August 28 – 29

The next day, we decided to go over Bran Pass once again and try and find a resort that Andi had told us about, located 15 minutes off the main road . Pam and Miles were hoping to find a decent tennis court to play on. As we were about to leave town, we saw many of the villagers walking with bags of, what appeared to be, fruits and vegetables. Curious to see what was going on, we parked the car and followed the stream of people. We quickly discovered that is was Market Day and we couldn't resist walking the eight or so blocks so see what these robust villagers were selling. The fruits and vegetable were as hardy looking as the vendors selling them and shoes must have been a popular item, as several stalls had rows and rows of them for sale. There was a space that had all kinds of junk laid out on the ground that was a sight to see. The vendors were sitting on the back end of their truck and I was quite sure that they were gypsies. The one stall that we couldn’t resist, however, had a long line of people waiting to buy a bag of these deep fried pastries that looked like a different shape of our Mexican churros. Needless to say, we bought some and, boy, were they yummy .

Having seen most of the Market, we headed over the Pass, never tiring of the spectacular views and pastoral scenes of horses grazing on the lush hillsides. When we got to the other side, we finally found the resort Andi had told us about and were disappointed to report that it was nothing to write home about. I sometimes think that the Europeans assume that Americans like places that are new and, to their way or thinking, upscale which, at least for me, is quite the contrary.  However, the resort was surrounded by some stunning cliffs and beautiful scenery and we spent a little time just wandering about. Rather than stay for a meal, we opted to return to Rucar and have an early dinner at the local restaurant that Andi had also recommended. It was much more to our liking and the local food was excellent with huge portions which, we were discovering, seemed to be the norm in this part of the world. Best of all, you couldn’t beat the prices, including a half liter of beer for just over a dollar.

It was nice having a day that wasn’t so packed full of activities. We had driven over Bran Pass twice and,even though the scenery spectacular, we realized that to get to the other villages we wanted to visit required almost an additional hour coming from Rucar. So, as much as we loved our home exchange here, we decided to leave for our next home exchange in Sacele, a village about 20 minutes from Brasov .

The next day, after a leisurely breakfast, we packed up and sadly said goodbye to this sweet village and comfortable home and headed to the big city. Well, our GPS Lady seemed to be taking a break as we couldn’t get her to work and, after driving around and around, we realized we didn’t have a clue how to find Sacele. Although Bill and Miles weren’t ready to give up, Pam took charge, hopped out of the car, and enlisted the help of a cab driver to guide us there. It turned out to be a great decision as we were way off tract. He even had a hard time finding the address and the first place he took us to turned out to be the right address but the wrong neighborhood. This guy was incredible.  Once he realized this was the wrong place, he got out of his cab to ask one of the neighbors where the right address was. He was determined to get us there and, after another 15 minutes, we finally pulled up in front of the house. He even helped us find the key that the owner had left with the neighbor . It took us about 45 minute to get there and this cab driver could have easily charged way more than he did but the tab was only $20. Bill, who doesn’t hold taxi drivers in very high regard, was pretty blown away.

Well, this was just beginning. Once we figured out how to unlock the door, we walked into a home with the most bizarre furnishings and weird little things on the floor that any of us had ever seen. We were all hysterical as we kept noticing one strange thing after another. Each room had these weird religious things on the floor in the corner that we weren’t quite sure what they signified or from which religion they were from. The color scheme and artwork and rugs were off the charts. Then, still dazed from the décor, we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the stove, the hot water, the internet, or the television. And, they had no pots or pans to speak of, no microwave and not even a coffee pot. The owners lived in Bucharest and I’m quite certain were a family with a few kids. Even though this was their second home, we couldn’t figure out how they could possibly use this place with any degree of comfort. We ended up calling the owner who told us how to turn the hot water on and said that the internet should be working….it wasn’t. Fortunately, we had met the neighbor earlier and we enlisted the help of her husband, Lorenzo, who came over and hooked us up to his internet and showed us how to work the stove. He recommended a restaurant in the old part of Brasov that was a little more up scale with music and a nice ambiance so we decided to go. However, as we were leaving, we couldn’t figure out how to lock the door. So, we got Lorenzo back over to help us with that as well.

We had a lovely dinner, then found our way back to the house and tried to settle in to our new digs. I'm sending a separate blog with a photo journal of our strange home exchange in Sacele...I couldn't resist so I hope you'll get a laugh out of looking at these photos.