After checking into our hotel, the Golden Tulip Ana Tower, we reassemble in the lobby to go out for our afternoon walking tour. We hop the bus for a quick little ride into town (it’s only a 10 minute walk, so the bus takes less than 5 minutes), then begin our tour at the fortification walls built sometime in the 12th C. The town was settled by the Saxons (Germans), and only Saxons were allowed to live inside the fortification. Everyone else had to live outside and come in only for business or work. The Saxons called the town Hermannstadt, built most of the buildings and the fortress walls and turned it into a merchant city.
Sibiu now is a model for Romania, being able to combine tourism and industry to make a very successful economic environment (Asheville….are you listening? It is possible without killing the golden goose!). It was also named as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2007.
The entire city is an incredible example of medieval architecture and structure. As we wander through great little streets chock full of old buildings, we can’t stop taking pictures of the famous “eyes” on all the houses. These little open vents to attics were used to dry ham and pork, but now are simply an eye catching part of the architecture.
It’s a lovely city, and its nice to just wander through the main square (Piata Mare), then around the merchants homes and the clock tower. Cristina keeps up a running commentary, but I’m too busy looking around to really focus on what she is saying. It is all just so picturesque. We walk along the old moat and make our way to the iron bridge, otherwise known as the Liar’s Bridge. There are many stories and legends about the bridge built in 1850. The main one is that you can not tell a lie while standing on the bridge without it collapsing. People on trial were brought here and asked to confess their sins, and if the bridge fell, they were lying. Of course it never fell…so….. Other legends have it that soldiers brought their girlfriends here and promised them undying love before leaving them for the service. Whatever the true reason, it’s a beautiful spot in the city where you can look up into the main town and along the steps and roadways that lead down to the rest of the town.
Rounding back to Piata Mare, we cross behind the Lutheran Cathedral of Saint Mary, where we meet and get to watch traveling apprentices. These are young men who leave their home penniless, and for 3 years they travel all over Europe, learning trades. They don't pay for travel, food or accommodations, but simply go from place to place, staying for 3 months at a time, working in different towns, while they learn their trade. Here in Sibiu, they are living in the oldest house in town, and are here on the square behind the church working – and of course advertising their services (and asking for donations).
A very fascinating way to make a living! Oh, and they also dress in traditional clothing, and when they leave each town, they have to place some object/piece they made on a post outside their dwelling.
Circling around to the front of the 14th C church, we take pictures of the gothic clock tower and the statue of Georg Daniel Teutsch, a famous Transylvanian historian and Lutheran Bishop.
Next we head to the news, 18th C Romanian Orthodox church, with it’s clock tower and pink marble colonnaded interior. Outside, the now familiar Byzantine horizontal brick and stone architecture makes for fantastic pictures against the azure blue, cloudless skies. (We’re wishing for clouds! It might be a pretty day, but the unusual heat – climate change anyone? – is making us all uncomfortably warm!) Inside the ever opulent church, we marvel at the frescoes, gilt, chandeliers and general over-the-top decorations that typically go along with orthodox churches. Once again there is the wall of icons blocking the altar from view, where only the priests are allowed to go, and of course all the icons that worshippers kiss and, in front of which, genuflect. And no seating – no matter how long the service, everyone was expected to stand. Yikes!
It is also here that we learn for the first time why frescoes are used so frequently in all these churches and monasteries. Because the priests spoke a language that the public (peasants) didn’t understand, they created frescoes to teach the congregation the story of the bible because they couldn’t understand the sermons nor read. Interesting!
Tour complete, we are let loose on the unsuspecting city! Some folks head off with Cristina to go back to the hotel, but we strike out for the Octoberfest, to have a beer (I didn’t see that they had wine until after I had already bought a beer….so…if we come back, I’ll remember that) and see what the food looks like – in terms of pricing, etc. It’s a smorgasbord of meat over there – and we want to figure out what we want and how to order before we decide what to do. (I took a picture of the menu/pricing to translate later – oh and a picture of these awesome beer carriers they have here – I almost swiped one to have as a sample, they are brilliant! They are flat cardboard cut outs that fold up around the beer and have a handle. Perfect, environmentally friendly, and very easily disposable!) It’s open seating, and its busy, but we finally find a place to sit for a bit, while deciding what to do. Everyone around us is eating and drinking – its like one huge communal picnic, which looks pretty fun. There are bands every night, but we’re too early for that. And we’re not totally starving, so we figure we’ll wait and decide if we want to come back tomorrow.
Finishing our beers, we trek our way out of the city and down side streets to the Garden – Gradina – Restaurant. The entrance is a little confusing, as you just walk into this huge covered garden area, where tons of people are sitting around smoking and eating. There is a little stairway and entrance in the back with a sign for the toilets (and a crowd of people blocking the door) – so we can’t decide if it’s the entrance, the back door, just the way to the toilets, what? We excuse our way through the crowd (who are out there smoking) and walk into the bar area with seating on two sides of the building. Approaching the bartender, we ask for a table for 2 and he gives us a quizzical look, then sort of pans his hands around the seating area, which we take to mean we should just go ahead and sit. We do, and eventually (and I do mean eventually, as we will come to find out, patience is something you need when going out to eat in most Romanian restaurants) a waiter comes over with menus. We order drinks and I decide I’m still not terribly hungry so I order “Bread with Crackling Paste” whatever the heck that is! I’d seen online and was dying to try it! Ed gets the Gradina platter, which is basically charcuterie – and enough for an army – oh and the beer was too! A huge stein of beer.
It may have taken a while, but it was a great meal and a pretty pleasant atmosphere with two parties going on in either side of the seating area and a group of guys watching a soccer game. Just a nice night out in Sibiu!
Back at the hotel, we ask for a kettle – and the woman at the front desk is just flustered and not very service oriented, plus I don’t know how well she speaks English. She says she can’t find one, and we just shake our heads. Up in our room, we are still bagless, after calling the lost luggage guys one more time, they insist the bag will come into Bucharest tonight and want to know if we are still at the Hilton Garden Inn. Um, no, we are in Sibiu. Ok, they say, we’ll have the bag there tomorrow. Do we have faith? We’re not sure, but there isn’t anything we can do about it!
Settling into the room, we try to get comfortable, but while the room is nice, the A/C is not. We can’t get the thing to work, and there’s no sense trying to call down to miss customer-unfriendly, so we just power through it, with the measly little cool air we can get from the window. Ugh. But, when in Romania…..
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