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Published: August 4th 2009
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Sighisoara and Viscri Day 5-6 (June 11-12)
Train travel to Sighisoara which is a fortified town in Transylvania. Claim to fame being Dracula’s birthplace (but Vlad didn’t live here long). There was an a museum with old artefacts, especially Saxon which this area still holds a sizable population of. The museum was in a tower, and there was a great view over the area from the top, as well as being able to look at the clock mechanisms. We were glad to be sheltering here from the storm which had come over quickly. As it abated we headed up the covered stairway built to allow children to get to school out of the rain and walked around the local church. There were lovely little square where we had dinner.
The following day we were collected by a local driver in his vehicle for our home stay in Viscri. What can I say about this one, it was a mini van of some sort, fairly rusty, with a bench for all four of us covered by a
blanket. Where the rest of the seats were I’m not sure. At least we were squeezed in tight enough that we didn’t need
to hold on. We thought that this was going to be a long journey (supposedly an hours drive) The local driver I’m sure knew the roads well and that is why he could do the amount of overtaking on bends and hills and narrowly miss oncoming traffic. Far from being a long trip we arrived 15 minutes early all very glad to be there.
Our host could not join us immediately, as a large tour bus of UN representatives was there including some high ranking people. Before long someone came to settle us into our farmhouse. This area had a lot of Saxons living there but many returned to Germany after the Russians left, leaving houses empty. Many gypsies moved into them, and now there is a project for the assisting Roma (gypsies) to support themselves in work.
It was a real farmhouse, with chickens wandering around the yard cows to be milked, and a dung pit. Our toilet was located just beyond the dung pit, which I suppose is another method of air freshener. While here we visited a local blacksmith (gypsy) who was preparing to shoe a horse. We got to see the process up close.
We then made ourselves a picnic from food at the local store (the only one in town), which we ate in one of the farmhouses. We then headed up to a fortified church on the hill, where a wonderful old lady was the keeper. Our leader gave us a wonderful overview of how the church functioned, and we climbed to the top of the tower to view the countryside which was all the better for the wild weather brewing. The UN folk were in the church as we came down and someone was playing the pipe organ.
Also inside the fortified walls was a small museum that displayed life as it had been, including the means of communication via a wooden banner. There was also a working loom on display, and as our leader had been there before (and charmed the old lady) gave us a demonstration, and then I got to have a turn. It really was a fun afternoon despite the rain.
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