I'm writing this early Sunday morning while almost everyone is still asleep (recovering from our trip to Brasov and Bran, which I will post about later). I am relying on my memory from 4 days ago, and I hope I am correct!
Jimmy, Clay, Sam, Leah, and I walked to the local sporting goods store called Decathlon, all by ourselves! It's about a thirty minute walk, so I was so happy that we made it there and back without getting lost. While there, we purchased the last few things the runners would need for their upcoming Transylvania trail run. (More on that later too!)
We ate lunch, and then Dan and Tami met us over here and we all drove (in two cars) to Severin. Let me just say that driving (or should I say riding in a car as a passenger) in Romania is an exciting experience! The drivers drive fast, somewhat erratically (it seems to me), and honk their horns frequently. There are also these "round abouts" at many intersections instead of traffic lights. These seem dangerous to me too, because the drivers just zoom through them, honking their horns. It takes two hours to drive to Severin. We have driven many miles throughout southern and middle Romania since we have been here, and I have yet to see a highway that looks like one in the U.S. We should all be thankful for our roads! If you look at the bottom of the map below, you can find Bucharest. That is where we flew into. Over to the left is Craiova, where Julie and Big Sam live. Over even further to the left is Drobeta Turna Severin, where Julie and Big Sam used to live until last November. Looking up in the middle, and you can see Brasov, which is where we traveled to on Thursday.
We parked in front of the church building, which is on a main road in Severin. The church there meets at 4:30pm for Wednesday Bible study, so we had a couple of hours to tour Severin beforehand.
on a street corner in Severin
We stopped at small grocery store to buy water and of course coke! I have been fortunate to find coke in every place I've been on my trip. It tastes a little sweeter and does not have quite as much carbonation as our Coke bottled in the U.S., but it is still delicious! (And it costs less over here too!)
Happy Mama with her Coke
We stepped briefly (and quietly) into this Eastern Orthodox church. It is so beautiful! Julie and Big Sam did not live far from this area when they lived here. They were in walking distance (of course!) of a nice shaded park, a mall, the church building where they worshiped and worked, and a main hub of the city.
outside the Eastern Orthodox church
Next we walked on to the Severin Fortress, but on our way stopped to admire the theater.
the theater in the back of the photo.
in front of the theater
Here is some information about the Severin Fortress:
Ha!
The fortress was built in 1230, and this link provides information about the fortress in English. We have never seen or touched anything that was this old!
the view of the fortress as you are approaching it
Silly photo-op cut-outs can be found anywhere in the world!
another view of the fortress
The Danube River is in the background, and on the other side of the river is Serbia.
These workers were cutting the very high grass all around the fortress by hand! With a scythe!
Sam, posing beside what may have been a moat around the fortress?
The next touristy thing we did was climb to the top of the Water Castle. It took 160 steps to reach the top--on a steep, spiral staircase! The Water Castle (which was a water tower) was built in 1910 and supplied water to the city until 1980.
I'm hanging on, trying not to get dizzy, definitely not looking down!
After our city tour it was time for Bible study. Again, this service was mostly in Romanian. The Bible class teacher had printed out the Scripture (Philippians 4) in Romanian, and with my English Bible open, I could somewhat follow along when he read from the Bible. However, I had no idea what he was saying otherwise!
When Bible study concluded, we began our way back to Craiova. We stopped along the way for supper.
supper at a nice restaurant
(still, no ice!)
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