This weekend, a bunch of us decided that we needed to get out of the city and see some real sites in Romania that we have wanted to see for weeks but have not gotten a chance to. So, we headed up the valley to Sinaia, a little resort town with an old Romanian castle and plenty of hiking and fresh air in the mountains. Sinaia was amazing, and for the first time I fe
lt like I was really in Romania. Nothi
ng against Ploiesti or Bucharest, but they are really just cities, and all cities are alike in a lot of ways. Luckily, all
resort towns in the mountains are alike
in a lot of ways too, so that boded well for Sinaia. We first walked around the town a little bit and checked out the local street vendors. We went to an old Orthodox church and visited a monostary in the town, which was amazing. The churches here are all very intricately painted and beautiful, and there is just something that is so much more holy about an old dark church than any clean protestant church in the suburbs. Anyway, after that we headed out to Peles Castle, considered one of the best in Europe. It was the vacation home of the Romanian royal family until World War 2, and it is set with an amazing backdrop of mountains in the forest. After the castle we hiked up to 1400 meters a the base of the ski slopes. It was a fun and beautiful climb up through the forest, and the view from up there was awesome. We could have paid 5 lei (a little more than two dollars) for a ride up in a maxitaxi, or we cou
ld have taken the gondola for a lot more, but who would w
ant to do that when you can hike? Anyway, we hiked back down, stopped in at an Irish Pub for a quick salute to St. Patrick's day, and took the night train back to Ploiesti.
lt like I was really in Romania. Nothi
ng against Ploiesti or Bucharest, but they are really just cities, and all cities are alike in a lot of ways. Luckily, all 
resort towns in the mountains are alike
in a lot of ways too, so that boded well for Sinaia. We first walked around the town a little bit and checked out the local street vendors. We went to an old Orthodox church and visited a monostary in the town, which was amazing. The churches here are all very intricately painted and beautiful, and there is just something that is so much more holy about an old dark church than any clean protestant church in the suburbs. Anyway, after that we headed out to Peles Castle, considered one of the best in Europe. It was the vacation home of the Romanian royal family until World War 2, and it is set with an amazing backdrop of mountains in the forest. After the castle we hiked up to 1400 meters a the base of the ski slopes. It was a fun and beautiful climb up through the forest, and the view from up there was awesome. We could have paid 5 lei (a little more than two dollars) for a ride up in a maxitaxi, or we cou
ld have taken the gondola for a lot more, but who would w
ant to do that when you can hike? Anyway, we hiked back down, stopped in at an Irish Pub for a quick salute to St. Patrick's day, and took the night train back to Ploiesti.
2 comments:
This is what we like to see! the pictures!
Hey you! The pictures and blog are great, I'm glad I finally got caught up....=) and it was great to talk to you today! more soon!
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