August 27, 2008: The Castle

Dear Friend,

The showers in our “hotel” are very interesting. There are no curtains. They’re more like stalls, two of them in the men’s. I’m not sure about the women’s. The water took forever to warm up and by that time I was done with my shower. The bed I had slept in was actually cozy, thanks to my jetlag, so my sleep was undisturbed. And I was in Romania, so not even a cold shower was going to dampen my spirits.

Breakfast was a croissant with strawberry jelly, an apple, and a banana. No complaints there. Janelle handed out per diem to each of us. Romanian bills are much smaller and more colorful than our bills, or even English bills. We hung out for awhile during breakfast before reloading the trailer and heading off to the castle.

I paid very little attention to the tour guide, mainly because she recited her routine so mechanically that I found very little interest in anything she was saying. The castle, though, looked rather stupendous. The castle I saw in Ludlow a couple months ago was cold stone and falling apart, but this one was kept in pristine condition, ornate carpets, furniture, paintings of people none of us knew, and statues carved into all the molding. We had to wear slippers over our shoes, it was so pristine. The weapons collection was pretty impressive, as was the trick bookcase that led to the master bedroom. We didn’t see the bookcase work, but the idea was cool.

The tour lasted about half and hour or so. We then headed to the van, which would take us to Lupeni. Daniel drove this time, and Janelle switched spots with Andrew, which put Andrew in the other car with the Bateses. I once again can’t remember what our conversations were about, but we had them. We had to. It was a six hour drive that turned into an eleven hour drive. We can thank traffic for that. It was that bad. And construction. You think construction in the states is bad. Get stuck in traffic in Romania for a half hour because of construction and you’ll think otherwise.

So, most of the day was spent driving to Lupeni. Our final destination for the night was to be Straja, but first we had to stop in Lupeni to get supper. We also had to unload our unnecessary luggage. Straja is in the mountains, so taking only what we needed was going to help our poor, little van go up the mountain much easier.

We ate supper at Pizza Planet, arguably the best pizza place in Lupeni, according to Janelle and Daniel. It was a nice place. The flatscreen television was annoying, especially as it was very unreliable satellite, but there was a football (soccer) game on. Football is an automatic must watch for most Europeans. Every so often we’d get bombarded by loud shouts of joy as someone on the TV scored a goal.

Each of us was able to order our own personal pizza. The menu was in Romanian, so I did my best to order something I knew I would eat. I was sitting next to Brandi Bates, so getting help in translating wasn’t that difficult. They put tuna on pizza here. I ended up ordering one with salami and peppers. The peppers turned out to be rather spicy, but that didn’t deter me from enjoying the twelve inch pizza. It was very thin, even thinner than our thin pizzas back in the states, but delicious nonetheless.

I chatted a little with Dana and Brandi Bates, but again can’t remember what we talked about. I remember having a conversation about the extra pizza sauce that was brought to us, one of them being spicy and the other not. I remember talking with Brandi about my major and what I knew my internship in Buchureşti would entail. I can’t remember much beyond that.

We eventually got up the mountain to where we were staying. We still had to climb a little to our cabană, or cabin. On our way up the little stretch of mountain to the cabană, a couple of dogs started barking at us. One particular little dog was especially boisterous about our arrival, and I took it upon myself to casually assure the dog I was indeed not at all intimidated by him. “Bring it, pooch,” I groaned, as I sluggishly trod up the mountain to where I hoped my bed would be.

The rest of the night involved getting myself into my sleeping bag and going to bed. This day was definitely a test in perseverance, one I think each of us managed to pass with flying colors. Janelle credited us with not complaining a lot during the traffic jam, though she herself was complaining a lot. That’s what she said. Anyway, I don’t think any of us was awake enough to complain much. I am glad, though, that I’ll be waking up to mountains in the morning.

Blessings.
Kailen