Bucharest, Romania

After a day of castle exploration, we headed to the capital of Romania for the night.  There is an Olmsted Scholar and his family who gladly opened their home to us for the night.  We love staying with fellow Olmsted scholars because it gives us a chance to meet so many great people and swap stories.  Taylor is a class behind Mike, so he and his family just arrived in Romania about the same time we arrived in Berlin. We arrived after the kids were in bed, which gave us a chance to chat with Taylor and his wife to hear all about their experience in Romania thus far. 

The next day, we were greeted by two little smiling faces (the third was already at school) who were excited to have people staying at their house.  We hung out with them for a little bit before Mike and I headed out to do some exploring.  We spent the morning wandering around the town, not going inside anything and instead, just taking in the feel of the city. For the most part, it felt like another big city.  There were glimpses of the communist past, but as always, I think Mike and I were both impressed with the recovery Bucharest has made.

We met up with the Francises for lunch before we had a tour to explore the most impressive building in Bucharest, it's parliament building.  It's the second largest government building in the world, after the Pentagon.  We opted for the hour long tour based on the timing, but there is a more in depth one that goes into the basement. Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed inside, but let me just tell you, it's impressive.  In one hour, we saw 3% of the building. 

My dad's dream job....not!

After the tour, we headed back to the Francises house for dinner before catching a late flight back to Berlin.  I'm not sure if Romania will be high on our list of favorite places we've traveled, but there were definitely some cool moments and experiences.  I'd give it five or ten years and Romania will have a booming tourist industry. It's definitely worth consideration if you are looking for a more off-the-beaten-path destination.

Castles of Romania

I think everyone thinks of castles and immediately thinks of Germany and Austria.  While this is justified, Romania had some great castles as well. We spent our second to last day exploring two of the "best" castles in Romania. 

Our first stop was Rasnov Fortress.  This was different from the other castles that we've been to because it was all outside.  It made for some interesting climbing in the snow, but was a cool and different castle experience.

Scout's Romanian cousin trying to stay warm

Transitioning from Fall to Winter with leaves in the background and snow on the ground.

After Rasnov, we headed to Bran Castle, which is supposed to be the basis for the Dracula Castle!  After listening to the book, I could definitely see some of the similarities.

Winter Wonderland in Romania!

Unlike Rasnov, it was much more preserved and most of the rooms were decorated like they would have been when the castle was in use. 

Mike and I wandered around the castle for a while getting ideas for our dream home before calling it a day and hitting the road for our last stop in Romania, the capital of Bucharest!

PS Happy December! The best month of the year!

Brasov, Romania and a Bear Sanctuary!!

As I said in my last post, our trip got better as the week progressed.  I think this is also apparent by the number of photos I took. Get ready for lots of pictures!  Our next stop was Brasov, but along the way, we stopped at some of the Fortified Churches.  They are a UNESCO sight and definitely a great place to stop and stretch your legs. I was definitely impressed by the paintings on the outside and the preservation was also impressive.  

When we arrived in Brasov, we had a few day trips and things we wanted to see outside of the city, but a lot of things were closed either on Sunday or Monday, so we needed to plan out the next few days.  Mike found this bear sanctuary, The Libearty Bear Sanctuary, that does tours that he really wanted to go to and since it was closed on Mondays, we knew we had to go to it on Sunday.  They also only offer tours twice a day, at 10:00 and 11:00, so if you miss those times, you're out of luck.  So, we aimed for the 10:00, which was good because we ended up getting lost along the way and missed that time, so we hung out until the 11:00.  Getting to the sanctuary was also not an easy feat since we had a tiny little car and lots of mud.  We also had to cross a tiny bridge over icy which meant I just closed my eyes and said a prayer that the bridge held up and we didn't go crashing into the water.  Luckily, we made it, although I'm not sure either of us breathed until we got to the other side.

Anyways, we joined the 11:00 guided tour, which was incredible.  I honestly didn't know what to expect from a bear sanctuary, but Mike and I both walked away saying it was one of the coolest things we've done. And we've done a lot of cool things!!  It was FREEZING and snowing at times, which made me a little hesitant, but I honestly think it added to the ambiance.  Seeing snow covered bears was something I know both of us will remember for a while. 

There was even a wolf hanging out in the sanctuary!

Mike and his buddy Max the blind bear!  

Walking in a winter wonderland....literally

Puppy!

The bear sanctuary was such a cool experience.  The guide was great about translating his speeches into English for us and the bears were out and about.  We saw about 20 bears, but they have over 80 on the premises.  All of them have been rescued from some sort of abuse or poor living conditions.  Their stories are so sad.  Don't tell Mike, but I'm "adopting" Max for him this coming year by donating to the sanctuary.  It will make for the perfect stocking stuffer.  I figured Max was a good one in honor of Baby Maximus. 

After the tour of the bear sanctuary, we headed to Peles Castle.  You have to park down at the bottom and walk up, which was about a ten minute walk.  Unfortunately, the castle was closed for the month of November for construction and maintenance, but that's okay because the outside was pretty remarkable. We walked around the outside for a while before grabbing a late lunch and heading out. 

This was by far the best day of our trip! It made the slower days at the beginning worth it.  We realized that staying in a town and doing day trips from it was the way to go and when one of those day trips is a bear sanctuary (or a castle), you can't go wrong!