GFPKTravels2

For forty years, we've told ourselves we were saving traveling in Europe until we were old.  It would be when our bodies no longer could easily climb and descend tall stairs and trails.  It would be when we our tastes would not savor as much spice and risk.  It would be when we'd run out of exciting things to see, and people to meet.  On this trip, from August 12th to September 21st, Europe's eastern border stretched to the Black Sea.  We traveled from Germany to Romania.  We found we're not yet old.   And what we found in the countries was not what we thought it would be. It's people were richer, in every country.  They had experienced more trauma, had fought against tyranny, sacrificed more happiness, and won more freedom than we ever imagined.  As a result, we didn't find a dull grey landscape populated by oppressed and depressed people.  Instead, we saw places being restored which revealed a thousand years of vibrant community l...

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...

Greetings! On our drive around the area this morning, we first stopped at the Domeniul Dracula Danes Estate.  Six hundred hectares of horse facilities which were seized during the Soviet era, returned to its owners in 1990, and expanded into a tourist destination.   Included now is a mini-zoo of exotic animals, many indoor and outdoor riding arenas, and a hotel/restaurant. In the village of Malancrav, we met Carla, a master weaver.  In her studio, she walked us through the entire process required to produces some of the finest rugs in Romania.  Almost all of the colors produced in her materials come from local sources, and the designs illustrate stories of local areas.  One couple in our group left with two of her rugs. Finally, we drove to the town of Biertan, a World Heritage site.  One of Transylvania's most important medieval Saxon villages (beginning in 1242 until it became the home of the Saxon Archdiosese in 1572), its fortified location now con...

Greetings! Are we ever going to get tired of city tours?  This morning at 9am, we yet again stretched our legs to see how this little 25,000 person town  showed off its 900-year history.  We found a magnificent clock tower,  a church/school "on a hill" reached by a wood- covered 175-stair staircase (to support kids in the cold winters), and an old cemetery in the mountain woods. Two-hundred and fifty years of residents, the cemetery seemed a perfect project for an Ancestry.com grant, until I returned home later to find that the website had 65,490 records from the town already.  It was relieving to descend the hill gradually through centuries of tombstones and benches, even though much of it was over cobblestones. As I think I mentioned, the town's battle towers were staffed by the members of guilds (blacksmiths, barbers, tinsmiths, etc.).   In proper town fashion, we visited the Museum of the Guilds, where we saw ceramic tiles displaying German, Saxon,...

Greetings! On the way into this small town ( Sighisoara ), our guide (Joe) announced with great glee that we had truly arrived in Transylvania.  Surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, in a bowl of pretty terrific soil, and born of almost a thousand years of Saxon  influence, this town deserves the joy of our guide.  We will learn more about it during our three-day stay. On this transit day, we visited a fortified tower ( Rupea Fortress ), rode a horse-drawn wagon to Viscri to meet a blacksmith (Ivan), accepted the invitation to examine a Saxon-fortified church, stuck our heads briefly into the gates of one of King Charles III local properties, shared a soup and goulash lunch in a large community home, and a  special desert at a nearby "gastronomic location".   Using crepes prepared for our lunch, we walked a few blocks to a local jam-maker.  Gherda Gherghiceanu provided us with a dozen home-made jams to scoop into the crepes.  Gherda is the insp...

Greetings! Greetings! Our Tour provider (Overseas Adventure Travel) insists on spending some of our time in what they call"A D ay in the Life".  Today, we were treated to spending the morning and lunch with Nicola, her husband Stephan, and her sons Stephan Jr, and Vlad.  They live in the village of Bod, about 30 minutes from Brasov. They run what Kiki called a "gastronomic establishment", which provides a space in her town for a combination of local meal gatherings (Pub) and tourist group meals.  In the course of explaining what it takes to be responsive to the baptism party yesterday, and the OAT Home Visit today, they helped us understand that they couldn't just serve anything they wanted to, or that other request.   Romania's version of Farm to Table means that they must document that what they serve is actually either grown on their farm, or purchased from a neighbor.  And what they serve must be essentially what they eat.  So don't go expecting to...

Greetings! This morning, our guide (Joe) led us on a city tour.  Brasov is hosting a very large open-air concert in the city center (Holygram is headlining), and you could hear them doing sound checks from anywhere we walked.  The band evidently broke up a few years ago, and this must be a special performance in support of the Green Energy movement here in Eastern Europe.  Their sound is reported to have a Snake Corps/Sad Lovers and Giants feel to it.  From what I heard in the warmup, it's Stevie Nicks meets Metallica. We found the third narrowest street in the world.  Designated an official street with proscribed width so that horse-drawn firewagons could get through it to the other side of the town centuries ago, it's now a great collection of graffiti.  Unsurprisingly, the Jewish Quarter was at the end of it, and we visited the City's largest synagogue.  Though a Saturday, we were let in in silence to sit in segregated sides. Passing through the so...

Greetings! Today was a very early start to a long transit day.  It took us a couple of hours to get to the border of Bulgaria and Romania, but the crossing was smooth. Plenty of Bulgarians were headed north to exactly where we're going, and the traffic was heavy and slow.  Our challenge was to make it to the number one traveled spot - Brasov, in time to get the last inside tour of the Castle Peles .  The means if we didn't get there by 4:15pm, we'd be out of luck. The castle is the home of the King of Romania (Carol I) , and we entered a little after 4pm.  The King began his Romanian leadership by being recruited to assume the title of Prince Domnitor in 1866 while the country was in chaos after a military coup d'etat.  A Prussian officer,  the brother in law of Phillip of Flanders (whom those who threw out the previous leader preferred), and with the recommendation of Napolean III, Carol accepted the position.  A popular interim leader, he was electe...

Greetings! We're about ready to leave Bulgaria and cross into Romania.  The town of Veliko Tarnovo has been just about everthing we needed to get to know Bulgaria.  It provided history, architecture, statues, hilltown streets and stairs up and down, restaurants with great food, fighting towers named after knights on their way to Crusades, tourist shops where you could buy almost anything, rose petal products, and a DHL office which sent off a crucial document to California. I really want to thank my companion travelers for their understanding and tolerance to modify the trip schedule and routine enough to make sure my need to send a document from here to an office in California while we were k=hiking up and down narrow difficult streets on out adventure today.  It really isn't easy explaining to clerks in a Bulgarian office if you don't speak Bulgarian, and they don't speak English.  It's especially difficult if they won't let you call a friend who speaks both l...