I really am slipping. First I change the blog to a Monday from Sunday, then I miss Monday altogether and post on a Tuesday. My excuse is that I am taking a holiday this week and have my daughter (Lucy) and sister (Christine) here visiting. We went to Bran Castle yesterday (Monday) which is near Brasov. I completely underestimated the time it would take to get there and back and blah...blah...blah...excuse excuse...
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| We thought this was the first bear sighting of the year. Bears come out of hibernation about now. We saw one in the garden, but it turned out to be the next door neighbour's dog. |
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| We usually do our washes on a quick 30 min cycle that is pretty much cold water. For some reason I changed the setting and discovered a way of making children's clothes out of old adult ones. What a money saver |
We have a hire car for the week. I am too traumatised to describe driving in Romania , but will cover it at a later stage. The potholes are fine. It is great fun dodging them. Even the big towns are OK. If you have done London you can do Brasov. Its the normal good condition single cariageways where people overtake whenever and wherever. I had to brake several times to ovoid getting a car stuck on my bonnet coming towards me. I had about 7 hours of it yesterday. Oh and the Sat Nav broke down immediately. But road signage is good.
Bran Castle
This is one of Dracula's castles. Vlad the Impala lived here. Known as Vlad the lad to his friends - although he didn't actually have any friends. He invented the toffee apple when he was a mere teenager by the simple act of shoving a pointed stick into an apple and covering it in toffee. Things would have been fine if he had stuck to apples - and it is very easy to stick to a toffee apple.
Anyway, enough of the history lesson. The castle is absolutely wonderful and well worth a visit.
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| Castle Bran |
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| A hidden stairwell. I only saw what it looked like after taking the photo, lit by the flash. Almost totally dark. I love Health and Safety in Romania |
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| Now that is what I call a fireplace. You can sit right in it. |
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| Very homely |
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| The courtyard |
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| Lots of sky if you look up |
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| Lucy on a balcony - which runs all around the top |
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| The balcony - running all around the top |
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| A mountain - yesterday |
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| Real men weren't afraid to wear dresses in those days |
Anyway
I need to shoot off and do some holiday things. If you click on the pictures they appear bigger - something to do with technology. Talking of which, Romania cinema is way in advance of that in the UK. We have only just introduced 3D. They are two generations in advance of that here.
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| Leaves 3D for dust |
Paul
