On monday I left the hostel mid day and went to the train station to catch a train to my next stop… Brasov!

The more I travel the more I open my eyes and notice things that I didn’t before. I think this journey had made me more aware of the way women are treated around the world.

Sitting in the train to Brasov from Bucharest I sat across two people reading the newspaper, both of the newspaper had barely dressed women on their cover and back cover (one was holding a horse’s rope in a bikini! Really?) and it just made me uncomfortable to see that women are being objectified and that as a society most people are totally ok with it. But that is not news, I just feel like this should be changing by now but it isn’t and its because of how we (women) are portrayed everywhere that we are still being harassed, disrespected, and blamed for actions from others upon ourselves.

While standing in line to get my train ticket I witnessed a guy, probably his late 20s, taking a picture of the girl in line in front of him and then texting it to a friend with a happy face, he then proceeded to look at the picture several times and then stare at the woman’s butt in front of him. I felt like I needed to say something but I don’t speak Romanian, I feel all the time that women are being disrespected and nobody is doing anything. The picture taking wasn’t the worst part, he then started looking at his pictures and there were hundreds of pictures of girls on his phone I couldn’t help but wonder: Who is raising these men? I know my mother raised us to be respectful, to respect men and women alike, my brother would never take a picture of a girl’s butt and text to his friends! 

It’s really horrifying! Will this ever change? A better question… What can we do to make this change?!?!

Anyway, after a long train ride (the bus would have been quicker and probably cheaper) I finally arrived in Brasov!

Got to my hostel and decided to take the 6pm free walking tour. I love to do the free walking tours first thing because they really provide me with the history of the place and gives me a sense of the city and what places need to be visited.

I got out of the hostel and started walking to the meeting point. As I walked I couldn't believe how beautiful this small little town was, it really felt like something that came out of a Disney movie story! 

Apparently Brasov was built by the Germans and that's why it looks so charming like many of the German towns. 

In the pre- communist time the now main square of Brasov used to be a market where people gathered and bought their groceries on a daily basis. During the communist period the market was closed down and converted into a parking lot, that way people would no longer have a place to gather, chit chat, socialize, and speak about the regime and do something against it. It wasn't until the 90s that it was transformed back to a main square, although no longer an open air market.

The history of Romania and Brasov was really interesting, hard to believe that this beautiful country had no freedom not too long ago.

I was supposed to spend 3 days or so in Brasov but I loved it so much I ended up staying 5 days and meeting with my friend Anna whom I met in Malaysia.

Every day I walked around looking at the architecture of the place, sat at the main square for hours people watching, and enjoyed the one vegetarian restaurant they had in town!

One of the main attractions of Brasov is the black church. 

Inside people can't take pictures but they had an impressive 4,000 pipe organ! On the walls there are some old carpets that were gifted by the Transylvanian Saxon merchants, some old and important benches, and a whole lot to see (most of it I already forgot! haha)

Brasov is in Transylvania and the first thing that comes to people's mind is Dracula! I didn't really know anything about Dracula but of course I would go and visit Dracula's castle! The hostel had a tour for 90Lei that included only transportation to Bran Castle, Rasnov, and the Bear sanctuary but for 15Lei I took the bus there and back and skipped the bear sanctuary and saved a lot of money!

After a short visit to the castle I took the bus back but made a stop in the city of Rasnov. Rasnov is famous for the fortress on top of the city so up I went walking up in between all of those trees!

During my time in Brasov I also went for a hike up the mountain to get an amazing view of the city. I could have taken the cable car but decided to hike it instead, so up I went one day all on my own to go see the spectacular view from up top!

I walked and walked and walked, it was all uphill so it felt like forever but it was only 45 minutes. Once I got to the top I really didn't know which direction to go so I thought the most logical thing to do was to go to the cable car platform. Once I got there all the gates were closed and I couldn't get in, and it actually didn't look like there was a platform. I kept looking in hopes to find a good spot but no luck, Then I decided to go on the opposite direction and luckily I found the viewing platform, starting right behind the huge Brasov letters.

I felt a little lucky that I found it but all of a sudden, 15 seconds after I arrived, it started raining! Not a light rain, it came out of nowhere, it felt as if somebody just threw a bucket of water over me! I couldn't believe I wasn't going to enjoy the nice view! I was so disappointed!

I decided to wait for a little bit because rain comes and goes but the more I waited the wetter I got and I had no rain coat! So, I decided to leave but the bad part was that now the rocky path was wet, muddy, and beyond slippery!

It took me 45 minutes to come up and almost one hour and a half to go down because of how slippery it was! I kept slipping and catching myself mid slip so I wouldn't fall. I had to make sure to go slowly because I was on my own and if I fell I would just tumble down and get really really hurt and without a cell phone I wouldn't be able to ask for help. Luckily I got down just as it got completely dark!