Dracula country

I arrived in Romania after a short overnight journey with my three down under friends and we went our separate ways. I decided that I didn't need to see Bucharest or Brasov again (even though it PROBABLY is the best city in the world) and so I headed to the adorable town of Sighisoara, which is the actual (maybe) birthplace of Vlad the Impaler (Dracula). Despite this, it is a lovely town with a citadel and old town square and nine towers on the city wall. I sat in the square people watching and reading and took what turned out to be a private walking tour led by two high school students that reminded me a lot of my kids in Albania. The tour was organized by a Christian charity (veritas.ro) that helps the people of the region and also runs a restaurant and a community center. Although obviously the tour is geared towards foreigners (it is in English) I thought it actually showed a great example of how a community could sustainably support the work of a charity. It also gave the kids something worthwhile to do in the summer and a chance for them to meet lots of people and practice English.

I had been in contact with some PCVs in Romania and had originally planned on going to the Danube river delta next. It turns out that because of all that rain keeping me from going to the beach, the delta area was flooded and not very accessible. I had gotten two responses from volunteers around the city of Iasi (pronounced yash) that turned out to be sitemates so I went to visit them. Jenn and Becca were awesome. We cooked Mexican food (my tortilla making skills coming in handy) and Jenn and I went into Iasi to shop and visit the botanic gardens there and make fun of Eastern European fashion. Of course since I wasn't near any sea, it was crazy hot and didn't rain. . . Iasi was also a perfect place to jump off to Moldova and Ukraine as it is right on the Moldovan border. I left Romania after too short a time, but the trip must go on!

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Probably the Best City in the World

Probably the best City in the world. This is (no joke) the motto of Brasov, a town in the Transylvania region of Romania. It is on every umbrella at all the cafes and restaurants downtown. Seriously, I can just imagine someone coming up with that, "Well, we haven't been to every other city in the world, so we can't really say 'The best city in the world, period', but we've been a lot of places and none of them were as good as here, so we can say 'Probably the best city in the world' until someone proves us wrong . . .

Anyway, Brasov is a pretty cool place, but I don't know if I was there long enough to really be sure of it's supremacy over every other place that I've been (I'm particularly partial to Prague myself, but that's just me . . . ). The town center is full of beautiful buildings and there is a slightly out of place giant Hollywood-esque sign on the side of the hill (just in case you forgot where you were?).

We actually didn't spend too much time in Brasov itself (except Amanda who decided that castles were not her thing and had an adventure with a red scooter . . . ) rather we used it as a base to see a bit more of the region and the castles that this part of Romania is famous for. The fairy tale tourets of Bran Castle harken back to princesses as much as Dracula and I'm all in favor of the former. The only mention of the famous literary biter was in an upstairs room talking about how the castle actually had nothing to do with the historical Vlad Tepes or the fictional Dracula at all except that maybe Bram Stoker may have based his description of Dracula's castle on Bran. What the castle did have, however was a lot of information about the Romanian royal family (who had most recently used it as a country home) and some pretty great views.

The next day, on our way back to Bucarest, we stopped in Sinai and explored another fantastic castle- this one much more royal palace than quaint country home. It seemed that every room we went into was more lavishly decorated than the one before (and it's no wonder that they charged a whole lot extra to take pictures!). Based soley on this and the Parliment I would have to say that the Romanians are skilled interior decorators . . . they take their palaces seriously!

Leaving Romania, we had a truly unpleaseant train ride to Sofia (lights on all night, loud, cold, uncomfortable seats . . . ) and arrived in Bulgaria to a rainy day. We had planned to spend the day exploring Sofia, but after the bad train ride and the rain, we decided to get the earliest possible oppourtunity back to Macedonia. As we crossed this last border, I realized that in just under two weeks I had completly crossed through Bulgaria three times (and had the 6 passport stamps to prove it) without stopping for more than a quick meal. I guess I've technically been to Bulgaria now but I think I might have to go back as I didn't actually see a thing.

Overnight train and Bucharest in a hurry

After doing everything possible in Istanbul (ok, not really, but everything that was possible to do in four days) we hopped on an overnight train to Bucharest, Romania. After a very short (ha ha!) 20 hours on train and two more border crossings (across Bulgaria again) we arrived in Bucharest in the evening. The next morning we got an early start since we only had one day planned to see the Romanian capital. We were told by our hostel that to see the Parliament Palace we would need an appointment and they were kind enough to call for us. The earliest appointment available was apparently noon, so we decided to head over to the recommended Village Museum first. I probably could have stayed at the Village Museum for days. A really unique concept, starting in 1936, they moved typical houses from villages in different regions of the country or rebuilt replicas of the houses. The houses are filled with traditional clothing and furniture and there is staff that makes traditional crafts with kids who come (basically a living history museum) that you could then buy from the artisans. I really wanted to stay all day and make dolls and clay pots with the summer camp kids, but unfortunately we had an appointment to make at the Parliament. The Parliament building happens to be across town from the other museum and we only gave ourselves about an hour to get there. Even taking the metro (oh, metro! oh, advanced transportation!) we had to walk quite a ways (or run) because the metro stop was not really close to the entrance. Even with running we were late for our appointment, but it turns out that it didn’t really matter because there was a tour that we could join leaving at 12:30 . . . oh, well, we got our aerobic exercise for the day.

The Parliament building was kind of crazy. It is the biggest (not tallest) building in Europe, the second biggest in the world (after the Pentagon). It cost something like 6 billion dollars to build, but no one really knows how much it cost because they didn’t really keep track. Everything inside was made in Romania, including the most ridiculous woodwork, marble work, chandeliers and carpets that I’ve even seen. It was probably the most decadent building that I’ve ever seen. After a (rushed) tour we headed back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and get the afternoon train to Brasov. Again we rushed and barely caught the crowded (hot) train. When I found my seat and finally stopped rushing, I realized that I had left my pocket knife behind at the Parliament building (apparently you can't take a knife into public buildings . . .who knew?). But winning the award for the nicest person I have ever travelled with, my new friend Melissa gifted me her barely used leatherman tool to replace my lost knife since she is leaving PC in a few months and I have another year to go (plus adventures after). Thanks Melissa!

Up next: Transylvania- more than just Dracula!