Midnight

It is midnight here and I am the only one up, it is the same as home. They do not eat supper till around 9 PM here, so it is hard to eat and then go to bed. I wanted to blog about my trip to Bran Castle and Pesles Castle. It was wonderful. We had to ride in a school bus (van) for over 4 hours. The school district hired us a private driver to take us and 3 other teachers from the school. They had never been there either so it was an experience for all of us. It was funny because even the bus driver did not know the way and got lost a couple of times. But as I say, it was just another adventure for us to see new things. It was a beautiful day, but it is hot here; just like Oklahoma. I was and am really suprised at how hot it is. What is worse, no one has air conditioning in their cars. Everyone was sweating and the men began to stink. Did you know that the women here do not shave under their arms or legs? Nausty!! The other teachers that went also spoke English, so it was great to have a translator for each of us. Laura, teaches Romanian to the younger students. She is really cute and young. Freddy (I can't say or spell his real name) teaches English, Chemisty, and Physics to the older children. Wait until you see their math homework for the 5th grade. You guys will never complain again. I don't think I have even seen high schoolers do work like them. But the good thing is that they don't have books that weigh a ton. I am bring samples home for you to see. Back to the trip. The country side was beautiful. Do you know that you can tell the difference from a town and village by the height of the buildings. If they have large block of flats it is a town. If it has only small houses it is a village. Along the way their were many, many gypies along the road. Do you know that gypise boys can steal girls off the street to try them out for marriage? If they don't like them they can send them back to their parents after one week or less. Many horse drawn carriages were on the roads and people walking. You can also tell a gypy by the clothes they wear. Gypsy women wear very colorful long dresses. Men usually wear hats or all black. They look and act scary. I can see how count Dracula came to be from here. After much drive and admiring the country side we made it to Bran Castle. We saw many other castles along the way. You would look on the country side and see one on top of a mountain. Do you know it cost 4 to 6 lei for pop here? That is about $3 there and the bottles are all glass. It is like we were in the 60s. The castle was beautiful sitting up on the mountain top. It cost 25 lei to take pictures in the castle and another 20 lei to enter. I will explain the exchange when I get back. We had a great guide that showed and explained things great. When we walked into the castle, Freddy said you could smell the history. We later found out that is because the inside of the walls are full of mold from the age of the building. The castle is currently privately owned and the man allows tours. Unfornutely there were no stakes that he impailed people with still up. They had parts of the old wall open for us to see. I was suprised that it is a plain looking castle. No fancy furniture or fancy things around. We did get to walk up a very, very narrow secret passage. They said they found it originally behind the fire place, but the opening was later moved when the queen stayed there. It was very scary and difficult to walk up, because it was so small. There was a rope to help pull yourself up with, because it was also steep. The original well was still there in the court yard. Many things are orginal from the building of the castle. I saw a path off to the side that was roped off and asked what it was. The guide said that at one time it lead to the draw bridge. And when the Turks had tried to invade the castle, they would pour hot coal oil on them to push them back. I have pictures. It is funny also that you can step into what was once two countries just a few yards away from the castle. The top of the castle was beautiful, but it had so many stairs, but what doesn't have stairs in this country. We met some people from WashingtonDC there. They helped us take pictures of each other and we returned the favor. After the tour we went shopping in the village square. I did not see any vampires at the castle, but the guide did say that they had not found one of the vampires bodies that was supposed to be buried on the grounds, so we had better beware.
One sight I forgot to tell you about were the Carpathian Mountains. They were amazing. They still had snow on their peaks. It was breath taking. On the very top of one peak was a cross. It was beautiful. The whole experience was amazing. That someone like me could have been given such an amazing opportunity and all the things I want to tell you about is a bit much to handle at times.
After this castle, they had arranged a surprise visit to another castle, Peleses Castle. On the way there it started raining. But we would not be turned back. Off we headed up a steep hill with trash bags on our heads to cover ourselfs from the down pour. Sound familiar, they said the rain was very unusual for this time of year. We said we brought it with us from Oklahoma. But once we got there we were glad we had made the trip. It was so different from the Bran Castle. It was all decked out is fancy furniture and gold. I can't wait to show you the pictures of the guilded room. The room is covered in gold. They said it was the queens favorite room. I know why since it was all gold. It had stained glass windows and even gold furniture. The other rooms were just as amazing. It was so beautiful that it is hard to explain. There are 70 rooms in this castle and at one time there were 15 servants that worked for the queen. Many of the room were designed by the queen from the furniture to the paintings. She even had a horse room. Horses were painted on the walls. This castle was fancy and fit for a king.
Then it was off to supper. We stopped at a very fancy restraunt in this village. But then again every place we have went to eat has been fancy. We did find a KFC and McDonalds, but we wanted to try something new. Boy have we tried new things. Some I cook for you when we come back, others I wouldn't fix for my dog. How is my dog, Brit? We got home around 11:00 PM. But we got to sleep until 9 this morning.
This evening as I said we went to a concert. It was an instrumental. The concert was held in this fancy building. It had a room called the hall of mirrors. Everything in it was made of gold. It was breath taking. I video taped most of the concert for you to see. It was funny the way they clapped for the people. They did it in harmony and a very exact way. It was also strange that at the door was a small gypsy boy begging for money. Earlier this afternoon when we were shopping, two gypsy boys approached us and said "family, money" over and over with their hands out. Even Laura said she was scared. They would not leave us alone. You could tell they were watching us and looking at our money. It was surprising that they allowed the boy to stand next to the door inside the building begging for money. The whole gypsy thing is a little scary when you listen to Adela. I will explain it all later.
When we got home, her husband had made us supper. So here we were eating late again. But at least I know that after all the walking and climbing I have done, I couldn't have gained any weight. If anything, I had better have lost some.
I have not found any pencils any where in this town. We are going shopping tomorrow before we head off to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. We are leaving here at 1:00 AM and taking a night train into Burcharest. Adela has arranged for us to have some help until we leave on Sunday afternoon for our stay in London. I am not sure when I will get to post again, I know I will be able to in London.
Brianna, I have not found you a pink teddy bear yet, but I am still looking. I think you will like what I found you for now. I will get you a teddy bear before I get home though. I have enjoy shopping today because we found a so called outlet store. I think everything is more expensive over here, even with the low economy.
NO, I wanted Adam to win. What happened. Adam was great. Chris was weird! I don't care if he was from Arkansas, I didn't like him. Oh well, I know Adam will be a bigger hit than Chris in the long run.
I MISS ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep blogging, because that is what is keeping me going for now. Everyone sends their best.