Today our tour headed to Transylvania! Actually, I think most of our destinations are in Transylvania, but don’t worry, Romanians are not into vampires. We headed to the Carpathian mountains which is the longest mountain range of Europe. I wish I could describe the beautiful scenery, but it was a late night of fountain watching last night. I slept the whole way. One moment I am listening to our guide talk about life in communist Romania and how she lived on the 11th floor, but there was usually no electricity to power the elevator, and the next minute I am out. Dead to the world. Until we got to our first stop–a gas station potty break. Then I was out again until we made it to our destination–a monastery in a town famous for its therapeutic thermal waters. I have absolutely no idea how old it was, (but I may look it up when I get working wi-fi and insert that number here). Apparantly, rich people used to build churches so that they would have a nice place to be buried. Orthodox churches are much smaller than Catholic churches. You’d probably look at it and call it a chapel. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside. In Orthodox churches only the priests are allowed to see the altar (and men too. The only way a woman is allowed near the altar is if she has special permission from the priest to vacuum there.) So the altar is hidden behind a wall with doors that looks like an altar. I don’t remember the word at the moment, but you likely wouldn’t know the word if you read it either.

Then we were back on the road again (ie asleep fast). In between my sister’s snores I listened to the guide talk about Romanian wildlife. Romania has the largest undisturbed forest in Europe (after Russia) so they have all manner of wildlife. For example, 60% of all European brown bears live in Romania! Hunting brown bears has not been allowed since the fall of Communism, and I think a lot of that is because their communist dictator loved to hunt them so much, so part of them breaking free of oppressive communist rule was to save the bears. Bears are very territorial, so the big bears run the smaller ones out of the forest to the fringes of towns to eat garbage. She said that their are frequent news stories of bears in the towns, which means bears can’t hibernate because they are not getting enough to eat. Alas, we did not see a bear today, but we did see a bear crossing sign. So close, yet so far away. They also have Europe’s last population of lynx! Alas we did not see any of these big cats either. Nor did we see any deer, stag, or wild boar out the bus window. You know I would have jolted awake at the mere whisper of bear!

For lunch, we were on our own in the old town of Sibiu. Our guide suggested several restaurants, but she also mentioned pastry shops. So it goes without saying what thetwinsontour ate for lunch. There were several pastry shops on the pedestrian street with take out windows, and we weren’t the only ones waiting in line. Its pretty much the thing to do here. We got a gogosi which come in both sweet and savory flavors: salty cheese, sweet cheese, ham & cheese, something that wasn’t translated, apricot, berry, apple, and plain. So this is simliar to a cross between a fried pie and an empanada. Clearly we got the ham and cheese because it screams lunch. It was slightly more expensive than the other flavors at 4.50 lei, so that’s about $1.12 instead of the 4 lei or $1 that the others cost. And it was delicious! And we had plenty of time to wander around exploring the town and buy a couple of magnets. Fast, delicious, and cheap! That’s what I am talking about!

The interesting thing about Sibiu is that it is known as the city of eyes due to their unique architectural style. The attics have ventilation holes in them that make it look like there are eyes in the roof of the houses. This region was inhabited by Saxons (Germans) who had a mad love of bacon so they had to ventilate the attics properly to cure the bacon. I’m sure there is something more to this, but I prefer to focus on the bacon part. Because, well, bacon…

Today was a bit colder, ok really cold. Somehow I did not prepare for this properly. It was so cold and windy on our walking tour. I was frozen. I did bring my down coat that we took to Ecuador and Antarctica. I brought a fleece hoodie and a raincoat, but I didn’t bring a scarf or hat. I have a hundred scarves at home, but did I bring one? No! Why not? Because low temperatures of 40 degrees didn’t seem that cold. Did my neck get cold? Yes! Did I have to go to Zara (a discount Spanish fashion store) and buy a scarf? Yes! Was it like the most expensive thing in the store? Just about! Did I care? No! Is it the biggest monstrosity of a scarf that you have ever seen? Yes! Could it be used as a shawl or very warm blanket instead of a scarf? Of course! Does it make my neck sweat when I wear it? You bet! Do I love it? Absolutely!

And that pretty much sums up our day!

Love,

thetwinsontour