GREETINGS from the WORST blogger EVER. Sorry, sorry, sorry. It has been a crazy few weeks (ok, months) of company, new computers and trying to figure out how to download and fix pictures. And, with the beautiful summer weather now....well, it's hard to come inside and work on my blog. I will try harder, I promise! So much for my excuses, now for the news...
Where to begin - forwards looking backwards, or backwards looking forwards? As most of you know, my mom and dad came out to visit in April/May. If anyone asks them what their opinion of Moldova was, don't believe their answers...they were hardly here. We spent the majority of their visit in Romania and France (with my dad). There are exactly 3 things to do in Moldova and it takes a day to accomplish them all. This leads to some problems when visitors arrive and necessitates a lot of mini-vacations.
Our trip to Romania was great. Romania is SUCH a beautiful country. We decided to go to Transylvania and stayed in 2 amazing old Saxon towns. The first town, Sighisoara, is a 12th century Saxon outpost and the birthplace of Dracula. Insert comment from mom, "yeah, but was he a real person?" about 200 times. Yes, he was real, and quite nasty. The home his father was born is a now a nice ice cream shop. Vlad the Impaler/icecream.....yeah, clearly a connection there!
The second place we stayed was Count Kalnoky's Transylvanian Estate in Mikslovar, near Brasov. This place was so cool. It is an old Hungarian Estate (this part of Romania used to be Hungary) that was was abandoned during WWII when the aristocracy had to flee the area. The Nazi's and communists trashed the place and the family (who recently got the estate back) have been trying to refurbish the place. Oh, somehow the guy running the show now has ties with Prince Charles because he was able to talk the Price into buying a neighboring estate that he and his retinue come to once a year or so for hunting parties. Some of the buildings on the estate date back to the 16th Century. We ate one lovely dinner in a 4 or 500 year old cellar by fire and candlelight. The highlight of the stay for the kids, for sure, was a horse cart ride through the forest.
Now for the highlight of Mom's trip! The following day we drove to Rasnov Fortress in the Carpathian mountains. It was built in the 1300's and is now just crumbly ruins (on the top of a mountain). After 45 minutes or so, mom decided that she had seen enough and wanted to head back to the car and rest while we all dilly dallied our way to the exit. Fast forward a good 20 minutes and I head to the car with Anna and Sophia. No Mom...and I gave her the car keys. The girls and I sit by the car and killed time throwing stones down the side of the mountain as we waited for mom. Fast forward another 20 minutes. No mom. Out comes dad, Mike, and William. I had now started to think that mom went back in and joined up with them. Wrong. No mom. Dad and I head back into the fortress, get stopped by the ticket lady who speaks only romanian and try to explain that we already paid and were just looking for someone. We were getting nowhere in our argument and decided to just bust on through and risk the wrath of the old lady. A wise gamble. After another 15 minutes or so dad and I head back out unsuccessful in our attempts to find mom. We approach the car at the exact time that mom is being dropped off by some strange woman in some strange car???? Huh?
It turns out that mom took a wrong turn out of the fortress, walked down the entire mountain and found herself in the town of Rasnov with no money and no Romanian language. She was able to sweet talk (i.e. rubbed her fingers together in the international sign of $$$ and pointed to the top of the mountain) her way back to the car.
This is the last picture we have of mom before she began her big Romanian adventure. The town in the background is where she ended up and hitched a ride.
All in all, we had a great trip and it was great having mom and dad out to see our side of the world.
Ok, time to wrap this up so I can get started in blog #2, France!
1 comment:
LOVE the story about your mom walking her way down the mountain and rubbing her fingers together and pointed to the top where they'd be paid off. I can totally see your mom get in that situation. So funny. You look great Lynn! You are the worst blogger ever. Ever!!!
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