Transylvania

Brasov is a small town with a medieval history set in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. It has a beautiful square, with a great church and good gelato! After exploring here, we took the train to Sinaia yesterday. About an hour back down the valley, where the highlight is Peles Castle. The little town is covered in gorgeous trees and the views of the mountains are hidden because of how deep you sit in the valley. The walk from the train station was up lots of stairs and then through the gauntlet of gypsy stores where you can buy anything from a crochet tablecloth to a homemade boomerang (the man colored the popsicle sticks himself!) to knives and guns! Pretty much a Romanian Target! At the end of this street there was a gypsy man with a lion sitting on a park bench. We're not quite sure what he did with the lion, or what the tourists were supposed to do either, but I think the lion would do about anything that would earn this man a dollar! After walking backwards to stare in disbelief at the lion, I flipped around, turned the corner and up the sweeping hill was the amazing castle. The initial view is breathtaking, the interesting building, which doesn't exactly fit into the traditional definition of castle, had a stunning clock tower and lots of intricate paintings. There were several spires with detailed iron crosses topping them, pointing up at these gorgeous craggy peaks. As I spend most of my time talking too much, I don't often run out of breath, but this sight almost did it.
We took the English tour with our German dictator of a guide, who only made the trip more fun. "These are Murano glass chandeliers, from Venice, from Italy" she barked in her interesting English diction. It felt like she knew how to label each piece in several ways, so just to reduce confusion she used them all. "These are silver candlesticks, they are metal, they are from Amsterdam, from the Netherlands". After being released from the castle without incident, we strolled the town and then headed back to Brasov. Don't worry the evening was not without incident, as we met another drunk Romanian man who English was bad probably on a sober day, but drunk was even better! Romania actually feels like a whole country of gypsies, as they all want something, and just go around whopping each other on the head. Moms grabbing ears of children, Grandpas slapping children on the neck - always entertaining!