Transylvania

Transylvania was probably my favorite trip so far. We saw such beautiful scenery. It was so different from any other trip we have taken. We left Thursday night and got back Monday morning.

Hilary, Paoline, Mary, and some random man on the 12 hour train ride to Brasov.
We left for Transylvania at 5 pm on the train and got there at 7 am.

Lorraine, Matyas, Tuomas, Ryan and Dylan playing Uno on the train.



This is the first time we rented cars on a vacation, watch out Matyas is getting behind the wheel!

Our car, Ville, Dylan, me and our driver Tuomas. Don't I look great with my eyes closed?

Some of the mountains we saw on the way to Dracula's castle.



Dracula's Castle.

Me at Dracula's Castle.

Everybody at Dracula's Castle.

Random man from Green Bay that we saw at Dracula's castle!

Everyone at the top of a hill right before our muddy adventures!

Some of the pictures of the view on our driving adventure. Everyone basically just followed Matyas's car on this drive and we were basically almost stuck in the hills over night because it was so muddy but we finally found the main road. It was a really beautiful drive.

Some of the mud we drove through, this isn't even that bad...it got worse because it was downhill.
The hills looked almost purple.

Me and Tuomas in front of our muddy car the morning after the crazy drive through the hills. We are about to go into Rasnov castle.

Rasnov Castle.
Me in front of Rasnov Castle.
Everybody in a cellar of the castle.
Ryan, Gizem, Me, Tuomas, Dylan, and Ville at Rasnov Castle.
View from the top of Rasnov castle.
Inside Rasnov castle.

Me doing archery at Rasnov castle.

Another view from the top of the castle.
The random castle we stopped at on the way to the monastery. No one really knows the name or its significance, there was really nothing in it other than a museum and a restaurant, but it is still the only castle that I saw in Romania with a real moat around it.

After the random castle we drove to a Greek Orthodox monastery at the foot of the mountains. It was so peaceful, a perfect place for a monastery.

The chapel inside the monastery.

Inside the monastery.
Inside the monastery.

Monastery with the mountains in the background.

I would say one of the things a noticed about Romania that was different than Hungary is all the stray dogs on the side of the road. There were so many everywhere!

That night we drove to Sibu. This is the square in Sibu, it had a fountain that you could run through.

The last day we went to the castle in Sinai. It was a really beautiful hour drive through the mountains to get there. Tuomas, Dylan, Ville and I bought a Romanian pop music tape for the drive. It was terrible.
Me in front of the castle.
We actually took a tour of this castle and the tour guide was this really little Romanian guy with a total Napoleon complex. We were in a bit of a hurry because we had to get the cars back in time but this guy basically went through every room and said where everything in the room was from, how much it cost, what it was made of. Then he would look at me and say "look at it, see, see, look at it". All I could do was look and nod. It was really funny.

All the guys sitting waiting for the tour.

Nice picture of the castle with the mountains in the background.

Ryan, Tuomas, and Dylan trying to clean the muddy car for free with the things you use to clean the wind shield. Apparently Tuomas is having a really good time :)

Janne, Ville, and Ryan sitting at the table outside the car wash have a beer after we gave up with the windshield squeegee.

Eating dinner before our train ride home.

On the train ride home we all got beds because we knew we could not handle another 12 hour train ride sitting up in a lighted train car. I actually slept really well and got home just in time for my first class Monday morning!