Monday 16th May 2011
Not a good night for some reason, mainly a dog constantly barking
quite close. Did wake about 0700 had fruit for breakfast, as I'd run
out of milk. Thought I'd bought some extra milk powder but scoured
the cupboards, couldn't make it appear. Thought I would go shopping
for bread. Did this at a little shop near the Monastery. Had
everything in there except milk “Where could I get some” open
hands uplifted – nowhere! Bananas,bread, rolls, yoghurt and 11.50
Lei later I walked up again to the Church for a quieter look. It was
much colder today, raining as well. Sat in van writing this when two
Dutch motorhomes arrived. Went outside to say hello, leaned that they
had come from Poland and they'd bought a Rovinette at the border €7
for a month. Cristiana phoned the Police for me and they said no
problem just get one from the next petrol station in Gura Humourului
and get on your way again. Thundering now, the Dutch settling in and
its 3pm, colder too. I've also just found out that there is internet
in the house, but it's only cable, no wifi, so probably wont bother.
Just hope this rain goes away quickly.
Tuesday 17th May 2011
Computer problems today. Cristiana's internet wasn't working
properly, so she called in her local expert. In no time it was
sorted. However my note writing programme crashed! Had a good evening
with the Dutch reps from ACSI and their husbands, also Cristiana and
her husband; me, I am now one of the family! We were drinking what we
think was home-made liqueur from blueberries. Don't know the name,
can't get used to their language my ears don't pick it up too well,
or any language come to that! Had to have dinner and it was getting
cold, so I left the others enjoying themselves.
Wednesday 18th May
2011 The programme that crashed yesterday when downloading some
updates was about to be fixed. Got up early this morning and went
over to the house to sort it out on the internet; re-installed my
programme and found it was now all OK and then got back into bed and
slept till 9am. The others were leaving too, we all said our goodbyes
and went straight to get my Rovinette at the garage. Well the young
lady attendant wanted me to pay 65 Lei for being over 3.5t. I
explained I wasn't because I was only allowed to go up to 3.5t. The
girl said “you are a big vehicle and you do many miles.”
Obviously she didn't get the weight proviso for the Rovinette.
However, I stuck it out and paid 23.45 Lei for 7 days, which will get
me to the border. Filled up with diesel too.
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| Varonet |
 |
| The Outside Walls, Varonet |
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| Dragonmire |
Went down to the
Vononet Monastery to start with, it wasn't very far down the road. 3L
entrance and it was quite splendid, but very dark inside due to the
dark background paintings and high up into the ceiling. Wanted to
charge 6L for photos and 10L for videos when taking the outside of
the building. Of course, as usual you were not allowed to take photos
inside.
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| Dragonmiri |
Leaving here I travelled
to Dragonmiri. As the Dutch couple said it was all screened off, and
they were not wrong! I walked in to the first hall where there were 3
clergy and a nun in deep discussion. She walked out, so did the
others, leaving me to have a look at the non existent emptiness of
the church. Well the UNESCO money was definitely being put to good
use, however I wasn't going to contribute to seeing nothing, so I
left. Couldn't see the lake that is in the book either. Brand new
copper tiles were being fitted to the roof and bell tower, was it
originally like this?
On to the next one. To
Sucevita, well, TT wanted to go one way and perhaps I should have
followed it. However, I turned at a sign and went to a town, turned
left and there was a funeral procession in front of me which I
obviously couldn't upset, so decided to reroute; TT was being awkward
and told me to go back where I'd come from. Off I went, looked at the
map and chose to go round the long way; I'm glad I did, very pretty
and eventually came to Sucevita. This monastery was very large with
perimeter fortifications. Again there were renovations going on, but
at least you could see more. The paintings inside were quite
magnificent, not by the artist at Humorului, and I would say they
were not so old. The alter was overflowing with gilt or gold, I don't
know which, but quite overpowering.
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| Moldivita |
Again the usual taxes for taking photos, so I didn't bother. There were lots of nuns busying themselves with the garden and the ivy growing on the walls. Had to pay 4L for the car park to a young lad who understood English, however, when I left I couldn't see him; yet the tickets were printed with the monastery name. As I was about to leave a policeman stepped forward, hailed me to stop and asked to see my papers. This is the 3rd or 4th time in Romania! No problems, have a nice day!
The last one at Moldavita, I didn't have to pay anything, there were two groups French and young children. Again the nuns were gardening and telling the children about the place. The base of the church was being waterproofed as you could see from the plaster some considerable damage had occurred. Inside too, the front portion had been completed re-plastered to about 4 ft high and was still requiring the finishing touch. Again the paintings were wonderful. The front chapel again had paintings of martyrs in various forms of demise. The second chapel contained a door for a staircase and a small chapel containing a sarcophagus, of whom, I don't know. The alter again was very splendid, don't envy anyone who dusted it, if ever!
Leaving here I decided to
go back to Cristiana's as it was only 40k away, the nearest site I
knew; again I was welcomed with open arms, “You are my friend.
I'm expecting 5 other Germans so please park where you originally
went.” They did arrive later in dribs and drabs. I found out
Cristiana's birthday was 3rd June and established she was a Gemini
and she certainly had energy, little bombshell. You could hear her
change the tone of her voice if she disagreed with whom ever! “You
go for shower in the house,” she said, “not the others.” Once
I'd had dinner, only having driven 140 miles? I was ready for bed
early, had a splitting headache, probably over this computer!
Thursday 19th May and
Friday 20th May 2011 Sighisoara
I woke earlier this
morning, headache free to start writing up again. Now time for
breakfast. Was misty, now it's lifting. Headed towards Brasov and
Bran to go to Dracula's Castle. However, it appeared that this was
certainly a popular place, took one look at the crowds and kept going
towards Sighisoara. The road down wasn't too bad, very picturesque. I
was getting used to the drivers now and the speed limits. Found camp
site in Sighisoara, Aquarius Camping N46-13-24
E24-47-45; a little old lady in reception
didn't understand until she saw the motorhome. However, an old guy
came out and and showed me to my place. He said it was 40 Lei which I
then worked out at €10 with electricity, which was very good. Big
manhole cover (very heavy) for WC and primitive washing up place, but
very good showering facilities.  |
| Entrance to Church on the Hill |
Had a good night and went
to the bank in the morning across the bridge, visited the Basilica on
way back. Gypsies begging on the bridge with small bare child in this
raging sunshine! Bought some small doughnuts for 2L and went back and
changed into some sensible shoes, quickly read up Lonely Planet and
went back to find the way to the upper town and citadel, now a World
Heritage site. Small sign on a corner of an alleyway said “Historic
Monument”, so I went up it. And, yes it lead me straight up! Got to
the main entrance to be surrounded by teenagers making quite a
hubbub. Press on, walked around the ramparts and then found the 172
stepped covered staircase which lead up to The Church on the Hill. 
Well, it took a while but
I got there and glad I made the effort. Great guide, spoke very good
English and we learnt a great deal. The Church probably built about
1300, documented from 1450 but others thought it older. Initially
there were no frescoes because it started off as Catholic, then went
to Lutheran when they whitewashed the walls, so as not to offend
Catholics. In recent renovations they found the frescoes again. Two
were of St George and the Dragon, George leading the Dragon on a
leash! The story goes that he stunned the dragon with his spear,
subduing the dragon, put his belt around it's neck and lead it home.
There is a story about St George being imprisoned in Beirut by a huge
lake! The ruler's wife pleaded for his release. He was advised to do
this, the ruler decided he would, but obviously thinking there was
something else going on, beheaded both St George and the wife. The
guide asked where I was from “London” and he said “My favourite
place is St James' park, 3rd bench on the left as you go in the
entrance.” So that's why he spoke English so well. Another snippet
I picked up was that Jesus' grandmother was St Ann, who apparently
was married 3 times, each of her husband's died.
I met an American lady there, who said she was here with her husband and their adopted son. She explained they had come over 20 years ago and adopted him. He was a tall young dark skinned lad, definitely clothed and talked like an American, but with Romanian features. He had visited his birth mother on this trip and everything had run very smoothly. She explained she had two natural daughters and everybody got on very well. Having visited the one church I then went in the other and there were lots of Anatolian (Turkish) rugs on the walls dating from the 14th century. Photographed the main gate, decided not to do the museums and walked back down into the main shopping area of the town. No really big shops, so plumbed for a small one with some salad stuff all for about 10L. Carrier bag 1L. Getting hot outside again, so went down to the next bridge, along the river embankment and back to the camp ground.
Spent time computing, very good wifi signal got up to date banking done. Bought 300 Lei and 200 Euros for 1,134 Lei. so that's 734 for 200, actually he's given me 300 Euros. So I think about £247 will check out website.
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| Ceausesco's Palace of the People |
Saturday
and Sunday, 21st 22nd
May, 2011 Bucharest
Found the camp site from some notes
picked up at http:/www.magbaztravels site on the internet. At
Banesa Camping in N44-31-01
E26-05-33 in Bucharest now, lots of Dutch here when I first
arrived and I had the last pitch; was wasn't more than a scrappy bit
of dirt, did have electricity and they had the cheek to charge me 80
Lei a night, which was exorbitant, but the only camp . Bought
bus tickets for 2.30 Lei each, so I could go from stop to stop. The
bus stop was just to the left of the road you came down to the site.
Firstly I went by bus and then Metro to Piata Unirii to walk to
Ceausesci's Palace of Parliament, which is huge and apparently the
worlds 2nd largest administrative building (after Pentagon); looking
at the outside was enough for me, 12 stories high, 3100 rooms, and
apparently not yet finished!
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| Wooden tiled Church |
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| One of the main squares in Bucharest |
From there to a small Orthodox church
in the back street, painted everywhere inside with frescoes, and full
'cos it's Sunday. I managed to find the Orthodox Cathedral, which
you couldn't even get in because people were standing outside
listening. It's very hot over 25C, walked further to the Metro to
get a bus for the Muszeul Satului, National Village Museum; a park
filled with different types of historical/cultural buildings
redeployed in this delightful setting beside a lake. However, it was
more like a glorified craft market, with some crafts being
demonstrated and there was a very interesting concert going on with
singers dressed in their particular mode of costume. Some of the
bead work and embroidery were really good, unfortunately, I couldn't
buy anything, there's too much stuff in my van anyway.
On my way home I thought I had got on the right bus, however, this one stopped at the local shopping Mall. Through hand signals and showing them the map of where the camp site was, we managed to work out that I was quite near the correct bus stop. The bus driver spoke with another and I was gently directed to the front of the bus next to the driver. What was going on. Well I soon found out, he actually took me to a spot very near the correct bus stop, stopped, let me get off, “Many thanks, goodbye” from both of us. I was on the right path again. Moving across to Bulgaria tomorrow, got to work out where I'm staying there. Just before going to bed one of the Dutch residents said “your tyre looks at bit low” and sure enough one of them was. Would pump that up in the morning.
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