Adventures in Romania Part 5: Sibiu

Saturday-Sunday, June 18-19, 2011


Codlea had been our our hub of traveling to Sighisora, Brasov, Bran, and Rasnov, but it was time to move on. We packed some sandwiches, cleaned Alina's aunt's apartment, and took a 10:30am "Accelerat" train on a 3 hour trip West to Sibiu.


Sibiu is a beautiful city and ranked as Europe's 8th most idyllic place to live (Wikipedia) and, I had been told, has Romania's cleanest tap water. Downtown Sibiu also houses a citadel and was originally inhabited by the Germans. It's intertwined with old buildings, houses, churches p, and streets.

When we arrived on Saturday around noon, we walked about 10 minutes from the train station and went to Alina's friend's home to drop off our stuff. We then walked to the downtown/old town of Sibiu. It was easy to see the touristic appeal-- the city was amazing. We found a beautiful square where Alina's two friends (who are sisters), Delia and Adina Raulea, worked at beauty salon called, Mariavon Salon Baroc. The Raulea family had been Alina's home away from home during her college and career years in Romania. We met the two sisters at the salon and Alina got a haircut from her beloved hair dresser, Delia. Afterwards, we walked through the ancient, beautiful streets of Sibiu. Cobble stone roads, old German style buildings, and arched alleyways seemed to take us to a different world. Later we went get dinner and met one of Delia's friends, Andy, who does inspiring work with Gypsy children.

Sunday, we joined the family at their church, where we enjoyed listening to the Raulea's in the church choir. After church, we were treated to a traditional Romanian Sunday lunch. Spending time with these people, I could tell they loved each other and valued family above work, television, and video games. They spent hours talking and enjoying each others company. In the evening, a deafening thunder storm cleansed the sky with rain.

Monday morning, Delia drove us to the train station, where we said goodbye to her and the beautiful city of Sibiu.

Location:Sibiu, Romania

Adventures in Romania Part 4: Bran, Rasnov, the Cave

Friday, June 17, 2011

Today was a jammed, packed day of history!  We started on our usual route from walking to taxi to the bus station to walking more to another bus station and rode a bus South-West to the city of Bran.  Bran is known for it's famous castle, the castle Bran.  This was the castle that was part of the inspiration for the novel and movie, Bram Stroker's, Dracula.  In the castle, we explored the many rooms, artifacts, and historical displays.  It's a beautiful castle.  After touring the castle, we had lunch at the bottom of the hill beneath the huge structure.  

We took a bus to backtrack to Rasnov, which is a small town known for it's fortress/citadel.  We walked from the bus stop and found the road that led to the citadel.  It was up hill. And we walked. And walked.  For about 2 miles, which isn't that far if you run it on flat land-- but this took a LONG time.  We arrived at the gate which led up the mountain road to the citadel.  We decided to pay the 6 lei ($2) for a slow horse drawn wagon to the top.  We explored the citadel and admired the beautiful view overlooking the city.  Instead of going back down the mountain we walked 2 km further up and went to a cave on the mountain side.  We took the tour with a class of excited kindergarteners-- which were more entertaining than the cave itself ;)

We walked down the 2+ mile mountain road, listening to The Beatles, and found our way back to the bus stop.  However, while waiting for the bus, a man asked us and two others waiting if we were going to Brasov.  Since all of us were going, he offered us a ride for the same price as the bus fare!  So we rode with 3 strangers, in a nice car, going  VERY fast (140 km= 86 mph), and arrived at our destination in no time!  Only in Romania!

Adventures in Romania Part 3: Brasov

Thursday, June 16, 2011

After a long Wednesday at Sighisora, we slept in at Alina's Aunt's vacant apartment.  During our stay in Codlea, our breakfast was usually a choice between cereal, toast with cheese, meat, and tomatoes, or yogurt.  When you travel without a car in Romania, you rely on a series of public transportation options.  First, we walk to the "maxi taxi" stop, then we transfer to a bus and sometimes go to a train station.  But today, we went to the   downtown square of Brasov.  

This particular area is one of 16 citadels in Romania, used in medieval times for a lookout point and defending the city's center.  So the Brasov citadel has a wall surrounding it with 2 towers on the highest points, the black tower and the white tower (I swear I'm not adding Lord of the Rings to my story!).  Within the the walls, there is a huge town square, the black church, and interweaving streets with stores and merchants.  We walked through these streets buying a pretzel, taking pictures, and searching for WiFi (non-stop).  We ate a lunch of pizza and a schnitzel and sausage sandwich.  Whenever I eat Romanian food, it becomes my favorite food in the whole world. I'll be dedicating a blog to my adoration of Romanian cuisine later.  We visited the two towers, got ice cream, and walked through a park.  We finished the day by going back to Aunt Coca's for dinner (best chicken I've ever had in my life) and got to meet some of Alina's cousin-in-laws.   

Adventures in Romania Part 2: Sighisora

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

After an almost sleepless night, I (Hans) woke up in a bad mood.  At 5:30am.  We left early at 6:30 and walked through the town in the cold, dim morning.  We waited 10 minutes for the Maxi-Taxi, a large, long van with about 15 seats.  It took us 15 minutes to get from Codlea to Brasov, where we boarded a bus to the train station.  We purchased our tickets at the Brasov train station and waited to board.  We almost got on the wrong train!  This time, we rode was the "Personal" train, which is the cheapest and dirtiest.  Alina spent a few minutes cleaning off our seat.  We enjoyed a bright, sunny, 3 hour ride looking out at the rural villages, people, and scenery of Romania.

We arrived in the city of Sighisora, which is know for it's ancient citadel.  We walked past a beautiful Romanian Orthodox church and downtown area.  Before our exploration, we ate lunch at a nice park (sandwiches prepared the night before).  The citadel was made in 1191 and is a beautiful place to get a glimpse of the past. We climbed many steps to enjoy the clock tower, restaurants, and other historic monuments.  There was a long sheltered staircase that led to an old church and a Romanian/German cemetery.  Apparently, there had been a lot of German settlers that merged with the Romanian gene pool.  And still continues today ;)   We concluded our time in the citadel with a cappuccino at a Christian coffee shop called, "House on the Rock", and then walked back to the train station.  

As we waited for the train to Brasov, we saw many families of Gypsy men, women, and children.  They traveled with trash bags for holding their belongings and sent their kids around to beg for food or money.  Just watching them made us sad-- to have such a hard life.  We see if for only brief moments in time, but they live with the poverty everyday.  Later I would read a verse in Proverbs, "Whoever oppressed the poor insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him", Proverbs 14:31.  I pray to God that we would honor him with our time here.

Adventures in Romania Part 1: Codlea - Travel Hub

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Bebe took Alina and I to the train station in the city of Floresti, Prahova (county), about 30 minutes East from Alinas parents in Moreni.  Something you should know about trains in Romania is there are 3 classes of trains: 1) Intercity, 2) Accelerat, and 3) Personal.  The first is the most expensive with more speed and luxury and less stops.  The Accelerat is an average cost with decent speed and comfortable seating.  The personal is slow and dirty.  It stops at every stop and is 1/3 the cost of the intercity.  We rode the Accelerat train 3 hours North to a small city called, Codlea, where Alina's 2 aunts live.  

We rode a taxi to Alina's aunt, Coca, and enjoyed lunch with her and her husband, Gheorghe.  We ate sarmle, ciorba, Hungarian Paine, and rhubarb pie.  After lunch and looking at the house and garden, we drove the taxi to Alina's other aunt's apartment, where we would stay.  Her aunt of out of town, so it worked out perfectly.  We settled in and then went grocery shopping.  Alina washed our clothes in the bathtub, while I prepared out lunch for our adventure tomorrow! 

Adventures in Romania Series

Wow-- it has been non-stop traveling since we've last posted.  Since we've been traveling so much with limited time, electricity, and internet access, I've tried to keep up with videos and blog notes.  So, I'll be posting a series called, "Adventures in Romania", as soon as I can get them online.  Enjoy!

Alina's Birthday

Before leaving, I staged a surprise birthday lunch for Alina at Tahoe Joes with food, friends, and fun.  However, it was premature, because we celebrated her actual birthday in Romania.  Sunday, June 12th was Alina’s Birthday and we had a blast.  In fact we had many “blasts”-- you could even say the day was dynamite!  A plethora of explosives igniting and blowing us away, at various times and places throughout the day.  BAM! 

TNT #1, Alina dressed in traditional church clothes like she had for 18 years when she was living at home.  Cherry bomb #2, she received flowers from her brother Marius and his wife Augustina (as well as Alina’s husband). M40 #3, we went to her old (and traditional) church, where women and men sat on separate sides.  It’s also traditional for visitors get up front and share a small sermon or a song... so I did both!  Landmine #4, the whole family ate a traditional Romanian Sunday lunch outside, under a grapevine canopy...in the rain.  It doesn’t get much more memorable than that.  Grenade #5, we drove to the near by city of Targoviste while stopping by a natural spring (where Alina’s family get’s their drinking water), Marius’ newly bought land (where they will build their first house), and to see their current apartment. 

After a mirage of bombs of joy and excitement, the best was yet to come, (#6-- ran out of explosives) when we went to the small town of Baleni, where we met Augustina’s family.  We had drinks, dessert, and coffee outside and enjoyed the #1 Romanian past time:  Talking.  Our group talked and talked.  I didn’t understand more than 5% of what was said-- but it sounded like a fantastic conversation [If you’ve kept up with the blog, you may have noticed an intentional build of conflict in my lack of knowledge of the Romanian language-- more later].  Augustina’s parents are fascinating people, of whom I will write more about in the future.  #7, we went back to Marius and Augustina’s apartment in Targoviste and met Bebe and his girlfriend.  There we enjoyed the #1 American past time: watching YouTube.  Classic candid camera clips.  Overall, Alina had a very memorable birthday >>BOOM!<<

Salt Mine

Saturday, June 11, 2011, we slept in, ate breakfast, and hit the road with Alina’s brothers, Marius and Bebe, and Augustina, Marius’ wife.  We drove to a small town called, Slanic, and visited the Unirea Salt Mine!  It is 208 meters (682 ft.) below the Earth’s surface and it is huge!  It remains 12 degrees C (53 F) year round and was utilized for it’s salt reserves in 1943.  Now it’s used for tourism.  There are huge caverns that remind of the Lord of the Rings (Mines of Moria-- yeah, I’m a Tolkien geek) and it’s cold enough for a jacket.  We saw kids playing soccer and using the floor for a big-wheel track. 

After coming back into the light, we drove to Ploesti and cooked mici [meech] (Romanian sausage) in a beautiful park.  It rained, we saw wedding photo shoot, and I attempted to get a free accordion song from a tipsy gypsy (didn’t even mean to rhyme).  I’m pretty sure he was insulting me in his song for being cheap.  Here’s the lyrics:

“My love you are my life

give money, give money to the singer

because the tip is not big

but it’s your pride to give

my love, you are my life”

I ended up going back with 3 mici and a small tip.  I felt weird being in an outside bar surrounded by a bunch of laughing, drinking men speaking Romanian and not knowing what they were saying.  However, I feel like there is an important moral lesson to be had along side my slice of humble pie; It’s better to give than to be embarrassed.  So, for myself (and anyone who needs to), I will work on tipping the street musicians more generously before enjoying their art.

America to Romania

After leaving our house at 9:00am, we made it to LAX at 11:30am and waited in a long line.  Our 2 big check in bags needed to be 50 lbs each, but ended up being 55 and 53!  Alina and I had to take some out of one bag (to put in the other) and we weasled our way into taking all of our belongings with us!  Then were the TSA lines, which weren't that bad.  Neither of us were molested-- I mean, pat-searched.  We made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare and boarded at 1:30pm.  We sat next to a nice girl from Armenia named Meg.  She was going to Iran to stay with her family.

For the next 9.5 hours, we had drinks, snacks, 2 meals (dinner + breakfast), tried to sleep, watched movies (a large selection of movies, TV shows, etc.), and lots of cramped uncomfortableness.  How is it that people pay to be this uncomfortable?!  I guess it's a means to an end.  I tried to go to sleep with 5mg of Melatonin, but woke up after 2 hours.  We arrived in Amsterdam, Netherlands with a 3 hour lay over, then onto Bucharest, Romania in a 3 hour plane flight.

The man we were sitting next to was a Romanian man from Orange County, who was visiting his daughter.  We had ipads and Romanian wives in common.  After we arrive in Bucharest, we met Alina's mother, Lydia, and her brother, Bebe at the airport.  We drove 2 hours North to Moreni, Alina's hometown.  We ate, talked (well, I listened to non-stop Romanian-- more on that later...), and then went to bed very tired.  We finally made it!

Departure

We leave Bakersfield Wednesday, June 8, 2011, at 9:00am to LAX. We were able to get a from a son of a friend-- who was going our way. Our flight leaves at 2:00pm to Amsterdam for a 3-hour lay over-- then a three hour flight to Bucharest Romania. By the time we get to Alina's parents, we will have traveled 23 hours! Wow! Romania, here we come!



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3 days left!

Preparing to go on a big trip can be almost as fun as the destination itself. Do you get as excited I do? Planning where to go, what to do, how your getting there, and the things you need. I remember when I was three years old and moving for the first time. Someone had given me a brown bag with gum, candy, and a pad of paper with a pencil. For some reason, I was very excited about it! That care package would not fly with kids today! Adults are just as bad-- we need some form of entertainment for anything longer than a 10 minute drive. Anyways... preparation. We have shopped until we dropped and packed until we cracked. Alina and I have very different ways of packing. She goes with the classic stack, but I prefer the modern art of rolling. It's how I roll.

Where I've Been

Alina and I found this cool website called, "Where I've Been", and this is a map that shows it:

5 days until departure!

Yesterday Alina and I completed our school obligations (her 1st year of her masters program and my 7th year of teaching) and now we are making our list and getting stuff done! We leave on Wednesday morning at 8am to leave from the LAX International Airport!

Whenever I'm leaving on a jet plane to go somewhere, I always think about the song, "I'm leaving on a Jet Plane". So here's to you John Denver!

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Location:Mohican Dr,Bakersfield,United States

Preparing for Romania 2011

Alina and I are blessed to have the opportunity to visit family and friends in Romania during our summer vacation of 2011. It's been 3 years since Alina has been back to see her family and country-- and we're very excited about going!
I wanted to keep a blog share our adventures during this trip and future trips. This is not my first time traveling to Romania and if you're interested, check out my previous blog:

Reaching Romania (2007)

The blog chronicles my time with C.T.L. (Children to Love), time in Romania, and meeting Alina :)

Location:Mohican Dr,Bakersfield,United States