Sibiu is a Special Place

Monday, Aug. 31, 2009--Sibiu (Continued)

After resting for a while in the late afternoon, I went back out in the early evening. I walked along the old city walls. Then I wandered through the squares watching people. Sibiu has kept cars out of its most important square and off its shopping street. It also has fewer electricity wires in the way when trying to photograph its beautiful buildings. (In much of Romania, there are tens of wires hanging from pole to pole so that no nice photos can be taken of the buildings.) I walked a different direction from my hotel and went through the market. I bought some peanuts, cookies, and some toothpaste. Then I returned to the hotel around 20:00 for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009--Sibiu

I didn't sleep well last night. My nose was sore all night from the pressure of a pimple (infection?) that was forming on the rim of a nostril. I put some antibiotic ointment on it, but it didn't stop it. Eventually, at 6:00 this morning it burst and I put some more ointment on it. But I could not go back to sleep.

Instead, I pulled out my guidebook information for Morocco and began to read and mark it. Then I opened my novel and read a few chapters.

What a disappointment. The art museum here in Sibiu is supposed to be the best in Romania. I knew I couldn't go yesterday, because it is closed on Mondays. I headed there first thing this morning only to find out, however, it is also closed on the first Tuesday of each month!! It's a day for them to concentrate on restoration work. I won't be able to see it, because my bus leaves for Bucharest tomorrow just 55 minutes after the museum opens.

Instead, I headed to the second place I intended to visit today: Muzeul Civilizatiel Populare Traditionale Astra--one of the largest open air museums anywhere. It is located out on the edge of town and has about 150 traditional structures of various kinds. Since it was only 6 km (3.5 miles) from my hotel, I decided to walk so that I could see the city on the way to there.

The museum was a real surprise to me--so much more than I expected. It is the best open air museum I have visited in terms of variety and numbers of exhibits. (It's not as good, however, in terms of allowing you inside the buildings. In most cases, you must peer through roped, open doors and through windows.) There are mills of all kinds and multiples of each--six different kinds of windmiless, for instance, and even a boat mill that allows the flow of the water to do the grinding while the boat is moving.) There are presses for oil, for grapes, etc. There's a vineyard beside each of two old wineries (the homes and the out buildings for pressing). There's an 8-seat hand-cranked "Ferris" wheel. There are farm houses, schools, churches, etc. There are special houses and their associated out buildings for shepherd's farms, candlemakers, coopers, tanners, fishermen, etc. There are the homes and buildings associated with making and dying various fabrics such as hemp, silk, goats' wool, sheeps' wool, etc. The list could go on and on and on. I was there for three hours and still did not see it all.

When I came back into town around 15:30, I was hungry and stopped at a Turkish kebab house. The stuffed sandwich was so big that I am totally full now and probably will not need anything else for dinner.

There's an organ concert at 18:00 at the Evangelica Basilica. I will go to it. Then I will be in bed early, I guess, since I was up so early today. Tomorrow is a big travel day when I return to Bucharest. I'll spend the night there and head to Copenhagen on Thursday.

Note to Nurse Grethe and Jens and Robert: Webspeed has been stopping your mail again. That's why you have not heard from me. I will still be at the airport there around 15:00 on Thursday and will see you that evening.