Weekend in Transylvania

Views from my room at the Vila Bran

Trent, Trevor, and I: the three Musketeers or the three Stooges?

Right now I'm sitting at a table upstairs in the restaurant at Vila Bran. It's pouring down rain outside (I sure wish we were getting this rain at home!) so everyone has come in from the patios to have drinks and appetizers. It's a beautiful place. It's like stepping into the movie The Sound of Music. I'll upload pictures soon; I brought my camera with me but forgot the cord, and there's no way I'm walking out into the rain to get it!

We arrived at the Vila Bran last night around 8:00, checked in, had dinner, and enjoyed a terrific night's sleep on hard beds with soft pillows. I do miss my sheets! Here instead of a sheet you get something like a duvet, which is a little too warm to sleep under (no ac here; we have ac in Tutova, but I think it cuts off sometime around midnight and doesn't cut back on until about 5:00 in the morning). We're in the Carpathians, so the air is cool and crisp in the mornings and evenings. It gets hot during the day, and the sun seems to burn more brightly here. Sunscreen doesn't seem to help much.

We visited the Black Church, which got its name from a fire that nearly destroyed it and blackened its walls. It is filled with priceless oriental rugs; merchants gave them to the church as an offering thanking God for safe passage to and from the Orient. It is a Lutheran church, and the back of the pew can be moved so the congregation can either sit facing the alter or facing the most incredible organ I've ever seen. It's also filled with beautiful paintings that were donated to the church by wealthy congregants over the years. No pictures can be taken inside to preserve the building, but I took a some video of the outside from far away. The church is enormous, impressive, and the sense of history and tradition pervades it.

We can see Bran Castle from where we're staying!

After shopping and lunch in Brasov, we headed back to Bran to visit Bran Castle. Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) never actually lived there; supposedly he spent a few nights imprisoned there. Queen Marie was the last to live there; she redesigned it in the 1920s and she gave the castle to the Romanian people at her death. I asked our guide about the crumbling foundation; he said that all the money from tourism goes to pay the people who work there and that there is no money for foundation repair. Will the castle crumble? Perhaps it will one day, especially since there are earthquakes here (but few big ones). I was surprised at what a tourist attraction it is (why, I don't know). The castle itself was packed, as were the stalls that lined the streets around it. It reminded me of shopping in Playa Del Carmen. A lot of useless, cheap trinkets and few real treasures, but fun to browse. We brought this incredible sweet bread there. The dough is twisted around a long wooden spindle and the spindle is rotated over a hot fire and I'm pretty sure it's basted with butter and sugar while it's being cooked. They pull it off the spindle and serve it hot. I need to ask someone what it is called again; it was absolutely delicious. Of course, one spindle can feed 8 people, I think!

The courtyard at Peles Castle; Below, Lila and I are standing by the foreign tourists sign. Tours are conducted in English, French, and Romanian.

Peles Castle was the summer home of King Carol and his wife, Queen Elizabeth. The first and second floors can be toured, but our group only toured this first floor. Like Bran Castle, Peles Castle was packed with Romanian and foreign tourists. To me, it's not really a castle--it looks more like an English manor. But it is beautiful, filled with hand-crafted German mahogany furniture, chandeliers decorated with Morano glass, huge priceless mirrors, and King Carol's vast collection of armor. There is even a full suit of armor for horse and rider. I didn't take pictures inside because you had to pay a fee (I was running out of lei by then) but also because we were taking the tour with such a large group of people and I didn't think I would have much of an opportunity to take good pictures. Also, it is very dark in there. This is the first modernized "castle" complete with electricity, lights, steam heat and an elevator. The dining room was especially beautiful; the mahogany table seats 18 and it set with that beautiful hand-painted blue and white German china. There is even a theater with "stadium seating;" of course, their theater performances would have been live.

We walked around Sibiu after the tour while some of our group members rode the cable car down the mountain. I chose not to do that, and I'm glad I didn't. I was afraid that my fear of tight, confined spaces and my fear of heights would make this an unpleasant experience, and those who went confirmed that those were the conditions. The cars were packed with tourists and they swayed in the wind, so I'm glad I kept both feet on the ground.

The ten hour drive has taken a toll on my body, though. Many of the roads we've traveled have been quite good, but a few stretches of road were terrible. It didn't help that we had a crazy driver. Halim has no fear. He is the typical Romanian driver--he constantly takes risks. If he's not passing or driving excessively fast and honking through small towns, he's not happy. And if a Russian truck happens to be in front of us? He won't rest until he's left it in the dust. I had to sit in the back of the bus on the way home, and there were a few times I thought I'd lose my lunch. Several times I bounced high out of my seat--the shocks were shot. But we made it back to Tutova in one piece, tired but thrilled to have seen the medieval, magical countryside of Transylvania.