Sinaia: A Romanian Town

1. Peleş Castle,  Sinaia

Busy cities are great place to stay but Beth and Rob felt that a countryside visit would be a welcome change in air and scenery and would allow them to see other parts of Romania. The real culture of Romania is set in its peasant roots that can be still seen throughout the countryside as it has for centuries. 

2. Train countryside view

3. Dogs begging at train stops

During the two-hour train ride to the small town of Sinaia, Rob periodically distracted Beth away from her reading to look out the train window. With regular frequency the train would pass picturesque vistas. Some views contained a peasant tending to his sheep with a long rod while others scenes had a farmer bent with age walking along a dirt road beside meadows pitted with haystacks as he held the reins of a donkey that pulled a vintage wagon filled with a harvest of cabbages or potatoes.  As the train slowly moved down the aging Romanian tracks it would pass rolling pastures and farmlands that turned to rolling hills and eventually to the jaggedly peaks of the Bucegi mountains where the town of Sinaia sits in the Pravova valley. 

4. Carol I residence.

5. Castle grounds

The town of Sinaia was a welcome contrast to Bucharest as its building more closely resemble Swiss Cottages with its half timber design then the French styles and communistic buildings common in the big city.

The town is noted as the summer residence of the King Carol I.  His Peleş Castle, situated in the foot hills of Sinaia, has all the original interior and contents from the time of Carol I’s reign. Though it was closed for the month of November the residence the king preferred to stay was open for Rob and Beth to visit.

7. Sinaia Monastery Church

In the afternoon, Beth’s fear of flying, which also extends to swinging from cables on a lift up the side of the mountain, meant that her and Rob would taxi up the mountain’s twisty roads instead. Although she felt the road was safer then the cable cars, this did not prevent her from being anxious when the taxi meandered seven kilometers of roads strewn with potholes that near the first summit that towers above Sinaia.

6.  Mountain Vista

From here, Beth and Rob were able to look out to the tiny distant towns that lay below them while intermittently they played a game of ‘Who can spot the most stray dogs on the mountainside?’  The taxi driver patiently waited for them and just as skillfully as he drove them up he returned them down while allowing frequent stops to photograph Sinaia below.  When they eventually reached the base the driver thoughtfully dropped them off at the place of there choosing and gladly accepted the agreed upon fare of 12€.

Before returning to Bucharest Rob suggested that they visit the ski chalet’s restaurant, Snow, to share a plate of papanași, which to him looks oddly like a tasty plate of breasts.