A Day in Transylvania, Romania
Flying into Bucharest Romania with Lufthansa (in Business Class of course) was on time, relaxing and incident free. We landed at 6.30 pm local and our limousine transfer took us to the JM Marriott Grand Hotel This hotel is a massive 5-star establishment and unbeknown to us on arrival, the hotel was being used for an EU conference this evening and similarly over the next couple of nights so security was considerable with all access points blocked off and so all entering traffic questioned. We were allowed through; hotel check-in was a breeze and informed that we have an excellent suite.
A stark reminder
With all due modesty, I continue to excel in my selection of accommodation whenever we travel😊. This time we have a corner suite with 2 bathrooms (!), a large bedroom with another room accommodating a considerable sitting area, a bar and a fair-sized office area.
Pretty smooth…. but there was a stark reminder that we’re not “in Kansas – or Sydney – anymore” …. the safe itself was not secured to the wall on ANY side let alone on at least one side…. despite it being locked, any “muscular” individual could simply carry the safe away!! Needless to say, we resorted to different (but long trusted) security measures for our valuables…. like hiding cash in dirty underwear….(follow me for more “secure travel tips”😊)
Waste of a Cathedral
Anyway, we’re located on the 4th-floor. We’re able to have a view of the hotel’s front entrance and a spectacular aspect of a massive cathedral being built…. although why would any religion spend huge sums of money on such a building, with seriously declining church values AND attendances instead of spending the monstrous sums in other needy areas, is beyond me. Overall, the feel of the city (from all aspects) is that its considerably behind Australia’s…. yes, we come from the Lucky Country.
Incidentally, whilst transiting Munich airport, we came across an extraordinary cafe: it had wall-to-wall herbs, stretching floor to ceiling and this herbal theme was extended to all tables….quite unique!
Sorin from Viator
The next morning, I didn’t go for a power walk as I was expecting us to walk quite a bit during the day! Anyway, with breakfast finished, we were picked up by our guide Sorin from Viator. The car is a Mercedes, comfortable, very clean, tidy and looking exceptionally safe.
This day was dedicated to exploring Transylvania. It was a 14-hour day trip having returned to our hotel at 9.45 pm. Incidentally, I must add from the outset that throughout the day, Sorin was hugely knowledgeable, respectful, courteous, patient and most helpful. As an example, we didn’t have local currency so he loaned us some (we paid back of course!). Equally important, he was a careful driver and was always ensuring that no grief came to us. Feeling secure.
Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest is a city of 2.5m permanent residents with a further 1.0m people constantly moving in and out of the city as work dictates.
Our guide told us that unemployment is very high, hence that’s why many Romanians work in other countries (mostly throughout EU) and for which they are paid lower rates (BUT much higher than what they can earn in Romania).
Romania was under communist rule until 1991. Following the revolution, which included the arrest of Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his subsequent execution for crimes against the nation in 1989, Romania elected its first democratic parliament.
As background, Sorin grew up under the Romanian dictator’s rule and recalled the many hardships endured and atrocities dished out including whole families disappearing for dissenting and school children being used for propaganda (it was incredibly difficult to explain/describe to our grandchildren such an upbringing).
Romanian social life was almost non-existent and where it existed, it was severely curtailed at that time and he recalled learning English from smuggled videos, movies and English books, all of which were illegal!
Environs of Bucharest
Our journey out of the city provided us with numerous contrasts. In the city, graffiti is rife and unfortunately, rivals that of Rome’s graffiti for ugliness!!
Many of the buildings are old and tired. Most are in need of repair or in a state of disrepair. The architecture of many apartment blocks is simply bland and grey while many of the newer shops and community buildings reflect grander styles as the “western affluence” takes more hold in Bucharest. Despite the revolution having taken place more than 30 years ago, it’s taking a long time for this nation to catch up. Traffic is the same as elsewhere: too much and at times chaotic by our standards. Police presence was very evident. Yet again I appreciate my homeland Australia.
Religion in Romania
Romanians (at least the older ones) are quite religious (patron saint is St Patrick) with their major denomination being Greek Orthodox. This is distinct in a number of ways from the Russian Orthodox.
Sorin went to great length to emphasize the Romanian’s religious difference: for example, the sign of the cross by the Greek Orthodox is through the use of 3 fingers as opposed to the Russian Orthodox using the whole palm and it in turn being different to Roman Catholic going left to right as opposed to right to left…. and Christians “bitch” about Muslims and vice versa!!!!! What an absolute power merry-go-round religion is!!
Palace of Parliaments
We passed the Parliament building which is a massive marble edifice. It is 15 storeys above ground with a similar 15 storeys below ground. So massive and labyrinth-like in size it is that Sorin stated one requires a GPS to get around whilst inside it! It was built by its dictator as a way of radiating his absolute power. Graphically, this building is the heaviest building in the world weighing in at 4.0m tonnes! By today’s standards of currency, this parliament building is the most expensive administrative building in the world valued at AUD$7.0B!
Henri Coanda Airport, Bucharest
We passed the Henri Coanda Airport (the airport we came in yesterday). Sorin informed us that Henri was a great Romanian. He invented the “turbo engine” and the “laser gun-sight” Apparently, Romanians are very inventive, resilient and industrious despite their character being severely tarnished by the behavior of Gypsies and infamous dictator.
Romania boasts numerous achievements/inventions including the “biro pen” invention (this is a well known pen for us seniors😊), world class sports people including Olympian Johnny Weissmuller (original Tarzan), Nadia Comaneci, Ilie Nastase and many others. The Romanian language is derived from Roman/Italian. In fact, I could understand and read a number of words.
Power generation in Romania
We pass a number of power plants on the way to Transylvania including a nuclear power plant which is 2.5 times the size of Japan’s Fukushima. It’s an interesting tit-bit that in a country of 19.0m, Romania makes use of nuclear power whereas Australia, with 25.0m struggles at times to have a sufficient, efficient and affordable power grid when Australia has the world’s largest reserves of coal AND uranium!! We are happy to export both but not make use of it to our detriment…. “tail wagging the dog!!!”.
Romania is self-sufficient in its power needs and Australia struggles!! I guess there are “swings and roundabouts” …. Whereas Australia is renowned for its lack of corruption (# 13), Romania is apparently quite rife with it (# 68)….
On the way to Transylvania
As we leave the city and its environs, we are across the rich farming delta lands. We start to climb the Carpathian Mountain Range. In the distance we see the railway line on which the famous Orient Express (from Istanbul to Paris and made famous by Agatha Christie), travels.
As we make our way to Bran Castle, we stopped at a wayside café next to ski lodge to take some seriously magnificent views of the Transylvanian countryside, hills and mountains and the odd house here and there.
Alongside this lodge we saw people employed to split wood for the winter (for central heating). Very rustic….one way of employing people, I guess….after all, one has to put food on the table!
Peles Castle
We arrived in Sinaia and subsequently, Peles Castle. It’s quite cold. This castle is the Romanian Royal Family’s Summer Palace. The building of the castle was started in 1873 and completed in 1949 after war interruptions. This is the first castle in Europe with electricity, an elevator and air-conditioning.
The government would like to have it opened to the public but the royal family continues to refuse despite the enormous amount of money being offered to the royals to upgrade it. The structure is beautiful. The murals are imposing. The wooden architecture striking. The surrounding gardens are stately and are an attempt to emulate Versailles. We took many photos, drank the atmosphere and views and enjoyed an espresso, courtesy of Sorin.
Sinaia
Sinaia itself is a mountain town resort and is named after its famous monastery which in turn was named after the biblical Mt Sinai.
The town is a popular destination for hiking and winter sports especially downhill skiing. We saw many crisscrossing trails across the landscape.
Sorin told us that another reason why Sinaia attracts so many tourists is because there are a number of mineral springs in nearby Cainelui Valley which locals claim contain healing/therapeutic elements!! Sorin also told us that severe penalties are in place for anyone caught picking up flora or cutting down trees in this region. He said it is expressly forbidden to pick any alpine plants!!
Sinaia Monastery
Our next stop was the Sinaia Monastery and from here Nanna bought a few religious items for our daughter (of course, Nannas are renowned for this). As for the monastery itself, it is impressive for its stunning frescoes, remarkable for its layout and its surroundings are wonderfully peaceful. It is 400 years old, named after Mt Sinai, dedicated to St Catherine and is the repository for Romania Royal Family’s jewelry. With an average of 20 monks residing at any given time, this is a working monastery.
We were told that one never walks back the same way one enters to and around this place…. always walk forward in a show of respect and progress…. perhaps also to control!! Religious intrigue😊
Bran Castle
And so, we arrived at Bran Castle in Transylvania, more commonly known as Dracula’s Castle. Built on solid rock (no foundations!) and containing 57 rooms (with secret passageways, dungeons and watch towers) it exudes Gothic/Transylvanian “menace”😊. Nevertheless, we saw no signs of any “evil spirits” or “vampires”!
Transylvanian territory has been fought over for centuries by Hungary and Romania, each laying claim to it at various times until 1920 when a Treaty was signed and Transylvania become part of Romania for all time.
As we climbed the fairly steep hillside to the actual castle, we are confronted with an impossibly long queue for entry which turned out into a 2-hour wait!! The queue consisted of children, tourists and Romanians (yes school holidays in Romania at this time).
We struck up a conversation with two English couples which continued on for the next 2 hours until we parted company. This castle attracts about 1.0m tourists a year.
It is a “Cittadella” and was built in 1335 and was used extensively around 1440 in defending the region against the Ottoman Empire.
Dracula’s Castle has been made famous through a novel written by Bram Stoker who used the atrocities committed by Vlad III as the cornerstone in creating the Dracula character. Fact: Stoker never visited Romania, let alone the castle, in writing his novel and purports that Dracula was a direct descendant of Attila the Hun!
Through numerous movies and other literature over the decades, Transylvania, the fictitious character of Dracula and associated vampires have been immortalized and in so doing, created images forever etched in billions of minds of the most hideous creatures ever to roam our nightmares bent on blood sucking, fang protruding, curdling atrocities and unimaginable torture!!…. which the young ones just love!
When we finally entered the castle, it was made known to us that none of the furniture and other paraphernalia were originals but that all had been meticulously recreated from available images under instruction from the Archduke of Romania. Nevertheless, it was interesting to visit. In many parts the castle was gloomy and eerie, at times dangerous to climb, quite often claustrophobic, surreal in its vivid display of so-called artifacts of torture and medieval weaponry and frankly the only redeeming feature I found solace in is that our grandchildren would have been fascinated by the pretend ghoulishness of this environment😊
Castle Rasnov
Next, we trekked to Castle Rasnov situated in the hills overlooking Brasov and with the Carpathia Mountain Range vividly in the near background. We had to climb firstly via the funicular and then physically climb some more until we reached the top.
The views from this fortress are simply spectacular. Everywhere you look you stand in awe of what you see, most especially with the snow-covered Carpathia in the near distant and the city of Brasov below the mountains.
The fortress is said to have been built between 1211 and 1225. Apparently it was conquered only once in all of its history and has withstood a number of conquest attempts by the Ottoman Empire.
Brasov
Lastly, we arrived at Brasov where we strolled around a few areas of this city, taking in the Black Church (so called because it caught on fire and the soot colored it black hundreds of years ago!). The city itself is 900 years old.
We had a dinner at a restaurant named Ceaun as recommended by Sorin. We had soup and cabbage rolls.
By this time, we had to head back as it was going to be 2-3hr drive and it was already late. We arrived back at the hotel at 9.45 utterly exhausted but quite fulfilled with our adventure to Transylvania.
