A morning in Brasov, an afternoon in Sighisoara (March 13)

Before I went to sleep last night, I enjoyed watching this Romanian dance-reality-TV program. Some of it was crazy, like when one of the contestants played his music video in which he became a priest. This guy was white, in his mid-40s or so. Then, in the video, a family with black skin enters the church. They become friendly. Over the course of the video, all the angels painted in the church frescos becone black, as does Jesus. At the very end of the video, the priest has also become black.

Clearly, Romania has a very different racial heritage than we have in the US.

Sat AM

The breakfast at Bella Muzica was the kind of thing you experience in the world’s finest hotels and on super nice cruise ships; it was culinary art, and very good. It was also included in the 270 lei/ 83 USD rate per evening. We wanted to get up early so we could get on the cable car bc the cable car was the only thing that wasn’t going to be open on Monday, when we planned to return to Brasov. Everything else we could do in Brasov when we came back through on Monday.

Can you see the BRASOV sign?

Here was my view to the top from the cable car station:

The very steep cable car was fun. Once at the top, I hiked over to the very large and obtuse Brasov sign. It is like the Hollywood sign, up high on the mountain range surrounding the town. WIstood behind it. I was a bit hesitant to continue hiking bc the sign is very high up on the mountain, the hiking space was only about three feet wide and covered in snow, which means you really don’t know what you’re walking on, there was no rail, and the drop off down the mountain was seriously intense. There was a couple from Sweden who were walking around with us and it turned out to be fine. Great view from up there.

We walked back to the cable car station where I saw this cute little stray dog. They are everywhere in Romania just as they are in Ukraine. I enjoyed the cable car ride back down the mountain.

This cute little guy was living all by himself way up on this mountain! He looks like he may have some wolf in him. He was terrified; every time I took a step closer to him he jumped back. Sad.

I really want a dog, and the other day in Chernivtsi I thought this dog outside the flat had actually been abandoned, with a little dog house and everything. I only had one look at him and then he disappeared. I couldn't help but think about adopting him. I even came up with a name for him. My grandmother likes black dogs and for a while we teased her bc one day one of the cousins asked what the dog's name was and she said Black Dog. :) So, I decided I would name this dog Chornie Sebaca, which means Black Dog in Ukrainian.

I noticed an unusual abundance of Romanian flags throughout the country.

I am standing behind the S of the BRASOV sign.

Take note of the gothic-style Black Church on the left, the yellow Council House on the far right, the space in between where public hanings and witch burnings took place, and finally, the abundance of snow covering  this city that was my favorite Romanian city.

(Dear readers: I am posting this one week later, and I am totally fine, so no worries. Just a week of a sore tailbone, but nothing Advil hasn’t fixed, and it only slowed me down for about 2 hours.)
We started walking down the semi-steep hill to get back to town so we could get to the train station to make the 10:58 train to Sighisoara. I was talking about all the places my family has travelled to and I was feeling a sense of pride when all of a sudden I hit a patch of ice, my feet flew out from under me, and I found myself in the air. I had enough time in the air to say to myself, “Self, this is going to hurt.” I landed flat on my back, and was immediately filled with an all-consuming pain throughout my body…the kind of pain that veils the longer term repercussions of a fall. Lying on my back, all I could think was, “Please God, when this pain goes away, let it not be so bad.” At that moment, I was really hoping my back and legs were going to be OK. I laid on the ground for about 5 minutes and realized that my legs were fine, my head was fine, and I was fairly certain my back was OK. I slowly attempted to get up and realized that my tailbone bore the brunt of the fall. Ouch. Thankfully, I was able to walk slowly. Very slowly. Thank goodness.

This is the Council House and surrounding Piata Stafalui.

We realized that there was no way we were going to make that train, which was fine bc the idea of sitting made me ill. I gingerly walked the few blocks back to the center of town and bought some water so I could take the Advil I had with me. Then I thought about what to do next. When I was young, I remember being in Sunday School and hearing one of the other kids tell the teacher that he was sick and that was why he had missed something related to church. She told him that if he was sick the best place he could have been was in church.  Standing in the middle of Brasov with a talbone that was screaming at me, I realized that I had about 2 hours until we could leave for Sighisoara, and the other place I really wanted to visit was very close. So, we went to the Black Church (built between 1384 and 1477).

 The Black Church really is beautiful.

Martin Luther, who lived in Saxony...his image was featured in all the "evangelical" chuches (meaning not Catholic or Orthodox).

It is the largest church between Vienna and Istanbul, and was constructed in the Gothic style. It was built in the 14th century and was badly burned in the great fire in Brasov in 1689, hence the name Black Church. A new roof was constructed for it, however, and it has since been scrubbed, so it is no longer black. Inside (and I don't mean this to sound uber-dramatic), I thanked God that I was still able to walk and that the vestiges of the fall really wasn’t as bad as I had initially thought they might be. Very few times in my life have I been so grateful for my physical well being. After about an hour I actually tried to sit very gingerly in the church and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Whew. No worries.

I liked the baptismal font from the Middle Ages (1472).

...and I liked this 15th century fresco of Virgin Mary, Jesus, Saint Katherine and Saint Barbara.

After visiting so many mosques in Turkey and Orthodox churches in Ukraine (both of which tend to be omewhat dark inside, and very ornate), it was really nice to be in a large, light filled, Protestant church. Ironically, it was filled with Turkish/Anatolian carpets!

I thought this was SO COOL. During the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, the ornateness of the Catholic Churches was simplified in the conversion to Protestantism (I really should use a more powerful word...many time the icons were completely destroyed, sometimes violently...lots of religious strife during this time). Brasov and its environs was an important trading point between Turkey and Europe, and so wealthy families bought the rugs from travelling merchants and would decorate their family pews with the rugs and often donate them to their church. The Dominican Church I'll discuss later in this also had Anatolian rugs. They are so beautiful, and I'm so glad I bought 2 when I was in Turkey. After leaving the church, it was time to leave Brasov.

We decided to take a maxitaxi to Sighisoara. The 2.5 hour minibus ride actually took 2 hours bc our driver drove like a madperson through the mountains. His speed detector beeped incessantly. I was sitting at the back of the bus with a very sore tailbone, becoming nauseas as we drove the winding roads, with loud music ranging from Elvis to James Brown to Romanian pop to a French dude singing a song about the Champs-Elysees ringing in my ears. Depending on the musical selection, the journey was at times relaxing and at times almost unbearable, especially when we hit a speedbump or pothole. I cursed myself for leaving my i-pod in Chernivtsi.

When we arrived in Sighisoara, the driver let us out on the sidewalk…no bus station or train station or anything.

I pulled out my Lonely Planet. We walked up the steps to the citadel. Sighisoara is the only inhabited fortress today in southeastern Europe. It was quaint and calm but I can see how tourists cram this place in the summer. The Casa Wagner was centrally located, I negotiated a much better rate given the off season (40 Euro), and there was free internet, wireless access and a computer station that was always available. We immediately went to the History Musuem, which is actually a series of rooms that jet off of the steps going up the 7 flights to the top of one of the citadel’s towers. Very cool museum. Imagine the Upcountry History Museum in a 7 storey clocktower. You walk up one flight and the landing and the room off of it feature exhibits. You walk up to another flight, more exhibits, etc.

A toy wagon...not a toy car, get it? Toy wagon. Ha! Perfect for Romania. 

 

I thought of my grandmother when I saw this exhibit on old medical and pharmaceutical equipment. I thought she would be interested to see this as well.

Here are the little people in the clock!

When you get to the top, you can see this! 

Wow. I am far away from home!

Here you can see the city walls and, at the top, the lookout tower.

I loved this little museum, even though all exhibit text was in Romanian. Afterwards, I went to International Café for lunch, which is a small café that is part of House on a Rock, a Christian social service agency that provides myriad programs that range from help for the needy and elderly to language classes for foreigners. Their café sells locally made crafts and great light lunches. Great little lunch and I felt good helping this agency, which is funded through sales from the café and shop and with donations primarily from Romania, the UK, and the US.

We walked around after that (walking makes me feel better), checking out the house in which Dracula was born (scary!), the citadel/fortress walls, and a Dominican Church that dates from 1298. Inside the church, there was a framed copy of a papal indulgence from 1298, which is the first documentary evidence of the town of Sighisoara and the church. Amazing. I have seen very few papal indulgences in my day so this was a thrill plus I got to gloat all afternoon about how those things were what got the Catholic church into so much trouble, in part spawning the Protestant Reformation. The Dominican Church became Lutheran in the mid 1500s, during the Reformation. There was a portrait of Marin Luther in the church. It felt very German.

Here is one of the entrances to the town:

I found this cool 17th century tower (1681). I climbed it and you can barely see me. I think someone was living in it.

I guess I should mention that these 3 towns have a Saxon heritage…meaning, they were built and settled by Saxons in the 1200s, from the area of Saxony in modern day Germany, and thus they were German speaking and German identifying people. They were invited here by the noble people bc they were known to have important skills. So, when the Protestant Reformation began in modern day Germany, these people converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, and specifically Lutheranism. The gothic church in Sighisoara, which is at the top of the covered steps, and which we saw later in the evening, has a similar history.

I enjoyed just walking around town. I found an antique store where I almost purchased a wooden hand carved cross allegedly from 1780. There were many beautiful items in the store. Unfortunately the lady was a little off with her clarity on dates, centuries, etc., and had no paperwork to prove the dates of these items or anything related to their provenance. I decided against purchasing anything.

I had planned to eat at Casa Dracula but by the time I arrived the kitchen had closed so we ate dinner at Casa Wagner. I had some good vegetable soup. Afterwards, we hiked up the covered steps to go see the gothic church...

(These covered steps were constructed in 1664. I thought Dracula was going to finally get me!)

...after afterwards just enjoyed walking around this quaint, fortified, medieval village as a light snow fell…not enough to raise any eyebrows from someone whose tailbone was consistently reminding its owner of its unhappiness, however.

I slept on my stomach tonight.

PS: This is for my Mom,Aunt, Court, and other Anglophiles. Prince Charles stayed across the square at the Casa Cu Cerb a few years ago.