Found the Church

Today was a day FULL of walking. I decided to wander around in the morning, to explore the Old Town area before it got busy. While stopping in a shop for coffee and pastries, I met a man from Cleveland, who used to be in the US Navy and now lives in Romania. He gave me an awesome does of Brasov history, which was hugely appreciated.

I had one main mission today: to find the church in Ghimbav, where my Oma was baptized. We took an uber to the small city of Ghimbav, where we were dropped off at a church. At this point, I wasn’t even sure we were at the correct church. We stopped in an open door, which ended up being a private office, having nothing to do with the church. The lady said that this is the correct church and to just try all the doors along the fortified wall. First two were locked. The third door led to a house, where an older lady was working in her large garden. She hollered for her husband and I thought she was shoo-ing us away. Disappointed to not get in the church, I was grateful that I had found it and had photographs of the outside. As we were trying to figure out how to get back to Brasov, a little old man approaches us and lets us into the church. I could not believe our luck. The church was absolutely incredible and painted there, high up on the inside of the fortified wall, it stated, “THOMAS FOITH 1865”. Foith just happens to be my Oma’s Mother’s maiden name. Absolutely blown away. The caretaker happened to be Hungarian and spoke no English, so we couldn’t communicate with one another. The next big task, how do we get back to Brasov, from this tiny town where no one speaks English. Ubers weren’t there. No taxis. We stopped into a store for water and were able to figure out there was a bus stop, where the mini bus takes you to Brasov bus station. From there, we took a taxi back to Old Town.

After lunch, it was a one-hour hike up Mount Tampa, where the Hollywood-style BRASOV sign is. We opted to take the cable car down (easier on my knees). I then dropped the kids back off at the apartment, as they were completely done walking by that time, and then I headed back into the Old Town area to climb up to the White Tower, which overlooks the other side of the city. We had an incredible dinner at a small Italian restaurant and then all being exhausted, we called it an early night.