This past week has definitely been a once in a lifetime experience! Although I do have to say I would love to come and do it again. Monday night at 11:30pm we left Iasi on a night train (my first) to head to Bucharest the capital of Romania. I have to say I love sleeper trains! They are so much fun. We had two rooms that slept 6 people. So it was 3 beds on top of eachother on either side. Luckily there were only 4 to a room. Being me, I had a great time because I slept the whole way. I have that unique ability that if I am really tired I can nearly fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. But we arrived on Tuesday at 6:30 am. A very tiring day since that was our one day. We arranged to stay one night there at a hostel. So we arrived at our hostel, an interesting place, at 7:00 but weren't assisted until about 8:15 when the girls woke up. It was a busy night for them from the looks of things. But we were in a room of 8 beds and one of them was eventually taken by some random guy. We immediately went out to explore the city. The People's Palace was the main place we wanted to see. Luckily, they had an English tour that started at 11:00am and lasted for 2 hours. Sadly, two of the girls didn't bring their ideas so they missed out on an amazing experience. This place was so amazing!!! It was built out of selfishness and drained the Romanian people of everything during the communism era but it was finished beautifully and is now finally the people's. I actually got in free to it because I had my student id with me:) It was awesome but after the two hour tour we were told that we only saw 5% of it. That should give a rough guess of just how big it is! But after that we headed for Revolution Square, just a small memorial where the last speech was given and the revolution broke out, and civilians were shot. It was really amazing to see the 1,600 names listed of those civilians who died for that change. We ran into an old Romanian man who spoke English. He told us the history of it all and even gave his opinions of what it was like during than. It really is special to hear history from someone else's point of view. Especially when this person lived through it. But, we finished by just looking around Bucharest and sleeping at the hostel.
We had another early wake up and left at 6:00 to catch our 7:30 train to Brasov. Worst train ride every! There were four seats in a row, on either side, and maybe it was because I was so tired but it seemed the longest. But we did finally get there around 12:00 because of some delays. The hostel we booked for 3 nights was amazing! We had a nice rooms all to ourselves and even got a free drink every night. Yes, we could choose soda as a drink option. But the people who worked there were super helpful and really showed us alot of cool things. Also, we met alot of those who were backpacking across Europe. They are our ages but they have been to like 14 countries in 4 months just seeing all of Europe. Now that is an adventure! I dream of traveling the world someday and seeing them inspires me to continue to try to do what I can to make that come true.
That night we just saw the city of Brasov. We saw the main square and just the beautiful architecture that surrounds it. It is amazing to just walk down the street and see the Black Church there in the center. Seriously, it is just blows my mind to be in an old medieval looking town in all of its beauty. The only frustrating thing was that people don't follow the listed hours (like if it says it is open till 5 they might close it at 3:30) and things close really early. Mostly around 3-4. So didn't see alot that day other than just getting bearings on the area.
We had planned on doing our "big day" on Thursday. We paid 80 lei each for a tour guide and charter bus to see Bran Castle (Dracula's Castle), Rasnov Fortress, and a Fortified Church. Sadly, Peles Castle was closed all of November for cleaning because that would have been really amazing to see. But we left at 9:30 and returned around 4. It was so much fun. I would love to live in Bran Castle, it is like a Villa almost and very beautiful. Did I mention the weather was beautiful while we were there? We were so lucky, Bucharest was kind of cold and really, really foggy, but Brasov was pretty warm. This was in contrast to the freezing city of Iasi we left. But seeing everything was a very fun day. I am always very tired after doing trips but I still managed to go out an explore afterwards. Again, everything closes early...boo.
Friday could have been the best day, but turned out to be disappointing. So on the top of a mountain they have a Brasov sign kind of similar to the Hollywood sign. The only real way to get there is to take a cable car to the top. But, some of us decided to go paragliding after we say people doing it on wed. It would be only 50euro and you get to see the beautiful city of Brasov from a bird's eye view. How amazing would that be?!? So we signed up and found out when we check around 9:00 that the weather might be bad and they would call us at 10:30. So in the meantime we went to the Black Church. The Black Church is amazing on the outside, kind of dull on the inside since they painted it white inside after the fire. But we called them and they said the weather was fine to go! So we got back and they told us the cable car was broken and they would call us with updates. Major bummer because we didn't know when or if it would be fixed. So we kind of waited around the hostel a while, by the way they have tons of movies!! ( though they are pirated...). And finally me and Elizabeth went out for some food and saw an art museum. It was really cool, and since I have a true appreciation of art it was interesting to see the type of art depicted by the local artists. It showed the uniqueness of Romania. But then we stopped by at St. Nicolae church which is by our hostel on the way home. By that time it was almost 4 and still no call. So, nothing worked out. It was a huge bummer because it would have been amazing to see Brasov from such a height! Oh, well I still got to see alot.
Saturday was just all day trains. Not as bad as I thought and I definitely love taking trains now! But, we didn't get home till 11:30 and now today is Sunday. I try not to miss out on doing things anymore so three of us went with our friends to a monastery. It is a little farther so we took a bus and then hiked the rest since it is at the top. It was so beautiful! There are so many monasteries and I enjoy all of them. The architecture and art is just breathtaking I really do love them! This one was by far one of my favorites because of its location on top of the hill that overlooked the city. Plus, the bell tower was open to get an even higher view of it all.
It is going to be weird going to the orphanage tomorrow after being gone a week. Back from being a tourist to working again. I kind of missed it but it strange knowing I go home in 3 1/2 weeks. How crazy is that? I definitely miss my family and friends but this has been an amazing experience so far. Still not sure how I will feel when it gets really close. But for now I am not going to think about it and just enjoy wherever my adventures take me.
Mare Vis,
Dani
No comments:
Post a Comment