Black Church in the rain
I get back to Brasov - it is an old city with a fairly small centre even though it is one of the biggest cities in Romania today. It does not look very much like an Eastern European city at all it looks a lot more like a German city. There is actually a good reason for it looking so German - it is originally a German city.
The city is founded by Germans as one of 7 cities around Transylvania - or Siebenbürgen in German which means something like the seven fortress or castles after the seven Saxon cities in the area. In fact no Romanians were allowed to settle inside the city of Brasov - or Kronstadt. The Romanians had to stay outside the gates of the city in a somewhat less fashionable neighbourhood.
Schei Gate
The old city is pretty centred around an old town square with the main church which burned once long ago and is hence called the black church. And it got a lot of impressive old German style buildings hanging around the place. The charm of the place is a bit blurred by some low hanging clouds which suddenly decide to start to bless the land with rain - cold rain that is. Got to get away from the cold rain since I made the brilliant choice to leave my rainwear in my backpack when I went out earlier. Walking back from the centre I pass the Schei gate which mark the end of the old town and the begging of the Romania town where the poor people lives - and the current travelling riff raff like me.
I get back to the hostel where I stay and it is packed with Spanish people - there is a general Spanish invasion going on in Romania this week of Easter.
Building at the main square at the beging of town
Well the people of Spain can be very friendly, but I don't speak Spanish and for some reason they always seem to talk very passionately with each other - I got no idea who invented the idea of speaking passionately I mean it is just another way of saying loudly. Well I can get used to it - just really unusual with so many Spanish outside Spain.
It is getting late and I just glance out the window for a second - there is something strange in the air under the street lightning it looks a bit like snow - I get to the window to have a closer look - and yes it is snow. Here I am going south to Romania wanting some spring whether and sunshine - and then it snows. I guess if I had thought about the fact that you can a local bus from Brasov to a ski resort just outside of town - then the snow would not have been such a big surprise.
