Sighisoara

The sleeper train from Budapest to Sighisoara was not so comfy, but OK. The loos were
dirty but you can't
have it all. We shared cabin with a Romanian opera singer, a tenor, who worked at the Staatsoper in Vienna. Interesting. There he had a Swedish coach, who he admired. He also admired Swedish women :-).
At 02.30 we were woken up for border control. A new one followed at 0300, this time the Romanian version. Obviously, they are not part of Schengen.
At 0800, the conductor woke us up again, saying we would reach our destination in 20 minutes. I had set my alarm but forgotten that Romania is in another time-zone, GMT+2 hours (so one hour ahead of Amsterdam). We quickly got ready, then marvelled at the beautiful Transylvanian landscape. Undulating hills in the background, autumn-colored fields and small odd-looking villages in the foreground. All of it showered in the golden morning rays. Like in a fairy-tale.

Arriving in Sighisoara, we realized that this is a very small and old little city. Cute and run-down in an attractive way. We walked from the station through the newer parts, crossed a river and started the climb up the hill to the fortified old part. Here, we met a wedding, all smiling in the sun. Our hotel is the former bishop's palace. Outside and ground floor is beautiful, with thick stone walls and vaulted ceilings. Our room is on the attic, kind of, and simple and old-fashioned in an Eastern European way. But fine.

We quickly went out again to take advantage of the lovely weather, walking the small little streets, looking at the towers of the city wall and climbing the massive clock tower. Lunch was had on the quaint little square, in the shade because it was really hot and summery. In the afternoon, we strolled down to the lower and more modern part of the city.
We both had wild boar sausage for dinner at the hotel, highly recommended, then walked down to the lower city again for a beer. It all seemed dead, despite being Saturday evening, until we found everyone – up the attic of a pizza restaurant. Here it was crammed and buzzy and the karaoke was on. We spared the rest from our singing and concentrated on the Bear beer (Ursus) and Stalin vodka. Not bad. When they closed, we ended up joining three locals to another place an in the end had a fun and very late evening.

Today, we woke up to the rain, and accordingly took it slow. Some walking was done, and we sat at a lovely café for an hour or so with a cup of tea and our books. I am re-reading “The Historian”, a very good book with a vampire twist – perfect for Transylvania!

Tomorrow, we are leaving for the city Brasov and then bear-watching in a national park. They say you have a good chance of seeing bears, so I hope we are lucky. And that the rain stops.