Romania near Brasov, July 13–15 - part 1

 

I think Ciprean is very like my brother.  He wants to help everyone.  That said, he was not done with his chores and we got a car rented about 5 pm.  On we went to see rural and mountainous Romania.

After traveling through small villages with crane nests on top of concrete electric transmission poles (yes, cranes and boy do they build huge nests, you wonder how the stay balanced up there)

                              

we got into the mountains.  We rode on Colorado like roads.  One section had the downhill lane totally washed away.  Luckily we were going uphill and the return trip was via a different route.

We got to Red Lake after dark and stayed at a pension down the road.  When we looked at our room it looked like the bed was very slanted.  It turned out, our engineer guide pointed out, that the entire floor was very sloped.  If you put a glass on the floor it would roll all the way across the floor.  Turns out the bed was very comfortable.

In the morning we went and had breakfast at red lake, and no, at this time of year it is not red (caused by alga).

                                                                     

Then we went to Bicaz Keys, a series of narrow canyons,

                                  

                                                                                           

then on to Sihastria  Monastery.  This part of Romania is like Jerusalem for the Orthodox Church, part of the Russian Orthodox Church, a place to take a pilgrimage to.  There are 48 or 42 monasteries in a very small area.  The story is that when the ancient ruler won a battle, he shot an arrow into the air and wherever it landed he commissioned a monastery be built.  He must have won a lot of battles.  We also went by Tirgu Neamt.

For Saturday evening we drove around and found a guest house.  We had a house with 7 bedrooms, a dining room and a kitchen all for us four.  So we bought some food and went back and fell asleep.  Actually Duane did first, the rest of us got to know the owner’s mother, who showed us there new house, their garden and shared her pickles and plum and sour cherry liquor and preserves with us.  Poor Duane missed out, though I saved him some preserves.  It was a nice evening sharing with nice people, even though the owner and her mother spoke no English.

 The countryside was beautiful.  We even found another old fortress.  And yes, we are getting tired of old fortresses and old churches and old city walls.  We bet you are, too.