The church tower
I have
never thought of myself as a morning person and anybody who knows me would be
very likely to agree on this point. There is no way I will get up in the
morning unless I really have to. But this morning I want to get up early to
catch a train to Brasov
and get something out of the day. I go to the train station early. And I get on
the train and sits down.
The trains
take off and start to drive slowly. I sit down and try to relax for a while -
but then I look out the window. Why do I have the early morning sun to my left
when I am going north? It should be on my right in the east and not in the
west. I start to find a map and look at it to check if the railway is doing
some strange twist which would mean that I would be travelling south instead of
north - no it don't look like it.
The lower parts of the church
Then I start to wonder which track did I
actually arrive at yesterday - 1 or 2? Yep I went under the tracks yesterday -
so I had to be track number two and this morning I rush into the train on track
one. Great I am in the train towards Bucharest
and not Brasov.
I got to go on to the new station and get on a northbound train. After getting
of the train I get my ticket and make sure I am actually going the right way
this time around.
The train
arrives and drives north - it is one of the unbelievable slow trains. Finally I
get back to Sinaia train station - about 2-2½ after I got there in the first
place - I would have been better of with a bit more sleep this morning I guess.
I get to Brasov - finally.
Looking from a window out at the courtyard
And get
a place to stay - the reason I wanted to get there early was so I could go to
the Bran Castle
and the Rasnov Fortress a short ride out of Brasov. But when I get there I am told that I
can get on a pretty cheap tour driving to those two places tomorrow and the Peles Castle.
I decide to go for that option so instead of trying to get to the two places I
go for a couple of fortified churches. There is almost 2 hours to the next
train is leaving for the first church so I end up going in a cap instead - a
bit against my intention of using only public transport but hey you need to
compromise from time to time.
I get to
the first church in Prejmer and it looks pretty familiar - even though I never
have seen a fortified church before.
The housing part of the church
It remain me of the fortified grannies in
northern Libya, where the Berbers hid there supplies in case of war - and the
design is almost the same - only the storage for the grains has been replaced
by tiny housing units instead. It could not be a nice place to stay for any
prolonged period of time but for a short period during a siege it could work.
The church was certainly easy to defend against all sorts of enemies with the
thick round wall surrounding it and only on exit through a gate which were easy
to seal of.
After
having seen the place from the inside it is time to have a quick look around at
the outside and the small village square in front of the church. It is actually
a really nice little spot and I am the only tourist anywhere in sight which
just makes it all so much better for it.
I am off to
the next stop the another fortified church closer to Brasov in a tiny little village called
Harman.
More housing
It is a even less visited place and I got problem getting in the door
to the church. It is closed off and there is a small sign in Romanian and
German stating the church is closed at Mondays. But it is not a Monday so why
is it not open? Well it also says something like you can ask in the tower room
or something like that - I open the door and a bells go of and a lady comes
down and sells me a ticket for the sum of 2 Lei or less than a dollar - and she
opens the gate. I am pretty sure I am the first guest all day hence the place
is no way making any profit.
The church
is nice, but not nearly as attractive as the first church in Prejmer. It is build
in more or less the some shape though with a round wall protecting against
enemies but there is not nearly as many housing units and the whole church is a
lot worse maintained than the other one. Ah well I am here and there is no
reason not to wander around the place when I am and look a bit closer at it -
it is not like I am disturbing the other tourist in Romania.
And then it
is finally time to head back to Brasov.
