Transylvania on Friday the 13th!

Maybe it was cosmic forces that brought us to the region of Transylvania on this day, but we had a great time touring the casltes in the region! Our tour guide mentioned that the real meaning of this spooky name was "Beautiful land beyond the forest", not some dark place.

In this beautiful land we toured a very "new" castle, only about 100 years old, done in a roccocco style with extremely elaborate woodwork and ornate sculptures. This was castle Peles, and it was the first castle to be built with electircal wiring! This castle was under Communist ownership, and just recently was transferred to the descendants of the royal family.

Our lunch was in a kool tavern like place where they served excellent Chorba (soup) and made a show of serving the mass quantities of grilled meat. The Romanian diet seems to be meat, sausage, potatoes, and more meat. This is proving to be not the best diet and is already presenting as a problem because of the rate of heart disease and diabetes in the population.

Our afternoon caslte tour was at Bran Castle, home of Vlad the Impaler also know as Dracula. His family came from the order of the Dragon which is Dracula in Romanian. His reputation is based on the macabre acts that he ordered to be performed on the captured Turkish soldiers. The castle is much more plain, and utilitarian in nature without the extragvagance of the first castle because they were always at war with the Ottoman army.

We finally banqueted into the night at a local tavern, what a surprise, where we were entertained by folk dancers. The food was great and the wine was good, after dining until about 11pm we headed back to Sinai to depart for Paris at 3am. This is why my post is so late....sorry Becky I know you are very content driven!