Bucharest, Bran, and Brasov

Hey all!! It's only been a week since my last post, and I have experienced so much!! I am really enjoying all Romania has to offer, and am looking forward to what is coming up next for me! This past week I was on a 2 hour talk show and interviewed for a newspaper article with Jordan, went to a local soccer game (football game), finally got to see Bucharest, and spent the weekend in Bran and Brasov exploring the castles and local cities.

First up, Jordan and I were interviewed for a local television talk show for 2 hours! The time flew by sitting on the set. Most of the show was in Romanian with Radu, my boss, having to translate for us and for the host. The show was very interesting because we were asked questions from local residents, who called into the show, and from the host to give insight as to how would we solve a problem here in Galati based on our laws and experiences in America. I felt this was an eye-opening experience for me. I had known about some of the issues in the Romanian government through previous research and through my research on the youth entrepreneurship, but hearing about the issues from local residents made me see more clearly how Romanians are affected everyday by policies or lack of them. Below I will post the link to the videos of the show. This talk show will give people who have never lived or been to Galati, Romania a snap shot into some of the daily lives of the citizens here, and I hope you find it just as educational and eye-opening  as I did. Just a viewer tip: if you don't speak Romanian, you may find it time-saving to fast forward to the parts in English.

Show links: Talk show 1/2 ; Talk show 2/2

After the talk show, we went straight to a local soccer game, Galati vs Bucharest. Unfortunately, neither team was competing for a championship or to qualify for post season play, leading the environment to be a little bit more relaxed than I wanted. But, I am told there is still a big rivalry between the two teams, making the game still competitive. I loved the game! I really enjoy being in environments where everyone is so passionate about supporting a team. Being a player/athlete who has felt large crowds cheering and being overwhelmed by support, I consider it one of the best feelings in the world to be in a place where I can be reminded of those feelings and memories. Even though Galati, the home team, lost, I still loved experiencing my first European soccer game and want to go to more!

Bucharest Cheering section

The lights turned off with 5 minutes left of the game. It reminded me of the Superbowl.

Me wearing a Galati team scarf!

Thursday night and Friday I spent in Bucharest. I felt like I walked all over the city, but I really only covered a small part. The metro there was very helpful in getting around (once I mastered all the signs). I went to the art museum and the parliament building. Both fantastic places to visit. The parliament building was the most impressive with being, as I mentioned in a previous post, the second largest administrative building in the world. I learned construction started in 1984 by the communist regime, but wasn't completed until 1994, after the 1989 revolution so the communist party never got to use the building. In order to build the building, much of Bucharest's historic district was demolished including 19 Orthodox Christian churches, six Jewish synagogues, three Protestant churches (plus eight relocated churches), and 30,000 residences. I think the tour guide said at the time, they demolished about a 1/3 of the city. The building is very impressive to tour and has amazing views of the city.

The art museum which doubled as a past palace

Pictures were prohibited in the museum, but I had to take a picture of this! It was huge and absolutely beautiful.

Parliament Building

Important Romanian Political figures

Theater with the largest chandelier in the building.

One room of the underground part. (the only underground part we were able to see)

Conference room

Another Conference room

The main conference room the Communist party planned to use, equipped with an escape tunnel in case of a revolution. Kind of funny they built it, but was overthrown before they could use it! (looks like they knew the revolution was coming)

Biggest conference room at the front of the building. This room has an orchestra pit in the top back of the room, and a skylight running the entire length of the room.

View of the main street from the front of the building.

View of the city from the terrace.

One of the many reasons Bucharest is called "Little Paris" ;)

This past weekend was very eventful and I saw so many beautiful places! The first place we stayed was Bran. Bran is absolutely gorgeous! I wish Galati looked like Bran. We visited Bran's Castle aka Dracula's Castle and Peles Castle while there.The Bran Castle was built around the 14th century and housed Romanian royals, Queen Marie and King Louis. It also plays host to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The area around the castle plays up the Dracula attraction more with t-shirts, mugs, masks, etc. (I'm coming home with some t-shirts!) At Peles Castle, there is an entirely different atmosphere. There is no hint of haunted legends or as much tourist souvenirs. The Castle belonged to a former Romanian king who was from Germany. In the 40 years or so before WWI, Romania had asked several western princes to rule over Romania in hopes to have a more steady government and to deter others from trying to invade Romania. In the previous years, Romania was accustom to frequent raids and attempts to conquer the country. I found Peles Castle to be my favorite because it was so luxurious and the inside was absolutely breath taking. I definitely said "wow" more than once. It was a bummer that we could not take pictures inside the Castle. Dracula's Castle was much older and had much more history build into it, especially with the story of Dracula drawing more attention to it. We were not restricted from taking pictures there.

My view from my hotel room in Bran

The beautiful city of Bran

The Bran Castle- aka Dracula's house

Beautiful mountains in Bran

Dracula's Castle/ Bran's Castle

Queen Marie's room

Living room

Music Room

View from balcony

the inner couryard

View from the terrace. The road below me is significant as it connected Transylvania and Wallachia, essentially symbolizing the connection of Western and Eastern Romania.

King Louis's bedroom

Kitchen

The armory

These cute little kids performed a dance while we were there.

Village exhibit

A 5D Cinemax that left me laughing because it was so lame for a bunch of adults, and for a frequent Disneyland goer.

Beautiful view of the mountains while driving

Peles Castle- Home to past King of Romania

I think this castle looks like it should be in Beauty and the Beast.

Inner courtyard

The grounds

They kept this castle very well preserved so we had to wear these slippers while touring the castle

The guest house

The view from a near by cafe

On the second day, we toured the Rasnov Fortress and Brasov. The Rasnov Fortress is about as old as Bran Castle, being built around the 14th century. Much of it looks like ruins now, but some areas have been kept in better condition for more of a tourist vibe in the village part of the Fortress.  Despite this, the Fortress has spectacular views. I also learned there has been many Romanian movies filmed there, as well as an annual Renaissance fair. The pictures looked like the fair was a lot of fun, too bad there isn't one while we are here. We didn't get to spend a lot of time in Brasov because we had to get back to Galati, but the city was very unique. There was a larger historic part of the city, and it seemed more walking friendly than in Galati. There were less dogs and cars from what I saw.

Rasnov Fortress

A hole to shoot cannons or arrows.

"village" part of the fortress

Lay out of the grounds

View of Brasov

The "Black Church" (Black because of the brick color)

Inside the church

Huge pipe organ in the back

Brasov City Center

Main street filled with restaurants and shops

Brasov Fortress

The drive back to Galati was long, but we finally made it back late Sunday. This upcoming week should be very busy with us starting a new project with SMART. I am looking forward to more job responsibilities. More, I am looking forward to going to Turkey this next weekend. With the recent protests in Turkey my best friend, Megan, and I will have to be vigilant in our safety and avoid any unsafe areas of the city. The protests are not violent as of right now, but there is still need for caution (We are hoping they calm down by next weekend). Megan has lived in Turkey the last 2 years, making her more familiar with the areas we are planning on going, and it looks like we can still travel safely avoiding the protesting areas. We are doing our best to plan the trip to be as safe as possible, this may cause me to change my flight to go to Ankara and stay with Megan in her apartment instead of Istanbul.