Regular Romanian life: our best adventure

On Saturday, Phillip and I joined our friend Mihaela and her daughter, Karine, at a birthday party for her nephew, Stefi, in the Romanian countryside. The day was the best day of our trip! After Karine finished a media class in town, the four of us headed on the subway to Mihaela's car. Mihaela owns a Volkswagon Golf, a nice little car. When we stopped to pick up groceries to take to the party, the locks on the back doors decided to malfunction. Mihaela was embarrassed, but Phillip and I assured her that it was OK and part of our adventure. We've certainly had cars that act up - sometimes I couldn't open the back gate of our Mitsubishi SUV! Since the VW was a 4-door, the front seats didn't fold over, so Karine and I climbed thru to get to the back. We drove for about an hour to a village south of Bucharest, to Mihaela's family home where her mother, Vasilica, waited for us.

Vasilica, Pat and Mihaela (and Rex in the garden)

Vasilica doesn't speak a word of English, but she has a garden and she makes jam and wine. Phillip and I had to try her wine, which she brought out in a large plastic Coke bottle. To be hospitable, I tried it... and ended up drinking my glass and Phillip's glass (he's not a wine drinker). Whatever the process was before the wine ended up in the soda bottle, it was the right process as it was real wine, better than most I've bought in stores. I strolled thru Vasilica's garden and was so excited to see that she grows the same vegetables that I do! I walked past okra, tomatoes, lots of pepper varieties, beans (she grows pole beans, I grow bush beans), cabbage, parsley and more. My excitement was easily communicated to Vasilica. She told me the Romanian names (okra is "okra,") of the vegetables.

Vasilica's wine back at the hotel (I convinced
her I couldn't take a 2 liter bottle with me)

When it was time to leave for the birthday party, Mihaela said that her mother would stay home. We realized that her decision to stay home was made because of the broken doors, so Phillip climbed over the seat with Karine and me. Vasilica was just beaming when she saw him manuevering into the back so she could ride in the car. When we arrived at the party location, Mihaela's brother just about fell over laughing as we climbed out.

Phillip climbing out (Karine and I managed more easily)

Miheala's family was so hospitable and generous to us. Her brother, Vali, builds houses. Not as a contractor, he physically builds houses. Concrete block is the construction material of choice in the Romanian countryside. Vali built the house we visited, a house where he lives with his pregnant wife, also named Mihaela, and son Stefi, the birthday boy. Vali and his family live next to his wife's grandparents and the two Mihaela's showed me their vineyard and picked grapes.

grapes from the orchard 

Phillip and I have never eaten wine grapes right off the plant. Since the harvest will be soon, the grapes were fully ripe, sweet, and juicy. Both purple and white grapes, although my favorite were the purple grapes. After I ate a bunch and stood there looking at my sticky, stained fingers, Vali's wife took my arm and led me to the faucet on the other side of the house. No words needed, just smiles!

my grapes

Vali grilled out chicken and two kinds of sausages and his wife prepared a cabbage salad, all delicious and exactly like the family gatherings we have, just a different country! After dinner, time for birthday cake. Stefi turned 13, the same age as his cousin Karine who was 13 in August (although Karine is much taller than Stefi!)

Stefi cut and served his cake to the guests

Vali spoke a few, heavily accented words in English, but he and Phillip communucated well over beer. Phillip said the beer wasn't strong and Vali dropped ice cubes in it to cool it. I wasn't watching the time, but I know we left Bucharest shortly after 1 pm and it was dark when Mihaela drove us back to town.

Phillip, Vali, Mihaela, and our Mihaela

Museum time on Sunday. Mihaela and Karine had never visited the Ceausescu House in Bucharest. That's just like us, we haven't visited some of the museums in Fort Worth. The Ceausescu House is a museum and was on my list to see. Nicolae Ceausescu was the communist dictator who ruled Romania from 1965 to 1989. He had a ruthless secret police and tolerated no dissent. Just like today's North Korean leader, Ceausescu created a personality cult and placed his relatives, including his wife, into power positions. By the 1980s, the country experienced food shortages as Ceausescu began exporting agricultural products to fuel his lifestyle and bad development choices. Mihaela said she remembers as a child standing in food lines for bread with her mother. They lived in the country and had a vegetable garden and pigs and chickens, so they didn't go hungry, but in town, people did.

Ceausescu's wife was as bad or worse than he was. According to our guide at the museum, she was the one who ordered their house to be furnished so extravagantly.

example of some of the floor tile
(visitors wear shoe coverings on the tour)

From the outside, it just looks like a big stone house, but inside, where no one saw, it was outfitted with gold leaf all over, imported marble, and indoor gardens.

one of several really fancy bathrooms

The guide said she copied some of the decor of the Peles Castle in some of the rooms. The house also had an indoor swimming pool.

mosaic tiles formed scenes encircling the pool

In 1989, some protests happened in a town and Ceausescu ordered his secret police to fire on the protestors. The protests, however, spread to Bucharest and went nationwide. Shortly after his army joined the protestors, Ceausecu and his wife were arrested, convicted of mass murder and shot by a firing squad. I remember reading about that, as a current event, not as history!

Pat, Phillip, Karine, and Mihaela

After the museum, the four of us went to the mall. I had bought some leggings in Budapest to wear on the cruise, but I needed a shirt to wear with them. We also wanted to take Karine shopping (she just started 8th grade last week). The mall was just like ours, only more vibrant. It was 100% full of shops, some, like H&M, we have, others, just in Romania or Europe. Lots of shoppers on a Sunday afternoon, live music in the atrium area.

Romanian mall, just like USA mall

After Karine and I spent two hours shopping and Phillip and Mihaela spent two hours talking, we left the mall and walked to Mihaela's apartment. We stopped enroute and bought pastries at a bakery (Phillip and I love all the bakeries!). While Karine went to her room to do homework, we played with Mihaela's little dog (while her two cats ignored us), ate pastries, and talked with Mihaela. It was a wonderful evening, but we did leave before dark to get back to our hotel room to pack to travel to Munich. We invited Mihaela to visit us and she and Karine are going to try to make the trip in 2021.
This morning, we flew from Bucharest to Munich and checked into another hotel. This one, near the train station, is nice with a patio away from the street. So, we are back in Germany, or as I've been calling it, the land of bread. Sausage on bread rolls, bread dumplings, every meal with bread. Two nights here then back to see our neice, Becky, and her family before we begin our cruise back to the USA.

Dracula Castle and other Romanian locales

Phillip and I are in Bucharest, Romania. Since my previous post, we flew from Budapest, Hungary, to Bucharest, Romania; took a bus to Brasov (2-1/2 hours); spent two nights in Brasov; had a taxi ride to the train station; took a train to Bucharest; and rode the subway in Bucharest. Almost all of our transportation modes were used! Everything went well. The airport changed the gate for our flight after we got our boarding passes, but I always check the monitors while we wait, so even that was not an issue. 

a lucky day when our subway exit has an escalator up

In Brasov, we stayed at Drachenhaus Hotel, a different type of hotel than we had stayed in previously. Our rooom had a living room and bathroom downstairs and the bedroom upstairs. The stairs up to our room's floor would be challenging to people shorter than me as some of the steps, which you can see on the right side of the hotel picture below, were about 50% higher than what USA steps are allowed to be! I'm glad our packed suitcases are small and weighed less than 12 kg.

Drachenhaus, our room up the stairs on the right

Brasov was a lovely town with an expansive plaza a block from Drachenhaus. A fountain decorated the center of the plaza. Cafes with outside seating lined the plaza and the streets running north and east from the plaza. All cobblestone - roads, sidewalks, plaza. That's why we took a taxi to the train station yesterday. Pulling our suitcases over the cobblestones from the bus stop was extremely tiring for us and rough on the wheels. We've ruined one wheel already. It is, however, extremely beautiful (the cobblestone streets, not the broken wheel). 

Brasov, looking toward the square and surrounding Transylvania Moutains 

During our full day in Brasov, we took a tour of Bran Castle, Peles Castle, and  Rasnov Fortress. Bran Castle, our first stop, was the one with the Dracula connection. It is the only castle in Transylvania that matches the description of Dracula's castle that Bram Stoker wrote in his book. 

Bran Castle, aka "Dracula Castle"

Although Stoker made an effort to avoid basing Dracula on a real person, the character does derive from the stories of Vlad Tepes, ruler of Wallachia in the 1400s. Vlad never lived here, but some historical records indicate he may have been held here for two months when he was captured by the Hungarian king in 1462. 

multi-levels for defense 

This castle's real significance during the Middle Ages was as a customs house for trade in the region. In the 1900s, many of the small, old castles in Romania were falling into ruin. The town owned the castle, so they decided to give it to the new Romanian Queen, Maria. She loved it and in the 1920s, had it updated and remodeled as her royal residence. 

Queen Maria's bedroom in Bran Castle

When Queen Maria died, her daughter Ilena inherited the castle, but had to leave the country when the Soviets took over after WWII. After the Soviets left in 1989, the remaining royalty gave the castle back to the town to be a museum. There's one more Dracula connection, however. When the communists controlled Romania, they allowed "historical" movies to be made. One movie was a story of Dracula/Vlad and the costume used in that movie was in the castle, in a display case. 

Vlad Tepes costume from a 1950s communist-made movie

After Bran Castle, we toured Peles Castle, the only "newly built" castle I've seen. Maria's father-in-law, King Carlos had it built starting in 1873. It was built with electric lights, and elevator and modern conveniences of the year 1900. 

Peles Castle (although technically, it was a palace)

Like all castles, it has lovely landscaping

and these days, plenty of tourists

and fountains and statues.

From Peles Castle, we traveled to Rasnov Fortress. It dates to the 13th century and was a place of refuge for townspeople when outsiders, be they Ottomans, Mongols, Austrian imperial forces or whomever, attacked. It had two courtyards, the outer one for animals and the inner one for people.

Rasnov Fortress

Rasnov Fortress was attacked 50 times but only conquered once, in 1612, when the enemy troops found the fortress's water supply source. After that, the townspeople dug a 479 foot well thru the rock on the inside the fortress. 

Phillip and Pat at the top of Rasnov Fortress

Phillip and I ate well in Brasov. One of our favorite meals, at one of the cafes on the plaza, was of traditionally prepared Romanian cabbage rolls, served over polenta, with sour cream. And a beer! 

Sarmale (Romanian cabbage rolls)

Here in Bucharest, we met with our friend, Mihaela, yesterday when she got off work. We chatted and caught up so much that we forgot to take any pictures of her! We will spend tomorrow afternoon with her as she is taking us with her to a family gathering in the countryside. Today, since Mihaela was at work, Phillip and I walked around Bucharest, seeing some of the landmark sites, but not going into any museums or castles! 

The Romanian communist leader, Ceausescu, built what is today called the Palace of Paliament. It is the heaviest building in the world. Some sources say it is the largest government building (others say our Pentagon is bigger). Phillip and I did not even attempt to walk around it! 

Palace of Parliment

Strolling around after we left Parliament, we turned a corrner and came across the Broken Violin statue. I really liked this one. 

"Broken Violin"

Our last visit today was to the "Old City" area of Bucharest. Cobblestone streets and lots of cafes like Brasov. 

Phillip and I are excited about going into the countryside tomorrow and so happy to visit with Mihaela!