Hi All,
Ok. Have cooled off now....
A bit of backtracking to Sinaia. Vanessa found a self contained unit which looked great online. A 45km train journey costing 10.2LEI (or about AUD4) and 1.5hrs later after some delightful romanian forest we arrived in Sinaia and headed off for our 1.5km walk out of town. Luckily Vali, the unit owner, spotted us along the way and gave us a ride up to the apartment. Wow! after months of crappy accomodation we finally have found somewhere to rest. The apartment is set on the edge of wild forest and has all the comforts of home and even has an excited resident red squirrel bouncing around. Vali gave us some great local information on walking in the forest. Almost 60 percent of the local bear population had been removed in the past few months making the forest relatively safe however don´t be in the forest at night.
We headed out into the forest and climbed up into the forested mountains for a couple hours. The forest was remarkably quiet and the only noise apart from the cars on the distant freeway was the birds. There was no one else around and I had taken a compass and was taking GPS points along the way in case we got lost. We didn´t and it was easy to follow the compass bearing and red trail marks back to the road. Nice, nice, nice.
Next day.
Went hiking in the mountain all day today.Romania has the highest population of bear in Europe and the area that we are currently staying in has one of the highest density thus walking can be a little nerve racking at times when there is an unexpected snap of a branch.We decided not to take food with us as it had the potential to attract a bear and then about 50metres from the apartment I discovered that I had half a packet of wine gums in my pocket from weeks ago so naturally we had to eat them and dispose of the bag.We had to hum or whistle for most of the day so that we didn´t startle a bear if we happened upon one so although it seemed rather foolish it was probably worth it for peace of mind.I know that David was a lot more anxious than I was that a bear was going to jump on us and maul us and maybe it had to do with the fact that someone was mauled to death last year in this area and we read about it last night but I decided that we were going to be okay so I just kept picking raspberries whenever I could see them so that the bear couldn´t.!!!!!
We followed the same trail to the top of the forest and came upon a savage looking dog belonging to a couple of dairy farmers who had a summer hut at about 1400m. The dog calmed quickily and we were invited into their basic ´rustic´ hut where a large pot with milk was being boiled. They were separating the curds from the whey for their cheese making. Unfortunately they spoke Romanian and we English but by a stroke of luck one of them had spent a year in Spain after winning a lottery. So we spoke in Spanish and he showed us the steps in cheese making and then offered Vanessa and myself a taste which of course we couldn´t refuse. It was a soft mild cheese and tasted really nice.
We continued climbing the mountain in the clearing and reached the plateau before the weather closed in so we followed the ridge line around and dropped into another section of forest which was very remote. I felt quite uncomfortable knowing that this was probably bear territory whch was unfortunate as it was a really nice walk which followed a fern lined creek.
We survived and are planning to stay around this area for another three nights.Off to Peles castle tomorrow which is supposedly fantastic
Next day.
We walked to Peles castle. A little hard to find as the signs in town were not too helpful but it didn´t take too long to locate. It is a beautiful castle and one of the most recently built in Europe so is well preserved. It is a museum now but it could easily be closed and become a royal residence without too much effort. The interior was filled with such detailed wood carving and stained glass. Cameras cost extra to the entrance fee so we didn´t take any pictures but did acquire a shot of part of the interior off the internet. We followed up with a visit to the nearby monastery which had a tiny painted church inside the accomodation area. Aparently the idea of the individual paintings was to portray stories to the illiterate peasants.
Next day.
Damn frustrating start. Feeling flat and grouchy today. We were going to catch the cable car up to the mountain from Sinaia before going walking. We followed the signs to the cable car but it looked completely wrong so we headed back into town and just visually followed the cable car to it´s starting point. Telecabana is what we were looking to head towards. Grrr. Not improving my mood. We eventually got to the 2000m point and found most of the town enjoying the area as well. Not exactly our image of the day. We figured the tour bus tourists wouldn´t walk too far so we lost most of them in a couple of kms walk where we came across an...athletics track with lots of runners training all next to a sheep farm? We pulled up on a small hill overlooking both for lunch before heading over to some mountain cliffs for spectacular views. The weather started closing in so we started walking down and picked up a trail. It was another quiet walk down to the town. No bears.
We have been working hard on the planning for our Russia trip and almost have a schedule set.
It is only 3 weeks until we can reenter the schengen area of the European union for another 3 months. Yahoo.
Tomorrow we are heading back to Brasov before heading to Sighisoara for a couple of days. We will be heading back here for a couple more days to relax later in the week.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
