Fairytale Castles and Friends

Trip Start Aug 31, 2007

Trip End Apr 19, 2008

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Flag of Romania Sinaia, Romania
Sunday, November 4, 2007

This weekend, my friend Emily flew in from London to see Romania for a few days. Gotta love cheap airfares. I picked her up from the airport around 11 pm, and we caught the last bus 335 back to town. It's an interesting feeling, and one I'm getting a little too used to, when you're sitting on a bus and it becomes evident that it's probably not going where you thought it was. When do you get off? You have no idea where you are, but you're just going further and further into the middle of nowhere. However, you can't quite drop that nagging hope that somehow, you'll circle back to something familiar. It's uncomfortable. Emily and I took 335 to the end, where the driver politely kicked us off on the edge of town. The good news is that Bucharest taxis are metered and we made it 8 km (yes, we were very lost) back to the hostel for $5.

Saturday morning, we set off for Sinaia and its Peles Castle

Sinaia Castle

. Up in the mountains, Sinaia 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 seemed very bored, enjoyed pointing out all the fire places and telling us they were ornamental. I, on the other hand, more enjoyed sliding around the marble floors in the special slippers they gave us to protect the rugs. I was quite the ballerina. Some people never grow up.

Peles' exterior reminds one of a Bavarian fairytale, with dark wooden edges and painted walls. The inside, decorated in a myriad of styles, is even more fantastic. This is the kind of castle I would build were money no object, though perhaps with less walnut wood. Walnut's just so dark.

Our visit to Peles complete, we trekked back down to the train station and headed for Brasov on a "personal" train. Sounds nice, no? Don't be fooled. Personal is the lowest class of train. Commonly referred to as gypsy trains, they are crowded, slow, and cheap. Just don't be surprised if your wallet's missing when you get off. We met a nice girl (who was quite concerned about my Bulgaria travel plans) and made it to Brasov just after six, wallets still in tact.

Sunday morning, Emily and I toured old town Brasov, which is really quite clean, well restored, and lovely, before heading for Bran

Sinaia Castle

. I very much enjoyed Dracula's castle a second time and afterwards, Emily and I got down to the serious business of souvenir shopping. Bran is surrounded by souvenir stalls and while we stayed away from the Dracula kitsch, slinkies, and Barbie knock-offs (what the latter two were doing in souvenir stalls, I do not know) we did manage to find some nice things to take home with us. We also purchased a 400 gram pastry rolled in nuts. These things are so popular that we stood in line for half an hour to get one (many people bought five or six for all their friends) Once obtained, ours was very hot and sweet and good...at least at first. Four hundred grams is a lot of sugar and fat, even when you share it two ways, and too soon, the feelings of warm happiness gave way to slightly upset stomachs. There was nothing for it but to feed the remainder of the pastry to a pack of puppies in a nearby park. I got them to follow me around, chasing after bits and pieces. Sort of like feeding pigeons, but puppies are so much cuter!

Also at Bran was a performance by some Native Americans, singing, playing instruments, and selling CDs. Probably the last thing I expected to see in Romania. Emily and I hypothesized on the act as a method of fundraising while travelling. Clearly, I should have brought my oboe across the ocean with me. I'm going about this trip all wrong.

The return trip to Bucharest was uneventful and slow (people heading back to the city after the weekend created traffic jams) save for nearly getting run over crossing the highway at our rest stop. Nearly getting run over seems to happen a lot in Romania...