by See photos of my trip (and more!) at ello.co/poftim
Sibiu didn’t let me down. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, and there’s so much beauty in relatively little space – everything is within walking distance. On Saturday I met a Polish woman and we walked around town aimlessly for a while. Aimlessly doesn’t matter one bit in Sibiu because you see something amazing at every turn. I saw some Romanian art at a museum after she’d gone. Yesterday I tried to go to an open air museum but got wet instead. Being Sunday, I went to the Orthodox cathedral where the four-hour mass was in full swing. The inside of the cathedral was incredibly ornate. Every nook and cranny was beautifully painted and gilded. I think church services here work a bit like Test cricket: some diehards stay for the whole thing, but many dip in and out. Most people are forced to stand. Today a walk to the train station took me to parts of Sibiu I hadn’t seen before and my breath was once again taken away.
I’m staying in an apartment on Strada Dealului, or Hill Street. (Sibiu is fairly hilly, and that just adds to its allure.) When the taxi pulled in, both the driver and I thought I’d got the address wrong, because from the outside this place doesn’t look like accommodation. I knocked on the gate and got no answer. I then phoned the owner and sure enough she opened the gate. This cell phone is proving to be quite useful.
The train from Deva was an interesting experience. I was told to board at platform 2. Would you mind numbering your platforms next time? The train was delayed and I managed to talk to two old ladies on the platform who confirmed that I was in the right place, physically at least. Spiritually maybe not, as one of them handed me a reading from the Bible. The train probably topped out at 70 km/h. That’s less than a quarter of the eye-popping 312 km/h we reached between Paris and Munich. After ten minutes I unexpectedly had to switch trains at a place called Simeria. Platform 3 this time. Again no signs. I did get on the right train and from there it was pretty much plain sailing all the way to Sibiu. Every little town seems to have a station, and in between there are stops that are marked by rusty signs, where I think you can flag the train down. I’m still not quite sure how it all works.
Tomorrow morning I’m taking a 5½-hour train trip (I bet it’s more; we’ll see) to Bucharest. Luckily time doesn’t really matter that much.
An extremely useful Romanian word is “poftim” which seems to mean “Take a seat”, “Voilà”, “Huh?” and a bunch of other things. I found a social network called Ello, which has the benefit of not being very social, for posting my photos. I’m now using “poftim” as my username on there (“plutoman” was taken), so if you have time, take a look at ello.co/poftim.
