Some Portions of This Blog Were Not Safety Dad Approved….(Those things are highlighted)

Well, this morning I decided to go hike Mount Tampa.  However, the weather did not like this plan and it was raining when I woke up.  I slept a bit longer and then started reading Dracula!!

Mount Tampa (yes, that's a "Hollywood" sign).  I hiked up to the highest point above the "V."

The rain started to let up so I decided to stroll around town a bit and check out the trail.   There were a ton of people heading up the mountain so I went back to the hostel to grab my backpack and put on hiking shorts.

Well, I looked at the trail guide and it said that hike would take about an hour.  It also said that the area is know for black bears…I have lots of skills, defending myself against black bears is not one of them, but there were lots of people heading up to the trail!  Maybe I should have looked at the footwear of those people because none of them were hiking!  They all took the tram up! So now I’m on a trail (which is clearly marked so all is good) and I start playing a game every time I hear a noise called “Bear, Deer or Hiker?” Luckily “bear” was never an option.  The hike up was pretty easy since over Memorial Day Weekend my friend had made us hike up Devil’s Path in the Catskills.  The view along the hike was great and I stopped to take a picture half way up and then I saw my LEAST favorite sight.  Looking out into the valley I realized what was heading my way was a wall of rain and a thunderstorm!!  

AAAAAAAH!  Mountain on the left, THUNDERSTORM ON THE RIGHT!!

Now this happened to me last summer in the Grand Canyon and it was not fun.  Luckily here I had tree coverage, but I started to hike up faster.  I made it to the top in time and got some great pics before hopping on the tram back down as it started to rain. (JULIE, YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THE NEXT SENTENCE TO MY NEPHEW UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO EXPLAIN IT TO HIM)  Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula) is said to have taken 40 merchants from Brasov up to the top of the mountain and impaled them on spikes to prove a point as he conquered the area.

Made it to the top!

Saxon town of Brasov (it's a cute town)

When I got down I did some more sightseeing (camera backpack has a rain cover) and saw the 

narrowest street in Europe, 

Narrowest street in Europe.  Trey, you're too tall to lay across it!!!

some old Saxon fortification walls and the “Black Church.”  The Austrians set fire to the outside of the church and so it looks black.  The inside however is nice and bright.  The church took over 100 years to be built.

"Black Church" is on the right.

At 6pm a few days a week they have a concert with their 4000 pipe orchestra.  One of the performances was today so I sat and listened to that, it was pretty cool.

Tonight’s going to be an early night because I have a long day tomorrow, including a trip to Bran where “Dracula’s Castle” is (not his castle, maaaaybe he spent the night there).