Romania (Suceava, Brasov, Bran & Sinaia)

Originally, this trip in the week I was in Europe before I head onto the grand Tran-Siberian adventure was scheduled to help a friend/colleague, Tracy, drive a car back from Romania to Rome.  Italian bureaucracy being what it is, it is easier to buy a car in Romania and simply keep it registered there.  However, as luck would have it, Tracy was offered a car to buy here in Italy and she took it!  But, we still had plane tickets to Bucharest, so we decided to make a trip of it.  So.....off to Romania.  Now, I've always had a fascination with Eastern Europe and I've always wanted to see it, so here was my chance.

Tracy and I decided to spend as little time in the Bucharest metro area as possible, so we immediately got on the roads to drive up into the northern part of the country.  She claimed the roads were tough to drive, she wasn't kidding.  The conditions weren't great, but having to deal with horse drawn carriages in the road...that was new.

Look up Suceava County in Romania.  See how close we were to the Ukraine and the country of Moldova?  One of the highlights of Romania is these series of painted churches inside monasteries, such as this one in Humor.

These were from the late 1400's......just as the Renaissance was coming to Italy.  These "Byzantine" looking paintings seem to be a bit "behind".

The monastery at Voronet

I learned my lesson....from this moment forward, it was pants!!!

Here's a look at the monastery complex at Sucevita.  Most monasteries were fortified with a wall, had towers and inside had residences for the monks as well as the painted church itself.  These as well as hundreds of other Romanian Orthodox monasteries are still active.

Sucevita

Sucevita with the monks residences in the background.

Here inside, you can see that the insides are painted as well.

The mountains of Northern Romania

The monastery at Moldovita

Suceava up in the north of Romania was one of many towns that were described in the Lonely Planet as "this town is dominated by the industry and factories and totally without touristic value" but Brasov, in the center of the country was a breath of fresh air.

It has a wonderful piazza that was full of life.

Brasov is about 20km from, Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle.

Here I am at the entrance.

Bran Castle was actually very little about Dracula, but more about the life of the Romanian's beloved Queen Marie

 

These breads....I loved.

Just down the road, we took a cable car (at a ski area) to get up in the mountain air and sit in the sun and take in the view.

This is the dog I want!

Another monastery!

One highlight of the trip was visiting with Tracy's former colleague at her summer home in Moreni.

Corinna grew up in the Communist era and it was a treat to hear her perspective on that life that she had before 1989 and the killing of Ceausescu.  She didn't question that life didn't have much choice.  Growing up in Bucharest, her family simply lived on what was rationed.  She went to school, became and engineer and was guaranteed a job upon graduation.  It didn't cross her mind that life was any different.

Here are her boys with Tracy in the treehouse they built on their property.

Hans & Franz's Family Cabin

My dear friend Hans, who has graced this blog a few times with his wonderful wife Teresa, has ALWAYS talked about his family's cabin up in the mountains of Colorado.  It is located about 20 minutes west of his hometown of Salida, CO near the top of Monarch Pass on US 50.  Over the years, as Hans and his brother Franz (yes, they are brothers of THOSE names) have moved away from their hometown, and as their parents have grown elderly in age (boy is THAT a common theme in our lives these days), the cabin has fallen into disrepair.

So, for Hans' 40th birthday, he and his wife arranged for their friends to enjoy a "work" vacation up in the mountains of Colorado.  They would provide housing and food, the rest of us would provide the muscle to spruce up the cabin, but more importantly make it much more accessible for his parents so they can enjoy the cabin on a more regular basis.

Franz, Hans, Nancy and Xavier W.

The Brothers W. in front of "Rock n Pine" the family cabin near Monarch Pass, Colorado

One of the projects that I worked on over the week was to remodel an upstairs room.  On the left is Nina.  She and I are removing nails and catching up.

Franz and Nina putting up sheetrock in the upstairs room.

Here I am putting up moulding on the doors and windows.

Hans and I on the newly built outdoor steps up to the new upstairs room!

By the end of the week, we were putting down padding and carpet in the upstairs room.  You'll see the sheetrock is painted and the moulding is in place!

The ever present need to cut firewood.  Here Franz is in charge of the chainsaw and I'm the assistant feeding the wood.

Franz left in the middle of the week and I took over the cutting of the wood.

A large project was to build some stairs along the side of the cabin to more easily access the storage areas in back.  Here are the stairs after they have been set in place and filled the gravel.

Those of us still present on Wednesday of the week were tasked with moving a ton of gravel.   We were the "priceless" friends!

To give you an idea of how much gravel we moved, I think this tractor (not the right actual name) came and dumped 26 loads of gravel on our pile.

Hans' mother walking the steps for the first time.

Hans' Dad checking out the railing!

Another project I worked on was sealing the top of an addition to prevent water from leaking through.  I now have an intimate knowledge of tar!  Here, however, was one of our challenges.  Seems as though we were always fighting hailstorms.

Happy to be nearing the end of the work.  It's clean up time on the inside of the cabin.

On the Monday night of the week, we had 23 people (including family) up working and enjoying our vacation.  So we celebrated Hans' 40th birthday.

We all managed to stay in two cabins that looked like this, that were about a five minute walk down the road from the W family cabin.

Meals were family style!  The woman front left in the green shirt is Hans' wife, Teresa.

A group photo taken sometime when i was there, but somehow, I wasn't in the photo.  I was probably off working.....or napping!