Deva

Welcome to Deva! This is my favorite city in the world! This is a picture of Cetate (fortress) on top of the hill by Deva. You can barely make it out, but if you make the picture bigger you can see that the sign says DEVA, Hollywood style.
This is the tailor where I got my two suits made before I came home. The man's name was Maistro Palacian. Yes Maistro like the music people. He was awesome, he was a very fun old man who was always telling me to take my pants off.
This is claitita lady. Basically Clatitas are crepes but they are way better because they put Romanian ingredients like finetti and vanilla finetti in them. My companion and I would come here first thing in the morning every cold winter day to get a clatita for breakfast. We loved them.
Here is a picture of the cute little Vila where the branch meets. I was sad because we weren't sure when we would be here so we didn't have time to meet with any of the members, I hope they can forgive me. They put a plaque on the wall of the Vila that says the churches name, which hasn't been done anywhere else in the country, which makes me happy because they aren't going anywhere. This is the Behemoth Orthodox church that has been under construction since before I got my mission call till today. The major differences I can see is that they have put a couple bricks in. They are building the church on the basis of donations, so its going slowly.
I love DEVA!

Sibiu

This is Sibiu, where I started my mission. This is the place that gets my vote for the prettiest city in the world. Sibiu was the European Culture Capital for 2007 which means they came through and cleaned and repaired everything recently. The city looks fantastic.

This picture below is the thing that tourists always talk about. It's a section of stairs that go back to Roman times, including the arch work overhead, so I guess its pretty cool, but I like my stairs better. These are my stairs. They are one of many sets of stairs that connect the lower city with the upper city. We called them Scara Iadului (Stairway from hell) because they are long and steep, but the actual name is Scara Aurelilor (the stairway of the goldsmiths) because traditionally the market at the bottom was where the goldsmiths lived, now its just full of gypsies.The Scara Iadului will take you into Piata Mica (The Little Square) then eventually to Piata Mare (The Big Square) which you can see below. The picture is of the Catholic church in Sibiu and if you look at the right side of the picture the other tower with the clock in it is the Counsel Tower. The square has changed a lot since I was here it looks amazing.At the other end of the square is Centru, which is what Romanians call the major area of the city in whichever city they are in. I love the Sibiu Centru because it looks like you are walking down main street Disneyland. It honestly felt great just to be back here.Near Centru is the other major tourist attraction in Sibiu, the Podul Minciunilor (The Liars Bridge.) This bridge was built in the late 1800's and the rumor says that you cannot tell a lie while standing on the bridge or it will collapse. Romanians like to point out that Ceausescu gave many speeches from the bridge so the rumor must not be true. All the same its a very pretty bridge.I lived here for 7 and a half months and loved living here and never thought there was anything weird at all about the town. Alayna is here for 2 hours and notices and points out to me that the houses have eyes and that they follow you. I am now terrified of these houses. Thanks Alayna.This was taken at the market place. Doesn't Alayna look pretty? At least she didn't tell me that the market was haunted or something. We were sad because apparently Sibiu ,being the European Culture Capital of 2007, felt that having the dirty smelly market full of gypsies wasn't the best face to present. I was very upset. The whole reason we went to the market was so that I could haggle with some gypsies. Alayna first saw people using brooms like this in Bucuresti and was desperate to get a picture of one. Unfortunately every time we saw one we didn't have our camera ready. In Sibiu we finally found one.
This is taken in the nicest restaurant in Sibiu. Only the really, really wealthy eat here. This is the restaurant in the Hotel Imparatul Romanilor, which is the Hotel Roman Emperor. We couldn't afford to stay there but we could afford to eat lunch there. The whole meal for both of us cost us about $10. And the food is fantastic! Unfortunately we were near the end of our trip and we looked a little grungy for a nice restaurant. That didn't stop us though.
This is the other place that anybody who goes to Sibiu has to eat, Unicum. It is a great little pizza joint in Centru. This is in my opinion the best pizza in the world, because while the Brick Oven restaurant claims to use a wood burning stove, what they really mean is they use a gas oven with fake logs stuck in there. Unicum actually uses a wood burning oven, they have a log pile next to the oven that they have to periodically feed. It adds an amazing flavor to the food. Alayna agrees with me that it is very good.

Maybe this is what they call burying the lede (lead), but I decided to leave you with a picture of the Evangelical Church. This is the prettiest building in Sibiu and goes back to the 17th century. That is all for Sibiu and if any of you have decided to visit Brasov you should definitely go to Sibiu while you are there because it is a beautiful city and well worth your time.

Bran

Bran Castle is Dracula's castle! It wasn't really, but he may have stopped by here one time... probably not though, he was the lord of the the southern region of Romania called Valahia. His rule did get this far North, but just barely. Still, its a great marketing ploy and a really cool castle, that was in fact inhabited until the 1930's.
Basically we included this to show that Romanians in the 13th century when this castle was built were short. Also I'm standing in a secret passage way. How cool is that! This is a great view off one of the balconies in the castle overlooking the castle courtyard and the hill in the background.
Another shot looking down into the courtyard with the castle well.
Bran is a cool place and I would recommend it to anyone.

Brasov

Our next stop was Brasov. I never served here but I did come through fairly regularly for Zone conferences and such. It is a pretty city and the most major of the tourist cities in Transylvania.


For those who have seen my Conger for President t-shirt, this is a recreation of the original campaign poster, minus the other members of the campaign. It probably isn't too likely but hopefully Mitt will lay some groundwork for us and we can get my old mission companion elected in 2032, remember, "I'll decide!" This is the central street in Brasov. Down at the end you can see Biserica Neagra (The black church) It is called the black church because it was burned out many years ago by some invading horde or other, thus giving it the charred exterior.
This is a closer look at Biserica Neagra. It really is beautiful, although it does look like it just got burned down.
This is the tower in the middle of the council square. You saw it above. As you can probably see Brasov is one of the most picturesque cities in Romania, and if I could get a picture of all of it, the world. Brasov was originally built as two cities on opposite sides of a mountain but they have grown together through the years and the mountain right in the middle makes for a really beautiful city.

Pitesti

The next city on our Romanian Adventure was Pitesti. This is a picture of me eating the famous Pitesti bread (mostly famous to missionaries and the city of Pitesti) in front of the Vila where the branch here met for church.
This is a picture that Alayna took at a train station of a gypsy and her daughter. Alayna loved the little girl so I asked if we could take a few pictures. This is definitely not what most gypsies look like. This is sort of the postcard version but they were very nice.
Romania has a huge problem with street dogs as most people had to turn out their dogs when they were moved into the city blocks. This little guy was fascinated by Alayna's camera and tried to attack after this shot was taken. He was all bark and no bite, however. Up next: Brasov!

Bucuresti

On the next leg of our trip we went and visited Nate's mission in Romania. Since this was sort of his part of the trip I am going to let him write it although we are not sure how to do it under his name yet so I am letting you know that this is Nate speaking starting... now:

I would have posted these sooner but Alayna keeps giving me rules on what I can and cannot say, Ironically Romania just threw out their dictator who told them what they could and could not say but I have no such freedom. This is the Bucuresti skyline, I am going to write Bucuresti, when all you anglophile out there will want to read Bucharest, that tends to make the English say Byoocharest which is one of my pet peeves so forgive me if I spell it properly.

The pyramid that you see here in the foreground is a monument to Martirii revolutii (The martyrs of the revolution) the balcony in the background is the balcony from which Ceasescu gave his final speech. Two funny stories about that. Right before Ceausescu gave his speech, the whole country was in an uproar, and I mean everybody. So Ceausescu is so sure of his divine right to govern that he believes his advisors when they tell him that all he needs to to do is make a public address and people will calm down. Turns out they were wrong. The second funny story is from my mission. While I was there President Bush came and gave a speech to Bucuresti about Romania entering the EU. We thought it might be interesting so my companion and I hooked up with a another companionship and went and listened. Bush gave his address standing not far from this balcony, standing next to him as he gave this speech was Ion Iliescu, the president of Romania at the time, also the prime minister of Romania under Ceausescu, turns out the people have a very short memory. This is funny because in typical Bush fashion he made the comment that "a decade ago a dicator stood in this very square and you threw him down and paved the way for democracy..." or some other similar statement. The advisor who was standing by Ceausescu while he made his final speech to the Romanian people, was the same man standing next to Bush as he gave his speech. (editors note: I do not mean this as any type of comment on the current administration) Casa Poporului (The peoples house). This monstrocity is the second largest building in the world by square footage. The only building larger is the Pentagon. I heard a rumor, but I have never seen it confirmed anywhere that Ceausescu emptied all the granite reserves in Romania to build this thing. Only about a third of the offices are air conditioned, because only about a third of the offices are ever used, for any purpose at all. We liked it because its really big. It takes about an hour to walk all the way around it.

This picture is very near and dear to my heart. While I was serving in sector 5 we met in a little house that the church had bought. There was a chapel in Bucuresti but it was for other branches. One day while I was walking by this empty lot with my companion I remarked to him that it would be the perfect spot for a chapel. I later repeated my sentiment to the Mission president in my weekly letter. 5 years later... there is a brand new chapel on the lot. It was dedicated 8 months ago. It may seem like a minor thing but that to me is a miracle.
This is the aforementioned House that we met in before the chapel was built.
This is a picture of what used to be "the Congo" or the place where we'd go to play basketball on P-day. Its on the grounds of the local college, but has now been turned into a a soccer field. We loved it because it had stadium seating and was completely surrounded by trees and you had to enter through a hole in the fence.
This is the hill in Cismigiu Park where Romania was dedicated for missionary work. You come here on your first day in the mission and your last day in the mission. It is a sacred place.
From that hill you can see what looks to be a huge tree (15 ft in diameter) that has been cut off. On your first day in the mission they tell you that Ceausescu cut the tree down in an effort to market tooth picks to the world. It's really just a storage shed made to look like a tree stump. Not many missionaries fall for it. Alayna fell for it.
Ok Pretty much every missionary falls for it including yours truly. What can I say you are at the very least disoriented when you get there. The remaining posts about Romania will all be done by me so you can enjoy my little tidbits of information, or wait until Alayna starts posting again when we post Vienna.

Athens

Nate and I have finally returned from our marathon three week trip around Eastern and Central Europe. We had such a great time and we are both a little sad to be back to real life (if you can call life in London "real life"). Nate is back to school and even though he has a super relaxed schedule- he only has class Mon- Wed.- I am sad that we don't get to see each other all day every day like we have been. It will take me about a week to do all the laundry from the trip, mostly because our washer can only handle one load a day and it doesn't dry very well so I have run out of places to hang wet clothes. We have returned to full blown spring in London and we are loving that.

We started our trip in Athens, Greece. I have always wanted to see the Acropolis especially since we saw the Roman ruins in Rome. The night we got in it rained harder than I have ever seen it rain in my life. We had to walk in it for about twenty minutes and we were soaked completely through our raincoats and waterproof boots, go figure. We were a little worried that the rain was a bad omen to start our trip on but the next day dawned bright and clear and we didn't see another cold day or drop of rain until the morning we flew home from Salzburg.

Athens is one of the most interesting towns I have been in. Most of the city is bustling and modern but once you get to the old Plaka you go back in time. All of the houses are so quaint and from almost anywhere in the Plaka you have a fantastic view of the Acropolis. We spent most of the day at the Acropolis but also managed to get in the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Agora, and the Roman Forum as well.

This is a picture of some cool columns at the Roman Forum. Very artsy, no? I should submit it somewhere.

This is me and Nate on what we think may be Mars Hill where Greece was dedicated for missionary work. We couldn't find any signs or maps that verify this but it has a great view anyway.

This is Nate pretending to be a Gladiator (maybe?). He may be confused since this is actually the amphitheater where they performed all those Greek plays and not the Colosseum. Maybe he is an actor... who knows with this guy?

This was my favorite building on the Acropolis. The Karyatides (the girls holding up the roof) are so well preserved and it is really cool to see in real life.

You can't go to Greece and not see the Parthenon. I could not believe I was actually there seeing in real life. I just kept stopping and staring up at it and Nate would leave me behind and people would bump into me but I didn't care. I managed to cut the scaffolding out of most of the pictures and you can hardly see it in this one. So cool... I can't even tell you...

This is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is where the famous fallen columns are. I love this picture because you get a good view of the Acropolis in the background.

We met a nice American and fellow photographer at the Karyatides. If we look this scruffy and hippy at the beginning of our trip, just imagine how we looked at the end. More pictures to come!

Kew Gardens/ A Good Rant

A few weeks ago I went to the world renowned Kew Gardens with a group of ladies from my ward. It was the first week that it was somewhat warm and the flowers had just come out so it was a lovely day. They have a ton of huge greenhouses with all sorts of amazing botanicals. They have and aquarium and even a room full of cactus (I felt right at home in that one). It was nice to go out with people from the ward. Nate and I kind of feel like we are in that wierd in-between stage and no one really knows where to "put" us sometimes. We aren't technically newlyweds but we don't have kids either. We are young but not "young professionals" like most young childless couples here. We find this puts some people off from talking to us and we are not great people persons either. I always like to go out with women in the ward to show them that even though I don't have kids and I am not the same age I may still be worth inviting along. I always have a good time and have made a few good friends (even though they have kids... who would have thought?). We have learned that it is up to us to approach people if we want friends and we have also learned to sometimes just be satisfied with only a few friends. We are both very excited to solve this problem and finally find a ward where we have something in common with the other members but I suppose that will have to wait a few years. Meanwhile we meet many fun and some very strange people along the way. We are enjoying it while we can! Anyway, rant over. Here are some pretty pictures.

London in Spring

Nate has entered his final's hibernation period and I have found more time to myself. I am in the process (the beginning of the process) of learning to play all the hymns in the hymnbook as well as several of the simpler classical pieces on the piano. I have also discovered a fondness for daffodils as they are everywhere here. Most parks seem to grow crocuses and daffodils instead of grass. I have also read every travel book I could find of Greece and Romania. I was very sad to learn that the Parthenon is covered with scaffolding and has been for several years. I was really hoping to get some good pictures. My library does not have a book on Austria so I may have to buy one as I am very excited about Vienna and Salzburg. It is getting warmer here and everyone, even the stuffy English, seem to be in a better mood. It rains incessantly but that just makes the flowers grow more. The other day Nate brought me some flowers from the park down the road. I don't know if you can get in trouble for that here but I thought it was pretty sweet anyway.

Hampstead Heath

Yesterday Nate and I took a little day trip to Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House. This Heath (Park) and English Heritage site is in North London. It is not that far from the center of London but it was so nice to get a break from the city. Nate and I are both country folk at heart and we get a little stir crazy in this big city. Hampstead Heath and Kenwood house are very popular summer desinations for kite flying and picnics. Kenwood houses some really cool Gainsborough's and Reynold's paintings. They also have and amazing Library that Nate and I want to copy someday. You may recognize the scene in some of the pictures if you are a Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant fan. This is where they filmed that scene in Notting Hill where she is doing the period film and he goes to visit her.

I loved this picture so we walked over this muddy field to get to the bridge and discovered that it is not a bridge at all. It is one bog piece of wood with no way to get across. They put it there to make the scene prettier. I thought that sounded like a lot of work and they may as well just finish the bridge. We felt a little jipped and very muddy but it was still really beautiful.

Nate is a good sport to do stuff like this with me. His hair gets longer and longer but he insists he won't cut it until we get home.

We tried to recreate Julia's scene here but I didn't have a big fancy dress or makeup artists or anything. The house is really pretty.

Personal Histories

As I promised months ago I am now posting mine and Nate's personal histories that we wrote for my family newsletter this January. They had to be only two pages so they are a very brief synopsis but may interest you nonetheless. I am putting them in the comments section otherwise this would be the world's longest post and I know how Shawn hates the falling walls of text. Enjoy!

Dover

Last week Nate and I went to Dover. We took a train through the countryside and went to the castle and the pier. It was really cold but it is a beautiful and sleepy little town. We pretty much had the castle to ourselves. Our favorite part by far was the Secret Wartime Tunnels. We went on a tour and saw all the inner workings of the the War Machine. We were a little disappointed that we weren't alowed to go in the "Dumpy" level that was reconstructed to be a backup head quarters for the government during the Cold War but it is not open to the public. I think they still have classified military goingson there but who knows. The castle is old and pretty but quite touristly like the Tower of London. The bay was really pretty and we walked all the way out to get a good look at the White Cliffs of Dover.

This is a view from the top of the castle. The whole place was quiet and really pretty.
Here is Nate on the hill overlooking the bay. It was kind of foggy, but hey, that's Britian for you.
Here's me on the bridge leading up to Dover castle. It goes over this huge ravine that leads out to the Channel.
I love this picture with the sun coming through the clouds. It really was a cool sight.
This is a view from the Prince Charles Pier. These are the White Cliffs and you can see the balcony of the secret Wartime Tunnels.