dreamshark

Or so they say. Actually, it's a pretty nice little European city boasting a huge central walking plaza with the requisite looming Cyclopean religious structure (actually called The Black Church, in this case) looming over one end. But if they're so hip, why did we have to walk around for more than an hour before we found an Internet cafe? The connection is slow, but it's not too smoky and a mere 10,000 leis an hour, so it meets our needs.

Amber and I dashed across Europe from Munich to Vienna to the east side of Transylvania and have just completed 3 and a half days at Count Kalnoky's Estate. I'm not quite sure what noun to use to describe this establishment - more than a guest house, but less than a resort. It's located in an honest-to-God little Transylvanian peasant village where the cows come home, literally, at sunset every night down the muddy streets, mooing to let their families know it's time to milk them. The village is all Hungarian, except for a few assimilated gypsies. Most of the villages in Transylvania were Hungarian or Saxon until about 15 years ago, when 90% of the Saxons left and moved back to Germany. I gather that they Had Their Reasons.

Guests at Kolnaky Estates stay in genuinely charming little one-room houses with ancient wood floors and roof beams, antique furniture and modern bathrooms. Meals are served family style at the Main House, up the street and around the corner. Every day the guests pile into one or two vehicles and head out for some sightseeing. Exactly which tours are offered seems to be arrived at by consensus. There are never more than a dozen guests. There were 9 of us during our stay - two British couples, a German couple, a lone woman from Arkansas, and us. We only stayed 3 nights, but one of the British couples was there for two weeks. We did mostly "city trips" this week because the weather was a little rainy, but did manage one nature walk to The Volcanic Lake. We saw castles and ancient fortified churches, lots of green rolling fields dotted with little clay-roofed villages and an astounding array of water-filled potholes. The main roads of Romania are pretty good - the rest of them are hellacious. Other than that, the sightseeing trips have been quite enjoyable.

We've now said goodbye to the Kolnaky's and are killing time in a Brasov Internet cafe until our night train leaves for Budapest.