My dears, forgive me for the rather hurried tone of this here post, but I'm running out of steam in the rush to get loose ends tied up before we head to the US for 10 days. My apologies, and my deepest hopes that I do not give Transylvania short shrift!
My own geographical idiocy aside, Romania was great. It might not be the first place that most people think of, in terms of "places I have to go!" (er, especially in winter...), but I've had a genuine fascination with Vlad Tepes III--the real, historical Dracula (brutal tyrant, but also national hero)--for a long, long time. Part of that fascination, of course, is thanks to one of my favorite fiction books of all time, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, but even further back (and I can't actually remember when) was when I found out that Dracula was a real person, and that his story is far more interesting than Bram Stoker would have us believe. (Look, I love that story, too--so creepy!--but this is one of those times that historical reality absolutely trumps fiction.) I promptly filed away "all of Romania" as someplace I'd need to visit one day, and wouldn't you know it, Mike's been listening to all of my chatter about the place, after all.
And so, Transylvania was this year's surprise birthday destination, and when I found out, my brain instantly started formulating plans. "Ooh! We have to go see the painted monasteries, and of course Sighisoara, and Dracula's real castle in Poenari and the court ruins at Targoviste..." Um, as it turns out, Romania is a rather massive place, and to see all of the things one must see there would require at minimum 10 days in-country. And, as I'd set the 5-day time limit for our trip myself, I sighed and capitulated to Mike's original plan: a night in Bucharest, two in Brasov (for the visiting of various castles and fortresses!!) then another night in Bucharest, and home. At the Swiss airlines counter, he gave me my birthday present--a set of custom-3D-printed vampire teeth!--and we were off.*
So, Bucharest. Its nickname is "Little Paris," and it's not hard to see why, although apparently it was even more glorious between the World Wars. (Then again, what in this part of the world wasn't? Eastern Europe didn't get to win on any level). Much like Budapest, it's an interesting mix of architectural styles (Art deco! Beaux Arts! Neoclassical! Second Empire!) in various states of repair (from perfectly restored to empty shells), with a generous dose of Soviet-style concrete thrown in. It's home to an excellent university and a ton of museums, and is full of nice people, the nicest of whom was Nico, our uber driver from the airport. He was super welcoming and proud of his country and would make a tremendous tour guide--he knew everything about every street we were on, and every building we passed! (And was worried he was talking too much, but he was not, and was delightful.)
Old town, right outside of our great hotel.
The National Bank.
Stumbled across this glorious two-story covered arcade area while wandering around the old town...
...on our way to this, Bucharest's massive Christmas market.
This guy was making new ornaments on-site, and his torch is a dragon.
The famous painted egg shells, which were just stunning.
Srsly, the lights here were something else. And also, Switzerland could take a few notes: sure, there were some booths selling mass-produced hats/scarves/socks, but there were far more booths full of people with actual hand-made items. (Ceramics! Traditional clothing! Wood-carving! Glass-blowing! And plenty of local food and hot wine, to boot. It was exactly what a Christmas market should be.)
After we'd had enough hot wine to stave off the chill, and bought far more ceramic goodies than we were sure we'd be able to get safely home, we headed to dinner at arguably one of the more touristy restaurants I've seen, but also, one of the most entertaining: Caru cu Bere, whose name means "the beer cart," and whose 1900-ish building is just spectacular. Sadly, I didn't have the real camera with me, so these phone photos will have to suffice.
First view from the door.
At some point, the dancing started. These two couples were obviously dancers of a high caliber, especially given the spatial constraints and the number of waiters and people walking through their routines. (And! After a costume change, they were back, dancing to a medley from the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack. It was utterly surreal, and totally divine [one of my all-time favorite terrible movies, I'll have you know, and a soundtrack with which I am extremely familiar]).
Our table was on this end of that left balcony.
And while the environment is obviously why you come to this place, the food was actually pretty good: as starters, we shared an order of some fantastic fried cheese, and polenta topped with sour cream, shredded cheese and a fried egg (I could happily have eaten that everywhere we went); then I had a white bean stew with chunks of pork, and Mike had the "mixed grill platter," which was kinda like a hash of chicken, turkey, sausage, and pork, with his own side of the stewed white beans. (As you might imagine, we skipped dessert, which, in retrospect was a mistake. I'll explain later.) I can't say it was the best food we had on the trip, but the place was a hoot, the building magnificent, and overall, well worth a visit!
Day two began with a traipse past several landmark buildings...
...among others, the massive Palace of the National Military Circle...
...the wee little historic Odeon theater...
...and the Romanian Athenaeum concert hall...
...to pick up our rental car and head north towards Brasov.
Passed the House of the Free Press on the way out of town. Apologies for the terrible photo as taken from the car, but HELLO, STALINIST ARCHITECTURE. (I was so obsessed with this style after our trip to Moscow way back in ought-eight, and was equally drawn to it here, too [although it's a little smaller in Bucharest].)
But back to Vlad. Here's the approach to the monastery.
The monastery building itself, with a little well out back. The interior has a small exhibit on the history of the island and the church itself (it contained a fairly important printing press, at one point), as well as Vlad Tepes' connection to it (he expanded the buildings, maybe...?), and is fantastically painted from floor to ceiling (and there's a decent article about it here).
Entrance tower in front of the monastery, with two of the miniature horses that were roaming about the island. (These two were in the midst of a kitteh-style freakout, chasing each other around at top speed and galloping all over, and it was hilarious. Personally, I'd previously thought that kind of insanity was specific to cats...)
After exploring everything we could on Snagov--it ain't big, folks--we jumped back in the car and continued heading north. Man, once you get out of the plains and into the hills, it is pretty.
Yeah, so, it ain't a great shot, but it's from a moving car. Give me a break. And also, look at those mountains. Gorgeous.
Ditto for this one, but still. Sheesh.
And then, into Brasov! This is how you know you're there.
Copper dragon downspout on our hotel, the Drachenhaus. (If you find yourself in Brasov, do yourself a favor and stay there. The rooms are comfy, the location ideal-yet-quiet, and the owner so, so nice. And the attached Hockey Pub is way, way cozier than the name would imply!)
This city is charming as all heck, and it gave me a chance to take a picture of something that said "Transylvania" on it, out in the wild. (You know, like not in a souvenir shop or anything, but in real life. YES, I'M A DORK. No argument here.)
Climbed up a wee bit to the city walls, before taking a cable car up Tampa mountain...
...and walking around behind the "Brasov" sign.
Here's the part of the view from said sign. Old town is that cluster of red roofs in the foreground; it's actually quite big.
Back down at the city walls; these are the Carpenter's Tower and the Drapers' Bastion, both restored, but originally from between 1400 and 1650.
Tower and tree in the center of town, Council Square. This place was buzzing with preparations for Brasov's Christmas market, which, of course, opened the night after we left. (Boooooo.)
Dinner on night two was a bit of a miss: we hit up Sergiana, the highest-recommended restaurant in town, where the food was just fine, but the service absolutely appalling. Look, if you don't want tourists in your restaurant, don't publish your website in six languages, is all I'm sayin'. (Because we'd already been there for 3 hours by the time we got around to it, and were rather tired of breathing in the smoke-saturated air in there [indoor smoking is marginally legal in Romania], we again skipped dessert. Bah, humbug.)
Day 3 began with a breakfast of chimney pastry and cappuccino on Council Square, then we headed off for a brief visit of the Black Church.
This place was built between 1385 and 1477, and so called because its walls were blackened by a fire that leveled most of the rest of the city in 1689. It's surprisingly spare inside, although they do have an impressive (if unusual) collection of Turkish rugs donated by merchants returning from Ottoman territory during the 17th and 18th centuries. (They also have some super interesting 19th-century boxed pews, each set painted with the name, symbol, and motto of the guild that sat there.)
The simple interior could be due, in part, to the influence of this guy: Brasov's own Johannes Honter, humanist, printer, and Lutheran Reformer.
Next, we were off to Bran to check out
the (in)famous Bran Castle, which is known as "Dracula's
castle," but really only because it somewhat matches the castle
described in Stoker's book. (And also because Vlad Tepes III may have
been imprisoned there by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus in
1462, possibly.) Regardless of what's true, holy
smokes. Great castle.
The approach from below, which is reached only by running a terrifying gauntlet of souvenir vendors. (Who are quite pleasant, really but still. There are so many.) This thing was finished in 1388, underwent major repairs in the 18th and 19th centuries, and is in absolutely gorgeous shape. I read in a few places that Bran Castle wasn't worth a visit, but I heartily disagree.
Interior courtyard, somehow not overrun with tourists at just this moment.
The bedroom of Queen Maria of Romania, a beloved figure to whom the city donated the castle in 1920.** I think this is the most pleasant and most habitable room I've ever seen in a castle...something that, weirdly, I felt about the entire place. (On the interior, it's by far the most livable one we've ever seen; none of that ridiculous Savoy gilding or velvet wallpaper here! And hence, finally, whence the title of this post was inspired.)
Ooh, secret staircase from the first floor to the third! (Although I don't know how secret it is if you label it as such...)
In the upper rooms, of course, there were a handful of exhibits on Vlad Tepes, the fictitious Dracula character, and other vampire-related tidbits. I found this poster particularly hilarious, as yes, that is, in fact, a rather prominently-featured still of Kiefer Sutherland in 'The Lost Boys.' HAH.
That amazing tower from inside the courtyard. This is just a neat, neat building.
Replica of scales used for weighing convicts against various objects that were supposed to match an "appropriate" weight for the person. As in, "If she weighs the same as a duck then she's made of wood." "And therefore...a witch!" Ohhhh, Monty Python, but you are everywhere.
Mike the vampire is coming for you. (I would possibly have considered included a photo of myself wearing the teeth, but kids, I do not photograph either gracefully or well. It's a proven fact.)
On our way back to Brasov, we stopped at Rasnov--a massive fortress on this hilltop overlooking the town of the same name. (Sorry, photo taken from car...)
The town of Rasnov, which we passed through on our way up to the fortress. Most of the houses along the highway were just adorable, and all seemed to have a tidy little facade along the street, with an arched doorway as the entrance.
Rasnov!! This thing was built during the 14th century by Teutonic Knights, in order to protect the local Saxon population from invading Turks. (So...cool...)
Inside the wall, it's only partially restored, but there are several houses; a school; the remnants of a chapel; and a 143-m-deep well that took 17 years to dig. When the people had to retreat up here, they were ready to stay for a while. The fortress was used as a place of refuge from its construction until 1848.
View of the town from the fortress. Totally intriguing to me that those little round-doored buildings facing the street are surprisingly long and narrow, but you get no sense of that from ground level.
Dig those towers.
On our way back to Brasov, we stopped into Cristian to check out their fortified church (for the trifecta: castle, fortress, and fortified church all in one day!), but alas, it's only open for like 3 minutes a day. So we just took photos of the outside.
Still...it's pretty neat.
Took the opportunity to head back into Brasov for a little exploration of it a little as well. Here, the new synagogue, built in 1901. (Most of Brasov's Jewish community emigrated after WWII.)
Schei gate, built into the city walls in 1828...
...to replace the Catherine gate, which was built in 1559. (It's obviously been fixed up a time or two since.)
Found our way to St. Nicholas' church, originally built in 1495, but greatly altered and expanded in the 18th century. Its grounds also contain a museum inside the first-ever Romanian school, also opened in 1495. (Which, in turn, contains the first Romanian-language printing press.) Surprise, though: no photos allowed in the church, and the museum was closed by the time we meandered over there. (Which is fair, I guess, seeing as how we hadn't known of its existence until that very moment. Sigh.)
Found this little monument nearby: it's a cross set up by Ilie Birt, an 18th-century local legend--multilingual hero-soldier, flouter of foreign authority, fierce promoter of Romanian rights in Brasov and abroad, school builder (which was illegal at the time!), evader of Saxon taxes, and raiser of crosses (...also illegal, but he essentially just kept building crosses for 15 years until the authorities got tired of demolishing them and made it legal).
Now, only two of the crosses remain in Brasov. The one inside that little yellow building looks like this, and dates to about 1738.***
Brasov's fortress at dusk. Weirdly, it was the only fortress or castle in the area that we didn't visit. (Go figure.)
Dinner that night was at Restaurant Transylvania, whose sign on the street I'd photographed more than once (you saw it above!), and whose ratings were high. As it turned out, not only was the food terrific, but we had the sweetest and most fun waitress there, and the non-smoking section was downstairs, which meant that there actually was no smoke. (Restaurant Transylvania for the win!) We started with a plate of local meats and cheeses, and some mushrooms stuffed with ham and cheese; then I went for the goulash stew with a side of grilled eggplant (SO perfect for how ridiculously cold it was outside), and Mike had a steak with cognac sauce and fried potatoes. For dessert, I had chocolate cake with a nice rich frosting, and Mike went with the somloi, a cake with one layer each of chocolate and vanilla; rum; walnut paste; and whipped cream (yummmmm). Just a lovely, warm, tasty dinner all-around.
Day 4 began with breakfast at Drachenhaus (served in the Hockey Pub by a super nice guy who made us some excellent cappuccinos!), and then we packed up and headed south again towards Bucharest, this time with a stop at Peles Castle. I'll be the first to admit, I was dubious. "But it's not that old!" I said. "It was only built in the 19th century!" I whined. "Do we really want to stop there?" "It looks cool," Mike said. "I think you'll like it."
People, nearly half of the photos I took on this trip were at Peles Castle. My husband knows me scary well sometimes.
Seriously, just look at this place.
Look at it. Construction of the 170-room, German Renaissance-style palace began during the reign of Carol I in 1873 and was finished in 1883, and the place was the summer residence ("Oh, this old thing? We only come here in the summers...") of the Romanian royal family until 1947.
Inner courtyard, which has all this crazy timbering around it...
...and also two walls covered in allegorical and hunting murals. Jeesh.
Something funny Mike noticed on a lot of do-not-enter doorways throughout the castle: they're all sealed with wax and string! That's what that tiny yellow dot in the middle of this amazing door is. Not so much a security precaution, really, but hey--at least personnel will know that the doors have been opened, at some point, by someone! (What the...?)
Ahem! But on to the interior. This is the main reception hall, the jaw-dropping grandeur of which my photos cannot possibly convey.
That arch is a library overlooking the hall; that spiral staircase is purely for decoration; and the glass ceiling can be opened.
Not my best or most "focused" photo, if that's the kind of thing you're picky about...but this is the library. Which has a secret door behind one of the bookcases. (Yessssss.)
Queen Elisabeth's music soiree room, which I think was my favorite room. So elegant and warm.
Murano chandeliers in the Florentine room.
The Turkish room, which served as a "gentlemen's smoking room."
There is Murano glass all over the place here. Here, detail of some flowers on a mirror frame. (It's girly as heck, but I can't help but love it.)
The Imperial Suite! The builders spared no expense--e.g., there's 500-year-old leather wallpaper from Spain all over--as this suite was designed for the visit of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I...who only stayed one night.
The theater room, which seems a bit unimpressive in contrast to the rest of the palace, until you find out that the ceiling and wall decorations were designed by Gustav Klimt. (Oh. Well, ok, then.)
Just one more shot of the ol' reception hall, so you can get a sense of its scope. Wow.
And just one more of the glorious, ridiculous exterior.
Also on the grounds of Peles Castle is the much smaller Pelisor Castle, which was the residence of Queen Maria and her husband, King Ferdinand I. Compared to Peles, this place was downright miniature, at only 70 rooms. (Confession: while there were, obviously, numerous other interesting things to see in this castle, I found myself most fascinated by rooms that involved the Queen. So that's what you're getting here.)
Queen Maria's bedroom. She had a very interesting personal style: both this room and the room where she died, the Gold Room, feature strong Art Nouveau and ancient Celtic themes. Together. (Also, that's a portrait of her on the left.)
Speaking of Art Nouveau, that may or may not be an original Mucha...
...but there are original Daum pieces all over this little castle. (That says "Daum Nancy," as in, Nancy, France, which is basically the headquarters of the French Art Nouveau style. I heard there were some Galle pieces as well, but didn't see any that were so obvious as the Daums.)
And then, the Queen's Gold Room. In fact, those are gold thistle leaves all over the ceilings and walls; more Celtic knotwork on the ceiling cross, desk, chair, and cabinet in the corner; and, naturally, a Tiffany lamp over by the window. (You know, a real one.) And, er, that box draped with the Romanian flag contains her heart. So there's that.
Despite the overwhelming Gold Room, and the absolutely insane collection of Art Nouveau artifacts here, I think the Queen's studio was my favorite room in the castle. It made her feel more like a real person, to me. She really was quite talented; that semicircular painting and the bag are her work. (Also on display, in another room, is a manuscript painted and calligraphed by the Queen, with a silver binding and each page trimmed in hammered silver, given to her husband in 1906 to celebrate 40 years of his father's rule. My photos came out terribly, but there are a few good ones here, about halfway down the page.)
Following our castle tours, we stopped for a quick cheese pastry in the cafe, which (along with a hotel and another restaurant) is located in the former guards' quarters and stable.
Naturally, it looks like this...
...and this. Those are all one long connected building.
Then, we hit the road back to Bucharest. Along the way--we'd seen them on the way north, too--we saw SO many stands selling mysterious colored liquids and piles of bright orange things that we could absolutely not identify (at least, not from a moving car).
After poking around, I feel like the liquids might be honey and varieties of palinka. No word yet on the orange piles, though. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
(Apologies for the photo quality; like I said, moving car. I feel like I use that enough now that I should have some sort of shorthand for "photo taken from moving car," so you know why the photos is so terrible...)
Back in Bucharest, we encountered literal miles of Christmas lights. I am not even exaggerating a tiny bit; they just kept going.
We had intended to spend our final evening in the city sampling the traditional foods at the Christmas market; however, when we got there, it was absolutely packed, and so we called a quick audible and headed over to Restaurant Vatra. I can't say I had the best meal there, but only because I made some poor choices (chicken thighs in "mildly spicy" garlic sauce? come on, Sarah, you know it's not going to be spicy, and you don't even like chicken thighs!), but Mike's main dish was awesome. He had this Moldovan stew that had beef pork, chicken, sausages, and mushrooms all chopped and cooked with tomato and garlic, and it was so smoky and good! And, at the end, I finally got to try the dessert that had evaded me the entire trip: papanasi. It escaped my clutches that first night, when we were too full; the second night, when we ran out of patience at the crappy-service place; the third night, the restaurant had run out of the appropriate sour cream, but finally! On the fourth night, it all came together.
Ok, so, it ain't pretty, but MAN, OH MAN, IS IT TASTY. These are lightly crispy fried donuts, topped with a slightly-sweetened sour cream and sour cherries in syrup. And it was everything I'd dreamed it would be.
Day 5 started with breakfast at our super swanky hotel (and was, by far, the best part of that hotel), and then we had a little time to kill before we had to head to the airport, so we did some meandering.
Passed this little unlabeled church and took pictures of its painted exterior porch. (They were having a service inside, and so we peered through the windows in the door and then we went on our merry way.)
Final goal: Bucharest's Parliament building, which is one of the largest buildings in the world. This thing is a monster. It's just too bad there aren't any people in there for scale. (Also, you can tour it, but as we've seen loads of marble and gilding in our time, and we had a plane to catch, we skipped it.) Despite the presence of the national parliament and an art museum, most of it is empty (and I read somewhere that they can't afford to keep some of the lights on, that's how insanely big it is).
On our way back to the hotel to grab our bags, we passed this remarkable Art Deco edifice...
...and found still more really fantastic Art Deco right next to our hotel. (Want to bring these home with me.)
Last stop, Revolution Square. The large building above is the former headquarters of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, where Ceausescu's regime experienced both its highest point (Soviet Union denunciation speech, from the balcony of this building, in 1968) and its lowest (helicopter flight away from angry crowds, from the roof of this building, in 1989). The spiky thing to the right is the Memorial of Rebirth, which commemorates the victims of the Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the country's "rebirth" after the fall of Communism. (The monument's abstract design is not terribly popular; it's sometimes referred to as "the potato of the revolution" and "the donut on a spike," among several other not-so-respectful things.)
And with that, we hopped in our uber (which, by the way, is FANTASTIC in Bucharest!) and headed to the airport. I'm always a bit worthless on the way to the airport, regardless of where we are...I get all reflecty and try to process at least some of what I've seen and experienced during the trip. It seems that I find myself repeating something along these lines about a lot of places we've seen, but I'll say it again: there's some powerful history in Romania, some of which is magnificent, and some of which has left an ongoing legacy of corruption and misspent money and poverty. (I think that might be more obvious here than anywhere else I've been.) There are also some of the nicest, warmest people I've met outside of the US, though, and one can only hope that fairness, progress, and truth win out in the end. Thanks for your graciousness (and your freaking amazing desserts), Romania. We'll see you again.
Just one final bit of sentimentality (ugh, sorry, sometimes it just comes out...), before I close this thing out for the year: I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas (or happy holidays, or whichever you prefer) and an exquisite New Year. I am very, very aware of how fortunate I am in life, and that absolutely extends to having you all as my readers and my friends. I hope the holidays bring you health and safety and plenty of time with your loved ones, and all the good food you can handle.
See you next year.
*Look, I know there's infinitely more to Romania than Vlad Tepes. No question. However, as the Dracula story is what set this whole thing off, it's the recurring theme. Apologies, friends, for dwelling on little else, and please know that we loved everything not Dracula-related, as well! (It's kinda like the one time I've been to New Orleans. Our visit happened to coincide with their annual pirate convention [PIRATES!! PIRATES!!! is how I was in my head]. For a couple of years, I was deeply into pirate history and lore, and when I spotted bands of pirates roving the NOLA streets, I proceeded to make Mike and my sister follow around the best-dressed and most authentic-looking of the lot for at least an hour. I'm sure that poor Mike and Grace were hugely embarrassed to be seen with me, especially when I finally worked up the nerve to insist on taking photos with the pirate and his pirate lady-friend.)
Also, my traditional disclaimer here, with regards to the language: Blogger doesn't really like it when I type in English but try to add accents appropriate to other languages, and as I'm not familiar enough with Romanian (which, to me, looks kinda like Italian but sounds like Russian) to figure all of that out in a timely manner, I'm slacking off, linguistically. Again. (So sorry.)
**Now there's an interesting person: the Princess of Edinburgh, she married into the Romanian royal family, learned the language almost immediately, and occasionally adopted local folk dress (thus endearing herself to the people); worked as a cholera nurse, and during WWI as a battlefield nurse; was known to have had more than a few dalliances (and, possibly, even a few children...) outside of her marriage; was accused by her own son (who'd already disavowed the throne, but came back later to claim it successfully!) of trying to stage a coup; was an accomplished artist and author; and, on her own orders, had her body buried next to her husband, but her heart is now in a small casket in the Gold Room of Pelisor Castle. Just...wow.
***Do yourself a favor and read about this guy. The article's in Romanian, but Google Translate seems to do a mostly-decent job. (And also, this guy should be famous everywhere. He sounds awesome!)
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