Brasov

We stopped in Brasov for the night. This is a fine Austrian city. Many of the town's buildings were built during the time when Transylvania was a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The buildings on the square are very tall. Most of them were homes initially. It is hard to imagine the amount of money that must have flowed through here. We did not get into any of them but they must be very large rooms with very high ceilings, judging from the exteriors. We would have liked to have seen the inside of the Black Church, but it seems taht it is seldom open and so we were not able to.

We had no reservations and so when we left the train station we found a cab whose driver knew of a wonderful pensiune where we could stay. The owner was a Japanese man who had married a Romanian woman and later was divorced. From the stories he tells it created quite a stir when he married her. He stayed o in the town and refurbished the Samurai Pensiune. It is clean, warm and inexpensive which was all we wanted.

He gave us directions to Terasa Ceasu'Rau, a traditional restaurant down the street. It was essentially an outdoor restaurant with a small bar where we ate. Many people ate at tables outside but we had had enough cold for one day. The food was grilled outside at a huge fire pit.

The morning was clear and crisp with icy temperatures. We spent the day visiting Bran and Rasnov and then headed back to the square to enjoy the early evening before our train left. There are ski resorts here and so there were people in ski attire, carrying their equipment here and there. We had dinner at a quaint Romanian restaurant and finally walked took a taxi back to the train station to head back to Gura Humorului. The train was cold this evening, even though we were in the number five car which is the one that is closest to the heater. We had a two hour layover in a freezing train station way in the north of Romania and finally arrived home at nine in the morning. I am used to the midnight trains but I don't think the boys found it interesting at all. They were cold and uncomfortable. I am tall and it is hard to get comfortable in a full car, but they are a head taller than I am and a full car was just miserable for them.