Brasov and the Local Culture

I took a few photos from our hotel window here in Brasov.  Here is one that shows most of the town square.


My own cultural observations are usually limited to things like the telephone poles and parking spots as in the previous post.  Fortunately, I have Linda to draw on for more in-depth analysis.  Here are a few of her recent notes on the countryside and towns.  (UPDATE Thurs PM - I changed the formatting a bit on the following and should have noted that much of this material came in responses to specific questions that one of Linda's friends had asked.  None the less, it provided some interesting observations on life here.)

The entire area reminds me of Switzerland even tho I've never been there.  So far the bathrooms have been very nice to luxurious.  nice tile work,spacious with new fixtures.

The bread is disappointing-only fair to average.  It's been the best at breakfast with good buns w/lots of seed on top.What is served at dinner is not worth the price.  Everything is a la carte, including the bread.  It has been somewhat "wonder bread" like. 

We've seen really big herds of sheep complete with shepherds.  They've been grazing in areas with no fences.  Also have seen cows, mostly Holstein, and some chickens.  I've been told that pork is the most eaten meat but have not seen any pigs. 

We have duvets on the beds and they're way too hot.  Had the AC on in the 1st hotel and the window open in the current hotel.  It's been low 30's to upper 20's at nite so there's a nice cool breeze into the room.  Even so the duvet gets too hot in the middle of the nite.  but too hot with it too cool without it. The duvets have been just white so far.  The windows have been openable in both hotels with no screens. 

The gypsy village was all houses of varying colors.  They, like all other houses, were quite close to each other.  Don't hear any cowbells and haven't seen any on the cows.  Many of them were in fields w/o fences too.  See lots of churches.  love the architecture of them.  they are orthodox religion and the buildings reflect that style.

I see mostly young people.  I've been looking for older ladies to see what they wear.  I've seen very few of them.  Counted the women (50-65 yr olds) wearing skirts yesterday and I only saw 4.  3 of them were long skirts. The older ladies (our age) who wore pants did not have skin tight ones.  They were like the ones I wear.  I didn't count the over 75 age group.  they wear skirts 90% of the time. they often wear scarves of the type worn in the US in the 40's--green with a floral border, kind of a heavy fabric, black skirts just below the knee and heavy dark stockings with sensible shoes or I also saw several with calf high rubber like boots while they were working in the yards. 

All houses in the city have fences and they're not chain link--either tall wood or cement block.  They like their privacy. the young women ALL wear skin tight jeans.  We call them painted-on jeans.  They all have skinny legs-both the women and the jeans. All dressed casually.  Dark sweaters and leather jackets. no scarves around the necks like other European countries. Mostly long hair and seversl pony tails.

Not as much smoking as I was lead to believe by the guide books. We have even encountered no-smoking areas in restaurants.