Sinaia
Okay, lots to jot down before I go to sleep.
Went to a place called Sinaia today, with Jack and Sandeep. Nice. Famous for the Peleş Castle, built in the eighteenth century. Scenic place otherwise.
The guided tour of the palace was good...and the guide was impressed to find indians in the group. (Context switch) In fact we've been having these strange encounters since long. In the morning...while getting the tickets...one of our randomly chosen interpreters (localites who we pick at random to interpret things for us) asked us whether we're from Spain. Hein?! Spain..? I mean c'mon...I'm dark...I've an Indian accent as can be (plus I translate things direclty from Hindi when I have to speak in English)...how could someone come up with something like this :P. Anyways.
So we started at around 10:30 on the train...which took about 2hrs to cover the distance and we reached Sinaia at around noon. Headed straight for castle. Took the tour of the museum.
Interesting thing we observed...these guys have nothing of their own. I mean these kings that were there. There were tainted glasses from Germany, weapons and furniture from India (looked something like Saharanpur furniture), some weapons from Japan and other European countries, carpets from Shiraz, Iran...Sofas from Turkey...Chandeliers from Germany and what not :P. There were some Arabic inscriptions on the door, one of which was Bismillah.
But yes, the whole palace was impressive when you consider how it blended the best of things from so many parts of the world.
Then it was about 2:30, and we were damn hungry...so we had a good lunch at a restaurant. There was this guy who was playing guitar there...and though he tried hard to impress us into tipping him...we did not. Heeeee :D. What the..?..these guys haven't come across Indians or what?! Moreover, he did not play anything that could come close to the music in any Anu Malik music-directed movie. Yeah, I know, it's a rare thing.
Anyways, we had a lot of time to spare after lunch so we decided to take the cable-car and go further up. It took us 1400 mts. Brrrrr...kit kit kit.
Sandeep and Jack were glad to see a lady selling bhutta there...and pounced on it. Besides that, where was nothing great there...Sandeep and I decided to trek a bit...and reach for a restaurant at the top. It wasn't a big climb...but still we were gasping. Anyways..nothing exciting to write what happened after that. The place's actually a good ski resort...but there's no snow until January, so it's kind of not that thrilling at this time of the year.
But anyways, good fun.