Romania: Day 5

Another day touring the province of Transylvania. Everyone gathered in the hotel dining room for a filling breakfast complete with Romanian spreads, which a few ventured to try. Our hearty breakfast prepared us for a trek up to medieval fortress built on a much older Dacian site. The students really enjoyed the view from above as well as the shops selling toy weapons and souvenirs.

Stop number two brought us to the town of Bran, home of Dracula's castle. As we wound through the rooms and secret staircases, we learned that Bram Stoker's Dracula was actually something of a Robin Hood/ national hero to the Romanian people repelling the Turks. The museum did not feature too much about the impaling part, but apparently ghost hunters sometimes sleep there overnight! We wound up our time in Bran with some souvenir shopping and lunch at an Armenian restaurant.

To conclude the trip, we drove to the beautiful town of Brasnov, home to the Black Church and a classic European town square complete with a clock tower. Everyone explored the pedestrian streets and picked up a little snack- some chose local pastries, others chose KFC and/ or McDonalds. Finally we dropped by Carrefour (akin to a Walmart or a Target) to check out the scene and pick up snacks for a party with all the children at the end of our stay. Since some individuals had extra lei to spend, the group had the idea to purchase some school supplies to bring back to Pro Vita. Our bus driver brought us home safely over the mountain pass and even through a little snow at the end. Marian, our Pro Vita watch guard, told us upon our return that Romania is in a "code yellow snow situation", but he explained that Pro Vita is tucked into a valley that won't really receive any accumulation to speak about because the clouds hang around the surrounding mountaintops.

Until tomorrow!