Part 3: Buna Brasov!

 

Alright everyone.

If you've made it this far I commend you for your diligence.

You won't regret it either.

I have pretty pictures of castles.

On Thursday we headed up to Sinia and into the mountains!

Our first stop was a monastery.

Again, it was POURING rain but we endured it the best we could.

I can't complain because it made the colors of the leaves so vibrant!

This truly was one of the most beautiful places I have 

ever been in my life!

We headed on up the mountain to see Peles Castle!

...

I want it!

:)

Even through the rain my camera still was able to capture a little bit of its beauty.

Unfortunately, it was closed.

BUT its sister castle, Pelisor Castle, was open and we toured that instead.

While Peles Castle itself was closed 

the grounds were open and we were the only ones there!

(Probably because it was down pouring.)

In case you didn't know, my favorite animal is a lion.

They're known to be symbols of nobility, honor, courage, strength,

and have been depicted as such for thousands of years.

Besides...

 they make for great picture buddies.

RAWR.

:)

I love castles --THIS-- much.

My pictures turned out pretty well despite how it felt like I was in the

shower the entire time we were outside.

The rain did have its advantages though.

It chased away all those not brave enough to wary the storm.

They sure missed out too.

It was really lovely!

(Soggy, but lovely)

Again, look at the VIEW!

It looks like I'm wincing in pain but it's just because the rain is 

washing my face pretty thoroughly here 

since I put my umbrella down to take this picture.

Sacrifices must be made for good blog post photos!

We were cold, wet, and tired and so went back to

 our hostel and ate 11 pizzas.

 :)

 

We were up bright and early the next morning to continue in our 

exploring.

We took a cable car up the mountain in Brasov to behold THIS:

Not too shabby Brasov.

Oh, hey there city of Brasov.

It's me, Moriah.

You look nice today.

:)

After our mountain excursion we took naps.

We set out again at night and bumped into these guys.

We saw some in Bucharest too and both times I saw them 

I thought, 

"Hey, look at those two white guys in suits. 

They match. 

They look like they're American. 

They must be... 

MISSIONARIES!"

It's always fun seeing friendly faces!

They gave us directions to a fortress overlooking Brasov.

We wandered around the fortress for a little while.

Wow, how many times in my life will I get to say that?

I know we're posing but we really did try to open the doors.

It was locked. :(

The last morning of our vacation we visited some churches.

We walked the streets of Brasov.

(Which reminded me of Italy!)

We stopped by the smallest street in the WORLD.

(Rope Street)

Ate breakfast in the town's center.

And last but not least,

we visited the Black Church.

The church has grates in the floor where people come

to throw a coin in and make a wish.

I made a wish.

:)

Romania already has fulfilled so many of my wishes

maybe his one will come true too.

:)

Well, those were my mid-semester adventures!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of what Romania is like!

~ ~ ~

For the rest of this month I will focus mainly on 

stories from the hospital, orphanage, and clinic

which will be equally enjoyable but sadly 

won't have many pictures.

Part 2: Happy Halloween from Transylvania!

 

After Bucharest we joined up with Heidi, Debra, and Jenna in Brasov.

We were in Transylvania on Halloween Day!

We started off our Halloween adventure by visiting Bran's Castle

aka DRACULA'S CASTLE! 

Here's Heidi and I doing our best vampire faces before going inside.

The castle wasn't scary at all.

 It was actually just really pretty.

Well...

the stairway was scary.

Ya, even looking at that picture you can feel the creepiness set in.

 

The rest looked more like this...

The view was incredible and it overlooked the mountains. 

Since it's fall, the leaves are bright orange, yellow, and red.

Sorry you can't really tell that from these pictures.

All you can see is how much I love hugging Jenna.

 

Ha, I had fun taking pictures of Heidi crawling into all sorts of tiny little nooks 

inside the castle. This one is up like 3 feet and is in the corner of a hallway.

 

She told me to get in and when I did an old man took a picture of me.

That's his hand in the picture.

They wanted me to scare people as they came around the corner but

instead people ended up scaring me...

(An old man and woman scared me half to death...sneaky little devils.)

 

 Oh, and guys, I found my knight in shining armor in the castle! :)

(Wow, I cringed just thinking about how unbearably cheesy that sounds out loud.)

Aside from my knight they decorated the courtyard with pumpkins and it looked 

so friendly and festive!

Especially the giant scale that was used to weigh witches.

I'm serious. Ha.

 

 

 Heidi crawled into every little space to nap.

I suppose touring castles is pretty tiring business.

 Before you go out to the courtyard there is this sign.

It looks like it says, "Attention Scary!"

It actually says, "Attention Stairs."

Definitely not as cool.

But seeing as it's Halloween let's go with the first one

and claim ignorance.

We all were sick of Heidi and her napping in random places and 

so we tried to drown her in the well.

Unfortunately, a security guard came out within about 10 seconds

to prevent her death.

Oh well, it's still a fun picture.

Right when we were about to leave I flipped through 

my pictures and realized I didn't have any of me actually smiling.

Remember how I'm not the best at taking pictures?

Here's the best I could do with Jenna's help.

Happy Halloween!

 

I was a little disappointed by this castle though.

No one was dressed up like a vampire!

(I know it's childish and that it was actually Vlad the Impaler who the legend

is written about and whatnot but it was Halloween people!)

Heidi was a champ and made my wish a reality.

 Dracula's Castle = A mighty fine way to begin Halloween!

We then found this tiny haunted house outside of the castle.

It was SO cheesy until the very end when a man chases and grabs

 at you for the rest of the way.

I love scary things.

Scary movies, books, stories, houses, people (okay not that last one).

But let me say that just because I love scary things doesn't mean I don't get scared.

Did I scream like a little girl? 

Most definitely.

The grand finale of my Halloween was to go see

the cartoon Hotel Transylvania.

(In Transylvania!!!!!!!)

I only liked it because I was in Transylvania though...

All in all, it was about the most EPIC Halloween I've had in 20 years.

I hope you all had a lovely day as well.

:)

 

Stay tuned for my trip to Sinia and hiking Transylvanian mountains!

 

Part 1: Adventures in Buch

So this past week was outstanding.

I meandered through Bucharest, Brasov, Sinia, the mountains of Transylvania,

and all with some of the best gals in the world.

I have realized that I am fulfilling bucket list items left and right!

(Thus, the above quote has been included.)

Before I get too deep into my adventures

(of which there is an obscene amount of photos)

I need to get on a soapbox.

Prepare yourself.

I. LOVE. MAKE-UP.

Seriously people.

It makes me SO happy.

It make me feel pretty and if applied properly 

usually makes me look prettier too.

Now I whole-heartedly believe that make-up should be used for good and not evil.

Enhancing your natural beauty is the way to go.

(Even all of you anti-make-up people out there should jump on that bandwagon.)

Make-up doesn't have to be caked on like that one creepy woman in The Emperor's New Groove.

Make-up should be pretty and more importantly make you FEEL pretty.

And you know what?

I miss my make-up dearly...

:(

I obviously can live without it and I am no make-up expert

but oh, sweet goodness, how I enjoy it.

Where did THIS person go?: 

And why has she been replaced by THIS creature?!:

 

Sick.

I already have it planned out...

Once I set foot on U.S. soil I am going to hug my parents, shower, and then

go apply some glorious make-up.

This whole au natural thing is fine and dandy for Romania where

sweet orphan children spit-up on me several times a day and 

don't even care if I shower regularly.

But the States are an entirely different story.

1 month and counting until I will be reunited with my "nice" MoMo face again. :)

Until then you all must endure some pretty rough photos.

Well, enough of that.

Romania ROCKS and that's really all that matters.

I'll split my trip into 3 shorter posts because this blog uploading thing

can't handle 50+ pictures being uploaded at once. Ha.

So you'll have to read all of them if you want the full story.

So let's kick this off with the sleeper train Jodie, Britta, and I took to Bucharest!

A nice old man shared the car with us and helped us to make our beds.

Bring on the in-a-bunk-bed-on-a-train-no-make-up picture. :)

It was raining (pouring) the entire time we were in Buch and so we donned about 1,000

layers of clothes (aside from pants because I didn't actually bring any

 real pants haha), our umbrellas, and set off to play in the park!

 Why a park you ask?

Good question.

Because apparently Romanians build the most incredible playgrounds

of all time.

Castle jungle gym anyone?

Ya, we played in it.

:)

Then we toured the Palace of Parliament which is the second largest building in the world!

There were ballrooms the size of houses and yet we only saw 5% of the building

(according to our tour guide).

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Palace but the terrace was 

free game so say hello to Bucharest!

It was REALLY cold. And I was REALLY excited.

I love views.

The rest of our time in Buch was spent exploring the city.

This included being a gangster.

I've never owned a coat with a hood before (it really never rains in Cheyenne, WY)

and therefore my hot pink Romanian raincoat had to do some posing.

 

We wandered through the city and made our way to Herastrau Park.

Romanians seriously know how to do parks.

The park was my favorite part of Buch. 

A palace is cool but I just LOVE being outside!

Thus, ended the first day of my week vacation.

Next, stop: Brasov and all its beauty!