From Sighisoara

... THe lightning storm took out the internet provider in Suceava (pronounced SOO-cheva). No internet until found internet cafe in Sighisoara (Si-gee-shwah- rah) just now.

Our hostess in Suceava is Monika - very sweet and giving - who owns High Class Hostel. Highly recommend. Her place is outside the city (for now - she's moving over summer into space closer to city). She serves breakfast with eggs and unpasteurized milk from her neighbor. Yummm! We also ate her homemade dinner for two nights - delicious chicken shnitzel (sp?) one night and pickeled beans and sausage the next.

Monika drove Allison and I thorugh the Carpathean Mtns in the Bukovina region to see the four primary painted monestaries. Amazingly beautiful buildings painted on the outside in the 15th-16th centuries. It's amazing how the paint has lasted on most of them ( southern side excepted due to sun exposure). All are Orthodox churches. Monika knows many nuns at the monasteries, and they all seem very sweet. By chance, our tour happened on a h oly day (short memory! - Day of Enunciation?) so we witnessed portion of a Mass outdoors and many country folk enjoying their neighbors' company since they don't work on this day.

Monika tells us that in the 80's Ceaucuscu (sp?) attempted systematization of living quarters, which uprooted hords of citizens. They were told that part of hte move involved eliminating pets. Undestandably, most people had a hard time putting their pets to sleep and instead let their pets (almost all dogs) go - thus began the stray dog problem!

While at the High Class Hostel we met one of hte writers for the Rough Guide book on Romania, Tim - good chap - thanks for the offer for a few Lei at the train station!

May 19 - Catch train to Brasov, the Pague of Romania some say. Monika arranges a place for us with Gabriel, who has a very nice hostel in the old town that is brand new - so new that we were all alone in a giant room - first time not in two single beds - and iwth the common bath all to ourselves. This night is our "unplanned" night on the way from Suceava to Sighisoara.

In Romania there are two trains - Rapid and Intercity - contrary to their names, the latter is faster and much nicer. We rode the Rapid from Suceava to Brasov - 8 hrs - and it felt rickety with old rusty cars and lights that did absolutely nothing when passing thorugh a tunnel. The ride however, went through amazing country scenes - village after village, each with an orthodox church in its center. We saw countless farmers doing manual labor - next to zero tractors or other motorized help - and horse-drawn carts. LIke a time warp.

Brief aside - this reminds me of the Roma (Gypsies) who live ont he road to Monika's place- we saw them racing their carts with children who looked absolutely terrified. Roma are not at all well-liked here, and Roma children and adults alike are seen often begging. At first you are sad for them, but eventually numbed and instead focus on keeping all your belongings with you.

Back to Brasov - lovely city - old town encased in an old Citadel. Black Church, so named because of a fire - is one of the more beautiful churches (like Roma, one becomes numb to them as well after you see so many, despite their beauty). There are two old gates that still stand to the citadel, and one, Catherine's Gate, looks like it came out of Disneyland. Speaking of, Castle Bran, which is falsely advertised as Dracula's Castle, was just returned to the Germans and there is rumor of Disney purchasing it. Yeesh. We did not go there.

Brasov was a brief stay - at 3p yesterday we caught train to Sighisoara. Very small town with a spectacularly well preserved citadel. We are finally at a real hotel, Casa Wagner, which is very nice and inside the citadel. Yesterday evening we walked just outside hte citadel and found several young 10-12 yr old boys playing. We took their photo and htey started to pose for us. We showed them their picture with our digital cameras and they were enthralled! A minute later a woman approached us. She couldn't speak English but we figured out she si the mother of one of the boys and would like a photo. So then, we had to find a teenager who could write - we figured out sh e is illiterate - her address in our book - we will send her photos of her boy with his friends hamming it up for us.

Yesterday we also had one drink in the house in which Vlad Tepes was born. Very touristy and expensive, but a lovely house.

Today - May 20 - sightseeing in Sighisoara - nothing to really write about htat isn't already in the tour books. Though we were able to sample apple, pear, and plum brandy, the latter of which is ALL OVER the novel Dracula, in a quaint small distillery. That stuff packs a wicked punch! Speaking of, Dracula is of course everywhere - it's a bit annoying, but what are you gonna do?

Should go - tomorrow back to Bucharest by Intercity Train - next day fly to Ljubljana where our Slovenian adventure will begin.

Thanks for reading!

Mark