While both castles were quite fascinating, neither could really match the experience of seeing Vlad Tepes' final grave at the isolated island monastery at Snagov. He lies in a special grave just before the altar wall, surrounded by painstakingly restored frescos, kept company by a photograph of the current Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and a crowd of icons.
All of the restoration work on the church and all of the maintenance work on the island is performed by the monastery's sole human inhabitant, the one monk who lives on the island and tends it. The job was not, we were given to understand, his idea -- the church sent him there, so he went. His is an isolated existence defined by work and prayer. It is a hard life. His are the prayers, however, that keep the uneasy spirits at bay, and for this, we were quite grateful -- Snagov is an unsettling place to visit in the dark!
On our way out from Snagov (on our way to dinner and a floor show of traditional Romanian music and dancing), we were diverted in two senses. Physically, we were turned from our creepy intended road by an old village woman, who insisted to our driver that we shouldn't dare the road we had planned. Our driver, a very religious fellow, took her at her word.
We were also most diverted by some amazing ghost stories told by our bus driver and our guide. It was a creepy ride!
We arrived back in Bucharest to see the third straight day of anti-austerity riots. Some of the marchers went right past our hotel, and the cops were trying to disperse them. Our driving tour of the city tomorrow may not happen quite as planned...
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