Day 35: Brasov #2

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Today's highlights:

   -Hiked to Sapte Scari

   -Met with Mirons

   -Fancy dinner 

   -Storage Wars!

Fornetti for breakfast! Fornetti for breakfast! (I feel like Fornetti has become my new "gelato." I'm not sure why I feel it's necessary to tell you every time we eat it, but alas, I do).

So our plan today was to go on a fun hike that I have heard about ever since I was a missionary but have never done. It's called "Sapte Scari" which basically means "Seven Ladders." It is a slot canyon, supposedly with waterfalls and rivers running through it, and you have to climb seven super sketchy ladders that are falling apart to get through it. That sounds fun, right? We were super stoked and had no idea how to even get there. So we asked around, found a bus that took us to the edge of town. Then we were told to walk. How far, we did not know. We'd stop every so often and ask someone and they'd say, "Yeah, the trailhead is about another kilometer up the road. Then, a half hour later, we'd ask another guy who said, "Yeah, just keep going. It's about 1.5 kilometers up the road." Ummmmm....what? Anyway, we finally made it to the trailhead, but still had about an hour's hike before reaching the canyon. It was SO beautiful up there. I felt like I was back in Switzerland. The air was so fresh and it smelled so nice. I loved it, and I was getting more and more excited for the hike. Then, we finally made it to the canyon and...........it was closed. Booooooooo. Something about renovating the hike and fixing all those broken ladders. Safety schmafety, I say. So we were sad, but the hike itself was really beautiful so it ended up being worth it anyway.

When we finally made it back that afternoon, pooped. After a little break, we went and met with the wonderful Miron family. This family is so great. Sora Miron (Sister Miron, the mom) is a single mom and has five kids, most of which are active in the church and have been for years. That is a truly amazing thing here in Romania, for a family to stay that strong for so many years. Being Mormon in Romania is so hard, because everything about the culture is Orthodox, so giving that up can sometimes mean giving up family and friends too. So when members stay strong through all that, it just makes me so happy! So we met with Sora Miron and her youngest daughter, 18-year old Ema. It was so fun to catch up with them and see how they are doing. 

After all that, we were hungry! We decided to splurge for the first time in Romania and went to a fancy restaurant. Mmmmm, it was so delish. However, as we would soon discover (tomorrow morning), it may also have been poisoned.....

So after dinner, we came home and flipped on our TV to see what it had to offer us. I think this might have been the first time we have had a TV that worked in our hotel room, or at least the first time we used one. Well, it turns out Romania didn't have a ton of good selection. We finally settled on The History Channel because it had this show called Storage Wars. For those who haven't seen it (like us before today), it's basically a competition between four people who go to auctions and bid on old, abandoned storage units that are for sale, full of random who-knows-what. Then, after buying the units, they get to actually go in and see what they bought and if any of it is valuable. You can make a profit of thousands of dollars on one unit. Very interesting. We started to really like it. Maybe because there was seriously nothing else to watch and we haven't seen much on a TV screen for the last 5 weeks, but still. It was a good night.