Study Abroad: Romania – Day 8

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away from Norman, Oklahoma, 12 people embarked on a journey to Rasnov, Romania. These people include Sergio Gomez, Thai Phi, Nate Johnson, Landon Wright, Steve Reiley, Andrew Boremann, Cameron Devers, Dennys Cifuentas, Lavinia Teodoriu, Catalin Teodoriu, Allen the tour guide and myself.

Upon arrival in Rasnov after a three-hour bus ride from Ploiesti, the first stop up the mountain was at Dino Park in which a father and his daughter got off the trailer to enjoy the festivities.  The rest of us continued to the top to see the fortress, pictured here.

To get here we crossed into another country. Today it is all recognized as Romania, but in the past this area was known as Tara Barsei, and essentially regions of the country spoke the same language but were not quite unified. This land used to be populated by Austrian-Hungarian Empire and they needed settlers to consolidate his empire by bringing people from the German border, the Saxons.  This is where people of the town came to escape attackers coming to destroy their city.

The fortress lies in the Carpathian Mountains above the village — both of which are recognized as Rasnov.  The courtyard of the fortress include the ruins of a catholic chapel.

Safety Report:

Landon nearly fell walking down from the top of the fortress with shoe laces open and improper shoes for the terrain. And he was not the only one.

We also noted inadequate stairs and railing.

All members of the group lacked restraints and three points of contact.

One of us  slipped and fell later on, thank goodness he was not injured, but we definitely learned a safety lesson today: proper shoes are essential at all times.

 

The next destination, Prejmer, a fortified church was also built by the Saxons. Picture here, is information about the church.

From the church, the group trekked on to the city of Brasov to find a bite to eat, but quickly got distracted by the CATO store for Dr. Teodoriu.  For lunch, the group ended up going to a restaurant called Pizza Vitto.

From Pizza Vitto, we went to the giant church in town, which is on of the largest in Romania.  It has a bell that weighs six tons.  Unfortunately, the church closed before our arrival and we did not get the opportunity to tour the inside.  The picture below is of the statue standing outside of the church.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *