Still in Transylvania we stopped for two nights in Sibiu, another pretty little Germanic town with a great Medieval feel to it. Sibiu was the capital of Transylvania for much of the 18th century and again briefly in the 19th century. More recently it was named Europe’s Capital of Culture in 2007, so we figured it must have had something going on. As late as 1945 the city was primarily German and known by the name Hermannstadt but after the war most Germans emigrated to Germany or Austria leaving only a very small German minority there. One of the Germans who remained, however, was Klaus Johannis who was elected mayor in 2000, the first ethnic German mayor of a Romanian city since the Second World War. Apparently he did well as Mayor as today he is the President of Romania.
How did we spend our time in Sibiu? Well, the one full day we were in town we left, driving about an hour to the town of Paltinis to go for a hike. It had been a little frustrating because I’d asked at the hotel desk about hiking in the area; the woman there said she didn’t know of any trails. Yet if you Google “Sibiu hiking” you get to the county’s tourist website that opens by saying “With over 500 marked hiking trails, the county of Sibiu is truly a hiker’ paradise.” That’s the stuff a hotel is supposed to know.
At any rate we had an absolutely lovely hike around Paltinis up in the Carpathians and still got done in time to get back to town for lunch. We’re still not enamored of Romanian food as we’re finding it just too heavy and Germanic. Somehow, though, we’re not starving. Beyond that there was an interesting art museum that was worth an hour, a beautiful orthodox cathedral, and – as we’ve learned to do so well – hanging out in cafés.
And just like that after two days we’re back on the road, off to another cute Romanian town.