Again, something 'great' happened. We reached in bucharest too late and there was no bus anymore to go to city center, we had no choice by taking a taxi. In fact, we read in the internet that those taxi driver cheat tourist by charging extra, and we tried to ask people there in order to know the price, but eventually, nobody could help us. A guy (taxi driver) went towards us by offering us his service, and we were charged for about 260 Lei (60euros) divided by 4 persons. So each of us paid about 15 euros, which seems to be normal in France. We asked people in hostel, they said, normally single trip from airport to Bucharest costs about 50 lei ( about 10 euros). And with 260 lei, we can get a taxi from Bucharest to Brasov (about 4 hours by train) and the journey from airport to city center just takes around 45 minutes. Damn!
And when we got to the hostel, the lady made a mistake by reserving a bed for a person for four nights, while we were four and we just stayed in that hostel for a night. She just gave back our money and an address of another hostel nearby. We went to that hostel and it was actually full, and luckily the lady was quite nice and she called another hostel. We walked for about an hour to go to that hostel and we also stopped to have our supper. In the end, we reached at the hostel around 2pm in the morning. It was pretty scaring, walking in the streets in bucharest in the middle of night, with dogs barking, and we dont find this kind of atmosphere in France. We're already used to staying in France though.
24th- We took a train to Brasov early in the morning. At the train station, we met the guy called Ivan, a tourist guide who offerd us to be our guide to go to some castles in Romania. At the beginning, we didnt really trust him because we got cheated once the first night we stepped out of the Romanian Airport. And we just told him that we'ld consider it and check the price before giving him a confirmation. There's a black church, which is quite special, told by somebody, and till now, i still dont get what's so special about that church. We just walked around inside the old town, and unluckily, we didnt have enough time to get the cable car up to the hill to see the whole view of Brasov.
The main shopping street in Brasov.
The main square and that's the city hall.
This is Black Church, called also Biserica Neagra in Romanian. There's a legend, that during the construction, a german child disturbed the bulgarian builders and told them that one of the walls was leaning. An annoyed builder pushed him off the church tower and immured his corpse in the church.
The Catherine's Gate.
I looked thinner than before, i think because of being sick.
25th- On the second day in Brasov, we took another train early in the morning to go to Sighisoara, another medievel town which is quite pretty and worth to visit. It took us about 2 hours to get there.
Another Orthodoxe church in Romania. Its design is quite different with the churches in France, dont you think so? Most of churches in Romania are Orthodoxe, while, in France most of them are Roman Catholic.
Going up the hill to the Old town which is located on a hill.
The view is pretty, isnt it?
A church on the hill.
The medievel tower inside the old Town.
The photo is nice! with two models!=pp
And, here we saw a few gypsy woman, holding their babies just beside the street and they beg for money. And they were breastfeeding their babies. I wondered that's their own babies? And i really feel sorry for them...
This is the town where our famous Romanian Dracula (Vlad Dracul) was born. I'm gonna tell you the story about him that you must know.
The bust of Dracula. Grrrr*
I like autumn! I even took a few pieces of leaves from Romania!
The footsteps.
Getting down the hill to get ready to go back!
At night, we got back to Brasov and we went into a high-class restaurant where alot of people wearing coats. And it only costs us around 8 euros.
This is the snack, fried crispy porc.
The romanian soup.
My main dish, various of meats, like porc, chicken and so on.
While eating, we were still thinking of those gypsy women that we came across that morning. And I felt so guilty, I was enjoying my king-like dinner, while they're sitting in the street, begging for money.
26th- Actually, we planned to stay in Brasov for two days, a day to visit Brasov and a castle called Bran castle and another day for Peles Castle and Sighisoara. But, Peles castle is close on monday and sundays. So in the end, we decided to stay two more days in brasov (basically two days and one night). And our original plan of staying a day in Bucharest and bulgaria was cancelled, because we thought that, Peles castle is one of the most famous tourist spot in Romania, and we should go there before getting back. In the end, we talked to the guys we met in train station and we decided to have him as our tour guide.
First, he drove us to Bran Castle, also called as Dracula's Castle by most of people.
According to him, this castle isnt the castle that Dracula was living. Due to the uglyness of the original dracula castle, they built this castle for the film shots. I'll show you the original Dracula's Real Castle later.
From the top of the castle.
This is taken from outside, Bran Castle.
On the way down from the castle.
Our next destination is Curtea de Arges, one of the oldest city in Wallachia (a region in Romania).
On our way to this monastery, we say some houses along the roads, and Ivan told us that these houses belong to gypsies. He also adds that those gypsies dont wanna work, and they steal. They also even ask for money in towns, even if they're healthy and in good condition to work.
In train station in Brasov, we saw a young guy putting his hands inside his vests and he came to us for money. Ivan explained to us that he's actually smoking gum and he was abit 'high'.
This is Curtea de Arges Monastery. It's gorgeous.
That's our tour guide, Ivan.
Getting your first glimpse on it, dont you think that there's some arabic elements on this architecture? There were also a legend about this monastery.
The legend is like this: A king called Negru Voda wanted to bulid the most beautiful monastery in Romania,so first, he hired some arabic or persians architects to build it. But, they couldnt finish the construction. So he hired Mesterul Manole and his 9 men, which is the best architect at that time. They couldnt finish the construction either. And one day, Manole dreamt and inside the dream, he was told that, if he wanted to build the most beautiful monastery in the world, he or his men had to sacrifice one of the most valuable things. The next day, Manole's wife came and he suddenly thought of the dream, and he started thinking that maybe burying his wife that he loves so much inside the wall would work. That's how this beautiful monastery was built and in the end, Manole was trapped on the roof of the monastery because he forgot to build stairs to go down. He built a machine to fly down, but in the end, he fell down and he was dead.
Inside the monastery.
This is monastery church just behind the monastery. Inside the church, there's a small coffin where we have the body of the small girl, Saint Filofteia and we can see her left hand.
This girl was born in a farmer family, his famer works as a farmer. Since she is very young, her mom gave her a good grounding in orthodoxe faith, and she likes helping the other poor children in the street. but, her mom dies early and her father got married again. Her stepmother doesnt like her to help the other children. And one day, she asks her to bring the lunch to her father who is working in the field. And she sees a children in the street and she takes some of the food for that children. Her father realises it, and asks her where the food goes. He spies on her and he finds that she gives the food to the poor children, and he gets so angry till he throws the hatchet towards her. She gets hurt in her leg and he dies. The father feels so regretful and he wants to remove her body and he cant because her body becomes so heavy. All the clergy with people, bringing candles try to move her body into the cathedral but, they dont manage. so the clergy says prayer to God and the Martyr, naming all the monasteries, cathedrals and churches throughtout the country to see where her holy relics wish to be. When they start naming Curtea de Arges monastery, her body becomes so light, and they places her in the coffin and they put her in the monastery church.
The dam we saw on the way to the real Dracula's castle.
The lake behind the dam.
The scenery in mountains.
Our next destination is real dracula's castle. Do you see the castle on the cliff? That's the castle where Dracule lived and is also called Poienari castle. To get on top, i climb 1400 steps and on the top, it's just a small castle where we have a few walls, and one third of castle has already collapsed down the mountain in 1888.
On the way to get up there. And there were three small dogs followed us all the way up to the castle.
On the top of the castle. And we can see the whole view of mountain covered with red and yellow trees.
Ok, let me tell you the story about Dracula or also called Vampire.
In fact, Dracula, this person exists before, and he's a Romanian King who is very cruel, but he doesnt drink blood, neither have characteristics as vampire what we've watched in movie. It's believed that the first vampire:Dracula novelist, Bram Stokes, an Irish novelist has inspiration of this 'vampire' character from this Dracula, the cruel Romanian King and Bram stokes had never been to Romania either.
Dracula, he's also called as Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462. He is born in Sighisoara, in 1431 and his father is Vlad Dracul. Since he is young, he and his brother are sent by their father to Ottoman Empire as hostage of royalty to the Empre and as return, Ottoman Empire will support their father to be the king of Wallachia. In Turkey, Vlad Tepes has learnt all the tactics of war. In 1447, the Romanian Boyars rebel and Vlad Tepes's father and his elder borther (heir of the throne) is killed. And Vlad Tepes goes back to Wallachia and becomes the King. But, his rule of Wallachia doesnt last long and Hungarian invades Wallachia and after that Wallachia is taken by Ottoman. In 1456 he takes the throne back and he becomes the King for the second time. In 1459, he calles all the boyars for a big party, and he asks those old boyars that the reason why those boyars have already served under more than 4 kings. And then, he kills all those old boyars who are reponsible for his father's death and he makes the young boyars to work hard to build a castle. Some legends say that after the construction of the castle, those boyars who are still alive, they are taken off their clothes and there's nothing in their chests which means the work is so hard. He makes alot of revolution and the army becomes strong. He stops those boyars from exploitating the commerce in Wallachia and also introduces some cruel laws, for example death to punish theives and robbers.
In 1462, Vlad kills 30000 turcs in Danube and he refuses to pay tributes to Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman King, Mehmed is so angry and he sends 3 times more army to invade Wallachia. In targoviste, Vlad and his army burns their own villages, kills all the animals and people, poisons the water source. And when turcs amry arrives there, they've no food neither drink and they're sick, weak and also afraid, seeing lots of turcs army impaled. Vlad and his army come and defeat the turcs army. That's his first battle against the turcs which are 3 times more in number compared to his own army.
Then, he is prisonned in Buda for 12 years but he's free to go where he wants in Buda.
He comes back to Wallachia for his third reign. And he shows his intellingence when he has another battle against the turcs. At night, he and some of his soldiers get into turcs' camp and shout,'Vlad's army is coming'. Those turcs are panicked and they start killing themselves as they cant see at night. This is his second victory against turcs. In 1476, he lost in the battle and his head is cut and brought to the Tukish Sultan. And he is buried in Snagnov monastery.
The newly-married couple that we met on the top of mountain. They were having their wedding shots here, and it's pretty romantic!
This photo was taken in Brasov. Inside a small corridor where we have glasses.
26th- With this tour guide, we went to rasnov castle.
We reached Rasnov Castle. It already started snowing! in the end of October!
Rasnov Castle.. That's me!! Cheers!
On the top of Rasnov Castle.
View from the top of Rasnov Castle.
Next, we went to Sinaia Monastery, another beautiful monastery in Romania!
Inside the Sinaia Monastery.
This is our another destination: Peles Castle (the King Castle). The King Carol of Romania visited the region of Sinaia, and he fell in love with the scenery in Sinaia, and he decided to build a castle there. He stayed in this castle during summer for hunting and some outdoor activities.
Peles castle is one of the most gorgeous castle that i have ever seen in my life! It's really pretty if you see it from outside, and even the design inside.
Inside the Peles Castle, you can see those wooden-made decorations.
It's pretty, isnt it? I should've paid for the photograph so that I could take some photos.
Outside the Castle.
^__^
The statue in front of the Castle.
This is Pelisor castle (The Queen's Castle).
We didnt manage visit this Queen's Castle because it was close due to cleaning process.
I wanna bring my dear one here one day, if I have time to go to Romania again.
The king's castle from far.
We finished our whole day's trip around 1pm. After getting some Romanian bread for ourselves, we took a train around 2pm but, we were really stupid because we took the wrong train from Sinaia (Sinaia is between Bucharest and Brasov) back to Brasov. And we were supposed to take the train back to Bucharest to take our night train go to Sofia, Bulgaria. We only realised we took the wrong train when the conductor came and checked our ticket. We paid about 10 Lei as 'Rasuah'. That time, four of our were really panicked because we were told that there's a train which leaves around 4:15 to Bucharest and it takes around 4 hours to go to Bucharest from Brasov and we had booked the train ticket from Bucharest to Sofia around 8:30, but, we reached there around 4:30pm. And if we missed the train, we have to take the train next in the morning.
Luckily, when we reached in Brasov, the train going to Bucharest was late, and we quickly got into the train without buying any tickets. And in the train, we paid another 8 Lei as 'rasuah' again. And we were praying that we could manage to take the train to Sofia. Luckily, there was a conductor to whom we explained our situation, and he called the other train to wait for us. I think, it's quite normal for the train to be late there, that's why he can ask for the train to wait for us. Just after getting down in Bucharest around 8:20pm, we ran straight towards the train going to Sofia which is just beside the train we took. And first, we got into the engine room. =.= And it was really weird because the stairs were so high, and it's in fact, the engine room!
27th- We slept inside the train and we reached in Sofia around 6 am. We took breaskfast in the train station and we got back to the hostel first. All of them slept till 11 am besides me, which can sleep well anywhere and anytime=pp We had our lunch first which costed us about 10 euros and only then we walked around inside the city. It snowed that day! And it was still October! It seem that we're facing severe global warming now.
The statue of Saint Sofia which is the landmark of Sofia.
In front of the fountain in Sofia.
The Russian Orthodoxe church.
And this is one of the gorgeous cathedrals that i have ever seen before!
And especially the decorations inside. I cant show you the photos as it's not allowed to take photos inside.
This is orthodexe cathedral, called Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
The cathedral from far.
Our photo=))
A mosque in Sofia.
Synagogue, Jewish's worship place. Sadly, it was already close by the time we went there.
YOYOYO!!
In Bulgaria, we noticed that some alphabets in Bulgarian are quite similar to greek, for example they also have alfa, phi, pi and so on.. I asked the person-in-charge of the hostel and she explained that they're not really the same.
Saint Sofia with the sunset.
28th- We saw in hostel where they offer trip to Rila Monastery and Plovdiv, an ancient town in Bulgaria, and we asked for having the two combined trip for the whole day. And we paid for 100 euros for 4 persons to go those two places which are not really near from Sofia.
It's was very cold in Rila Monastery because it's located in the mountain. And i think it was 0 degree. And there, my camera screen didnt work again! In fact I dropped the camera last year and I got it repaired in summer! DAMN!
This is Rila Monastery, it's really pretty!
Do you see the colour of the buildings? It's really nice.
Take a look on the walls. They're all painted with stories from Bible.
This is a handsome guy, isnt it?
After the trip to Rila Monastery, we went to Plovdiv.
A church in Plovdiv.
The roman theatre.
What's so special about this house? i dont know it either=pp
OUAIS!!
SMILE ^___^V
The main shopping street in Plovdiv.
29th- We woke up around 3:30 in the morning and we took a taxi around 4:30am to the airport because we had our flight at 6pm and we paid 20 leva for 4 persons which is quite cheap compared to the price in France. We reached in Paris around 8am. We departed from Paris back to Toulouse around 2pm.
During this trip, I've learnt lots of things about the culture in Romania and even the origin of Vampire. It was really cool, and only then, I know that I'm much luckier compared to them.
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