Palace 4 Brasov

... the fact that we weren't being let in, there was obviously some sort of change in the plans...<br><br>Our expressions remained blank and confused, a subtle form of non-verbal communication we've been finding very helpful on this journey. Eventually the lady called someone on her cell phone, spoke to someone in Romanian, and then passed us the phone..."Get in a taxi with the lady," we were told...<br><br>Okay...sounds safe enough at night in ...

... of them during the drive from the airport but today I stayed on the lower end as I wanted to take a look around the much talked about Museum of the Romanian Peasant. This is a really cute museum and I loved the traditional clothes that were displayed. I also was drawn to some of the similarities of the tools used here versus those used today in many Southern African villages. As time was not on my side, I had to rush a bit through the museum and then start ...

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... I glance over and see a family friend from Canada. For those who are from Edberg or know the Camrose area, it was Alan, son of Frankie and Eva (of Frankie's Flower Shop in Camrose). He was travelling around Romania and of all places happened to be in Peles Palace at the exact same time I was. It was really quite shocking to see him there. Those of us from the hostel only had a limited amount of time at Peles Palace so I didn't get a chance to chat much with Alan as we had to ...

... and current situation. He pretty much felt they still were not "free" even though they were not under occupation. The following day, he took us to Rasnov fortress which is a huge citadel at the top of a hill in Rasnov (about 15 km from Brasov.) The fortress gave some GREAT views of the area as well as some neat history and understanding of medieval times. Then, he took us to the ...

... to see. It is a fine testament to the 19th century non entity Queen Maria. Come see her collection of iron keys! Come see where she sat by the fire! Come see a large wooden table where she ate! Dracula's Castle is fairly bland, leading me to wonder whether the original inhabitants were left so non plussed by the lack of imposingness in their town's castle that they asked to be bitten to death rather than stay. We arrived by bus at 11:45a.m. We checked the bus ...

... with Bianca. She got all excited and put them all in her pocket. I told her we had to share them but she wasnt too keen on that. I managed to get them back and went upstairs to the others. They all did much the same thing though, they just held whatever they got. Next time, i'll make sure i rashen them out. :-) After lunch I sat with Julia, the social worker for the home. She was just lovely. We sat and chatted about stuff for about an hour or so until the kids were just ...

... Verder is zelfs dit kleine stadje echt een stuk moderner dan ik Roemenie verwacht had. Het gaat echt heel snel. Overal ook dure autos, merkt Sander natuurlijk op. Ik ben heel benieuwd naar Boekarest. Zou dat ueberhaupt nog zo betonnerig zijn als de 3 jaar oude Lonely Planet beschrijft? Of zit er gewoon de H&amp;M, Zara en de Starbucks? (Dat laatste zou natuurlijk wel heel fijn zijn... :-) Maar toch ook hier wel een paar van die oude vrouwtjes in gebreid ...

... Gerald Ford, Moamar Gaddafi, and Yasser Arafat. At least he had some sense not to barrel it over like he did many other architechtural gems of Romania. After Peles Castle, Bran Castle was totally anticlimactic. Tourist mecca of Romania, it is fallaciously associated with Vlad Tepes and therefore bears the misnomer "Dracula's Castle". The castle was actually built by the Saxons in 1382, and the closest it may have ever come to Dracula is that Tepes might have saught refuge ...

... is one city that has not hopped on this bandwagon. In going for 'Paris of the East' Bucharest threw subtley out the window. It has an Arc De Triumph, Sacre Couer and a decadent Champs-Elysses style grand avenue, intentionally built three metres longer than the one in Paris. Even Metro stops borrow their names from France's capital. This grand Parisian masterplan was the vision of egomaniacal dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who led Romania from 1965 until 1989 when he was overthrown and ...