Adventures of Madeline: Our Weekend in Braşov

Hello everyone! Romania is still amazing! I love it here and I love all of the work we are doing. I look forward to being with the children every day! This past weekend we had Friday and Monday off, so we took a trip to a city called Braşov and it was way better than I ever imagined it would be! I guess I will just start from the very beginning....

Friday:

Friday morning we all got up at about 4:30 am and were out of the apartments by 5:30. It was so cold, which is weird because it has been super hot the entire time we have been here. We hopped in taxis and went to the maxi taxi station. Luckily, we had a big group so we got to take a bus there! We filled about half of the bus and there were strangers on the other half. It took us about 6 hours to get there and it was a little rough. Drivers here are just so crazy...I thought we were going to die multiple times on the bus. Funniest part of the whole bus ride? At one point, our driver slammed on his breaks and apparantly someone in the back had a huge open bottle of a dark colored alcoholic beverage. So naturally, the liquid goes spraying everywhere!! It got all over the floor and on our clothes and it was super gross! The whole bus smelled for the next three hours. Things like this are just funny to me, so I just sat there and laughed and everything turned out to be ok.

We got to Braşov right before one, almost got scammed by a taxi driver, and were successfully lost by two. We eventually found our hostel and it was perfect! The owner was so sweet and gave us the upstairs bedroom which basically had two lines of beds. It was so fun! After dropping our stuff off, we went to Bran Castle(Dracula's Castle)! I am so glad we got to go there! The castle was different than I thought it would be, but it was so interesting to see and had an amazing view!

Our next stop was the Răşnow Fortress! It was at the top of a mountain and the view was stunning!

Saturday:

Saturday morning we got up and made the drive to Peleş Castle. It was the summer home of the first Romanian royal family and it was fantastic! If you are ever in Romania, make sure you see it! I liked it way more than Bran! I was just in awe throughout the whole tour!

My Lovely Group

After that, we went on the şapte scări(seven ladders) hike. Wow...probably the best(and scariest) hike I have ever been on! It was gorgeous! It is called seven ladders because you are in a canyon with waterfalls and have to climb up seven ladders(go figure) during the hike. My fear of heights made that a little intimidating, but we did it and it was completely worth it! The scariest and tallest ladder was just straight up and the water was splashing and you felt like you were going to fall at any second...but it was pretty awesome! I don't have any pictures that can help you see how beautiful that canyon was, but just try to imagine it!

This was probably the scariest part..

This is me...slightly terrified....

Sunday:

We were all looking forward to going to the branch on Sunday, but there was a district conference and so they weren't holding normal meetings. So instead, we walked around the city and explored. Can I just say how much I love Braşov??? It is magical!! It is so cute and colorful and I hope I can go back one day! It is completely different from Iaşi(where we live) so it was super fun to explore! Our hostel was about 10 minutes from centru so we spent a lot of time there. We went inside the Black Church and found the narrowest street in Europe(strada sforii)! It was so fun!

Centru

Isn't it so cute?!

The Black Church

Strada Sforii

Drummers that we saw during dinner

Monday:

Monday was our last day there, but we still had some fun! We spent the morning going to the Braşov sign! We took a tram up there and the view was great! You could see the whole city! After we were done we hiked back down. The ride home was another six hours...but I didn't mind too much. We drove past fields and through mountains and it was beautiful! Everything was so green!

Well it is nice to be home. It is still a little weird calling Iaşi my home for now, but that is what it feels like. The best part about coming home is being back with the children! We have had a great week at the orphanage! Those kids are amazing. I love them all so much! I said in another blog post that they only eat mush...but good news, they don't always eat that! Sometimes, especially when they are celebrating a holiday or birthday, they get cookies or cake! That makes me happy for them!

Yesterday inspectors came to the orphanage so it was even cleaner than normal! They keep it very clean...but yesterday the children were dressed more nicely than normal(they looked adorable!) and the kids with feeding tubes had fresh tape over them and everyone was snot free! It was a happy day! Other days are not so happy...the orphanage workers are fantastic and are great with the kids, but it is hard for one or two workers to take care of 15 kids that all need attention. It is such a hard job, and sometimes they are having bad days or are tired and you can really tell. Earlier this week was one of those days. They were a little more rough than usual with the kids and a little snappier, which is sometimes hard to watch. When one of my favorite little girls(the one that can't use her legs but is the only one who can talk in our room) was with us she got scolded...I am not sure what they told her because it was all in Romanian, but it really upset her and they wouldn't let us hold her. She is always so happy, so to see her that upset was hard. I just tried to hug her when I could and do little things to make her smile again. I just wanted to hold her in my arms all day and tell her that she is loved and that she is special and wonderful. She is such a sweet girl! The days after that have been better though, so I just have to remember that I can't control how the workers feel, but I am there to love those kids and that is exactly what I can do when the workers are having a hard day.