We finally got in to Brasov late last night and walked to our hostel. We are staying at Hostel Rolling Stone. I’ve always had this image in my head of what a hostel looks like, and although it’s not a place I would call home, it is much less intimidating than the name lets on. We are in a small room with about six metal bunk beds and a few lockers for our backpacks. There is a living room with a small television and a computer with Internet, and a kitchen where they serve “breakfast” every morning. The bathrooms are kind of gross, because the floor is always flooded with about a half inch of water from the showers, and you can’t flush your toilet paper. The septic tanks here and everywhere else, including my apartment in Iasi, are not sophisticated enough to handle it.Last night, we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Casa Romaneasca. The service here was pretty bad, but the atmosphere was fun and we weren’t in any kind of hurry. We all ordered Fanta to drink, which I have quickly discovered is pretty popular thing here. It’s on every menu. I ordered Snitel and sautéed mushrooms for dinner, which I enjoyed very much. Snitel is basically just breaded chicken. While we ate, we were entertained by live music. There was a keyboarder, a saxophone player, and a female singer.
Today we took a tour around Brasov and got to see the Bran Castle (Dracula’s Castle) and the Pelis Castle (pronounced pay-lish). We paid Greg, the owner of the hostel, and he drove us around to all the places we wanted to see. Bran Castle is very pretty and not anything like the depiction of it in the movies. In fact, we learned as we were walking through it that the man who the Dracula fable was made up about, never even lived in the castle. It was occupied by various kings and queens. To be honest, all the other girls and I were a bit disappointed upon hearing this, and found the history of the royalty who lived there to be pretty dull. As we wandered throughout the castle, we focused on the fable and imagined that Dracula had really lived there to make things a little more interesting. My favorite part of the castle was the secret stairs, which were dark and narrow and hidden inside one of the walls. After going through the entire castle, we walked around outside and looked at all the little souvenirs the gypsies were selling at their stands. We also got to taste sheep cheese.
The next stop was the Pelis Castle, which was way up in the mountains and quite a lengthy drive to get to. I learned that sheep cheese, windy roads, and a brake-happy driver don’t mix. I felt pretty nasty by the time we got out of the van, but luckily didn’t throw up. As we were walking to the castle, Elyse fainted, which gave me a few minutes to sit down and let my stomach settle while they were helping her. Between sites on the tour, it was go, go, go, so Elyse and I joked later that she had fainted to buy the group some time to relax.The Pelis Castle was so immaculate, down to every last detail. Outside, there were beautiful gardens with giant statues and a huge terrace. Inside was a guided tour in English by a man with an accent so thick, it sounded like he was speaking a different language. We had to put special slippers on so our shoes wouldn’t scuff the marble floor, and we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. We learned that the castle was built for Romania’s king Carol, who was obvisouly ridiculously wealthy. We walked through a lot of rooms, and they only made up a small fraction of the castle. Everything was made of wood and carved with the most intricate detail; the floors, the walls, the furniture, everything. There were dining rooms, sitting rooms, a music room, a library, a theater where the first Romanian film was made, and dozens of other kinds of rooms. There were beautiful rugs, paintings, and statues everywhere. One of my favorite things was the giant metal knight in one of the hallways.
Driving back to the hostel, I felt a lot of anxiety in the car. All the people here drive kind of crazy, but until today, it hadn’t really gotten to me. Sometimes there are lines to mark lanes and sometimes there are not. Everyone ignores the speed limit, weaves in and out of each other, no one signals…ever, and no one stops until the very last second. I also noticed living in Iasi that drivers frequently run red lights, so we never immediately start crossing the street after the light turns red. Watching people drive here, you would think they have no road rules. They also park on the sidewalks, but they have to. When the city was built, none of the people had cars, and so they didn’t leave room for parking lots. Today, it’s a big problem and everyone just parks in random places.
Tonight, we relaxed and walked to the main square back in town. There was some kind of music festival going on, and there were folk dancers and performances by a young singing group. Tons of people were dancing to the music and there were kids playing in a fountain. While we were there, we ran into a big group of senior missionary couples who were ecstatic when we told them we were students from BYU. We talked to them for about an hour, and one of the couples said they were transferring to Iasi in a few weeks and promised to come visit us.
We went to dinner at Bella Muzica and I basically ordered the same thing that I did at the other restaurant last night, but it was even better. We had flan and crepes for dessert that were so amazing. When I went to the bathroom at the restaurant, I was shocked to see motion censored faucets and paper towel dispensers. You would never find them in Iasi. As weird as it sounds, a few of us girls didn’t want to leave the bathroom and just talked in there for a few minutes. We’re all starting to experience culture shock to some degree and are missing all the everyday comforts and luxuries from home. That bathroom was the closest thing we could find I guess.
Later tonight, after hanging out at the hostel for a while, we went to a small grocery store and bought snacks. On the walk back, we saw two huge rainbows stretching over the mountain with the Brasov sign on it. We all stopped and just stared, and a guy passing by, taught us the word for ‘rainbow’.
