Sighișoara

Sunday, Sept 25

This morning we could actually sleep in. But since we had a free buffet included with our room we had to go, we couldn't waste that. Still we all dragged our feet and finally got to breakfast at 10. We returned to the room to clean up. Mark had more problems with his room and wanted to switch, which they agreed to let him do. All of our rooms were having trouble with the AC. My room, and their old one and the new one all had trouble, it seems the AC may actually be turned off for the season since the days and evenings are so cool. But the temps have been up to 70 and that makes for a closed up room to be a warm room. Without giving any names, lets just say some people have a tendency to get rather cranky when their room is not cool enough.

While I was waiting on people to get ready I had the windows open since it was cooler outside than in the room. Outside was blaring some very loud music. It sounded like 80s rock to me and again to keep from getting anyone upset with this blog lets just say I found it rather displeasing. Come to find out, in the big parking lot behind the hotel there was some type of rally going on. For lack of a better word let's just call it a Motorcycle rally, although they were not motorcycles, even through all the people looked like they just rode into town on one. They vehicles were kind of like ATVs but didn't look like any I was used to. But this was quite an event with a lot of people and ATVs and reporters and police. We decided to avoid the parking lot when we finally left.

Walking through the old town was quite enchanting. This town was built by the Germans who lived here almost 1000 years. Their influence was everywhere with beautifully colored and decorated homes and buildings. The roads and streets were all cobblestone and lined with flowers. The streets were also very clean and well cared for. Little has changed in this old city since the Germans left so it still has the old look and feel of their era. In the square center is a clock tower which is one of the icons of the city.

There certainly was a lot of snacking going on around here and anyone that knows me knows I like to nosh. There were lots of ice cream shops and baked goods and bread things and roll stuff and pancake looking things and flat breads with stuff on them. What's with all the carbs around here? Unfortunately anytime I see something new I've never had before or don't know what it is, well, I gotta try it.

My first was some little dumpling looking thing with some fruit on top. It was called a papanasi. Turned out what I got was basically a plain donut with a smaller one on top and all covered with what tasted like blueberry pie filling. So it was not at all what I was expecting and way too sweet. But the pics showed different variations, I just didn't know how to order it.

We also found a nice little gelato vender and that was just right.

We wandered around in the old city of Sighișoara
looking at all the buildings and shops. In the Council Tower Square is the Vlad Dracul House, where it is thought that Vlad Țepes, called Dracula, was born. Also known as Vlad the Impaler, he was famous for the exemplary punishments applied to his opponents, from where the legend of Dracula was born. So Vlad and Dracula stuff was everywhere. We found his house which has been turned into a gift shop on the ground floor, a restaurant on the next floor up and a spooky haunted house looking memorial to Dracula on the top floor. For about $2 local currency we could take the tour. We may do that but skipped it for the time.

In the middle of the city is a large hill with a church, school and cemetery. We walked up the 175 steps to the top. I'm telling you what, kids going up and down that everyday, I bet they didn't need to have P.E. class. For the long walk up the hill they at least enclosed the stairs to keep the stairs from freezing over and getting covered in snow. It was a rather cool walkway. It looks exactly like something where you would expect to find a funicular instead of a never ending stairway.

Once we were back down we stopped at a cute little outdoor café, Casa Krauss, for drinks and a snack. We ordered a cheese tray to share and it was like a whole meal of different kinds of cheeses and fruits and nuts and only for the equivalent of about $6. We are finding everything cheaper here, in fact about 5 times cheaper than the same thing in Scotland. A $10 beer in Scotland for example was only $2 here in Romania. Speaking of beer, I am just not a fan of beer at all. In Scotland they had ciders which I really enjoyed. I haven't found anything like that here so far, yet, but I'm looking.

We went back to our room and freshened up and relaxed a bit then went back up the mountain to a restaurant we found earlier for a dinner of some authentic Romanian food. We had cabbage rolls and goulash and Ciorba (soup). It was all absolutely delicious.

During dinner I received a text from a dear friend wishing me Happy New Year. I was surprised! I quickly pulled out my phone and looked it up. GOSH, It was the Jewish New Year as of sundown today. I knew it was coming but got so caught up in the trip I overlooked it. This was the first time in 35 years I hadn't celebrated it appropriately. Since it was a holiday I thought I better start looking for a spectacular desert to celebrate. We finished dinner, and every place we tried was closed. The celebration would have to wait till tomorrow.