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Published: August 25th 2018
The city of Sibiu is known for being Romania's cultural gem with it's maze of cobblestoned streets and small yet charming squares. After breakfast, those who were interested in a walking tour of Sibiu met up in the main square, Piata Mare. We started outside the old city walls where our guide provided us with some history as well as some current information about the city. We meandered around the cobblestoned streets and when we arrived at the Catedrala Sfanta Treime, we were given some time to go inside and have a look around. The inside of the church was breathtakingly beautiful and as I have noticed with other Orthodox churches that we've visited on this trip, I was completely awestruck. It was crowded inside and I wish I could've taken a photo but there was a morning mass taking place and I didn't want to come off as being disrespectful. Instead, I just stood there a bit with some of the worshippers and soaked it all in. We continued walking around the historic city center and ended up in Piata Mica. During our walking tour, I had periodically seen a few homes with windows on the upper floor which looked
like an eye. When we arrived in Piata Mica, there was a good number of structures with these eye windows. Our guide had explained to us that these windows were designed as such in order to remind people that they were always being watched. Walking around here, it definitely felt a bit creepy to have it feel as if the houses were watching us. The walking tour ended back in the main square, Piata Mare where Shea and I made our way back to the hotel for a quick rest before making our way to Sigishoara.
From Sibiu, it was a short bus ride to our next destination of Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes. Arriving in Sighisoara, in the early afternoon we checked into our home for the night, the Hilton Sighisoara. With a few hours to kill before our evening walking tour of Sighisoara, we met up with Erin and and Angie to have a little 80s dance party in their room before making our way down to the hotel bar to enjoy a few drinks with some fellow tour mates.
As we left the hotel that evening for our evening tour, we had a great
view of the Old Town's fairy tale like skyline which coupled with the gray clouds was so very Transylvania. We hiked up to the Old Town towards the Sighisoara Clock Tower where we stopped at a platform viewing spot overlooking the rooftops of Sighisoara. I was definitely feeling like we were in Transylvania with the grey cumulus clouds and a flock of birds that flew over resembling a group of bats. It was your typical Transylvania scene. Our walking tour started at Piata Muzeului where wet met our guide for the next hour. Her English wasn't very good and she didn't speak in a very commanding or captivating manner. I knew right off the bat that I was going to struggle with this walking tour. With daylight quickly receding, we set off on our walking tour through the Old Town's cobblestone streets where our guide did her best to explain each sight as well as it's historical significance. The combination of our guide's limited English, walking in the dark, and the cold evening made for a long and uninteresting walk. Thankfully, the tour ended and we headed out for dinner at Restaurant Casa Vlad Dracul, the birthplace of Vlad Tepes
Walking Tour of The Historic Center of Sibiu
Our G Adventures group waiting for the walking tour to begin
(Dracula).
Vlad Tepes was born in 1431 and the place where he was born has now been converted into a restaurant. Immediately upon entering you see that the place is just in a state of perpetual Halloween. The decor was mainly cheesy Dracula kitsch including vampire fangs and bats. Dinner was sub-par and was nothing memorable. I did try this drink called Dracula's Dream which really tasted like Dracula's Nightmare. It was so sweet and tasted like liquid Sweet Tart candies. I passed it around the table so that everyone could taste just how nasty it was. Suzy ended up liking it and I let her have the rest in exchange for a glass of some of her Dracula wine. After dinner, there was a room upstairs that was supposedly the room in which Dracula was born in. The room had been converted into some small haunted house attraction and for a small extra fee, we were able to go up there to explore. You're only here once, so as cheesy as it was I paid the small fee to check it out. It was just 2 rooms with red lighting and with the walls covered in black tarp
. There was a coffin on the floor with a person laying inside who would jump out periodically to attempt to scare people. It was good cheesy fun to take our photos and pretend to be terrified but after a few minutes, it was time to leave. After dinner, Gabo brought us to this place called Club Vertigo for those interested in dancing the night away. There were a good number of people here tonight from the other tour groups. Our group started off the evening hanging out in a secluded area of the nightclub while drinking some local beers. However, it was so loud and hard to hear and talk to each other that it wasn't long before everyone just started dispersing. Erin, Angie, Shea, and I spent the rest of the night dancing amongst ourselves while periodically joined by Gabo. After about 2 hours of dancing to 80s hits combined with current hip-hop and rap songs, we called it a night and staggered our way back to the hotel.
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