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Published: August 22nd 2015
Sighisoara
Old buildings with clock tower in background.Leanne’s assessment of Romanian train travel: “Romanian trains SUCK!” … and I concur.
This post begins in another fortified medieval town on top of a hill, Sighisoara. We learnt here that there were seven of them known as seibenbergen, a German name owing to the region's Saxon heritage. We have now seen 4 of them without meaning to tick them of the Romanian tourist list. Sighisoara’s old town has 14 towers, each one built and controlled by a guild and used for defence when under attack. We stayed just inside the tailors’ gate/tower and one of the other towers is still inhabited by a grave keeper and his family. It overlooks the Saxon cemetery outside the walls. There is also an impressive clock tower that puts on a show every hour, when a clockwork drummer lets you know what the time is. On one side there are statues to resemble justice and honour to let visitors know what a lovely place they are staying in. On the other side there is an executioner to remind you to obey the rules.
Sighisoara has a Dracula theme, like Bran and Transylvania in general. This is where Vlad Tepes was born. Wow!!!
Guided tour of Sighisoara
Nathan made friends with the guide. (Interpret a sarcastic tone here.) But we neglected to purchase a fridge magnet or see the room where he came into this world.
We were then in the middle of Romania and wanted to get to Montenegro, via Serbia. So we caught a whole lot of trains. Three of them took us to Timisoara in the west of the country. The first one was late, of course. Then it went even slower than expected. Tickets tell you how many kilometres you are travelling and we worked out that we were going about 30 km/h. We should have missed our connection, but of course the next train was late too and we caught train number two. We made it to Vintu de Jos knowing we had an hour to spare to get dinner before the next train arrived. Vintu de Jos is perhaps the worst place in the world to buy dinner. There was nothing there! The only shop in the entire area was not open, even though the opening hours on the shop window indicated that it should be. A helpful local saw us and knocked on the house across the road to get the shop owner and we
The grave keepers tower
Last inhabited tower in Europe. bought the best food on offer; something like spam, a tin of beans with an unidentifiable meat in awful juice and a normal loaf of bread and bottle of water. Compared to the other brilliant meals we have had for the two weeks in Romania, this was disappointing. But we made it to Timisoara by the end of the day … just - 11.30pm. Nathan was already asleep, having watched a Tom and Jerry movie, followed by Penguins of Madagascar on the computer. Considering how long we spent in a confined space that day, he did very well.
Romanians must have many vices. To start with I can see that most people smoke, and they do it in restaurants, which is annoying to us. Then there are lots of betting agencies and ads for online betting everywhere you turn. Then there are the sex shops, erotic massage and strip night clubs, but I think these are for tourists as much as anyone else.
In Timisoara we had two nights and one day to explore what is a significant city in recent Romanian history. It was here in 1989 that the people first revolted against the Ceausescu regime and
ten days later he was overthrown and executed. At a museum dedicated to these events we saw pictures from the square that our apartment overlooks. Piata Victoriei was the scene of a massacre, when hundreds of protesters were injured and killed by soldiers under government orders. Today it is hard to believe that something so terrible happened in a lovely peaceful place that today's Romanians and tourists come to have coffee or eat a meal under large umbrellas.
Other Romanian culinary delights I would like to mention: The home made lemonade is really good. Restaurants all make their own and it often comes in other flavours like kiwi or berry. Also a donut type cylinder called Kurtoskalacs (meaning chimney bread) which comes in flavours like cinnamon, chocolate and nuts. It unwinds in a spiral fashion. I think this is originally from Hungary, but has been adopted by Romanians now.
Having experienced the delights of Romanian train travel we decided to see what the Serbians had to offer. We started with an uneventful trip to the border, where our passports were stamped and we changed trains to Belgrade. Whilst on this train we were told that the train would
Typical Romanian train station
At the beginning of our long day of travel from Sighisoara to Timisoara. not go to Belgrade despite what our ticket said. Instead we had to get off somewhere along the line in the middle of nowhere and find our own way to a bus station. After walking for about 20 minutes with a troop of Romanians, there for various reasons, we got to the bus station but had no local currency. After working through our difficulties using sign language we made it to Belgrade by early afternoon. One of the reasons for being in this capital city is because it has an Australian embassy and I was able to have a copy of my passport verified so that my Victorian Institute of Teaching registration could be renewed. After achieving that, we decided we didn't want to stay and decided to ride on more rolling stock. The next one was the pick of the bunch! An overnight sleeper in our own cabin to Bar in Montenegro. Nathan was very excited about this journey and it lived up to expectation. We all slept well and saw some impressive scenery after we woke. We were equally excited about spending another 10 days or so at the beach again.
And that should have been the
Opera Theatre, Timisoara
The location of the main protests against Ceausescu in 1989. end of this post. However, Nathan made sure our first day in Montenegro would be memorable for all of the wrong reasons. After finding nice accommodation and spending most of the day at the beach doing what we do best, he stuck his fingers under the sliding door in the wardrobe and cut a deep gash in one of his fingers. There was enough blood to have him screaming and Leanne and I very concerned too. With help from our landlord he was attended to by a doctor in hospital, for the second time in as many months, and received two stitches in his index finger. He will be okay, but there won’t be much swimming for a while so I guess we'll have to find other things to do in this seaside town......
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melanie cartwright
non-member comment
poor nathan
He's certainly experiencing everything possible including the local medical facilities!! Hope his poor finger is ok and you manage to get some beach time in xx