GFPKTravels2

Greetings! When the revolution came to Romania in 1989, one of the most shocking news that emerged to the rest of the world was the number of children that were living in orphanages in complete squalor.  In order to fulfill Ceausescu's grand plan to build Romania into a super-power, he encouraged (required) mothers to increase the number of children they bore to absurd numbers.  All families were to have seven children, and bonus were given for every child beyond that.   Abortions were illegal, and housing was distributed to large families.  At the time of the revolution, over 100,000 children were living in 1700 orphanages at a subsistence level barely sustainable.  This morning, we met Ionut, a 36-year old who told us about that history as a result of his research after attending school with some of the children of the orphanages. Most of our group went to see Ceausescu's house this afternoon, while Pat and I went to the Museum of Geology.  We took ...

Greetings! As Pat said just before returning to our room after lunch, "What did we do today?"  "Oh yea, we walked the streets, listened to a revolutionary, toured the City,  had lunch, and walked back to the hotel".   In doing so, the first impression we had of Budapest (big communist-style buildings built after most of the past were bombed in WWII) changed.  Most of this morning was shown or explained to us through the eyes of someone who lives here.   Egmont Puscasu was 15, and ready for the revolution.  His family had experienced more than their share of oppression by President Ceausescu, and he didn't hesitate when it found him.  Leading a rally in what is now called Revolution Square on December 21, 1989, and seeing a friend killed next to him (and taking a bullet himself), he began a life fighting for his country's freedom.  This morning he delivered a riveting description of the life before, during, and after the 1989 revolution...

Greetings! Today was a transit day, from Sibiu to Bucharest.  Back down from Transylvania, through the Carpathian Mountains , southeast to the Capitol.  Along the way, we stopped at another very old monastery, packed with locals seeking guidance and blessings, and listening to what some of us were reminded of Muslim prayer calls.  Lunch was at a large new gas station, and the sandwiches and salads hit the spot. Many hours later, after checking into the Park Inn by Radisson , we went out for dinner at the oldest continuously operating hotel in Romania (or Europe).  It's a converted Caravanserai , where traders stopped with their wagons and wares from Constantinople.  In addition to filling our tummies, the dancing and music was a perfect end of a long day.  On the walk back home, down the main pedestrian street on a Sunday night at 10pm, we were treated to a City Philharmonic concert. To see all of the photos taken today, and some videos, click on Sunday, Se...

Greetings! Instead of going to Corvin Castle today, Pat complained enough to get the day targeted on the  Astra Museum of Traditional Folk Civilizations .  It covers a square mile of Dumbrava Forest, and is the largest open-air museum in Romania, and one of the largest in Central and Eastern Europe.  There are over 300 houses, two large lakes and 10 miles of walkways.   Beginning in 1905, efforts to create what was then dubbed "a shelter for keeping the past" began.  First titled the Ethnographic Museum, which morphed in the 1960's into an open-air museum with high folk technology as its theme, then became part of the Brukenthal Museum Complex, and finally it inclluded elements of housing and community buildings.  There are really old wooden structures which house functions you can definitely imagine were necessary, but you probably have never seen before.  We saw mills of every size on the many creeks, presses for every commodity and aimed at cr...

Greetings! The City tour this morning began with the Holy Trinity Cathedral , inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul,  A relatively new church, first proposed in 1857, it was finished in 1904.   Next was the Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral , the most famous Gothic-style church in Sibiu.  It was originally built as a Catholic Church, dedicated the St Mary.  In the 16th century, it became a Lutheran parish when Johannes Honter converted the Transylvanian Saxons to Protestantism. For three centuries, it served as a burial place for mayors, earls and other personalities from Sibiu.  It has two large organs, and we are hoping to attend a concert tonight to hear them. The Bridge of Lies was the first cast iron bridge built in Romania.  Legend has it that it will collapse if someone tells a lie while standing on it.  Our guide indicated that the Country's recent President has delivered some pronouncement there, and it hasn't collapsed yet. We made our way t...

Greetings! Today was a transit day from Sighisoara to Sibiu.  On the way, our guide (Joe) took us to his home in Targu Mures.  The family homestead his grandparents built, it is a continually-remodeled and expanded one-story structure containing many stories.  Joe and his brother own it now, and he proudly revealed all of its secrets of his childhood.  Pat commented that it was much more liveable than her grandfather's home house in Italy.  I took the opportunity to photograph family member photos displayed in the living room to use in an Ancestry.com family tree I'm playing with for Joe's family. Next, we went to the Salina Turda Salt Mine.   Like something out of a science fiction movie, this enormous hole in a dried salt lake is a must to see.  Not only is the mine itself a spectacular work of man, but so is the adaptation of its insides to accommodate the thousands of visitors who descend sixteen floors via impressively-lighted and speedy elevators...