Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Day 34: Sinaia and Brasov

Monday, August 12, 2013

Today's highlights:
   -Left Buc 
   -Peles Castle in Sinaia
   -Hotel hunting in Brasov

Great news! No fleas! I got a few bites from something my first day in Alexandria but I watched carefully over the next few days and they didn't spread! Woot!! Thanks Lord and Rookie for keeping your friends to yourselves! 

So today, we left Buc for the last time. It was an emotional farewell to say the least. Sora Gorzo kept asking us if we were sure we didn't want to stay longer, saying "I just feel so good when you guys are here." Oh man, she is the greatest. And I have discovered, gives the GREATEST hugs. We told her we would try to come back with our kids one day, so they can know their Romanian great-grandma. I really really hope we make it back to see her again.

We decided to make our first stop in the city of Sinaia, home of Romania's most beautiful castle: Peles Castle. We'd both seen it before during our missions but it is seriously so gorgeous inside and out that we wanted to see it again (the entire inside is covered in these crazy intricate wood carvings, amazing!). Well, it's a good thing we'd seen it before because it's a Monday, and guess what happens on Mondays in Europe? Everything is closed. Including Peles. And we forgot. Bummer. But we still got to make the hike up to it and see the outside so the trip was worth it. 
Can you tell we're getting tired of taking pictures? I think our average number of pics per day has dropped on this trip from 100 to 2. Really.

After Sinaia we made it to Brasov, one of Romania's most beautiful cities. It is nestled in the middle of the Carpathian Mountains in a picturesque little valley. The center of the city wasn't as affected by communism as some other cities (meaning Ceacescu didn't destroy the entire thing and construct those huge cement apartment buildings in its place. Only part of it). So centru (city center) still remains big, colorful and so beautiful. 

We had a hotel in mind where we were planning to stay, and we assumed we didn't need to make reservations ahead of time (I mean, I love Romania, but it doesn't really draw the hugest tourist crowd). Well, it turns out there is a youth soccer tournment here this week and almost every hotel we tried was full because of the parents in town to watch their kids play. Whoops! We wandered for a long, long time (eating a dinner of Fornetti and Viva snacks as we walked, no complaints here!). Finally, we found a place that looked a little sketch on the outside but we were desperate. We went in and it was way nicer inside, cheap, and had open rooms. Win!

We were so exhausted, we fell asleep pretty much as soon as we walked in. We're so excited to spend some more time in this beautiful city tomorrow!

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