Tripping With Toby: Sibiu

Horowitz Travel- May 13, 2017- Sibiu

They never promised me a rose garden, and that's a good thing. What we got today was a learning curve and a new normal.

We met our guide, Radu, after breakfast. He'd traveled into Bucharest by train starting at 3 AM from his home in Brasov. The Mercedes van he was driving was unfamiliar to him and it took a while and a call to the company owner to get the AC working correctly. As it turns out, this 49-year old was a bad boy during the Communist era. He was into heavy metal, had long hair, and wore black clothing. He was detained frequently by the police trying to convince him not to listen to Western music. Now he doesn't like Trump, is socially liberal, agrees with the country's strict gun laws, is against drugs, and is hoping his 15-year old son learns from his mistakes. The one vestige of his risk-taking youth is that he's a ski instructor in winter.

We did a quick drive-by of the royal palace, art museum, & the square where Ceausescu gave his final speech before escaping, being caught, then killed. For a moment, I thought the entire tour was going to be on wheels.

Then we pulled up to a ginormous building. We'd arrived at the showpiece of Romania, the Parliament. The Soviets never ran the government of Romania. They let the local Communists run things. This is reflected in the Parliament Palace. In 1977, there was a massive earthquake. This motivated Ceausescu to implement a building frenzy. He had a competition for the design of the building and a woman won. Not only does the building not look "Soviet," but it’s elaborate by any standards. It is second only to the Pentagon in size of an administrative building. We waited 45 minutes before the tour started then 30 more to go through security. They took our passports and we were cautioned to check to be sure we got the right one when we left. Good advice. They tried to give Judi a Canadian one.

Ninety-nine per cent of the building material is Romanian. Many floors are parquet, towering doors are artfully carved, most walls, columns, and floors are marble. Chandeliers encrust ceilings and sconces festoon walls. It is a treasure to behold. The problem is that when government money was being spent on the building, the Romanian people had little food or electricity.

An amusing story was that a film was being made about the Nazis and the papacy. They didn't get permission to shoot at the Vatican, so used the Romanian Parliament building as a stand in. They hung posters replicating some of the art in the Vatican and have not been able to remove them. I suggested Goo Gone, but the guide said they want to keep them now. It makes a good story.

And we were off to the Village Museum. It's a collection of 136 reassembled buildings brought from different regions of the country. Interesting, touristy, and Radu kept telling us we'd see most of the examples in place when we traveled. It drizzled, we took a quick walk through, dismissed eating at the snack shop, and left.

We had a 4-5 hour drive ahead of us. There are 2 million people living in Bucharest and I think they were all trying to leave at the same time. It was a good hour in traffic before we decided to pull into a Subway for lunch.

Radu filled us in on a cursory history of Romania. The people were originally called Dacians by the Romans. In Bulgaria, they were called Thracians. No alphabet, no history. But we know that already. Then there was a series of separate states, unions, partitions, reunions. The Ottomans tried to conquer them, but were paid tribute to stay out. After World War I part of Hungary became Romania. Some people still hold a grudge. Then there were the Hapsburgs who were everywhere. Don't want to leave out Saxons (not to be confused with Anglo-Saxons) who settled Sibiu where we are tonight. Romania joined the Nazis at the beginning of WWII but switched to an alliance with Russia. What a jumble.

We still had the Carpathian Mts. to traverse. It went from industrial to beautiful pretty quickly. Old red roofs are being replaced with metal ones making villages look pock marked. Fields of yellow rape seed plants waved good-bye as we entered the foothills and climbed through Olt River Gorge.

Our hotel, Imparatul Romanilor, a 16th century building, was a shock. The first thing I noticed was that the carpet had stretched out of shape causing ripples in the lobby. We were told there's only Wi-Fi in the lobby, but we have a good connection in our room. Speaking of which, it's our second room. The first one was two levels. The bathroom and sitting area were as you entered and a flight of steep steps led up to the sleeping loft. One of us would be dead or maimed if we spent the night there. We asked for a new room and were given a "suite." I use quotations because, although it has a sitting room (with a twin bed in it), separate bedroom, and two bathrooms, it is shabby. There are plaster patches on the wall and aged TVs (yes, two of them). Since there are two doors to the hallway from our rooms, David asked me to check to see if the second one was locked. When I tried it, an alarm went off. I laughed so hard I almost fell down. Judi's word for the place is "horrendous."

We couldn't wait to go to dinner. The guide suggested a "cellar" for typical Romanian fare. We found it easily, walked in, and walked out. It was as hot as a sauna. I couldn't breathe and the others couldn't stand it either. We walked down the pedestrian mall of trendy shops in old buildings and chose poorly. The menu went for pages, but when we ordered they were out of what we wanted. Of a dozen soups they had two. We got pizza and salad. It was forever coming and the waiter didn't bring plates from which we could eat. The table next to us had to translate that request for us. He then brought us saucers.

All in all, we're happy to have the day end. Tomorrow we go to Cluj Napoca. Huh?

Toby