Gymnasts and Gems

Today we were headed south, back into Transylvania.  Our weather held as we took a different route back up and over the Carpathians.  At this point, I had lost track of how many times we'd crossed the mountains.  Our ultimate destination was the city of Brasov, with which both Katherine and I ended up falling in love over the coming two days.  

View from our Hotel on Friday Morning

Driving out of Targu Mures

Some things don't change...

Along the way, we stopped in the small -- and forgettable -- city of Onesti, which is the hometown of the famous Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci.  She was born here, and we visited the training center where she started gymnastics, and from where she was discovered and ultimately sent to train with the Romanian national team.  The city is obviously proud of her, and the school has multiple displays of her accomplishments, and there is a statue outside, depicting her landing during the Montreal Olympics in 1976, which resulted in the first perfect 10.0 score in the sport.  As we continued south, we learned more about her life, much of which was quite sad.  Aside from her name, I knew very little about her.  I mentioned earlier that there were rumors of her involvement (or sexual exploitation) by one of Nicolae Ceausescu's sons, to which many attribute her removal as coach of the Romanian national team, and ultimate demotion, by sending her all the way back to the school in Onesti.  We also heard of her ultimate escape from Romania to Hungary in 1989, only a few weeks before the revolution.  She was evidently mislead and exploited by a Romanian national with U.S. citizenship, who helped her escape.  She was poorly advised and had no support network to navigate the extreme media attention she received upon reaching the States.  She also had no financial support and made some very poor decisions.  It appears that things have since worked out for her, and she still lives in Oklahoma.  The folks in Onesti were very happy to tell us that she was scheduled to return next year, to take place in a ceremony marking the training school's 50'th anniversary.

Nadia Comaneci Memorabilia

Gymnasts Training Academy

Monument Marking Nadia's Perfect 10 on the Beam in Montreal

The Onesti Gymnasts Academy

On the way to Brasov, we stopped at a small majority-Hungarian town of Targu Secuiesc for lunch.  We had a wonderful traditional Hungarian meal and walked around a bit.  It was a nice way to break up the day.

Hearty Lunch in Targu Secuiesc

The Main Town Square and Park

City Hall in Targu Secuiesc

As we got closer to Brasov, the weather turned and it was lightly raining as we entered the city, which is nestled across two narrow valleys at the foot of a mountain range.  The plan had been for the bus to drop us at the oldest school in Romania, where we were to have a tour, and then we would walk on foot, through the pedestrian-only old town to our hotel, where our bags would already be waiting for us.  With the rain, it appeared we'd tour the school and skip the walk.  In the end, the rain cleared and we did get the walking tour, which was nice.  We started with a visit to the oldest school, which is also billed as the birthplace of the Romanian language.  The visit was interesting, but also very strange.  The school dates back to the 15th century, and we all gathered in a small classroom, with impossibly small and quite old desks.  Our guide turned out to be quite the character, but in a strange way.  He was clearly an academic and seemed to have absolutely no sense of humor or ability to detect sarcasm.  He also took his responsibility to share the details on the school's history very seriously -- probably too seriously.  A couple on our trip were from New York -- they were both born in Uzbekistan, when it was part of the Soviet Union -- and had emigrated to the States.  In fact, they met and married in New York, but that doesn't matter.  The man was quite the jokster, and attempted some humor with the guide which was missed, and set things off on the wrong foot.  We learned about how the Romanian language came to be, and how it was an unofficial secret language for centuries before it was written and codified, which evidently happened at this school.  The school still has the first printing press from the country, and we learned that the first things published in Romanian were actually printed in Cyrillic characters, which fooled the Saxons who controlled the region.  Brasov is another walled, fortified city, and the Saxons lived inside the walls, while the second-class Romanians were limited to a ghetto outside.  In fact, if a Romanian was found inside the gates after dark, they were immediately executed.  As part of their persecution, they were dissuaded from speaking Romanian, and certainly not allowed to print anything in their language.  By publishing phonetic Romanian in Cyrillic characters, they got around this.  The Romanian ladies on our tour found this fascinating, as they had never been taught this history of persecution in school.  

When discussing the evolution of the printing press and moveable type, our regular guide Iulia tried to correct the school's guide on a couple of points.  That devolved into a testy exchange, before our guide walked away.  The local guide was certainly not to be questioned, whereas our guide was trying to clarify his English translation.  We walked upstairs to "the room of treasures."  It was a small and packed room with cases of objects, very few of which were labeled.  Our group walked around somewhat excited, commenting on various pieces.  After a few minutes, the local guide -- having said nothing more about the room -- said we would move to the final room.  Confused, the group filed out, but a few of remained.  I asked him about a book with Queen Victoria's royal seal.  He commented, "I didn't think any of you were interested, so I was going to end the tour."  He was obviously miffed at the previous jokes (which went over his head) and probably the exchange with our guide, and he was -- passive aggressively -- ready to give up.  He was happy to answer my question, after which he started to point out all kinds of treasures around the room. The few of us lucky enough to still be in the room got to hear some fascinating information.  I wish we had more time, as there were so many interesting and original artifacts in the room.  For example, for inexplicable reasons, they have the largest collection of original volumes of Don Quixote in the world.  We eventually had to move to the final room, to join the others, who were confused as to where we had gone.  This room had more artifacts related to life among the Romanian minority during Saxon rule, but ended with discussion of the Romanian national anthem, which was written and first performed in the school.  As if giving us a test, he asked if any of us knew the American anthem and challenged us to sing it.  Before I knew it, our group burst out in song, led most loudly by the immigrants among us, which is always inspiring.  The Romanians and Uzbeks were singing the loudest of all.  He seemed a bit surprised that we had been able to do it, and then he immediately broke into the Romanian anthem, which he sang in a very loud and low voice.  Our guide joined him for the first verse, but then HE WENT ON, singing all five verses, the latter four of which are really never sung.  We grew more uncomfortable as he went on, but no one wanted to be rude.  At the end, some folks rushed out to visit the neighboring church, and others of us stole some last looks and slowly walked out.  Katherine and another from our group ended up going to back in, to ask him about purchasing a map.  Katherine said he was much "more normal" in their one-on-one conversation, and he lamented that the school and museum are entirely funded by donations and lack money to display or even care for many of their treasures. For example, it just came out that they have several original Faberge eggs which are just stored in a basement, as they have not secure way to display them. What a waste.

Church Associated with the Oldest School in Romania

Inside the School Building

The School's "Treasure Room"

One of the Priceless Masterpieces

Book Written in Romanian, But Printed in Cyrillic to Fool the Saxons

Flag Flown at Coronation of Ferdinand and Marie in 1922

Display Showing Previously Outlawed Traditional Romanian Dress

Original Manuscript of the Romanian National Anthem

Once back out in the market square, our guide tried to laugh off the incident, saying that she has always "dealt with academic characters" at the school.  The rain had stopped, so we elected to walk through the old Romanian section, then cross into the old city through one of the two remaining guild gates.  She pointed things out as we went, and showed us things we might want to see the next day, during some built-in free time.

Cemetery Associated with the School

One of Two Remaining Gates to Brasov (four spires denote their authorization to carry out executions)

Synagogue Still in Operation in Brasov

The so-called "Black Church" of Brasov

Some Things You Just Can't Escape

Brasov Market Square

One of Many Jugendstil Buildings in the city

Walking Toward our Hotel

Our hotel was a renovated communist-era building on the outer edge of the pedestrian-only old city.  We had an hour or so to wash and explore a little before we assembled in the lobby.  We had a group dinner at a lovely restaurant in the heart of the old city.  It turned out to be a beautiful night, and the restaurant setting, food, and company was wonderful.  It was a great way to end the day. 

Our Group Dinner in Brasov

We Knew We Had To Get to Dracula Day, Eventually

As I've noted so far, in addition to our very small tour group, up to this point, we have pretty much had Romania to ourselves, from a tourist point of view.  The next two days would be a little different, however.  We'd heard and seen evidence in both Bucharest and Sibiu of the influx of Europeans visiting on a bevy of low-cast air carriers now flying into Romania. The Brit in our group, Kevin, said Bucharest very much has the reputation today which Prague had about 10-15 years ago.  Basically, the place rowdy English men would fly for a "gents weekend" to enjoy cheap alcohol and lovely ladies.  Sibiu and other places were attracting eco tourists and "hipsters" who wanted to see something unique and save money along the way.  Regardless of what may have originally attracted these tourists, and others, to Romania, they almost all end up paying pilgrimage at some point to see the so-called Dracula Castle.  If anything, Romania is known around the world as the home of Dracula, and with that comes all the tourist schlock and associated misperceptions.  

We remain based in Brasov this day, but after breakfast we boarded the bus -- to a bright, sunny day -- and headed out to visit another fortified church and then Bran Castle (aka Dracula's Castle).  By this point, all of us on the tour had already started to hear about Vlad the Impaler, on whom Bram Stoker based the Dracula character, and we would hear more as the day progressed.  I'm convinced scores of people still believe that Bran Castle has an actual connection to Vlad the Impaler, even after visiting, but in reality, it was not his castle and he neither lived there nor owned it.  At best, he might have laid siege to it at some point, but even that is in contention.

Before we went into full Dracula mode, though, we stopped in the small town of Prejmer, where their fortified church is another UNESCO world heritage site.  Given its rather close proximity to Bran Castle, we noted the very large parking lot outside the walls, which could easily accommodate dozens of tour buses.  We arrived when they opened, and aside from one bus of Polish tourists arriving as we were leaving, we had the place to ourselves.  It seemed obvious that in earlier times, we would have had plenty of company.  Prejmer was very impressive, with two rings of incredibly thick -- 20-30 feet -- outer walls.  What was especially unique about this fortification was that built inside the inner-most walls were essentially three stories of rooms, with doors opening onto the central courtyard.  Each room had a number, which corresponded to a family in the village.  Every family was responsible for furnishing their room and stocking it with provisions to sustain them in times of siege.  Every Sunday, as the family attended church services, they would swap out perishable goods, usually using them that week and replacing them until the following weekend.  When there was a threat, each family "simply" moved into their rooms and life continued.  There was a school, blacksmith, foundry, etc. also within the walls, so life could continue pretty much as normal.  The city was never sacked, though they claim a band of Tartars came close.  

Inside the First Wall of Fortification at Prejmer

Tunnel Through the Second Ring of Fortifications

Dwellings Within Prejmer (each family in town had their own numbered room)

Chapel in the Center of Prejmer Fortifications

Prejmer (more Persians Rugs Given as Offerings)

It was about a 30-40 minute ride from Prejmer to the crossroads village of Bran, famous for its castle and really only still existing as a place for tourists to park and hike up to the structure.  Original fortifications for the castle date back to the early 1200's, as it sits on a rocky promontory overlooking a narrow pass connecting Transylvania with Wallachia to the south.  It was built up and then rebuilt many times over the centuries.  It remained in Saxon hands throughout that period, to primarily protect Germans living in the area.  As mentioned, it has no proven link to Vlad the Impaler at all.  In 1920, following the reunification of Romania and the ascension of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie, the castle became property of the royal family.  It was a favorite residence for the queen, who was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and members of her extended relations from royal houses across Europe were said to visit often.  Bram Stoker never visited Bran Castle, and it is not even mentioned in his novel "Dracula."  In fact, it is not known if he even ever read or saw a drawing of the castle.  Some say "yes" and some say "no."  That said, during his research for the book, he read about Vlad the Impaler, and is said to have loosely based the Dracula character on him.  The subsequent linkage of Bran Castle and Dracula seems to be purely tourist based, though some people do claim that Stoker read about it and that sketches in the original versions of Dracula closely resemble Bran.  I personally don't see it.  Either way, the marketing has worked, and given that the castle is only a few hours from Bucharest, it is easily visited by tourists on a day trip.

On the way between Prejmer and Bran

The small town of Bran was already overflowing with tourists when we arrived.  In fact, our bus barely fit into the admittedly small parking area, and I'm still curious how our driver even managed to maneuver in, as he did.  Along with the tourist buses came the souvenir shops and associated detritus.  We struggled to stay together as a group as we navigated a walkway to approach the base of the hill, where the ticket booth was located.  The line of people waiting to get tickets was already quite long.  We had a local guide waiting for us with tickets, which allowed us to bypass the masses and start the walk up to the castle entrance.  I will admit that the castle is impressive, even pretty, and it is certainly well maintained.  Our guide gave us the history, and emphasized that the castle was a royal residence, noting that most of the rooms we would visit were furnished as they were when the royal family lived there.  He had to, of course, acknowledge Dracula, and noted "stories of undead" in the area, and that there were areas inside the castle devoted to Dracula and depictions of him on screen, and so forth.  

To this point of our trip, we had essentially been going mask free. Since exiting the airport upon our arrival in Bucharest, we had been very comfortable, to the point of not always carrying our masks with us.  In hindsight, when we saw the parking lot, we should have known to grab a mask, but we didn't.  As soon as we joined the queue to walk up the final set of stairs and enter the castle proper, it was clear that we were going to be in a mass of humanity...a mass without a mask in sight.  We had on wireless headsets, which allowed us to hear the guide, even if we were not in close proximity.  That helped some, as we could seek out corners or nooks, and let people stream past us.  As we went further in, however, it was harder and harder to maintain separation and both of us started to get extremely conscious of the environment.  Our guide, Iulian, read our faces perfectly, and pulled out a package of fresh masks from her bag, which we -- and many others in our group -- happily snapped up.  We had reached several rooms set aside for exhibits on Dracula lore and vampires in general, which seemed to be garnishing most of the attention.  Having seen the parts we wanted, Katherine and I picked up our pace, abandoned the tour, and worked our way eventually outside, to some welcome fresh air.  It was not our favorite visit of the trip.

Bran (aka Dracula's) Castle

Interior of Bran (one of Queen Marie's Rooms)

View from Castle Over Bran

The Mountain Pass Protected by Bran Castle

King Ferdinand's Chamber, Crown, and Scepter

Black Banner and Union Jack Hung in Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II

We already knew when and where we were to meet the bus, so we had time to explore on our own, away from people as we saw fit.  Though we trolled the tourist and artisan stalls, we had seen most of the the things before, and prices were clearly inflated.  In addition, most of the stalls were also filled with every conceivable schlocky vampire souvenir one could imagine.  We elected to walk the gardens, and then get some lunch, at a place semi-removed from the crowds.  We noted, too, that the castle was sporting a black banner, which had been hung by the current heir to the royal throne, who is still a blood relation to the Windsor family.  The Union Jack was also flying in front of the castle.

Lunch was a nice respite, and we finished just in time to rejoin our group, all of whom seemed to have the same expression.  "Glad we saw it, but let's go."  Iulian knew what we were thinking, but told us that the crowds we had witnessed were about a quarter of what she was used to seeing on a weekend in summer, particularly before Covid.  I guess I'll be thankful for that.

Brosov My Brasov

On the drive back to Brasov, Iuliana went through multiple options for us to spend the remainder of the day, which was on our own.  There were plenty of things to do, including a big fair in the old city, as it was Saturday.  The Romanian ladies were going to take a bus up to a ski resort several miles outside the city, which is known for tremendous views and several restaurants famous for serving all sorts of game, including bear, which are quite prevalent in the area.  As the whether was nice, she had our driver take us up part of the way, to an overlook above the city.  While taking pictures, she surprised us with homemade Cherry brandy she had made, along with locals meats and cheeses.  It was a really nice way to end our time with the group for the day, and recover from the relative chaos of Bran Castle.

View Down to Brasov

Bear Warning Signs Were Everywhere

The day had proven to be quite warm, and while we probably should have changed before leaving the hotel, we didn't.  We headed right out, wanting to visit the fair, walk around the old city, visit their famous "Black Church," and we were going to take a funicular from the city center up the central hill overlooking the town, on which large letters spelling "BRASOV" had been erected, similar to the HOLLYWOOD sign.  It was probably in the 80's this day, and we had been spoiled by much cooler weather, so we took many breaks and ducked into shops trying to cool off.  

We visited the so-called Black Church, which began as a Roman Catholic church in the 14th century, and which was eventually converted to a Lutheran church during Saxon times and through today.  It is particularly known for its collection of priceless Persian carpets, which hang on walls throughout the church.  They were collected by rich merchants over the centuries, who would present them to the church as gifts, usually on behalf of whichever guild they belonged to.  Popular legend has it that the name Black Church is attributed to scorch marks left after the Austrians tried to burn the city in the 17th century, but more modern research says the name is more likely attributed to pollution, which had turned the outside a dark color.  

Bullet Holes From Uprising in Brasov During December 1989 Revolution

Brasov

Interior of the so-called "Black Church"

From here, we envisioned a short walk to the funicular base station, but given the geography, we couldn't even see the funicular from the church square.  Relying on Google Maps, we walked our way to the base of the hill and, to our surprise, we had quite a hike up, just to reach the base station.  We joked that we might as well just walk all the way, as someone thought to end the line so far up the mountain.  Still, we'd made it that far, so we weren't going to turn back, despite the fact that we were both quite sweaty by this point.  Having finally reached the base station we thought we were scot free, but when we actually entered the building, we realized there was a two-story-long line to even each the ticket booth.  We persisted and waited, though it was very hot and we were in very close proximity with humanity at this point.  Not only were we the only tourists, but we were also the one people wearing masks.

We finally made it onto the funicular, which was packed, and made the short ascent to the top of the hill.  We were so hot by then, we debated getting right back into line and going down, but we found our second wind and hiked about 10 minutes over to reach the BRASOV sign, from where we had some spectacular views down into the city and across the wider valley.  We agreed it had been worth all the effort.

On Our Way Trying To Find the Funicular Base Station

View of Funicular and Our Destination

View From Behind the "BRASOV" Sign

Brasov

The Long (and Sweaty) Ride Back Down

Once back down below, we stopped for a cold drink and to detox.  It was after 6:00pm by now, so we walked back town the central square, on the way back to our hotel.  Iuliana had pointed out her favorite restaurants the following evening, and we had one already picked out.  We managed to get a table inside, and the waiter spoke excellent English and was able to read us the menu, which was only in Romanian.  Every course of our meal was outstanding, to include the very elaborate drinks.  As dinner carried on, though, we both pretty much hit the proverbial wall, so when the bill came, we were more than ready to head back for bed.  As before, we could not believe how cheap the meal was, and we certainly didn't begrudge the very generous tip we left.

On the Walk to Dinner

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