masaba

Hope everyone had a good July 4th weekend! I did. I have to stress how cool this hostel is. Seems as though all the travelers are on their own, so we made good friends. The first night I arrived in Brasov, I headed down to the beer festival going on in the main square. It was interesting. Tons of people and the beers were only 10,000 Romanian Lei about 30 US cents! I parted with them after about a hour because I got bored since I don't drink beer. Seems as though they had a VERY eventful evening and that it was a very good thing I left when I did. They went to a bar down the street, had a few drinks, paid their tab and started to leave. Except the bouncers wanted more money out of them, like 10 euros. They said no way and as they were leaving, accidentally broke the door! The bouncers proceeded to beat up the poor guys until the police came, and they were allowed to leave!! Woke up in the morning and the two guys both had black eyes!!!

So I said I was going to go watch the bears, but no one else wanted to go so I couldn't go. Oh well! Day 2 in Brasov, woke up to rain. The first day of rain on my trip. Went walking around anyways. Ended up going up the mountain in a cable car. It was a very nice view at the top. I am not afraid of heights, but the cable car scared me. Really shakey.

Day three, july 4th, was the tour of the castles! They were all very different. The first one was the oldest, the castle of Rasnov. It had a 18th century skeleton on display in the museum. Next was Bran Castle, which is said to be Vlad's Castle, but he only was there for a short time. Finally was the palace at Sinia. This was absolutely amazing. Was the home of the first king of Romania, from 1870-1914. It was very ahead of its time, had central heating in 1902. There was sooo much to see in this place, interesting furniture, all kinds of weapons from around the world!! As we were driving away from the palace, we saw a very sad sight. There was a man with a camera and a bear tied up on a short chain to a fence. He was charging people to have thier picture taken with it. That poor bear, it was just walking in circles!!

Anyways, after we came back, we ended up at the beer festival again, and watched the final match of the Eurocup between Portugal and Greece. I can't believe it but Greece won!!! So I am wearing the shirt I bought in Greece today! What I would've given to be in Athens when they won!! And I got to see fireworks after all.

Woke up today and traveled to Sighisoara, a nice small town in transylvania famous for it walled citadel and the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler.