Transylvania Fortresses and Castles

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009--Train from Chisinau to Bucharest (Continued)

The lady who owns the apartment I rented came at 15:20. I gave her the keys and left for the train station.

What luck! I was in a compartment with two fantastic men. Nicholai, 41 years old, is Moldovan, but lives in Romania where he makes dentures. Clemens, 50 years old, comes from Holland. He used to work in marketing for Unilever, but he is now an independent marketing consultant. He has taken several months off work to travel around Europe in a Volkswagon bus. He's as close to being the same as me as any man I have ever met!

Clemens and I talked and talked and talked in English after boarding and while traveling. We have so many common interests and it was fascinating to hear him tell about his travels for the past few months. We both worried about Nicholai who obviously did not speak English well enough to join the conversation. But I figured he understood some and asked him. He did, but his response showed that his speaking English is very limited. When he said that he spoke French, Clemens started speaking to him in French, and he came alive, too. From then, the trip was one story after another from each of us. Nicholai had a bottle of homemade palinka (a vodka-like drink made from year-old wine--the same as the cha cha we were drinking in Georgia last year on my trip). He opened it, and we passed it and talked. I shared my cheese, salami, olives, bagel chips, and cookies, although neither of them wanted anything but a couple of slices of cheese and a couple of cookies. Nicholai also pulled out a box of candies from Moldova--small chocolate-coated bars of minced peanuts.

Clemens and I talked about him making a trip through the western part of the U.S. and down through Mexico and Central America. I told him I would help him plan a route. If he makes it, he will stop for a visit in San Antonio.

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009--Train and Brasov

The border crossing for the train took a long time last night. Part of the reason is that they had to change all the wheels on the train. Moldova was a part of the USSR, and they established a different size of gauge for their tracts so that enemies (such as Germany) could not roll their trains across the border and keep coming. But that creates a lot of hassle for international trains that have not been modernized to be able to handle both gauges. And our train was definitely not modern. It had well-worn Soviet sleeping cars.

The train from Chisinau arrived in Bucharest on time. I had bought a ticket to continue to Brasov, but I had left 1 1/2 hours just in case we were late. I could have taken an earlier one. Oh, well. While waiting, I watched people. One group came by wearing HerbalLife t-shirts. I guess that is still being sold. Wasn't it discredited and restricted in the U.S. due to safety reasons?

When I arrived in Brasov, there was a man at the station who offered me a room for $27 per night including breakfast. I had made a hotel reservation a couple of weeks ago. But when I wrote back (TWICE) trying to change the dates after having to adjust my travel schedule, I never got a response from them. Therefore, I took him up on his offer and just didn't worry about the hotel. The room is okay. The bath is nice. It will be fine for two nights.

Brasov is a big city with a very old city center. The center is well restored and is very popular with tourists and locals alike. There are pedestrianized streets with sidewalk cafes down the centers of them. I wandered and explored at first. Then I returned to my room and bathed and shaved to go out.

The Black Church has an organ concert three times per week at 18:00. It costs 4 lei to get into the church during the daytime to see it. The concert only costs 5 lei (about $1.65 U.S.), so I waited to see the church until I was there for the concert. The pews have backs that shift. Therefore, we all sat facing the organ in the rear of the church. It was a huge one. And I was very impressed with the crowd. I would say that 2/3 of the seats in the church were filled with people who came to hear the 30-minute concert.

A tour group from Germany was at the concert and sitting in 2-3 rows in front of me. I watched them and thought about how miserable I would be in such a group. They were all in their 60s and 70s. I'm sure they are slow to get in our out anywhere the group goes. And there are all types of people I would hate being around for an extended time. One example: When they announced that people should shut off their mobile phones for the concert, a man in front of me performed the process to do so which causes the phone to play 3-4 notes to indicate the turn-off was effective. A woman in front of him immediately turned around without thinking about what he was doing and shushed him. She looked like she would be ready to keep everyone in line all the time while smiling as if she was the sweetest person on earth!

After two weeks of looking, I finally found a barber shop with a man cutting men's hair. I stepped in and waited for him to finish with a young man who happened to speak English and helped me explain what I wanted before I left. The barber was extra careful with both the young man and with me. It's nice to have shorter hair again. The back (which I was not able to trim when I trimmed the front and sides a few weeks ago) was driving me crazy.

I tried to eat at a neighborhood restaurant near my room on the way home. Unfortunately, the lady had already closed her kitchen at 20:30. Rather than go into town, I just went to the room and ate some leftovers there.

Friday, Aug. 28, 2009--Rasnov and Bran

After a nice breakfast of an omelette with two kinds of chopped meat in it (ham and salami), fresh sliced tomatoes, bread, jam, and tea, I headed for the bus station. I caught a bus to Rasnov--a Saxon town just south of Brasov. The main reason for going there is to see the fortress on top of the mountain with the town below. I climbed the many steps up through the forest until I was there. It was quite interesting--well restored and having a museum that gave information about it through the history of time.

From there, I caught another bus to go to Bran further south. Bran is famous for its Bran Castle which is better known as the "Dracula Castle." There really is no certainty that Count Dracula ever had a connection to the castle, but the town is keeping up the story and packs in the tourists because of it. I have to admit that going there was a disappointment. The town is rather nice, but it is unpleasant to be there because of the large number of tourists. To get to the castle, they force the guests to go through a nightmare of a bazaar filled with tacky souvenirs. My guidebook had said that the outside view of the castle was great but that the tour through the inside was forgettable. That's due to the inside being remodeled in the 1920s as the summer home for Queen Mary. Therefore, the only people who might get a lot from the tour would be those who liked Queen Mary and wanted to see how she lived. Because of the long and slow-moving lines for tickets, the sound of thunder and lighning nearby, and all the things mentioned above, I just decided to leave without touring the castle. I enjoyed seeing it from the outside. My guess is that it is like Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany--best seen from a distance.

Back in Brasov, I could hear music. I followed the sound to the giant stage that has been set up in the central square of the town for its music festival which will be held next week. A young woman was rehearsing on the stage and testing the sound settings to get them the way she wanted for her performance next week. She had a nice voice and sang some really pretty songs with a bit of a Turkish (or maybe Roma-type) sounds. I asked a young man who spoke English if he knew her name. But he had no idea who she is.