Part II - My travels while I was a student.

 In this article, I will continue to write about my little trips when I was in high school.

The high school years were the most beautiful of my life.

I had many unforgettable experiences, I did many crazy things that I will never forget. But besides that, I visited many new, beautiful and interesting places, this is where my whole adventure with which I start this article begins.

I don't want to go into details about what I did while I was a high school student, like any teenager trying to be in line with other teenagers, but to have a pleasant memory of her adolescence.

But the most beautiful memories I had during this period were my travels through tourist, geographical and historical places through which I charged myself with positive energy and great emotions, it is difficult to put them into words. You have to see them with your own eyes.

When I first came to Romania I visited a few places but I don't remember them. But my first beautiful and interesting trip with my classmates and the teacher was at the beginning of April 1999.

The teacher informed us that we are going on our first trip with colleagues, we have to dress well, have some money, food and water. The journey will be long and full of walls.

Our first distance was Sinaia and then Busteni. I've never been there before. And for me it was something unexpected and new, full of surprise and adventure. I like adventures and adrenaline. To explore new places, to meet beautiful people in mind and soul.

We all met at the train station at 8 o'clock in the morning. Our train to Sinaia was 8:30 minutes away. After buying tickets to Sinaia, we eagerly waited for the train to come so we could all go on our little adventure. I had an unpleasant incident with one of my colleagues, who was late and had to run after the train to get on it.

The teacher informed us that we will stop you at Cota 2000 where we will eat and drink tea and coffee. A well-known tourist guide of the conductor went with us. He showed us new and interesting routes, he told us the areas we are going to.

Our departure for the exercise was long awaited and welcomed by us. We all got on the train and wen
t on our little adventure. That colleague who was late for the train finally caught the last train, running after him. She climbed into it, panting as best she could.

In the meantime the Godfather of tickets had come, I could still hear him from afar when he came. We quickly prepared our tickets. Rolling over the doll, our late colleague had no ticket. We were scared but we didn't know what to do if the Godfather caught him.

Each of us had come up with a suggestion, to pay for his ticket, to put him in the toilet, and to go out when his godfather checked the tickets.

The best suggestion, however, was to hide it in the toilet.

The godfather knew all the tricks of the passengers and controlled each compartment and toilet separately. Every moment our godfather approached us, we were more and more anxious in case we were caught red-handed. When he reached the toilet and opened the door, we were worried. He opened the door and then saw that there was no one, he closed the door. He came to us, shouted: check tickets. After he left, we quickly went to see where our colleague was. We quickly go to the bathroom to see where our colleague is. But he was not there. I shouted, but no one answered.

We were scared of what happened to him. Not even 5 minutes had passed, as it appears through the door of the wagon. We breathed a sigh of relief that everything was fine with him.

The seats were cleared and we all sat down, waiting to reach Sinaia. It was a beautiful spring day.

We all went down to Sinaia. We crossed the street from the Railway Station to go to Peles and Pelis Castle. But before reaching our destination we arrived in a park where we sat down to rest. Then the teacher will tell us the program for today.

After 5 minutes of rest, we set off for Peles and Pelisor Castle. We passed souvenir shops, hotels and small cafes, restaurants with traditional Romanian food.

I climbed the slope to climb the Castle. An indescribably beautiful privilege has opened before us, full of history and tradition.

In addition to Pelisor Castle, there were traditional and handmade souvenir shops. Prices were a little high for our pockets.

I bought something beautiful for my family as a keepsake.

I paid for the entrance to Castel Peles and Pelisor. But unfortunately I found out at the entrance that Pelisor was closed to tourists. It was undergoing renovations.

I do not want to go into details about the history of the castle, I will let you visit this beautiful building with a historical and cultural value. At the entrance we were told to put on shoes to keep the Castle clean and hygienic.

Peles Castle is one of the most beautiful castles that Romania has, it is also unique at the time while it was built. With a special beauty and a charming look, this castle takes you with your thoughts into a wonderful world, full of magic, princes and princesses.

Since 1953, Peles has been declared a museum, so that even today the castle is made available to the general public to visit. The most important rooms to visit are the Hall of Honor, the Royal Library, the Arms Halls, the Music Hall, the Florentine Hall, the Moorish Hall, the Theater Hall, the Concert Hall, the Imperial Apartment, the Council Hall, the Cabinet. The living room, the Turkish Salon and the Royal Bedroom. There is also a souvenir shop, where beauty lovers can buy special items to remind them of the experience they had in this castle.

Peles Castle is currently the second castle visited in Romania, in first place being Bran Castle, passing over 300,000 visitors annually, both from the country and from America, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Europe.

Peles Castle has 160 rooms and several entrances and interior stairs, and the central tower is 66 meters high. Peles also has a theater hall, with a small stage and 60 seats, plus the royal lodge.

This castle meant an extraordinary thing in the time when it was built, being unique in all of Europe due to the central heating, the elevator and the glass ceiling, the hall of honor that was mobile, it could be driven by an electric motor.

Around it, the castle has seven terraces decorated with stone statues, fountains and ornamental Carrara marble vessels. When you enter the building, you can smell the smell of wood and old marble.

The castle was a huge building where you could get lost in it, if you didn't have a local guide, to guide you and tell you about the history of the place.

If you enter the page of Pelis Castle you will see many exhibitions of art, classical music and theater. (https://peles.ro/istorice/istoricul-castelului-pelisor/)

I was careful what our guide told about Pelis Castle, there were many interesting stories in that place.

Pelis Castle was opened to the general public in the winter of 1993. The museum, with inestimable value, which includes a historical, a memorial and an artistic value, is an important component of the cultural heritage of the Romanian people. This building is an integral part of the western architectural ensemble created by King Carol I on the valley of the Peles stream, in a period that practically overlaps his entire life lived in Romania. In parallel with Peles Castle, were built near the House of Knights, the Economist, the Guard House, the House of Architects, the Garden House, and later, between 1899-1902, Peles Castle, a gift offered by King Carol I to the heirs.

The chief architect of Pelișor Castle, Karel Liman, complied with the client's requirements for exterior architecture, with Fachwerk elements, but also adding Romanian elements, which give the building a cheerful note: the two towers covered with colored tiles, like church towers in Bucovina.

The interior decoration, designed by Maria in various periods, 1902-1903 and 1925-1928 illustrated her belief in beauty. Maria's daring artistic endeavors did not have, as in Carol I, civilizing or exemplary pretensions, they were the manifestation of her non-conformist spirit, open to the new, wanting freedom.

Pelisor Castle reveals, through its interior decoration, the romantic, mysterious, daring personality, promoter of a new and unusual art of Queen Maria, because the style she chose for this dream house is 1900 art.

That is why I want to let you enjoy this historical-cultural privilege, to live intensely your visit in the Castle. Really feel the aristocratic bohemian air of the Castle.

I am glad that I visited this historical-cultural monument of Romania. If I come to Sinaia, I will definitely visit Pelisul and Pelisorul.

After visiting this beautiful place, we took it to the Sinaia Monastery and the Church of the Assumption. The monastery is an Orthodox settlement in Sinaia, Prahova County is included in the List of historical monuments in Romania. We went in to pray, to visit the history of the place and then we went to Cota 2000 by cable car from Sinaia. I paid for the cable car and went upstairs. As you climbed up you could see some beautiful places and an indescribable privilege.

And without the walls, our adventure could not have been interesting. This time my colleague and I had an adventure that I will never forget.

We went on some very beautiful and interesting hikes with a lot of adrenaline. Before reaching the Babes and the Sphinx we stopped to have a tasting and to rest a bit.

Busteni is a small mountain town in the north of Prahova County, Muntenia, Romania. It is located in Prahova Valley, at the bottom of the Bucegi Mountains, which have a maximum attitude of 2,505 m.

The average altitude of Busteni is 875m. It is one of the most popular mountain resorts in Romania, with tourist opportunities throughout the year, including skiing and mountaineering. Before climbing up the cable car I passed the Valea Spumoasă Waterfall with crystal clear and cold water. If you were thirsty, you could enjoy her sweetness. From there we headed and got up with the Busteni-Babele cable car. We reached the old women at a height of 2000 m.

We saw the old women and the Sphinx was photographed at them. The air above was clean, the sun was burning as it warmed you through the thick clothes you wore. The first time I came to Babele and Sfinx, I didn't know much about their history. Babele (meaning old) is a name for an area on the plateau of the Bucegi Mountains in Romania, in the Southern Carpathians.

Babele is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. The name comes from some mushroom-shaped rock formations, the result of erosion and varying hardness of rock layers.

The Bucegi Sphinx is another rock formation in the same area, named for its Egyptian sphinx-like appearance. It is located at an attitude of 2216m above sea level, on a plateau in the Bucegi chain. It measures 10 m high and 12 m wide. It consists mainly of sandy rocks and conglomerates formed by wind and rain. Babele Chalet is accessible either by cable car from Busteni or by road. It can also be reached on foot, coming from Busteni through the Jepilor Valley (Ienupărului Valley), or from the ridge of the Bucegi Mountains, coming from the Burnt Stone palette (Burnt Rock).

The Sphinx and the Babes are called seven natural wonders of Romania. We walked to the stop an hour away. A beautiful, indescribable landscape was opening in front of us, you could not describe it, but you could see it.

You could see the mountains in front of us, the cold spring air was passing through your thick clothes. We went to the Busteni Mountain Rescue, we had a well-established route, we passed through Valea Priponului, Mecetul Turcesc, Valea Cerbului, in our horizon you could see Cabana Omul where we made our own stop. Here we rested, drank hot tea and ate the food we took from home. We loaded ourselves with good mood from our little trip, and with a lot of positive energy to have a better year of studies, friends and family.

I am sincerely glad that I arrived on this wonderful journey with wonderful people, I had an unforgettable experience, which I cannot describe in words. I was left with a good impression.

After descending from 2000, we set off for Carăiman Monastery, where we stayed for a while to pray and see the holy places.

 To be continued!!

Written by Elena Boguș