We went out into the Romanian countryside to a town called Sinaia on an early 8:30 train and arrived in Sinaia around 10 a.m. We were lucky we got to ride on one of their new rapid trains, and it was surprisingly crowded. This was the first train I’ve been on in Europe where you actually had to choose which train you wanted to take, had an assigned car and seat.

We always like to get out of the city so we can to get a feel for the country. When we left Bucharest, the land was flat and mostly farmland but as we got further away we entered the Prahov Valley and you could see the snow covered mountains in the background. As we entered the valley, the train ran alongside a small river which had a lot of trash in it. The countryside appears very poor and rural and there are still a lot of stray dogs even when you get out of the city. When we arrived at the train station we decided to get our tickets back to Bucharest. We thought we had bought round trip tickets yesterday, but there was a very nice family on the train sitting next to us that spoke English and checked our tickets for us and apparently we only had one way tickets. Good thing we checked! While Brendan went to get the tickets I went to the restroom and that was quite an experience! Their idea of a restroom is a hole in the ground and it definitely was not in the most sanitary conditions. I thought it would be funny to take a picture of it, but then thought that would just be too gross!

Sinaia is actually a popular ski area, so there were a lot of hotels and the town was a little touristy. We walked a short way out of town to visit the Sinaia Monastary and Peles Castle.

The Sinaia Monastary

Peles Castle

I had to pay to take pictures inside again. I guess I shouldn’t complain, a lot of places won’t let you take pictures at all.

A gorgeous chandelier made of Murano glass. This reminded me of our trip to Venice, where Murano glass comes from.

King Carol I built Peles Castle. Construction began in 1875 and took 39 years to complete. It was the first European castle to have central heating, electricity and vacuuming!

For some reason we saw a lot of stray puppies today. There were some in the train station and on our walk to the castle. This was just heart breaking! This poor little puppy was afraid to come out, while his brothers and sisters were out playing in the snow with their mom and dad. I just wanted to grab him in my arms and take him home with me!