Dream in Sighisoara

A quick and comfortable train journey took us back to Bucharest where we had a 2 and a half hour wait for our connecting train.  When we boarded our train at Bucharest, who should we see but our bogus charity collector from our previous journey.  He obviously didn’t recognise Michael and when he approached, Michael looked him right in the eye and said “hello again”.  Recognition dawned on his face and he abruptly turned and walked briskly in the opposite direction.  No help with our luggage this time.

We arrived late at night in the lovely mediaeval city of Sighisoara.  Our hotel was situated opposite the station so we didn’t have far to drag our bags.  Our room was in the attic and I managed to crack my head 3 times during our stay whilst Michael, remarkably, didn’t hit his head once.

The Lonely Planet describes Sighisoara as being so pretty it should be arrested and for once, this city lived up to its hype.  The city sits atop a hillock and is fortified with a 14^th century wall with 9 of its original towers intact.  It is like stepping into a fairy tale with narrow cobblestone roads wending their way through beautifully preserved 16^th century houses.  The Gothic Church on the Hill sits on the town’s highest point and dates back to 1345.  The church itself is magnificent and is surrounded by a fabulous old German cemetery, which was lovely walking around and watching the squirrels scampering from branch to branch.  An amazing covered stairway with 172 steps takes you up the hill to the church.

We explored the massive clock tower and Michael climbed to the top to admire the view.  The clock dates back to 1648 with wooden figurines representing characters from Greek and Roman times.  The roof is covered with multi coloured tiles and it looks very impressive when the sun is reflected. 

We dined at Casa Dracula, which is situated in the house that Vlad the Impaler was born.  We paid our 5 lei each or 10 lei for 2 people as our dead-pan waiter informed us so that we could see the actual room where he was born.  We climbed the narrow staircase, which led to a darkened room lit only by a single candelabrum.  Dramatic, atmospheric music played and there, behold, was an open satin lined coffin! It was pretty hard to keep a straight face nevertheless we enjoyed wandering around the room and the adjoining dining room as well.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, served by our humourless waiter and we were delighted to find papanasi on the menu for dessert.  The papanasi arrived and Michael had just commented that they were very hard, when I heard a loud snapping sound and looked up to discover Michael sitting there covered in jam and cream and holding half a knife.  We sat there, roaring with laughter until Michael signalled to our waiter and requested another knife.  The waiter, upon seeing Michael’s knife snapped in two, cracked his first smile of the evening and declared that Michael was too strong.

Go Back to Where You Came From

It was time to start wending our way back again and unfortunately we needed to retrace our journey to allow ourselves enough time.   A 7hour train trip took us back to Cluj Napoca.  Michael had booked us into a different hotel this time so that we wouldn’t have to drag our bags through the road-works.  How thoughtful, I thought to myself.  What he neglected to tell me was, that this time our hotel was halfway up a near vertical hill.  Not happy.  My good humour returned though when I discovered how nice our room was as also how friendly the owners were.  They recommended a lovely Romanian restaurant for our dinner and a few extra sights that we had missed on our first visit.  One of these sights was the mirror street of Iuliu Maniu Street.  The buildings in this street are the exact mirror image of each other.

I am very glad that we were able to see more of Romania than just the capital of Bucharest.  It is a beautiful country and the people we met were very welcoming.  We would definitely like to return, as there is still much more to see including Sibiu and the wine region.  

Another long train ride of 7 and half hours took us back to Budapest.  At last we could do our washing as we found out the hard way that Romania does not have laundrettes.  We dropped our washing off and were then able to enjoy our dinner followed by a drink in a ruin bar.  Early to bed for us, as you would be surprised at how tired you get sitting and doing nothing all day.