Blogs from Sibiu, Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 2

We set off for Sibiu on back roads without hardly any traffic or people about as the bad weather had finally arrived. It wasn’t so bad though – just a light rain. We arrived at Biertan, our first stop of the day. Unfortunately the rain picked up during our visit and we had no umbrella, of course. So many umbrellas had been waved in my face every time a cloud appeared all through our trip but with blue skies and strong sun on our heads we never felt we needed one and by the time we did, there was not an umbrella to be found. So we were umbrellaless in the rain but not terribly bothered by it most of the time. The countryside was very pretty but mostly empty and misty. Every village has a ... read more

20 au 23 juillet Je quitte Cluj-Napoca en bus, bien conscient que ma quête d'anéantir du vampire semble maintenant peine perdu. "Ce n'est que du folklore" m'a-t-on répété bien souvent ici. Ouais, du folklore. Ce serait l'auteur irlandais Bram Stocker qui, inspiré par Vlad Tepes, aurait inventé le personnage de Dracula. Mais étonnement, l'auteur n'aurait jamais mit les pieds en Transylvanie, ni même en Roumanie. Une chose est certaine, c'est que ça aura bien servit tout le Pays ces histoires de vampires. ... L'autocar donc, est bien remplit de voyageurs et moi je suis collé sur une jolie femme habillée sobrement qui feuillette un cahier des Témoins de Jéhovah, le "Réveillez-vous" écrit en roumain. Ils sont nombreux ici ceux-là. Je crois que les roumains sont encore très religieux: c'est qu'ils ont grandement besoin d'espoir les roumains. ... read more

Day 3 of our stay in Romania, it is still stinking hot and humid. I had many adventures planned to do while we were here but it is difficult to go off hiking and exploring in +33C tempatures with our older dog. So we settled on a day trip into the city of Sibiu only about 20 minutes away. What a lively city Sibiu is, hustling , bustling fun place. It is one of the most charming places to visit in Europe. it is an anicent walled city, with the defence structures are still in excellent condition. We love to wander the old streets discovering every nook and cranny, jammed full of Romania heritage. Even though it was hot we managed to stay reasonably confortable in the air conditioned building, most shop keeper where very friendly ... read more

On July 21st continued on our adventure across Hungary to Romania, still very hot, still very humid but we are all comfortable easy roads throughout Hungary. It should have been roughly a 4 1/2 hr drive to our first nights stop. We could probably made it further but we don't know what the roads are like in Romania I had read that there was a lot of construction and don't really want to chance it in the dark. As it turns out we were delayed at the boarder for over 45 minutes, not sure why, no reason given, which we have to accept and carry on. But did notice at the boarder there was a Canadian flag, which I thought odd to see. Oradea's building is a mix of Communist era boring block apartment style building, ... read more

Oh Wunder, in der Nacht kein Regen zu hören. Am Morgen sogar blass-blauer Himmel. Nach einem Frühstück mit zwei österreichischen MR Kollegen (der eine arbeitet in Meggenhofen, das ist ein Ort, an dem meine Mutter unzählige Male war), schlich ich auf einer gemütlichen Landstraße Richtung Sibiu. Die Landwirtschaft in Rumänien ist ja nicht sehr gut im Schuß - alles bio!! Die Felder voller Unkraut, große Flächen, die nur extensiv genutzt werden und durch Schafherden abgeweidet werden (aber die Flächen fangen schon an, zu verbuschen), sumpfige Flächen, alles da. Die Wiesen haben noch viele Blumen, mobile Imker sind mit ihren Bienenstöcken unterwegs, in den sumpfigen Stellen sind die Störche auf Suche nach Nahrung für ihren Nachwuchs. Die Storchennester sind riesig, seitlich haben sich kleinere Vögel Nester angelegt: wenn da schon jemand so viel Reisig herschleppt, dann muss ... read more