Ultima Zi

The last day that Sarah was here we tried to fit in all of the things we hadn't been able to do before - all on our way back to Bucharest for Sarah's flight out early Wednesday morning.

The first stop was the ancient Saxon city of Sighisoara, about 50 km. from Targu Mures.


In a quiet room somewhere in this house, Vlad Tepes (later known as Vlad the Impaler, the "real" Dracula) was born. Do you see the "Dracula" in front of the door? There is now a restaurant in the ground floor, complete with Dracula-costumed waiters if you arrive at just the right time.











So while we were up in the walled part of the Old City, Sarah decided to take a look over the side of the wall. Nice...we felt so safe.

From Sighisoara, we went on to Brasov for lunch (the oh-so-Romanian KFC) and a quick tour of the Black Church and the downtown area.





Next stop, Castle Bran, traditionally known as Dracula's castle - even though the only real historical connection between Vlad and this castle was the time he laid siege to it. It was however a home to Romanian royalty, specifically Queen Marie, the last queen of Romania. And now a nice tourist trap, complete with bottles of "Dracula's Blood" wine.







After a kind-of-scary drive through the mountains with a misbehaving van, we made finally made it to Bucharest, and Sarah enjoyed her first visit to Ikea (seriously...we don't have such things in Grand Rapids!).



Late night dinner at "La Mama" ("at mom's" - Romanian homestyle food), and then we crashed at the guest apt. in Bucharest for a few hours. Most flights to the US with connections anywhere in Europe leave here between 6 and 6:30 am. Factor in two-hour-early arrival time and a 45 minute drive to the airport and...well, it was an early morning. But the misbehaving van and I made a bit of peace (at least enough to get to the airport and back). Then a quick trip to the doctor's office in the nether regions of Bucharest and then a long train ride home. Sleep for a week? Wouldn't that be nice!