Through Andrei's eyes

The Mountain Trip Essay

This story starts with me, my mom, my uncle and my grandparents arriving too late go up on top of the mountain with the cable lift. My mom was really disappointed, she really wanted to go up and see the panorama. Our visit at the   Peles Castle (a castle famous in Romania – the Royal family summer castle- but not as well known outside of Romania as the legendary Bran Castle) went too long, we arrived after the last ride left, so my uncle decided to drive up the mountain’s serpentine. The drive was amazing; I was taking pictures of the beautiful Bucegi Mountains. Being on a serpentine road, the mountain would sometimes be on the left and sometimes on the right. As we went higher and higher, the villages appeared smaller and smaller as if they were shrinking. Eventually my uncle parked the car and we got out.

My mom went to a stone railing to look at the view, and then turned around, leaned against the railing and I took some pictures of her with the gorgeous valleys and mountains in the background. After she took some pictures of me, we went higher up the mountains on the metal stairs, while my uncle and grandparents stayed behind.

The sight was amazing, the marvellous scenery of mountains and valleys as far as the eye can see, was breathtaking. At 1100 meters or 3608.924 feet high the resort-village bellow (Sinaia) looked as if it was a miniature replica.  If I have seen such beautiful mountains before, it must have been when I was really young and I must have forgotten.  My mom went to the edge and again turned around and I tried to take pictures of her. Romania’s stray dogs made it difficult. Well, we, Romanians, have stray dogs and sadly cats in our backyard while Canadians have their stray squirrels. Anyway, back to the story, I tried to take photos of my mom while at the same time trying not to appear as a threat to the dogs, so I would not get attacked.  After another “photo session”, we went back down the stairs.

In our way back down the mountain, my uncle proposed that we eat at a well known Serbian restaurant. There, at the dinner table, with the mountains towering in the background, I told my mom something my uncle is sure to always remember: “ You really have the coolest brother ever”.