Biertan and its Fortified Church
Taken by Neil and Kathy Carey on August 15, 2006.
Heritage Site: Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania These towns are found off the main roads, so you need your own transportation - either a car or bike - to get to them. And if you know anything about Romania, you probably know that the entire road network is crumbling, so the adventure is in the journey...we tried to leave Biertan by a different road than we'd arrived, and found it petered out into a dirt track, and had to turn back. But the scenery of rural Transylvania is unbelievable, and well worth any hassle. The fortified churches of Transylvania were set up by the Saxons, who were brought in by the region's Hungarian overlords, essentially as hired muscle. Of the many that dot central Transylvania, this is the only one still in operation.

Sorry for the delays in posting; at first we were feeling a little lazy (and under the weather), and then internet proved to be a difficult find in the rural parts of the country where we've been hanging out for the past week or so.

At the time of the last post, I (Kathy) was feeling a little under the weather with some back pain. Took some pain killers and decided that there wasn't much a doctor would be able to do for me other than prescribe pain killers, so we didn't bother. Last Saturday evening, we learned by way of emergency room that I had a couple of infections that I apparently didn't know about. I thought I might have been a bit under the weather, but certainly no symptoms like in Egypt. As we were out in the country, and doctors generally don't work on Saturday evenings, our host was kind enough to drive us to the hospital in the city. We were also very fortunate that his friend joined us, as he was able to translate things for us very well. So now we know what the inside of a Communist-era hospital looks like, and I sure hope it was a once in a lifetime glance! The standard of care was probably as good as they could give, but the facilities were certainly worse for wear - the WC was a toilet at the back of a storage closet! Not to worry, the needles were sterile (I made sure of that!). So the docs prescribed Cipro (for those counting at home, that's the second round I've taken this trip!), some painkillers (presumably for the back pain), and some Vitamin C!! Yes, it has been more of a challenge finding fruit here than I would like, but I didn't think it was that bad. I'll get to that in a bit.