An International Public Historian: Trip to Sibiu, Romania

No rest for the weary! To cap off my crazy, busy, fun week, I went to Sibiu with the CIWC the Friday after Thanksgiving. As is the norm, we met at 7am and took a mini-bus for the 2-3 hour drive. I had thought about staying the weekend in Sibiu since two other Fulbrighters are there, but after this crazy week, I just thought I needed to spend some time at home. This was a wise decision since I ended up being sick all weekend :(

Sibiu is an old German town and looks a lot different from Cluj - very German, apparently. And, very old. Lots of old buildings that are sort of leaning on each other. It is about half the size of Cluj at around 175,000 people, and it definitely felt like a much slower pace of life in the center of town. Other than the weekends when Cluj clears out, I cannot imagine it ever being that quiet here! Of course, it really isn't loud here - just busy. I am sure that my trip to Bucharest this weekend will make me see Cluj in a whole different light, though, as it is the densest capitol city in all of Europe. Can you believe it?

Walking up into the center (and old) part of town. Can you spot the "eyes" on the buildings?

You can't miss them on these buildings! This is a distinctive (and slightly creepy) architectural feature of Sibiu.

Part of the old walls and tours around the edges of the center of town.

This is a nice feature - something I have only seen in Sibiu. Historic monument signs!

The theater in town. Very nice looking, but also seems quite small and separate from things!

Back to Sibiu, once we arrived, we walked to the center of town and just looked around a little bit. Such a neat place - and I mean neat as both interesting and clean! However, one big thing that I noticed was all the stray dogs...everywhere. This is something that all the guidebooks warn travellers about and something that that we covered during the Fulbright orientation. But, it hasn't been an issue at all in Cluj. Apparently there are a few neighborhoods here with some stray dogs, but I have only seen maybe 3 tops in my 2+ months here. If you are scared of dogs, particularly, scary stray ones, this is the place to be! In Sibiu, I noticed all of the dogs immediately. They were everywhere, even in the center of town (aka tourist central)....

So, pretty calm. This literally is what ALL the dogs were doing.

Wow, jut a side note. It is so neat that I am in Romania right now working on my blog, and a travel show on Cambodia just came on tv! How perfect. Who knew, apparently the Central Market in Cambodia is the 6th largest building in the world! Of course, it was closed for renovations when I was there. I have also been talking with some of the young women from the dorm there, so it all makes me miss Cambodia. I hope that I can go back sometime! Though, it is my goal to keep gathering books to send to the dorm there. The girls love the books, so it will be a great project to keep working on.

...and I will pull my focus back to Romania :) Evne though there were dogs all around in Sibiu, they seemed to be pretty friendly (not like I was trying to pet them, though). Almost all the ones I saw were sporting ear tags, which meant they had been fixed (spayed or neutered) and up to date on their shots. Perhaps that was why they were so laidback :) It is a great public program and certainly will help decrease the stray dog problem here. It is interesting because when I got back in Cluj, my friend Lauren had just returned from Constanta on the Black Sea and said they had a horrible stray dog problem - and that they were scary, territorial, and not at all tagged. So, I am bringing my umbrella to Bucharest, which has a well-known dog problem, so that I can beat them off!!

I was a little sad that we ended up going to Sibiu on Friday because the next day a Christmas market was opening. Apparently this is part of the area's German heritage (I wish I could go to the German Christmas markets!!!) since there doesn't seem to be anything like that in Cluj, a much larger city. Still, it was nice to see them setting up for it.

Setting up the fair.

Walking into the central part of town. How nice to have it a pedestrian way. Cluj hasn't quite gotten this concept yet (other than a few very limited areas).

Just beautiful buildings, lots of color. Slightly crumbling but with great character. Cluj is very comfortable, and Bucharest puts you on edge and has grit. In contrast, everything about this part of Sibiu sort of gives you the warm fuzzies :)

The main part of the trip was to go to the Brukenthal Museum, often said to the best museum in the country. If that is true, it makes me sad. Then, again, I think that mostly is because I really do not like 16th-18th century German and Flemish paintings - too dark and dreary - and that definitely was the vast majority of the collection. Still, I cannot imagine spending the 100 ron ($30) for the guided tour - outrageous!

Entrance to the museum. I believe it is a former palace of some kind, but I am not sure of the details.

While I was not a fan of the art, the setting was quite nice. So fancy!

This room was pretty neat. Filled with several prayer rugs from a church. I think an orthodox church, though I am not sure what the rugs were used for. Maybe prayers since there are no chairs in those churches??

Not a great picture (had to be sneaky), but this gives you a sense of the display. Just your basic, old-fashioned European art museum.

An interesting courtyard area. Some rooms with things like sculpture replicas and maps. I didn't really explore those areas since I wasn't interested.

Following the museum, we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant and had some yummy food. One of the Sibiu fulbrighters joined us for the meal and the other stopped by to say hello. It was so nice to see them again and to catch up on things! Even though we really only met each other for a couple of short days during the fall orientation, it was sort of like seeing old friends again. Funny how that happens.