I guess I should tell you about the hotel that I stayed at in Brasov. It was a no-frills hotel which up to leave was probably built in the 70s. It was decent and met my needs of having a bed, bathroom, and wifi. But other than that it was pretty sparse. I picked it because it was just a few blocks away on the same street as the hotel I was dropped off at last night. I figured since it was going to be 1030 in the evening I shouldn’t be trying to get lost in the city of Brasov, Romania.

The breakfast this morning at the hotel was typical central European breakfast of cold cuts, eggs, and sausage. I made myself three slices of toast. There seem to be quite a few Asian tourists eating in the big breakfast room that would probably double as a conference room or banquet hall.

After checking out of the hotel and getting them to hold my luggage and their luggage room I decided to head to Mount Tampa for the funicular to ride up the mountain to get close to the Hollywood style letters. After winding my way through the streets I got to the funicular station, where I found out that the funicular opens at 9:30 AM rather than 9 AM as they can’t book had stated. It was 8:47 AM so I decided to try and go back to the town and see the black church.

Unfortunately it looks as though the black church was not open or else they were having a worship service as I heard organ music playing through the walls.

I stumbled upon Rope Street which is one of the most narrow streets and all of Romania. It’s so narrow you can spread your arms out and touch both walls. Couples like to go there to express their love to another. It was originally built to allow firefighters to access adjoining roads.

I decided to head back to the funicular station to catch the sky ride to the top of Mount Tampa. Sure enough they were open and I managed to position my go Pro camera to record the view going up. I shared the vehicle with a French family and the funicular operator. Also on board was a worker at the café at the top of the mountain.

Once we arrived I thought it would be best to try and find the pathway to the Hollywood letters. After taking a wrong turn I finally found them. I couldn’t position myself to take a good Photo of the lettering as the vegetation had built up around the letters to where you could not exactly tell what was being spelled out. Still it was neat to stand beside and iconic landmark. I headed down to go to the black church which I had hoped would be open by now.

Sure enough it was open, but no photography was all out from inside of the church. Position around the church for rugs dating from far back and paintings depicting the life of Jesus.

Unfortunately it’s getting to where all the churches I see are running together. I will always remember the first few churches I saw while in Nürnberg. I’ll also remember the Vatican church and the ornate church in Toledo, Spain. But somehow the other churches that I visit are less than memorable.

I decided to have some lunch while I chose my next adventure. On the Square was a KFC so I decided to eat there. Friends and family get on to me about not trying local food but I figure it’s my vacation I should enjoy myself. I wasn’t sure what I wanted and by the time I finally decided what I wanted the line had become long. I got six chicken nuggets, which in this case are called fillets, and some chili cheese bites. The KFC worker warned me that she could not give me the combo deal which meant fries and a drink. But I am not particularly a fan of the fries and I decided to treat myself with the chili cheese bites.

I decided to go to Saint Nicholas’s cathedral. It was in the south part of the town near the secondary Square. At the Square some young children are playing soccer. Inside the cathedral was nothing to write home about but still it was an interesting find.

Next I decided to go to the citadel which is located on the top of the hill near my hotel. But it is quite a hike up to it and I’m not sure it was worth it. I got lost on the way up there and I asked a man who spoke little English to point me in the right direction. I finally found my way up there to and abandoned citadel with landscaping workers weed eating the first Grass cutting of the season. I could tell because the dandelions are overtaking the citadel. The citadel didn’t look like it was open and the guidebook mentioned the citadel only in passing. It was such a waste to have such a historic building set there without any exhibits.

As I hiked down I saw in the guidebook that a postoffice was nearby so I made my way to it to buy some stamps for postcards. The guidebook and I store owner confirmed that only the post office will sell Stamps in Romania.

As typical and post offices in the United States is saying that the person in front of me always has a huge long transaction to do. The people waiting in line at the post office can never want a simple transaction.

By then it was 2 PM and I figured I had just a few more minutes to visit one other exhibit and I’ll be on my way to the train station. I decided on the history of Brasov, Romania. Most of the exhibits did not have English subtitles so I was at a loss as to what was being exhibited. There was a very interesting tempering serve it detailing how some cities in Eastern Europe were re-named after Joseph Stalin. I had read that Brasov have been renamed to Stalin city. But there were other cities within the eastern bloc renamed to Honor Joseph Stalin. Most of this did not last long as many reverted back to their previous names sometime later. The Exception to this was the city in Albania which did not revert back until 1991.

It was getting near 3 PM which was my personal cut off time to start heading back to the train station to catch my train to Sibiu. After retrieving my stored luggage at my hotel, I got detailed directions from the front desk gentleman on how to catch the bus to the train station. I purchased my ticket and waited on the bus. When the bus came it was crowded but the amount of people who got on the bus made it overwhelming. I held onto my wallet and hoped that I would not be pickpocketed while riding the bus stops to the train station. Honestly I did not even count the number of stops. Everyone was getting off at this particular stop so I figured it was the train station, and sure enough it was the train station.

The train station itself was very dilapidated. It looks like it was built in the 70s and not refurbished. Pigeons were flying around inside of it. I noticed when hopping around on a stub of a foot. I felt sorry for it and wondered what happened to make him lose his foot.

On platform 4, I waited for my train. The train was coming from Bucharest and I knew what time it was supposed to arrive and what time it was supposed to leave. When it initially I arrived it had signage on it stating it was going to Vienna. There were sleeping cars on the train itself and I almost didn’t get on the train. I show the train agent my ticket and he confirmed that this was the right training and pointed me in the direction of the wagon I was wrong. The seating arrangement on the wagon involved train seats facing each other in groups of four. I found a young woman sitting in my seat and motion to her that I had a ticket for that seat.

At first I thought this young lady was traveling with the older couple in the seat facing us but apparently she was traveling by herself. With in the car itself was a loud group of middle schoolers playing games on their phones. They stayed loud through the most of the trip. I Finally put on my headphones to try to drown out the noise but listening to 60 minutes podcast. At some point in the journey we stopped in the middle of nowhere for about 15 minutes. I was really worried that the train was in a state of disrepair and I have to send a new engine. But we started moving and eventually arrived a few minutes late to our destination.

I made my way to Casa Luxenberg, which manages Heut residence. The receptionist was very nice and showed me to my room. However in the process of checking in she charged my credit card which made for a double charge. I had paid through booking.com.

I went out and got a domino’s pizza and a large bottle of Sprite and Milka chocolate.

Tomorrow will be a day of exploring the town before I leave for Sighasoura. I would mitt that are usually don’t go back and reread my blog post about vacation. I guess it’ll be good to do whatever I get old and getting a static about being able to travel in my younger years.