Post from Tim:
Fate swept me quickly out of Bucharest. From trolley bus to rail station to ticket vendor to departing train, yesterday's departure conspired to whisk me away to Sinaia without delay.
Sinaia was everything a skiing town should be in July, full of bustling cafes and the feeling of leisure, but surrounded in green forested hills and the festive colors of summer. I walked through the town's center to its cable car and spent the night up high at 1400 meters in a nearly empty cabana. My only companion in the quiet 8-bed dorm room was a gas furnace hissing away in the corner of my room all night and warming the cold mountain air.
I hiked for a short while in the morning, near the 2000-meter terminus of the cable car. After soaking in the impressive 360-degree view of the surrounding Transylvanian mountains, I headed back down to town to see the Pelis Castle.
Pelis Castle is relatively modern, built between 1875-1914 as the summer residence of King Carol. But what impressed me most wasn't the castle's history, but its luxuriously rich decoration and architecture. I could see none other than a king walking over those plush red carpets, around the dark wooden walls carved with detailed ornamentation, and under the stained glass ceiling in the center of the room. (The ceiling actually slides open, aided by electric motors installed all the way back in 1883.)
Wood murals hung on the walls next to woven tapestries. The armory brimmed with antique guns, swords, and suits of armor. A beautiful wooden ornamental spiral staircase wound its way up to nowhere. Teak furniture and brilliant stained glass windows colored one room red, while a nearby room featured a gilded Arabesque ceiling and decorations modeled from Spain's Moorish Alhambra.
I left the castle impressed and headed off to the train station, where I waited hours due to a broken down train. Off to my next destination!
Sinaia was everything a skiing town should be in July, full of bustling cafes and the feeling of leisure, but surrounded in green forested hills and the festive colors of summer. I walked through the town's center to its cable car and spent the night up high at 1400 meters in a nearly empty cabana. My only companion in the quiet 8-bed dorm room was a gas furnace hissing away in the corner of my room all night and warming the cold mountain air.
I hiked for a short while in the morning, near the 2000-meter terminus of the cable car. After soaking in the impressive 360-degree view of the surrounding Transylvanian mountains, I headed back down to town to see the Pelis Castle.
Pelis Castle is relatively modern, built between 1875-1914 as the summer residence of King Carol. But what impressed me most wasn't the castle's history, but its luxuriously rich decoration and architecture. I could see none other than a king walking over those plush red carpets, around the dark wooden walls carved with detailed ornamentation, and under the stained glass ceiling in the center of the room. (The ceiling actually slides open, aided by electric motors installed all the way back in 1883.)
Wood murals hung on the walls next to woven tapestries. The armory brimmed with antique guns, swords, and suits of armor. A beautiful wooden ornamental spiral staircase wound its way up to nowhere. Teak furniture and brilliant stained glass windows colored one room red, while a nearby room featured a gilded Arabesque ceiling and decorations modeled from Spain's Moorish Alhambra.
I left the castle impressed and headed off to the train station, where I waited hours due to a broken down train. Off to my next destination!