Day 7 – Touring Brasov

We got in last night at 12:30am to our hotel in Brasov. It is quite nice, and right in the center of town.  We will take some pictures tomorrow (Tuesday) before we go.

After 4 showers and getting to bed it was 1:30 in the morning.  We did not want to waste the day here today, so we had Teo and Tunde pick us up at 9:30am.  We had breakfast at the hotel and it was fine.  Thank goodness for cocoa puffs.

Stop 1 on Brasov Tour:  We took a gondola ride up a mountain here in Brasov where there is also a ski slope.  It is about 6,000 feet up in total above Brasov.

 

Jack, Teo, and I all climbed up a small peak at the top and took some pictures.  (scott and jack standing on a post, teo taking pictures)

We set up the tripod and took a group picture.

 

 

Jack found slugs in a shell; we all called them snails, but they looked like slugs in a seashell.  He had them all named, and provided some good entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of interesting things here at the Gondola….

1.  Not really US safety standards….as we were getting in and heading up, a guy climbed up a rickety old wooden ladder with a can of grease in his hand.  He got on top of the car and somewhere along the way got off and put some grease on the mechanism….we did not see him again.

2. When we were coming back down, the car operator rang one of those old, like really old phones, that you crank?!?!?  He cranked it twice as if to signal, “We are ready” and then we got on our way.

3.  The same guy that rode in the car with us on the way down (the phone cranker guy), he took the last 3 of our tickets as we were leaving the turnstiles.  He held the turnstile for us and let us slip by and then seemed to put the tickets in the machine for us.  I thought he was being nice…Tunde said he was going to sell the tickets because they still had one ride left on them.  Upon hearing this, Teo and I went back in and asked for the tickets and told him we wanted them for souvenirs, which we do, but I also don’t want to enable the black market.  It is bad enough here.

4. When we got back in the van after ride, Teo had left some lights on in the van and it wouldn’t start.  Fortunately, he parked it heading downhill, and we were able to miss the car in front of us to get out in the street and “pop the clutch.”  Problem solved.

Next Stop was Castle Bran – or Dracula’s castle.  Since we all watched “The Amazing Race” this season, and they had a stop here at the castle, we had to go find the spot.  We think this is where Tammy and Victor went wrong on this challenge and went up into the hills of Romania.  (below)

At the castle, we had to pay to enter, and also pay to take pictures with our camera, and more if we wanted to video tape.

 

A picture of the castle from the Amazing Race Spot. (below)

 

One of the tight back staircases in the castle. (below)

Dracula must have been short, becuase all of the doorways were very short.

A picture before we went in.

A well in the middle of the courtyard.

These appeared to be places in the castle where you could fire weapons from.

 

After the castle we came back into town and made a quick stop at the hotel for a camera charger and a bathroom stop.

Oh yeah, we stopped in Bran, and had a nice lunch after the castle and got a couple of nice souvenirs.  There were some vendors selling items at the base of the castle.  Teo and Tunde went to watch a 5D movie while we were touring the castle, so we got a chance to interact with the vendors without a translator.  It was fun.

At lunch, Jack and I got a chance to see first hand what a “continental toilet” was. I wish I would have had the camera.  The bathroom was locked, so we had to have a key.  The room was probably 3x3 or 4x4.  This toilet is a hole in the floor with 2 places for your feet.  Going for a guy is no problem.  If you were in a need to sit down and go, I still don’t know how you would do it…. Looks impossible to me without getting very messy.  We will try to get a picture of one.

So, since the restroom at the restaurant was so bad, we got a chance to use a public one on the way back to the van. You have to pay for them – 1 Romanian Lei per person, which is about $.33.

STOP #3 – back in town at a public square. We got some cash (Romanian Lei) since we are driving back tomorrow and it is almost impossible to use a credit card or debit card here.

 

The black church was closed because it was a holiday - “Pentecost”.  This was a picture outside the black church.(Below)

This is where we first noticed Jack was starting to run out of steam. He had been coughing a little for most of the trip, but that was all.  Now he started to feel a little warm to us.

Stop #4 – Tunde’s Parents’ house for dinner

After walking around downtown a little, we headed out in the country (about 45 minutes) to Tunde’s parents house for dinner.  They are really nice people.  Some interesting facts:  They come out to the village every Monday morning from Brasov and go straight to work.  Then they stay in the village all week and work, and head back in to Brasov on Friday night. Tunde’s mom likes the city and Tunde’s dad likes the country.

Tunde’s mom is employed at the mayors office in this village helping with HR and public relations.  Her dad was working for the gov’t in the forestry department for many years and now is doing that privately since the fall of communism.

The village: 2,000 people in a small area with a couple grocery stores, restaurants, government buildings and churches.  It was obvious that the nicest buildings in town were the government buildings….by far.  It is like a mixture of Laurel, Indiana with the 1860’s.  Horses and buggies, dirt side streets, cows coming home in the evening with bells on, town drunk walking down the road at dusk, and then you see a BMW or us driving in our Mercedes van…

The house we ate at was on a lot probably 2 acres.  There was a barn and big garden in the back.  There was a working well.  They had added on to the old house a kitchen and bathroom.  We did not see too much of the inside of the house.

Some pictures below.

Teo and Jack getting water from a real well to water the flowers.

In this picture, you can see where we ate on the porch.  We had beef and vegetable soup, breaded chicken, potatoes, mushroom sauce, pork tenderloin, and we also tried some rum.  Teo’s dad had some Hungarian rum and also some “moonshine” that was made locally.  It was interesting. The Hungarian Rum (I think it was rum) was 80 proof and they use it as cough medicine….I know why.  The Moonshine, I only had a little sip out of the shot glass and it felt like it cleaned my teeth and mouth on the way down – like I wouldn’t even have brush my teeth after that.  Kim tried them both too and we have some video to prove it.

Poor Jack was really not feeling well by now and had a fever. He did not eat much and we started him on some Tylenol.  He laid on a swing in the yard for most of the dinner.  Poor kid…we have been on a very fast schedule and we are looking forward to slowing down a bit.

A picture of us with Tunde’s mom and dad.

 

Teo and Tunde and her mom and dad.

The weather has been really nice.  The people are great.  It has been nice having translators with us all the time.  We are looking forward to getting back to Oradea and getting on our own schedule.

I am finishing this in the hotel on Tuesday morning and today we drive back on our own to Oradea.  We are praying for safe journeys and reliable van today.