No Dracula....Sinaia instead (per a drunk Canadian)

So....our last night in our Elvis Hostel in Brasov we ran into a very drunk Canadian in the mood to order pizza.....we were as hungry as ever...so.....we were game, of course. The pizza was outrageous.....first of all...huge....and the toppings included about everything you could imagine (fried eggs, olives, onions, hunks of cheese). It was pretty excellent.....and definitely filled out stomachs that we've realized shrink (and are thus easier to fill) after we go barebones on our eating for a few days. So...some good pizza....and over pizza the drunk Canadian recommended Sinaia Castle over the Bran Castle (Dracula's Castle). I say...always listen to drunk Canadians, so...we are currently in Sinaia, Romania.

Upon arriving yesterday, we checked out the monastery at Sinaia as well as the castle....both were pretty sweet. The castle is more ornate and restored than I've ever seen...hard to believe....and we only saw about 6 rooms or so (I'm guessing it is what they have restored thus far). Here's an interesting racket....so, no pictures inside of the castle. We're on our little tour (in German...all the English tours were done for the day), and one of the guides says...hey...you want to take pictures? Sure. We are then led to an incredibly attractive guide who spoke good english...and led us to places where we could take pictures. Then, the first guide left and another guide was like, "how much you want to tip the lady?" Tip? Huh? "You tip the lady for letting you take pictures?" "How much is normal?" "You tip the lady...whatever you want". So...we gave her the equivalent of about 1.50 USD each.....to which she responded "well...not enough but....." as she walked off. Not a bad little racket they had going.....but....note to her....if you're going to pull that off...have a number in mind for when we ask for the norm......and....don't pick out poor smelly backpackers. Anyways...I did get a sweet pick standing in front of a fully-armored horse and rider (worth a buttload we were told).

I've been meaning to mention the money situation here in Romania. There is old lei (1USD=30,000lei). You can imagine that is a pain...to divide by 30,000 to figure out prices in a language we can understand. Then...there is new lei....drop four zeros (so, 1USD=3 lei). You can imagine...very confusing. And...the new lei is made out of plastic...feels like normal fresh dollars...but...we saw a water fountain yesterday....and it had lei in the bottom....along with the coins.......but....plastic...so....also waterproof...weird. Once you get through the dividing and what-not....you realize the prices are pretty great. Let's see.....our room (for last night and tonight)...a private room in a house (a pension I guess you might call it) is 10 for each of us/night. Steak dinner for Dave last night was about 6 dollars. Beer at the store is......3 pints for about a dollar.....the local brew is Ursus or Ciuc....Ciucas also. We slept in this morning and ate a gyro for lunch that was about 2 dollars. So...enjoying those prices. There are two great soccer games on tonight....well...in the US...during the day...but....England/Portugal and Brazil/France. I loved the penalty shootout last night between Germany and Argentina. So....chilling here for the day...maybe some hiking tomorrow. We will soon make our way to Greece...