nicole in transylvania

'hey guys, i have an idea, let's go to transylvania on the full moon right before easter and hang out alone on the deserted street by the black church.'

nicole b. 3-24-05. one hour before midnight.

no no, seriously. it's not THAT creepy here. actually, it is beautiful. it's only a little creepy. the street by the black church was lonely, true, but that's only because the main square is on the other side of the black church. the church is huge, and actually black, from a fire that happened some time ago (i can't get too specific, unfortunately, because i don't know the facts just yet).

i don't really feel like i just got off of a twenty hour train ride. my stomach sort of hurts from junk food and i'm a little bit dizzy, but i think that's because the computer screen wobbles everytime i type a letter. the twenty hours really wasn't so bad, mainly because we slept for 12 of them. we kept being woken up about every two hours for passport checks. we actually got our passports stamped five or six times, so i guess that means we went to five or six countries? the way we figured it, only a slightly illogical route would've taken us through slovakia, austria, hungary, and then romania, but that still doesn't account for the other two passport stamps, so i'm just gonna say i went to, hmmm, lets say belarus and ukraine, just to confuse people.

the highlight of the train ride was sunset. we were already in transylvania by sunset this evening, and, for some reason (probably having to do with warding off the vampires that came to celebrate the full moon and protest the easter celebrations), all of the romanian farmers decided to light little fires on their property at dusk. the sunset was gloomy and colorless, and we hit it right as we were traveling through one of those picturesque, dilapidated towns that doesn't look like it has renovated any buildings since the seventeenth century. then, as we were on our way out of town, ronen decided to 'go exploring' around the train, leaving kristen and myself alone in the car. just at this moment, i looked out the window and saw an entire black hillside covered in some strange fire-pattern. like little fires were lit all over it in this huge squiggly, semi-circular shape, and in the middle were two black, dead trees. i sort of half-squealed and grabbed kristen and made her hold me while we marvelled at the quiet creepiness of the scene. on the other side of the hill was a faint red glow; there must have been fires there too.

romanian countryside is unlike any other countryside i've seen. the plains are as flat as houston plains, but they have sort of louisiana style marsh-swamps on them, presumably from the melting ice now that it is getting warmer, and then hills and mountains suddenly spring from the plains, as if a child had drawn his conception of what mountains were like. flat, then bumpy all of a sudden. and, of course, there are little fires everywhere. and also tons of gigantic balls of hay with sticks poking out of them. oh oh, and people riding bicycles and staring and waving at the train as it passed by--- old people on bicycles. actually, most of the old people on bicycles were in bulgaria.

... and now, my friends, i have to wrap this up. kristen and ronen are done eating and i'm tired and dizzy. i'll be back tomorrow, hopefully. i should at some point also tell you guys about vienna, which was (predictably) marvelous. and i saw penguins! those of you who know me personally, must know about how much i love penguins! okay okay. till tomorrow then...

p.s. tomorrow we're going to dracula's castle, i think. but i hear that he never actually lived there. k bye