2013-10-04-Bucharest, Romania-Monastery, The Old Town and the Philharmonic

We met our guide at 9AM and set out to visit Snagov Monastery, a 14th Century Orthodox church and monastery on an island in a lake about an hour from Bucharest. Our guide, a woman in her early 30's, spoke good English and was knowledgeable and personable. The church is purported to be the last resting place of Vlad the Impaler. Apparently, Vlad was betrayed by a cousin who, in league with the Ottoman Turks, killed him. The Ottomans wanted proof of Vlad's death so his cousin severed the impaler's head and sent it to the caliph in Istanbul, so technically the monastery is the last resting place of most of Vlad. The church and it's sole priest-monk is short of cash to restore the ancient building so the interior frescoes are in need of much repair (we were not permitted to take interior photos). The exterior however was in very good condition. Our guide told us that few people visit this site, surprising in light of Vlad's importance in Romanian history and his status as a hero to many for his victories over the Hungarians and Turks. Afterwards, we drove to "Old Town" Bucharest and poked around for a few hours, exploring nooks, crannies and interesting buildings. After an espresso stop, we said goodbye to our guide and walked back to the hotel, stopping on the way to make dinner reservations at an Italian-Romanian restaurant near The Atheneum, Bucharest's philharmonic hall where we bought tickets for the evening's performance. After resting at the hotel we had an excellent dinner at Trattoria Il Calcie, owned by a Romanian soccer star, and then attended the evening's performance by the Philharmonica George Enescu at the Romanian Atheneum. The building was spectacular, more impressive than Boston Symphony Hall, Edinburgh's Usher Hall and London's Victoria and Albert Hall. The concert's highlight was the William Tell overature, conducted by the Russian maestro, Yuri Simonov. We ended the evening with drinks at the Raddison Hotel's Blue Bar with a Canadian couple who were going to be on our Danube cruise.