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| romania |
| bucharest, transylvania |
| Well it's either a love it or hate it city. Pompous buildings, classical architecture, statues and fountains, a helluva lot of vicious stray dogs and not much else. Personally, I came, I saw, I went, I don't need to go back. |
| Bucharest |
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| The fantastic fountains of Piata Unirii and (right) the Arcul de Triumf, completed in 1936 to commemorate Romania's 1918 reunification and modeled after, what else but, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. |
| The Dambovita River runs along side the Old Town of Bucharest and (right) a wildly coloured cow sculpture (strangely common all-over Eastern Europe) in the Historic Quarter. |
| The sprawling Palatul Parlamentului, or House of the People, built over five years utilizing over 20,000 workers and 700 architects using exclusively Romanian material. The building has indoor space of 330,000 square metres and is the second largest building in the world after the US Pentagon. (Right) A Romanian gypsy lights a prayer candle outside a chapel in the Historic Quarter. |
| Statues form the entrance to this building, (left) a paved walkway and (below) beautiful classical architecture, all in the Historic Quarter. |
| (Left) A Vlad Tepes bust at Vlad's Old Princely Court and (right) some tombstones uncovered in the Court. Vlad 'The Impaler' Tepes, was ruler of a region of Romania, Wallachia, in the 15th-century. He gained his nickname after the primary form of punishment he used against enemies -- piercing them down the spine on a wooden stake without severing any major arteries or nerves, ensuring at least 48 hours of severe suffering before death. He was also said to have drunk and bathed in human blood. And thus we have the beginnings of the legends about Romania's vampires. He later took the name 'Dracula' meaning 'son of the dragon' after his father Vlad Dracul. |
| I found the ivy growing on the side of this building, across from a chapel in the Old Town, kind of interesting. Is that a cross? |
| In Transylvania, the region through central Romania, I visited the towns of Brasov, Rasnov, Bran, Sinaia, Sighisoara, Arad and Timisoara. Of course, the name is synonomous with vampires and werewolves who haunt the hills and streets in these cities. The landscape is gorgeous, the Carpathian Mountains, green forested hills and rivers are the backdrop to incredible, fairytale-like castles perched high atop cliffs. |
| Transylvania |
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| The central Piata Sfatului and old Town Hall of the pedestrian-only street Strada Republicii in Brasov. |
| An view of Brasov from the top of Mount Tampa. |
| Biserica Neagra in Brasov, so named the 'Black Church' because of the way it looked after a fire in 1689. It's being restored. (Right) A gypsy women begging. |
| Some of the architecture in Brasov and (right) Biserica Ortodoxa Nicolae, constructed in 1595. |
| A view east over Transylvania from the top of Mount Tampa in Brasov and (right) Jessica and Nathan, from Tennessee, waiting patiently with me for a bus. |
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| Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle, even though the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes, probably never even visited here. It's in a small forest in the town of Bran, perced high atop a cliff. It wasn't very scary, it had windows and there was no basement crypt filled with coffins. (Right) Dracula's door-knocker and Dracula's window. |
| Everybody was having a good time, even the packs of stray dogs tag-teaming each other. |
| You can even by Vampire blood wine. |
| Where there are tourists, there are cheap tacky souvenir stands. Here, they were selling monster masks and vampire fangs. I bought a mug! |
| Our tour group out for a traditional Romanian lunch. I ate gloop and chicken and mashed up corn! |
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| Peles Palace in Sinaia. Home to the first Romanian King, King Carol in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The palace was incredible and has over 160 rooms, many covered completely in delicate wood carvings, gigantic mirrors, silks, statues, oil paintings, murals and wood inlay. Materials used include ebony, teak, white and black marble, ivory and oak, there was even a machine retractable stain glass ceiling. Several of the rooms were regional, recreated palace chambers from India, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, China. They contained teak furniture, incense burners, nargile Turkish waterpipes, flawless crystal mirrors, Italian glasswork and chandeliers. The theatre mural was painted by Gustav Klimt as one of his first commissioned works as a young student. |
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| Casa Vlad Dracul, the home where Vlad 'The Impaler' Tepes (Dracula) was born in 1431, in Sighisoara. Now, you can have coffee there. |
| Turnul cu Ceas, the grand clock tower of Sighisoara, now the History Museum. |
| Me on top of the Clock Tower with a view of Sighisoara below. |
| Another view of Sighisoara. |
| Gypsies in the train station. |
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