Romania continued...

---

17 OCTOBER - SIGHISOARA

Didnt intend to get up early this morning but ended up creeping around the room at about 8am and went for a walk. Walked round the city walls and up to the church. Quite pretty inside but nothing overly special in my opinion. Then it was a wander through another cemetary and into town. Grabbed some breakfast along the way too. Everywhere I seemed to turn though I ran into other people from the group who were also just out for a walk.

At 1pm we all met in the hotel foyer to go up the clock tower. Everyone actually showed up even though it was a pretty informal thing and essentially a completely free day. We bought a combination ticket and went up the clock tower first to see some nice views over the city. There was also a museum spread throughout the tower on the way up which was quite interesting.

The second part of the combination ticket was a visit to the medieval museum which had a range of weapons and old medical equipment, ballistics vests, etc. Then it was onto the torture museum which was one room and very disappointing really. Had some old sketches and some machines but was tiny. Would have expected more.

After a few hours free in the afternoon some of us met to go for a drink at Vlad's house (Dracula - the guy who impaled everyone - there are some disgusting stories) before grabbing dinner at a restaurant around the corner. Then it was a few games of uno and some beers before bed.

18 OCTOBER - SIGHISOARA TO VISCRI

Left Sighisoara at around noon. In the morning some of us decided to grab breakfast and head to the markets (directions were cross the bridge and follow the locals). Took us about two hours to find the markets which werent on the other side of the bridge. The whole way we were followed by one of the community dogs - called either Nigel or Jimmy depending on who you spoke to. Really nice dog who just wandered with us the whole way. Stupid thing though, at one point the dog walked on the other side of this fence along the water. It got down a fair way and there was a gate that was the wrong way so we have to try to force it and then coax the dog through a gap and release him to the other side. Silly. The markets were very disappointing too.

After that it was about an hour or so's drive to the town of Viscri which was to be our next homestay. Complete with long drop toilets and everything. The town has a paved road going into it but the town itself (apart from no sewage system) also doesnt have any pavel roads. So lots of mud combined with horse and cow manure. All the animals basically just roam around wild which is kind of cool. Saw lots of gipsys too.

We were split into three different home stays run by the same family so after dropping all of our gear we met for a walk around town. First step was one of the Saxon churches where we went up a ricketing staircase to get a nice view over the surrounding area. I nearly couldnt handle the stairs - was worse than the ones in Croatia if that is at all possible. WOuld not pass Aussie OHS standards!!

Other than that it was a walk around town where Stefan bought a beanie from Lady Moustache (you probably had to be there but when I get a chance to upload pics you will see why!!). We saw the local blacksmith who made some nails in front of us, and saw the gipsy houses too.

Dinner that night (along with cherry brandy, schnapps which tasted like crap and home made wine) was included that night. Everyone else had lamb and goose cabbage roles but because I had said no lamb, I got potatoes and polenta. Talk about starch overload. Way too much food as well - the more we ate, the more that they kept bringing for us. Never go hungry in eastern Europe.

19 OCTOBER - VISCRI TO SIBIU

Left the homestay after a breakfast that never ended - food was again more than enough. Short drive back to Sighisoara before getting two trains onto Sibiu. We arrived at about 2pm and checked into our hotel before heading for a walking tour of the city. After a quick walk I headed to the art gallery with Annalise before climbing the clock tower and seeing the photo exhibition.

By that stage it was around 5pm so we found this adorable little restaurant where we had dessert as we were both hungry. In the toilets there was one of those CDs playing with bird sounds, etc. Plus lots of candles. Nice restaurant but we basically sat in the bar area as we werent havinga meal.

Met up with the rest of the group at 7pm for dinner at a Romanian restuarant where the service was pretty average and where they made us pretend like we didnt know each other as they wouldnt take group bookings for morethan 10 people unless they wanted to go with the set menu. Dinner finished at about 9:30pm or so and I think I was actually asleep by 10pm.

---