Transylvania

i just got back from Romania where i was on training regarding youth organizations.
we were accommodated in a town near Brasov which is called Rasnov.
rasnov is known for it’s fortress but as a town it’s not nice at all, it looked so sad and poor, unlike Brasov which has beautiful center,old parts etc. We also went to see Dracula castle in Bran,
i expect more of it, it’s beautiful bit nothing special.
last day we went to see Sinai we were surprised how beautiful this place is.
castles, nature around it and the houses built like little castles :)

Now that Romania (and Hungary) are part of the EU, things in Transylvania may be changing quickly. The infrastructure may be expanded more rapidly.

It seemed to me in the Summer of 2007, that Transylvania is a place that is similar to 1880/1950/2000 USA. There are horse carts going down the road, hauling hay from haystack to barn. There are shade-tree mechanics who fix cars. There are satellite dishes and Internet connections on all/some of the houses.

The landscape (and maybe more) reminds me of Appalachian USA. The little villages nestled into the hills.

I don’t know if you want to go, but I want to go back some day, and see what more changes.

I still want to go here! Just clearing up space on my list by purging redundancy.

From July of last year to January of this year, I dated a classmate who is from Baie Mare. I don’t know if I fell for him, or all of the stories that he told me about his hometown and Timosoara. About the form of Communism they lived under, about the revolution that started in Timosoara. Ultimately we had too many cultural differences, but I would love to visit the Transylvanian region of Romania now.

so, i am originally from romania (bran, specificly. right near “dracula’s” castle). i lived there from the time i was a baby until i was 18. after this i moved to maryland for university.

i never thought it was a very interesting place and i had no idea why anyone would ever want to go there. i was always sick of hearing people wanting to see the castle for dracula. i felt that it was offensive when people would talk about this dracula and how cruel he was because to us, vlad tepes is a hero. he stopped the invasion of the ottoman empire and kept romania a free state.

i realized once i got to america though that maybe it wasn’t so bad that people thought this of me. i would say i was from bran, romania and people would ask me “where is that?” and i would say “transylvania, near the bran castle” and immediately people would know and always ask me questions about the “vampire” thing. maybe it wasn’t an insult, in fact i found it very complimenting.

romania is a beautiful country. rolling hills, magestic mountains and amazing castles, monasteries and other ancient buildings. transylvania has one of the most interesting histories i think around. perhaps someone who is looking for excitement wouldn’t like this place but anyone interested in the past and natural beauty, someone more laid back, would have an excellent time.

very interesting, a piece of history….like walking into the past.

It intrigues me.

Although the Carpathian mountains are one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen the downtrodden, disillusioned, and disenfranchised Romanian people made my visit there too sad to deal with. I have family in Transyvania and seeing them live like that over there was heartbreaking. We encountered begging children at the train stations and I saw the saddest things I have ever seen in my life there. I truly hope that the people of Romania stand up to their government, as it seems like they have been doing since they stopped the communist party there… but it’s still not enough. It’s just too sad. I would never go back and, for the self-absorbed desire in me to see no evil, I wish I never would have gone at all.

I went paragliding off of a forest covered mountain with wild boar on one side and bears on the other.
I went up to Vlad’s castle where I saw a cat with big udders, it was wierd.

The Carpathians were the highlight of the trip through Transylvania. The Gypsies were most interesting! I took a train from Suceava to Hunedoara to Sighisoara then Bucharest. The trip took 3 days. It was so awesome. I can’t wait to go back!!!