20th of September - Sinaia and Brasov, Romania
We arrived in Sinaia, a little ski town not far from Bucharest in the middle of a total downpour, and the rain did not stop until we left many days later. Sinaia is a very idyllic town, not too much different from Tahoe in California, catering to a ski crowd in winter and is mostly sleepy off season. We went there to go to Peles Castle, which we heard was a can't miss from the folks we met at the wedding in Bucharest.We decided not to brave the out and out downpour our first day there, so we stayed in our cold and damp hotel room and skipped dinner so we would not catch a cold venturing back into the rain. The next morning we woke up to more rain, but it was not as intense, so we put all of our rain gear on and started up towards the grand Peles Castle. After a 30 minute walk we were drenched, and found out that the castle was closed, so we had to come back the next day. We bought some food and some wine that they poured directly into our old water bottle from the barrel at the grocery store and ate dinner at the hostel, and watched all the news stories of flooding all over Romania on TV. We thought we might be trapped there for a long time.
We did finally make it to the castle the next morning, and we were not disappointed at all. It is set in an incredibly picturesque valley with mountains extending in all directions. The castle itself looks like a Tudor Mansion on steroids, as it was originally built by the German Archduke of the Transylvanian region in the 1880's. Inside each room was incredibly well decorated, with over the top wood work, paintings (some done by hand on the walls by Gustav Klimt), tapestries, statues, chandeliers, and anything else that would be fit for a King at that time. One amazing part was that each room had a different theme, and was decorated from top to bottom in that theme. There was a Turkish room, an Italian Rococo room, a Moorish room, a German room, and a French theatre and armory rooms for both Asian collections and a European collection. The house was the first of its kind to have electricity, central heating, and a central vacuum system. This was one place that we were in awe of every room, it was spectacular. After visiting Peles castle, we knew that no other castle in Romania would hold a candle to this one, so we skipped the more famous castles in the touristy parts of Transylvania.
From Sinaia we took the train to Brasov, which is a good sized city another 2 hours into Transylvania. Brasov has an old square in the middle of town, but it was being used for the annual music festival when we were in town. The music festival is quite famous, and a lot of big name acts have played at the same festival in previous years, but they are usually a couple years out of their prime when they hit Brasov, and this year was no exception with Joe Cocker headlining the show. We figured out how to sneak in to the concert, instead of paying for a ticket, we could go early to the center and get a cup of coffee at one of the cafes within the concert area. At 6:00 PM the police sweep through and kick everyone out of the square that does not have a ticket, or is not patronizing one of the local establishments. So, we sat for 4 hours in a cafe nursing two coffees to see the concert and we could see all the action pretty well from their outdoor seating area. The cold chased us out before it was over, but we had fun watching different acts from around the world get their 2-3 songs each. The audience was not what we would call enthusiastic, as after each one they stopped talking long enough to give a half hearted round of applause, then go back to talking to each other again. It almost seemed like they were being forced to clap, but didn't really want to.
The next day we went took off for Billy's family hometown of Sighisoara.
posted by The Blaus @ 2:02 AM
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