediately after they spotted it.

 

We then wandered around the market in Bran, and had a corn in the cob and a cinnamon but bread which was good. 

Brasov market

 

We returned to Brasov at about 2:30 and tried to visit the Black Church (supposed to be very pretty inside) but it was closed. So we went to suss out the cable car and found it was open. It was a very short trip to the top of Mount Tampa but we got spectacular views of Brasov and the surrounding area.

 

The view of Brasov

 

We walked back down which took a while, through the forest, but was enjoyable. 

We stopped for a coffee at a cafe by the cable car station and at 6pm did a free walking tour of Brasov. It lasted 2 and a half hours and took us to parts of the town we wouldn't have been and told us some really cool facts:

The citadel

 

The citadel was built by the Germans and was surrounded by 3 layers of walls. The Hungarians and Romanians lived outside (which was the same in the rest of Romania). 

During the Communist period, the main square was a parking place to discourage socialising. But there was a concert festival held there until 2009. International artists were allowed in which was special for Romanians, as otherwise they were closed from the outside world.

The Town hall was built in 1420. Brasov was originally called 'Brasso' and was renamed Kronstandt by the Germans (meaning city of the crown beccause they thought it was shaped like one). This is why the town's symbol is a crown on a blue flag. It was changed back to Brasov probably at unification?  Every day at 12pm and 6pm trumpeters in traditional dress still play German, Romanian and Hungarian music as these were the 3 nationalities in the area when the tradition began. (note: we stood in the swaure just before 12pm and failed to see this....but we think we saw some people in authentic looking costumes marching away just after 6, but didn't hear anything!)

The Black Church: was initially named St Mary's church because she was loved by the people when it was built. There is a statue of Mary on one corner with a crown at her feet (the symbol of the city).  It was built between 1385 and 1477 and can hold 5000 people (Brasov only had a population of 2000 when it was finished!). It was built so big to make a statement, as Muslims were their neighbours who they fought against. The church has one of the biggest organs in Europe and there are concerts played regularly by a Russian family (who are the only people allowed to play it). It also has one of the biggest bells. 

Because of a fire in 1689 which burned the city, the church turned black - so it was renamed the Black Church.  There is a statue of a little boy hanging off the edge of the roof. The story is he was very curious about how the church was built, so one day he secretly looked at the architects plans. The architect saw him, and was scared the boy would reveal his secrets, so made him go up to the roof and pushed him off! The buy died....the statue is a memorial as Romanians think you need both death and life to make a building. This belief stems from a tale that goes like this: an architects work kept falling down at night, and this was a big problem, but one night he had a dream saying he needed a human sacrifice to stop this from happening. It was agreed that the first wife to appear would be sacrificed. Unsurprisingly, it was the architects wife who appeared and was told she needed to be a model for a statue in the wall...but she soon realised she was being actually being welded to it and wouldn't get out!! Apparently, she realised her death was 'necessary' and that's how this belief - that death is needed in a building - came about.  Today some Romanians still sacrifice an animal when they build a new house. 

The second tower of the church is missing because of the fire, and they had money only to rebuild one. The church has a large collection of Muslim carpets gained through donations by traders to the church.  The 'Black Madonna' painting is significant to the people as after the fire, it is said that her dress turned black but her face stayed white, which is a miracle (although to  me it looks painted, and also the rest of the painting looked unscathed too...maybe we were looking at the wrong thing? But if we were it certainly wasn't obvious where this special paitning was and there were no postcards at the entrance to confirm what we were supposed to be looking at.) The holes in the wall of the church were made in 1999 by scaffolding during repairs!  

Statue of Honterus (1498-1594)

Statue of Honterus: 1498-1549. This prolific man built the first elementary school in Romania for the German inhabitants (the Romanians built the first Romanian school outside the citadel). In the statue, Honterus is pointing to the school opposite. He also commissioned a printing press and a library. AND he switched the German community in Brasov to Lutheran just through teaching and educating them (no crusades!). As if this wasn't enough, he was also the first person to write about cosmology in verses to make it easy to learn, and this method was spread across the world.  LAD.

This narrow street may seem fairly innocuous, but it has a story (we might have guessed!)It was a shortcut, and was built for the width of a man carrying 2 buckets - for firefighting. There used to be loads of these 'shortcuts' but they have been closed up and this is the one that survives. The locals are very proud of it and emphasise that it is an actual 'street,' so you must obey the rules of left and right. 

The narrowest 'street' in Brasov

Now, onto the ubiquitous topic of Dracula: the book by Bram Stoker that was based on Vlad the Impaler. Have you ever wanted to know how to impale? Well, the technique involves putting a sharp pole up the anus and lifting the prisoner up. Under his own weight he slowly goes down the pole until it comes out through head/neck. Important organs were avoided as impaling was meant to keep the person alive for several days. Vlad impaled over 20,000 people during his 6 years as ruler of Wallachia. When he came to visit his mistress Katerina in Brasov, he wanted to avoid the 20% tax and 3 day trading rule imposed by the Germans. So, naturally, he just  planned to impale some people! However, Katerina was captured and so Vlad let the captured Germans go and negotiated with them (this apparently was rare for Vlad...). St Andrews night is a second Halloween for Romanians; they put up garlic everywhere to keep out the vampires. 

Union square: there is a union square in every city in Romania. On the first Sunday after Easter young men ride into the citadel from the square and out again to symbolise it is now free for Romanians.  A dance is performed by all called the Horar - 4 steps forward 4 steps back. It is danced for hours at weddings. 

 

Random facts:

 

- The Cyrillic alphabet was used in Romani until 1850. They switched to Latin because of the importance of the Romans in their history. There is also a Slavic influence in the language which explains the weird sounds.  

- Hollywood sign - used to be different. In 1950-1960 'Stalin' made out of different coloured trees because the communists called Brasov 'Brasov-Stalin.' The locals say Brasov was chosen for this 'privilege' over Sibiu because Sibiu was famous for its sausage and you couldn't all the sausage Stalin sausage!!  

- Brasov voted most romantic city in Romania.

- In Transylvania, a building which has four little towers with one big tower in  means the town can apply the death penalty (by axe or you could pay for the sword which was cleaner). The last execution was communist leader and the law lasted until 1991.  

- The first operetta was performed here and the jingle used before announcements in the Brasov train station is from this operetta.    

- Transylvania means over the mountains.

After the tour, we went to a really nice restaurant where we sat outside and shared a bottle of wine and had fresh bread, starters of these mini vegetable epanadas topped with yogurt and with a yogurt dip, and little bruschetta a topped with aubergine pâté and smoked cheese. Then we had trout baked in a salt crust (which I didn't realise you weren't supposed to eat and took a bite and it was so salty!!!) with polenta and grilled veg and potato wedges. 

Fish in salt crust (the pastry stuff)  and polenta

It started raining just before we walked back, and the walk home along the pavements in the warm but wet night reminded me of England!!! It must be the German influence...    

Tuesday 29th 

 

Oh dear, we overslept today :/ woke up at 9:30 so luckily not a disaster!! We checked out, then walked the 20 minutes into the town center where we had a coffee and cinnamon bun and then went into the Black Church. We were told what to look out for on our walking tour yesterday and saw the Muslim rugs and the 'miracle' painting of Mary (it was supposed to have been damaged in the fire but apparently only her dress was turned black....it looked painted to me. Maybe is was a propaganda thing, or maybe we were looking at the wrong thing!!) the organ - one of the biggest in south Eastern Europe - was impressive. 

We then tried to see the Hungarian, German and Romanian fanfares be played at 12pm as we were told they would be but nothing happened. Instead my mum went for a coffee and I went to buy her a birthday present and we then walked back to the hotel and picked up our bags and got a taxi to the station. We were able to get an earlier train (2pm). It was a lot more basic than the last one we got from Bucharest, with bench-like seats and open doors. Most of the 'stations' it stopped at didn't have stations and people just got off onto the tracks!!! 

A lot of the countryside was pretty unpopulated, with huge fields of sunflowers in bloom and corn, and the occasional ramshackle farm. There was always a backdrop of forest with pointy trees that one would associate with Transylvania. 

We arrived in Sighisoara at 4:50pm and our hotel is right next to the station (except we went the wrong way initially so this novelty did not have its full impact!!!) The room is nice, with 2 single beds and a good bathroom and a communal kitchen. We went to explore Sighisoara, the old town is about a 20 min walk.

The old citadel is up a hill with cobbled streets and a huge beautiful bell tower as the main entrance. It is bordered by several towers, each representing the guild which sponsored it.

 

We decided to walk into the new town to suss out the bus stop to Taga Mures which is a Hungarian town 55km by bus which we may go to tomorrow. We found a supermarket and bough some 'Brummy' crisps (like Pombears) and chocolate which was called 'Rom' chocolate (but instead of being Romanian, it was flavoured with rum!!) 

We then walked back up to the citadel and had a drink (a carafe of local house wine) in the square sat outside, and then had dinner in a restaurant just below the citadel. We had bean soup in a bowl made out of bread, bruschetta with cheese, and sautéed mushrooms and vegetables, and some really good local wine..all for a tenner!!! 

The walk back (via a supermarket to get some chocolate which turned out to be coconut flavoured white choc wafer...) was a bit dark but we got back in the end despite getting a bit lost. Tomorrow is going to be an early start because we want to Catch the bus to Targa Mures as well as look around Sighisoara.  

Wednesday 30th 

We got up on time today, and were out by our planned time of 8:15am. We went to the train station first to buy our ticket to Sibiu - we have got a 5am train so we have a full day sightseeing. We then went and had a coffee at a cafe opposite to charge out batteries, and then headed to the old town. It takes about 20 mins to walk in and the old town is up on a hill incased by the old citadel. After some bogging about trying to find the tourist information which was closed, we retraced our footsteps into the new town (which we sussed out yesterday) to explore the market. It was just a food market, not the Wednesday craft market that the guidebook had promised, but was fun to look around a see all the locals buying their produce. A lot of the women here seem to wear headdresses and loose dresses, just as you would expect a Romanian peasant woman to look like. 

We then went to the supermarket and bought some breakfast (yoghurt and cereal yay!) and sat on a bench waiting for the bus to Targu Mures which is 55km from Sigisoara and is more Hungarian. 

 

Well, the bus didn't come but a 'maxi taxi' whizzed past (a minivan) and we weren't quick enough to flag it down. So we perched on a curb by the bus stop ready to pounce on the next minivan that appeared. One eventually came, but I had asked a taxi driver how much it would cost there and back just in case (£40) and was weighing up how much I wanted to go. The minivan was about £2.50 each and we sat in the front as it was full. 

The drive itself was an experience, just to see the women in their traditional Romanian dress get on and off and going about their daily business. We drove through countryside, which is sparsely populated with a few farm buildings and lots of hay-mounds and fields of corn and sunflowers. We also saw a few horse and carts pulling grass to make hay. We also drove past a house with a model stalks nest and stalk on top, which apparently is some Romanian custom.

It took just under 1 hour to get to Targu Mures. We walked into the main town via a cafe to have a caffeine boost. The main town was beautiful and my mum said it reminded her of Budapest. There was a huge Cultural Palace with a beautiful coloured tiled roof, and wide boulevards and an amazing clock made out flower beds that worked! The Orthodox Basilica was spectacular inside, with every inch of its walls and ceilings painted with bright coloured murals, and it was all cast in a yellowish light because of the yellow stained glass windows. 

We walked up to the old citadel which was being renovated and excavated so we were walking in a building sight but still got the feel if what it would have looked like inside the fort. We also walked to St Peters church which was a small church made entirely of wood and was beautiful and really charming. There was a huge cemetery, and a lot of the gravestones had the husbands/wife's name already on it with a space for the date they die! Morbid.

Went back to the main square and had some lunch. We bought bits and pieces from several bakeries along the street; a bread roll filled with some sort of fried onion mix, a spinach quiche, I had an ice cream and mummy had fresh orange juice. 

We then waited for the maxi taxi to take us back to Sigisoara. It stopped in a slighty different place than the guidebook says - further up the street. I opened the window and some old lady shut it saying she had an 'illness' and I opened it again only a little but trying to say can we compromise, and she hit me on the head and shut it again!! I was really annoyed and as mummy said, no illness is made worse by a breeze (and she was obviously fine to walk along the street) but you can get ill from heat!!! She muttered and moaned and I think the Romanian men around us told her to shut up and that she shouldn't have hit me. I'm glad they weren't on her side it's made me feel justified in my actions! 

We bought a booklet that told us about the citadel and old town and did our own walking tour. The old town is one of the prettiest places I have ever been I think. It is almost fairy tale like, with crooked houses spreading up and down narrow cobbled streets and the tiles on the buildings look like dragons scales. Looking down from the top of the clock tower, the view is quite pointy, with all the church spires and pointed ornate rooves. We saw all of the towers which were built by each of the guilds to guard the citadel and only one is still inhabited - by the caretaker of the graveyard. It looks like something out of Hansel and Gretel. We also walked up the scholars steps - a covered staircase that leads up to a church and a school dating back to 1522 (and probably earlier) and produced people like Hermann Oberth who was the theoretical founder of space travel. The 'graveyard on the hill' was very peaceful, but vast and had many different levels making it, again, a very attractive and magical place.  

It was still very hot at 6pm and we decided we had earned a well deserved drink in the square so we shared a carafe of wine. We were going to have dinner at the
same place as last night (Jo's Bar) but they were extremely rude to us so we went to the restaurant next door and had soup in bread (better than yesterday), calamari, tuna salad, mushrooms and grilled veg and 1/2 a litre of wine. We got so much food!  

 

Thursday 31st 

My alarm went off at 4am...we had a train at 5.03am. The only saving grace was the station was about a 2
min walk. It was still dark when we got the train, and we had to cross the train line to get to platform 3. 

 

A very early morning start...

 

The journey took about 2 hours with a slight delay at Medias where I was kept occupied by watching a protective father pack his daughter off on the train and trying to work out why he kept coming on and off the train and looking at his phone. When he finally left the station I felt confident the train would go...he was my point of reference for the status of the situation as there was no other information! 

We had to wait around a bit at Copa which was an industrial wasteland but a busy (but basic) station. 

 

We then got the train to Sibiu and arrived at 9am. We managed to buy our tickets to Bucharest for tomorrow via Sinai (to break up the journey) and its another early start. 

The appartment wasn't far from the station and is in the old town right by the old barracks. The only problem was we hadn't received the email from the man who owns it saying the room wouldn't be ready until 2pm. We rang him when we had found no. 16 (a rickety looking door) and he said he'd come and collect our bags and then we could check in later. So we had a coffee at the restaurant next door and waited. He came quickly and out our bags in his car.

We then went for a wander. Sibiu is like a hybrid of Brasov and Targu Mures, with the wide spacious squares, and Sigisoara with the quaint alleyways and hilly streets and maize-like areas. The old town is made up of 3 squares which makes it a bit confusing to navigate initially (or maybe it was because we were tired and the map we had was pretty shoddy) as you find yourself going around in circles a lot!  

We printed off our boarding passes in an Internet cafe which broke the bank at 0.45 lei (less than 10p) and then looked around the orthodox cathedral which, again, had beautiful painted murals from ceiling to floor and they were very colourful and defined. We also walked over the 'Liars Bridge' which will allegedly break if you tell a lie whilst standing on it!! The communist leader Ceausescu apparently stood on it but it didn't break....

Liars Bridge

 

We found a food market and bought fresh vegetables for lunch and some bread, and my mum wanted some mustard so added in a jar of mustard which we now have to carry around! We ate it in a park, which was very urban and not particularly pretty, and then went to meet the man to get the key for our apartment. It's nice, with a kitchen, and we had a bit of a nap to recharge our batteries before starting again. 

We decided to hit the museums, and to my delight my mum wanted to
go to an art gallery. I couldn't complain as she doesn't usually go in for them, and we have avoided them so far. We went into the European gallery and there were lots of dark, religious paintings. But there was a Van Eycks 'Man with a Blue Turban' and Peter Brueghels 'Massacre of the Innocents' which are apparently famous paintings (I've heard of Van Eyck but that's it). It was ok to potter around for an hour but I nearly flipped when my mum realised she was wearing her sunglasses in a darkened room so went around the whole room again with her normal glasses on!!!! 

 

We then went to find the pharmaceutical museum, which pays homage to the man who invented homeopathy (Samuel Hahnenann)and had a really cool collection of pharmaceutical paraphernalia dating back to the c15th, including old inhalers, surgical kits, and irrigator (?!) and the old medicines they used to sell. We were followed around by the very unwelcoming ticket lady and the security guard which was quite off putting. I've noticed in Romania even though the museums are generally pretty good and interesting, they don't seem particularly enthusiastic about you visiting and you often feel like saying 'sorry for being interested in your country!'

We then went up the clock tower which had several flights of wooden stairs, and paintings and photos of Sibiu on each floor. Then we sat in the square for a (long overdue and eagerly awaited) large glass of house wine-5 lei (£1) for a 200ml glass! We spied somewhere in Piaza Mica (the small square) for supper which has a good selection of interestingly looking veggie dishes such as mushroom stew, fish goulash, vegetable soufflé and polenta with cheese. 

Friday 1st August

Our last day in Romania! Another early start...a 6am train which meant a 5am alarm. But our apartment had a coffee maker and real coffee so we had some fuel before we left. I hadn't slept veg well because mummy snored....but I didn't feel too bad when I woke up. 

The train took 4 hours and the scenery was beautiful. Initially, there were thick cloaks of mist shrouding the fields which looked really eerie, and the sun was trying to shine its way milking through. I dozed off for a while and then gazed out at the mountains, and puzzled again at the random stops in the middle of nowhere! The train went faster at some points than yesterday's train, but there were still some points where it leisurely crawled along. It was quite relaxing really. We bought some raspberries and blackberries from a bit selling them in the train.

We got in to Sinaia just after 10am. 

Sinai is a ski resort town and is really alpine, with a steep mountain backdrop, and fresh mountain air. It felt slightly cooler even though the sky was brilliantly blue.

The main town was up a steep flight of steps from the train station, and was based along one main high street which had lots of big hotels - obviously built for skiers. There were lots of road works going on - I wonder if they do it every year because of snow and ice damage. 

We had a drink at a cafe by the park, and then went into the park which was really pretty and went up the side of a hill. We saw red squirrels! They are so dainty and pretty and nervous with little beady eyes and such pretty faces. 

A red squirrel!

 

We then walked through the park and up to the monastery. There are still monks living there and it was beautiful, with an old church and a bigger new church and lots of religious artefacts in a little museum. The place had a very tranquil feel to it. 

The monastery

 

We then walked up to see Peles castle - which was built to resemble a Bavarian schloss. It was stunning!! Really Transylvanian, emerging out of a clearing in the forest with pointy towers and dark wood. We didn't go in but walked around. 

Peles castle

 

On the way down we looked at the market stalls that lined the cobbled street, and bought a corn on the cob to share. On the way up we had bought some fresh walnuts which were really weird - they had the texture of (and initially tasted like) cabbage, but ten left a faint walnutty taste. We had kept them to dry!

Fresh walnuts

We had lunch in the park - bought some beans and tomatoes from the supermarket and used some more of our bread and mustard from yesterday. We then walked to investigate the cable car (which took us a while to find!) After much debate and counting of money, we decided to take it up (it was £6 each up and down). 

 

The view from the cable car

 

It was worth it as it the views on the way up in the mountains and Sinaia (including Peles castle) were spectacular, and it took us above the tree line to 1400m and we had a potter at the top. We walked up what we think is a ski slope in winter - it was scree and quite step so we didn't go ver far. But it was worth it for the views.

We got the cable car down and went to a market to buy some fruit and veg for a picnic supper (we are low on lei and have a long journey ahead of us and bread and mustard to use up!) and then we wandered around the park a bit more and went to the station. We tried to get a drink but the cafe didn't do alcohol or coffee. So we just killed an hour and a half on the platform. And I had a sudden panic about doing another all nighter and lack of sleep, and I think because one holiday is over it means one step closer to starting my job... 

The train took 3 hours and we ate raspberries and lemon wafers. We got the bus straight to the airport from Bucharest train st just so we knew we were there, and had a sad picnic of exactly what we had for lunch sat outside the airport. It's now 2:30am and hopefully we can drop our bags off soon as the flight is 5:30am. I tried to doze off but got really cold lying on the hard floor, so found an episode of Dragons Den that I had downloaded and that has amused me for the last hour. I just want these next 10 hours to be over (we arrive in Vilnius at 11:30am with a change in Riga).