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| Romania is so darn beautiful! |
Sighișoara is a delightful town in Transylvania and the morning we spent there was long enough to see the highlights, albeit a little rushed. We climbed up the old church tower, which had an amazingly intricate ancient clock and a great view of the town. While we were on the top, we saw a marching band parade the streets, and spotted an incredibly long gutter…
The town is very quaint and peaceful, full of nice restaurants, old shops and cobbled streets. But it has a dark and twisted past. It was the birthplace/home of Vlad the Impaler, who Dracula is based on, and there are several themed restaurants and hotels cashing in on this fact. That being said, we were surprised by how little Dracula stuff we saw in Romania. If he had been from the UK, you know we'd have a whole theme park by now!
We visited the supposed place of Vlad's birth and were not bitten by any bats, which is a shame because I’ve always wanted to feast on the blood of virgins. Katie and I always say to leave something undone in each place so you have a reason to go back…maybe that can be mine for Romania!
By the way, Vlad Tepes (the Impaler) was a proper evil scumbag. He was vicious, boiling people alive and impaling mothers and babies together on huge spikes. Scary.
The town also has an interesting staircase that was built in 1642 to transport children quickly to their school at the top of the hill. It led to a wonderful part of town with some nice views from the hilltop and a cool cemetery. Fans of the blog know that we have a soft spot for a good cemetery (see the Chinese cemetery in Manilla) and coupled with a quaint church, it’s an unstoppable combo.
Surely that is enough excitement for a day, no? Oh no! We’re only just getting started. We left Sighișoara after lunch and drove to Sibiu, making a few stops to look at some old churches and buildings on the way. This was the theme of the holiday; constantly stopping to look at the many really ancient buildings by the road that catcalled us over for a cheeky glance.
Sibiu is a bigger town than Sighișoara, with a decent high street full of shops and city delights. It still has its fair share of old buildings though, with our highlight being this church. The bizarre paintings inside really peaked our curiosity…
In the evening, after a bit of a wander, we stopped in a lovely square by our AirBnB and drank a bottle or two of wine. We ordered Katie’s favourite wine and it had a topless woman on the label so we both enjoyed it muchly.
Delightful. UNTIL we noticed we were being watched…In Romania, the houses have eyes!
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| Seriously, how freaky is that?! It genuinely scared the bejeebus our of us! |
And that concludes our whirlwind day! But buckle up, because there's plenty more to come. And I might be so bold as to say that the best is yet to come...!
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| The entrance into Sighișoara's old town |
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| View from the Sighișoara church tower |
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| The marching band we spotted from the tower... |
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| ...and the weirdly long gutter |
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| The inner workings of the old clock |
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| Dave tried to count the steps but lost track in all the excitement! |
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| The spooky graveyard at the top of the staircase... |
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| The famous Vlad the Impailer! |
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| And the supposed house where he was born...which is now a themed restaurant! We didn't eat there, but I did notice the menu contained lots of garlic dishes and some blood red tomato soup! |
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| They had set up a room so it was really dark, with a red glow, fake candles, a coffin and some spooky music playing from a CD player plugging in by the door. It was all a little naff and half-hearted to be honest. |
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| And now for the beautiful churches we spotted on our way to Sibiu! |
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| And then we arrived in lovely Sibiu! |
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| The art in the cathedral was both spectacular and odd. |
