Remembering Romania

Glenn and I made it back to Budapest just fine, but not without a little mishap...I'll tell you more about it at the end of the blog :)

Our last few days in Romania were spent on a retreat with our co-workers who live in Romania and Moldova at a beautiful hotel called Casa Elim, way up in the Carpathian mountains in the town of Bran. We did not realize the mountains would be as large as they were so it was quite a nice surprise!


Carpathian Mountains peeking from behind the houses


The drive up was breathtaking!


The higher we went, the more the houses looked like Swiss chalets


Worshipping in English (always a treat!)

The messages were given by a pastor, Norm Howell, from Missouri and the worship time was led by Chris Ramsey, also from Missouri. It was only a two day retreat (48 hours from beginning to end), packed with 8 messages, short breaks and a little free time on the second afternoon. Most of the folks went into the nearby town to do some souvenir shopping, but Glenn and I decided to stay at the hotel and just talk (and rest!). Even though we had been together 24/7 for the past week, we were always with someone, and so this was an opportunity for us to just be together and talk. It was nice. Glenn also took a short nap and I read some. Like I said, it was nice.

Now, the hitch came in on our last morning. Due to misinformation from the web site, we missed our train from Bran to Budapest by just a few minutes. (Our web site information said it left at 10 am, and we got there about 9:05, and we thought we would be really early!)

Here in Europe when you buy a train ticket, the ticket is good for about a month and you can catch the train any time you'd like during that time period. However, if you want to make sure you can get a seat, you have to buy an additional "seat reservation". We had bought a reservation for the 9 am train, which we'd missed, so we bought another seat reservation for the "overnight" train that would be leaving at 7:45 pm that evening. So now we had a whole day ahead of us to spend as we pleased! How wonderful!! We said good-bye to our friend Duane who had dropped us off at the train station in Brasov, and with a city map in hand we walked to the center of town (a good 3 miles away). We spent the day wandering aimlessly, browsing in shops, sitting on park benches, people watching, eating the best pizza ever at one of the little hole-in-the-wall places, and catching a lift up to the top of the nearby mountain to look out over the entire city. We had a great day!

We walked along the pedestrian street

The weather was perfect for strolling

Women selling flowers to eek a living and beggars asking for help

We sat in the plaza and people-watched

Watched the pigeons and listened to their cooing

Enjoyed the warm sunshine on our faces

"The Black Church"

A short distance from the plaza is an old church. It is called The Black Church, I kid you not! It is not black in color, nor is the congregation a black one. It got it's name from a fire in the tower back in 1689. We did not go inside, but walked around it and were awed by it's architecture.

The side streets were interesting too!

Bob, Marjorie and Stanley

We decided to catch a cable car up to the top of the mountain that overlooks the city, and as soon as we got inside, two of our co-workers walked up. We rode up with them, chit-chatted a bit at the top, rode down together, and then we went our separate ways. It was nice to get to spend a little more time with them. They were taking "Flat Stanley" up to see the city. In case you don't know who Flat Stanley is, ask any second grader and they will tell you. I don't actually know the story, but the idea is that school children will cut out and color this paper doll named Stanley and send him to friends and family members who are traveling across the U.S. and around the world, and take pictures of him during their travels. Glenn and I had the pleasure of taking Flat Stanley to Poland with us for a friend of mine at NCCS, Adam Doughty, in 2006.

Overlooking the town of Brasov

We walked from off the right side of this picture to the plaza that is sort of in the center of town (the big open space with the church in the middle). Just off to the left is the HUGE Black Church, which is taller than any building around it (and looks like it has 3 sections: the tower, the sanctuary, and then the educational space???) Then we walked to the base of the mountain to catch the cable car, and then back to the train station. I'd say, in all, we walked about 10 miles.

Glenn on the bottom bunk of the overnight cabin

We caught the overnight train back to Budapest. The only other time we took a night train, we were in seats in a little cabin with other people we didn't know. I was miserable all night, sitting up and trying to sleep without drooling or snoring. I swore (okay, I don't swear, but I emphatically told Glenn) that I would never again do the night train without reservations in the sleeping compartment!

The sleeping compartment was cute. (My dad taught me the word "cute" is real estate lingo for "small".) It had two bunks that open, suspended from the wall, a corner chair that was round, and a little table that lifted up to expose the tiny sink underneath! With all our suitcases and bags on the floor, only one of us could stand at a time; the other had to be on the bed. It was quite quaint and a wonderful experience. We were woken up at midnight on the Romanian side for them to check our passports and then again on the Hungarian side for them to check our passports too. I barely woke up since Glenn had the passports. There must have been a problem of some kind at the border because we were there a very long time, and our train got into Budapest 3 1/2 hours late the next morning. I would do the overnight train again.

We are home for a week. We leave next Sunday for a conference on Crisis Intervention at a town on the Switzerland/France border. I am looking forward to learning about how to help families that are in crisis so please pray that I can absorb all that is offered!