Shepherds and Castles

As I write this, we are flying over some astonishingly beautiful mountain ranges that are snow-capped. Some of them are hidden in wispy clouds, and it just a breathtaking view.

Monday morning was beautiful. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed out for a day of adventure with Eduard and our gypsy friends. We took a very scenic route through the Carpathian mountains to arrive at our final destination: Bran Castle, one of “Dracula’s Castles”. Now for those of you who have been reading my blog since the very beginning, (THANK YOU!) you may recall my post concerning the historical Dracula, Vlad Dracul. So naturally I was incredibly excited to see this castle.

It was a beautiful sunny day for our drive through the mountainous countryside, but very windy and cold when we reached some of the summits. Here are some of our scenery pictures, and some pictures of the whole group of us:

See that twisty road on the mountain in this picture? We drove on that one. That's how all the roads were. 

This is a cow on the road. This brings a whole new meaning to "free range" animals. They really did roam freely on the mountainsides. 

It took us about 5 or 6 hours to drive through the mountains to finally reach the castle, after all of the non-optional stops for picture taking with our new group of friends. During the car ride we had a lot of good conversation, and it was great to just fellowship with friends from a different culture.  We are all facebook friends now. Isn’t technology great sometimes? Such an easy way to stay connected to the friends we made in Boldesti.

One of the awesome things that happened while in the mountains was getting to see a Romanian shepherd tending his heard on the hills. We couldn’t resist getting our picture taken afterwards. It’s a memory that will last for a lifetime. And we’re pretty sure that we are the first Americans that he ever met. How cool is that?

We finally arrived at Bran Castle. This castle dates back to medieval times, and has connections with Vlad III. It also became a royal residence in the 1920s, and was a favorite spot of Queen Marie. 

The castle has been turned into a museum that has a lot of different facts about the royalty that lived there. Again, with my love of history (thanks for instilling that in me, pops) it was so much fun to see the different antique pieces and read about the history of the castle and its inhabitants. I don’t really remember all the different pieces that we took pictures of, so I’ll only put a few that I remember.

The steps leading up to the main entrance.

The view of the surrounding area from one of the many balconies.

Beautiful wood carvings surrounding the door frame.

One of the narrow secret staircases that more than likely was a servant's passageway.

A nook in the library/music chamber right next to the wood stove. I want one of  these. 

The courtyard as seen from another of the name balconies.

This nook tucked into one of the roofs was just too cute to not sit in!

The Painted ceiling in the dining area

A little window seat

We thought this sign was funny.

There were so many hidden passageways and winding narrow staircases. It was really cool to walk around in. They had the tower closed off, though, and we were disappointed we couldn’t go up there.

The Castle grounds were beautiful and I could just imagine what they would have looked like during the Medieval times. It was a really great experience, and I’m so thankful that Eduard took us there.

It was rather late when we all piled back in the car. Thankfully, we didn’t take the scenic route home. We were all tired, but the three of us especially after the long day we had on Sunday and the little sleep we got on the train.

When we arrived back at Ploiesti, Eduard took the three of us to his home to have dinner with his family. His daughter, Ligia, knew the top part of Chopsticks, so she and I played a few rounds. I was surprised to find that the basic duet that all piano students learn is international!

We all got telling stories and had a great time laughing and carrying on, but we were also extremely tired. Finally, around 10:45 we arrived back at our hotel, and all 3 of us crashed. (Hence me having no time to update while in Ploiesti).

In awe of the beauty that God created for us to enjoy,

Ali