Palace Sinaia

... Carol's former fairy tale mountain residence, the air is clear and cool. The place is a skiing and summer resort where you can take the cable car up to peaks of more than 2500 meters and gaze over the rounded Karpatian mountains, gracefully descending towards the fertile Danube plains around Bucharest on one side and the Transsylvanian highlands on the other. It is really nice up here ...

... by mountains and hills with lovely trees. I headed up to the cable cart and took the car half way up. The weather was not the best and the photos I took did not really do the place justice but from the eye it looked really good. From there I headed to the palace which was really nice. I really love the architecture of this region it is really intersting and different to anything back home. Brasov and this region is really nice. You notice a ...

На обрат&#10 85;ом пути из Брана заеха&#10 83;и в Рыжно&#10 74;. Любят же румын&#10 99; стави&#10 90;ь надпи&#10 89;и аля Hollywood)

... has the feel of a ski town, a sort of festive air permeating everything. We trekked up to the castle (very poorly marked for the town's main tourist attraction) and enjoyed the lovely grounds while waiting for an English tour to start. The castle was constructed by Romania's first monarch, Carol I and was finished just before his death in 1914. It was the first castle in Europe to have central heat, electricity, and vacuuming. Our guide, who otherwise ...

... my student loans. And on Friday, again, I endeavored to stay up all night in a city. Two times in one week! Could my weary brain handle it? This time, it was in Brasov, Romania - a colorful Transylvanian city with a big black church and caramel pedestrian streets. "I'll never go to Romania." - self-pityingly said by Richard III, my Steak'n'Shake co-worker, who even didn't know why a person would want to go to Romania My host Mihai, who's hair-less ...

... a Geisha when I grow up. Ok, now onto the story for today. I am the type of person that when someone tells me I can't do something, it just inspires me to try even *************'t always succeed, but I usually give it a good run if I feel that there is the chance of succeeding at the very thing someone told me I couldn't do. Sinaia is called "The Pearl of the Carpathians." I rode into town on a BEAUTIFUL day, passing ski resorts and getting psyched up about my plans. My ...

... little Martha-Stewart-Certified abode has warm orange tiles and rests in a little valley on top of a rock. Needless to say, it was kind of cool, but a major let down nonetheless. Also, it turns out Bran Castle is a tourist trap, as I was reminded immediately of Mt. Rushmore. A lot of hokey things surround the castle and not much else. A big pet peeve of mine is tourist traps, so Bran was not my favorite castle. But I did get to go up a ...

... early. Or the staff just wanted an extra hour off. Who knows. I snuck in with the Romanian people and got to see a couple rooms until they realized I didn't speak Romanian and then they shooed me out too. On the plus side I didn't pay for a ticket... Sighisoara - As I got off the train at Sighisoara, three huge burly men wearing three inch platform boots, leather pants, white blouses and tiny german looking vests along with various styles of ...

Part 2 Romania visit - Sinaia What a difference a week can make - where did the thigh high snow go? Spring has sprung. Most of the snow was gone in the town of Sinaia itself, but we headed up the mountain for some play. Where does the time go? We feel busy so much of the time! Except maybe when we are on the 45 minute gondola ride to the top of the Bucegi mountain range, Romania! And then one ...

... built-in vacuum system and retractable skylight is our favourite palace by far. The scale is manageable, the woodwork incredible and the Transylvanian mountain setting atmospheric--a palace we would build if we happened to be hereditary rulers of a country. The only thing that surpasses Peles Castle was the apple strudel we had at the nondescript cafe we stopped at before visiting the royal palace. Paul bought the strudel ...