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Sleep It Off
I didn't feel much like jumping out of bed this morning. I think it was well after ten before Margareta knocked on the door and asked if we wanted some coffee. Evidently she thought we were sleeping too long. This woman sure knows how to make you forget about the thieves of Romania, though. Every meal she tries to out-do the last one by making something we might like. This morning we got boiled eggs instead of sunny-side up. Margareta is a little too anxious to spread the butter, fat, and salt into anything on our plates. Midori had a little trouble explaining that she didn't need tons of sugar in her coffee and tea as well. Anyway, we managed to fill up and so we were ready for a day out.
Black Church
Aside from the nearby Dracula Palace, the other big building here is this gothic church. It is a little black on the outside, supposedly from some fire a couple hundred years ago. On the
inside, though, it is just as pristine as any church in Europe. It reminds of how powerful religion can be, sometimes the buildings last longer than the regimes that established them. This church had a great display of old maps and books drawn up by some great guy that lived here a bit. It was funny to see the same old Danube running from Germany to here, yet surrounded by different names like Dacia instead of Romania. Wish they were selling those maps.
Hopping Place
Being Saturday, and summer, someone decided to throw a party. There was a DJ set-up in the main square blasting Euro-dance music for the whole town to hear. Shortly, a whole crowd of people gathered around and started dancing. There were even more people just hanging around to gawk at the young people. Midori and I also sat for a bit, even though the afternoon heat was killing me. Someone came around and passed out free newspapers which I pretended to read. I found out that an American, Jullich, is currently second in the Tour de France. It was a nice little party, and it made the Romania people seem alive and happy if only for a moment.
Templa Hill
Transylvania is in the middle of the Carpathian Mountains. While they are not the highest mountains I have seen, they are quite
beautiful. Fortunately, there are some cable cars and ski resorts
around Brasov which make the mountains more accessible. We bought to round-trip tickets on the cable to the hill that overlooks the city. From the top we could get a much better perspective of the whole city. The old city center surrounded by concrete high-rise apartment buildings and leading out to factories and whatnot. Not many people seem to live in the hills, perhaps thanks to the communist urbanization plans.
Evening
After making some more calls home to Visa and Amex, we returned to our little home to watch TV. It was quite interesting to watch this classic feminist work with two women from countries who don't have any Thelma or Louises. Perhaps the best thing about our stay here is the time we have spent with Margareta. We really can't communicate at all, but a private residence is so much better (and cheaper) than some cold motel in the city center.
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