Brasov, Romania Day 4

Brasov, Romania Day 4

The 1998 Silver Dacia fires up. We leave the parking spot. All 5 of us. Quickly maneuvering through Brasov early morning traffic, headed to one spot out in the country. Little does this place know that 600 years later some tourists from a far off country would be excited to come see what it has become. The Romanian countryside pipes sweet fragrant air into the car. Wildflowers galore. Birds flying, butterflies floating, wild dogs running, and eyes wandering. Wandering out into the openness of rolling hills, farmland as far as you can see. Most people working by hand, except for only a few visible tractors. Roma people out on horse drawn carts carrying the recent goods to the market. We make a turn down a bumpy pot holed road leaving the slick asphalt behind. Many bumps later and only after passing Roma villages, we find ourselves in an old German Saxon town. There is a wide main street of cobble stones. It seems as if we are in a future X Files episode. A dozen tourists walk the street in mostly silence until interrupted by a barking dog or chickens making their calls. Gabriel has taken us to a Saxon Village from the early 19th century. We wander and look around for a bit. He has told us that this is where Prince Charles owns a house to come to when he needs some peace and quiet. This is a great place to find it. We are told that there are no police out here and the German community speaks Romanian, Hungarian, and German.

After looking around at the houses, some kept up nicely, and others totally dilapidated, we headed to the fortress on the hill. Katherine had heard about these towns that should be kept up and protected, but if you have a car and are willing to drive out into the country, you can explore almost every inch of them. There were some locals using long bladed sickles to keep the grass down and we entered through a gate which looked like it was not the "real" entrance. It was. Gabriel had run up the stairs and found the old woman manning the gate. We paid a small entrance fee and proceeded to check out the entire fortress. There was a surrounding wall with a church and a watch tower in the center. Behind the fortification wall was small room for living quarters and shops for iron and food storage. The support wood was all still original and there had not been much restoration. The church was flat out creepy with wavering walls, a rear choir area with the painting still on the wood. The floor was all made of wood panels the creaked as you walked. It gave off a musty, old, damp smell which only added to the aura. We proceeded to the tower through a rear entrance in the back of the church. It was a winding stairway that was dark and steep. The ceiling above you would break off if you bumped against it. Up farther, we kept winding and ended in the tower climbing wooden ladders to each floor. Now, I'm up for climbing and have no fear of heights, but if you are going up something this old and breaking apart, something just doesn't feel right. We topped out on the 360 degree lookout ledge at extreme top of the tower. The view was amazing, with a clear sky allowing us to see across the hills. This location was truly thought out to be able to spot oncoming intruders and notify the guards to close the gates. The descent was a little sketchy while boards creaked and dirt crumbled. I do not see this fortress being unprotected like this for long. I almost felt guilty being there stomping around and adding to it's deterioration. It was a short walk back to the car and we cruised by Prince Charle's house, which was normal and looked like all the others. Gabriel asked the locals where the prince liked to chill and we were pointed in the correct direction. I imagine there is some crazy security when he shows up. We saw nothing of the sort in the peaceful quitet country escape.

On the way out, Gabriel wanted to show us a Roma (gypsie) village that has been intact for God knows how long. The whole time in the car we were conversing about Romanian culture and the influence of the Roma. Gabriel was actually dating a Roma woman for a while and had some great insight to their lives and customs. That's a whole other blog entry, but it pretty much is about people squatting in the country and forest. They live in little villages off the grid and find any way possible to make a buck, sometimes in the most desperate, intriguing ways. Or, the just beg for cash. We saw a mother on e the side of the road, breastfeeding, come out of the woods with her children. One, only wanted water, the others were just wandering. She had a cup for money. Now, back to the village.... We came across a little commune with a few buildings, horses, water well (from which we got water) and children playing in the street. Gabriel just stops the car and says that this place is fine and we all get out. We are swarmed in an instant by mothers and children and he is off to the property. He is interested in the wall of the barn the one young man was repairing. He was using a mud mixture of horse manure to build a wall. Gabriel translated everything for us and we even asked some questions. There were rabbits in cages, horses in the barn, and a few chickens. The living quarters was unlike anything I had seen before. They lived in what looked like a same building as the horses were inside. Dirt floors, dirt walls, and the roofs were made of any material they could find. Some sheet metal, some plastic, wood, and clay tiles. Wow. In the business of the visit, Gabriel was asking and talking to them about supplies while I was watching the car and where people were located. The children were as interested with us as we were with them. But then, Gabriel says the young man wants to know if I think the young women are pretty. Uhhhh. I said politely, " of course.". But, I was a little unknowing about what was actually going on. Many Roma see foreign visitors and are willing to sell anything for a buck. Services, etc. Oh no! This must be a frequent thing for people passing through Roma villages, and we were right in the middle of one. The longer we waited, the more people were coming. Gabriel said that the next time he would come by, he would bring some treats and food. This made them happy and we were excited to get going. Things started feeling a little sketchy. Whew!

We headed on to the town of Sighisoara just a bit down the road. This is another wonderfully preserved medieval village bearing the birthplace of Vlad Tepes. It has a few churches situated on the mountains allowing for a nice view of the town below. We were amazed at the amount of the tourist crap available. Everything from Scream masks to Dracula shot glasses. Prices were high and this felt a little too Disney World for us, so we saw a couple of the historic sights and the really old cemetery and moved on. I will say the streets were kept up nicely giving the medieval vibe, but it's difficult to figure out what's authentic and what's there to impress the tourists. Still, it was beautiful and was something I had not ever seen before.

The ride back to the hostel was full of conversation once again. Our new friend Ches was a riot only adding to the mayhem in the old Dacia silver speedster. Gabriel stopped to get a watermelon for desert at home and we ended the day feeling spent and overwhelmed. The Romanesca restaurant was once again visited for the bacon-cheese mushrooms and local hoppy beverages. It was a great day. Wow! This county has seen some large changes in society and civilization through the years.