Ascent of Poienari Fortress

So we spent the night at the lay-by under the Poienari Fortress,

Vlad's place

And bright and early the next morning, Friday,
I climbed the 1480 steps (concrete, with
hand-rails all the way) up to the castle ruins

At least the trail is well-signed

"The Road goes ever up and up"

With all kinds of interesting information

along the way

At last, you're at the top; met by Igor,

the castle-keeper, who charges 5 lei (5 more

for pix)

View back to the valley and our camper, where Vicki

sleeps

Plan of the castle

South wall and tower remnant; the Turks,

led by Mohammed II (conqueror of

Constantinople), bombarded Poienari

from a nearby hill, driving Vlad out; but

he escaped and lived to impale another
day; but not very many more days

After the bombardment and Turkish rule in

Romania, the castle ceased to be of importance

and was abandoned; an earthquake in 1915

tumbled more of the walls away; but they

have been rebuilt in brick, so you can see

what's new, and old, and also the original

extent of the place

View to the north and the beginning of the Transfagarasan

Road, where we'll head next....

Beneath Poienari Fortress

So we drove on up the valley, into another, up more of some of the worst roads I have ever driven...wheel-sized potholes, lane-engulfing wash-outs,  hair-pin after hair-pin; plus crazy Romanian drivers, trucks, maxibuses, tour buses, horse-carts, donkey-carts, packs of feral dogs, etc. The usual. I can't say I am getting used to it. Still, it's better than the road-rage of my homeland, where you could easily be shot for driving safely. At length, we are at a lay-by at the very foot of Poienari Fortress, Vlad Tepes' 15th century castle. I will climb the 1500 steps up to it tomorrow morning.

The most amazing thing is--you can not imagine in what a remote place we are presently, deep in a canyon, the southern terminus of the Transfagarason Road (look it up), miles from nowhere--Vicki turns on her computer, and, voila, connects with the pension/restaurant way back down the road. The place is incredible...

Along the way, some awful river pollution; pretty typical

Old regime province marker; probably what Saruman had

in mind when designing Orthanc, the Tower at Isengard

Hay-ride

Vlad Tepes' Poienari Fortress

Vicki below it

Bran Castle

Thursday we pulled up stakes, so to speak, and drove down the valley, through Brasov again, and up to Bran. Bran Castle is one of the major tourist sites in Romania. It is an old castle, to be sure, founded by the Teutonic Knights in the 12th century, a fortresss against Tartar and Turkish invasion over the centuries, in the 19th century a customs house, in the 20th century a residence for the short-lived Romanian royalty. Seized by the commies in 1947, then, turned into a museum, then, most unusually, given back to the royal family in exile in the 1990s, now run for them as a tourist destination by a private company. For none of these reasons is it popular. Rather, it is the Transylvanian (really?) castle that most looks like what Dracula's Castle should look like.  So they say. Personally, I thought it was what a nice historical treatment of a really old but still intact medieval castle should look like; there were a couple of Vlad/Dracula rooms, nonetheless. There is only conjecture that Vlad ever set foot in the place.

Scary? Really?

As it looked in the late 1800s

Official Teutonic Knight costume

Some nice rooms and furniture

Ditto; including the royal crown

Ditto again

A narrow dark staircase or two

And then the Vlad/Dracula rooms

"Hey, everybody was doing it!"

"Besides, he was a really good guy"

Surrounded by the usual trinket shops....

Ascent of Omu; or, Follow the Yellow-Striped Road; or, Tipsy at Omu

So Wednesday, September 15, I made the ascent of Omu Peak, in the Bucegi mountains, near Sinaia. Vicki stayed home, in the camper, parked still in Sinaia, reading, internet-ing, researching future travels. Someone has to be responsible and work while I play.

I caught the maxitaxi to Busteni, and, from there (after a k's walk), the teleferic up to Babeme on the plateau. Rural transportation in Romania is often by maxitaxi, Sprinter-sized vehicles, apparently privately owned, that can seat 18 or 20. Hey, it works. 3 lei. (1$). The communist-era teleferic to the top and back was 58 lei, about $19. From Busteni, the Bucegi mountains are spectacular peaks and spires. None very high, but still quite sceneic. Atop them is a long plateau where hiking trails abound. I chose the one to Omu peak and Cabana Omu.

The World War Memorial Cross; the Bucegis, from Busteni,
are all craggy peaks like this

The teleferic takes you from way down in the valley up onto
the high plateau

Alas, much of what there is to look at along the trail is this
immense 1960s sort of radio tower

Follow the Yellow-Striped Road; all the trails are
conveniently color-coded; and well-marked

The whole plateau/ridge is conglomerate rock--one of the
world's major deposits, and erosion has created many
unusual forms; this, a sort of sphinx, from where I sat
eating a banana

Although the day had started clear, by mid-morning clouds
were roiling, up the canyons, to the plateau, then back
down the canyons; here's the space needle a couple miles
away

Finally, at the summit of Omu, looking north, with a break
in the clouds

All trails lead to Omu

This is not my idea of a cabana; I am from
the Caribbean, remember...sort of...

So there's the Cabana Omu, Bucegi Mountains, Carpathian
Alps, one of now many huts/guesthouses I have visited;
I had a vin chaud--the Romanian, I think, is vin fierte--
anyhow, it was ample and good--I was tipsy at Omu--
Romanians like their wines sweet, even reds, so it was an
extra sweet vin chaud

Conglomerate

Occasionally, the light pierced the clouds and some glorious
mountain scenery was there

This will do for signage: traditional route, left, traseu varia,
right; I always go for the traseu varia

Cave-dwelling sheep

The Sphinx (the real one)

Other formations

Yes, bears; the Carpathian Alps in Romania are home to some
6,000 black and brown bears; I saw none; nor did I see anyone
 mounting his or her tent

I did see plenty of garbage
throwing away; it was the most trashed trail
I have ever seen

And the exciting ride back down to Bucenti; 
and another maxitaxi (I am so going native); 
and a nice Romanian poulet roti dinner, with 
frites; 25,000 steps on my pedometer; 
13 miles; I earned it

Sinaia

Tuesday finds us Sinaia, up in the mountains. Sinaia is a resort, "the pearl of the Carpathians," so-named because a 17th century Romanian noble-person visited the Holy Land and came back to establish--what else?--a monastery here. Tomorrow I hope to climb Omu Peak, from Busteni, down the valley. But today we just took in the town here and its sights. We are camped, as it were, in a private parking lot in town, up from the railway and police stations, assuming the 20 lei we paid for the day will include the night.

Not every town has a New Montana hotel

The great violinist Yehudi Menuhin stayed
here in the fall of 1927, visiting, one assumes,
the great Romanian composer Georg
Eonescu, a Sinaia resident

There are a number of WWI cemeteries nearby, where  German, Hungarian, 
and Romanian soldiers are buried  together; most of these say "an unknown 
Romanian hero"

Basilica at the Sinaia monastery; 19th century; we are so monasteried-out we 
did not even contemplate going inside

Peles, Carol I's German Renaissance summer palace, late 19th century; we are
so castled-out...

The path up to Peles is lined with these trinket shops,  scores of them, all with 
pretty much the same merchandise

PS  Not everything in Romania is likable, but the availability of free wifi certainly is; it seems like almost anywhere we go, we turn on the computer, and shazamm, we are connected!

"Probably the Best City in the World," 2

More of "probably the best city in the world"

The so-called Black Church, the largest
Gothic church between Vienna and
Instanbul, they say; there are Gothic
cathedrals in Istanbul? Take me there!

Interior (while the armed guard wasn't
looking)

The one thing of interest about this place is that it is
decorated by some 200 Turkish rugs, all quite (centuries)
old and beautiful

Brasov's "Hollywood" sign, another element of urban
greatness

There are some very nice buildings here,
most awaiting renovation; also mile after
square mile of not so nice communist-era
block housing

And where else, in the whole wide world of sports, can you 
find a Dracula Dream Catcher?!

A few seats are still available in "probably the best city in
the world"

We gave up--most things are closed on Monday--and went back to the campground, where I actually hand-washed the truck--first time since Scotland!

The best thing I can say about Brasov is that the taxi drivers are honest, reliable, and straightforward, and speak some English. This alone probably puts Brasov in the running for "probably the best city in the world."