24 Hours in Sibiu

Salut!

I took a lot of shots of my first day in Sibiu when I spent a lot of time walking back and forth from my hotel to the center of town to try out bank machines. The photography kept me from going completely out of my mind since I was cashless, so here are some shots.

The first three days I was in Sibiu I stayed in the Hotel Apollo Hermanstadt, which was on the edge of the ugly new part of town. To get to the old city I had to walk through the old lower working class neighborhoods. I've got some pretty cool pictures of that area but for starters here's one of the hotel sign. The hotel itself looked like any old American motel/hotel.

Hotel Apollo Hermannstadt

I have nothing but nice things to say about the staff at the Hotel Hermannstadt. The maid folded my clothes.  I left her a 50 Lei tip. But other than that I don't care if I never see it again because it was the site of way too many phone calls to the NCSECU and USAA and way too much stress about how I was going to pay for things if I couldn't find a working bank teller.  :)

I should probably explain that I was in a region of Transylvania known as Saxon Land. Transylvania was a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until the Treaty or Trianon, part of the Treaty of Versailles, drew the boundaries of modern-day Hungary, essentially leaving many Hungarian people outside the boundaries of their own country. For those of you unfamiliar with this Treaty it was the cause, and still is the cause, of much grief for the majority of Hungarians. Almost every Hungarian knows someone, and often many someones who are family members, who are now citizens of other countries like Slovakia and Romania, despite being ethnically Romanian.

Here is the wikipedia link. It's worth reading if you want to understand anything about modern-day Hungary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon

But back to Saxon Land. Saxons had colonized this region as early as the 1200's and worked for the Hungarian chacellery, defending Hungary's borders. Because of this, every town has a Romanian name, a Hungarian name, and a Saxon name. Hermannstadt is the Saxon name for Sibiu. After the Treaty of Trianon, many Saxons went back to Germany. After WWII, many more. Towns that were one time predominantly Saxon now might have 2% Saxon population at most.

Wikipedia has a good article on Transylvania Saxons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transylvania_Saxons

The part of town I had to walk through to get to the old city was neat in its own way. The buildings were painted pastel colors and had tile roofs. I could look into backyard gardens and see plum trees and grape arbors. Check out these photos.

Grapes

More Grapes

Romanian Plums

Romania produces more plums than any other country except the US. And it's a helluva lot smaller than the US too.

I passed a lot of neat little houses. I love the windows on the roofs. The walls (or roofs) have eyes.

The Rooftops Have Eyes

They're Watching You

They were working on the street and I had to keep climbing over cobblestones.

Road Work

Center of New Town

Stuck Inside of Sibiu with the Budapest Blues Again

Or, A Warning to All You World Travelers Out There


A man walks down the street
It's a street in a strange world
Maybe it's the Third World
Maybe it's his first time around
He doesn't speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, and around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen and Hallejulah!
                                          ----------Paul Simon
Hello again, or Salut! as we say in Romany!

If you don't understand the Bob Dylan reference blame the google blogging tool which seems intent on not allowing me to embed sound bytes. So, I went to Romania. Check. Romania is really cool. Check. Before I went I made sure my bank card and credit card would work. Check. They didn't. And the NCSECU tells me AFTER I'M WAS THERE that yes, sometimes bank cards don't work in Romania. Well thanks guys. And the point of me checking on this in advance was. . .? And USAA tells me that yes, some stores in Eastern Europe are on a "pin chip" system which the rest of the world is not. So Romania has the distinction of having a card system that is more backward than Afghanistan? How nice.

Fortunately for me, I fell in love with this country the second I crossed the border and saw those old fashioned hay ricks and those beautiful black and white birds wheeling around over the cornfields. But my first three days were spent in the hell of not having any cash, not knowing how I'd pay for my hotel, etc. Not fun. Fortunately for me the Romanian people are some of the nicest most generous people I've ever met. When I got off the train at 10PM and got lost after trying four bank tellers unsuccessfully, a young couple drove me to my hotel. Then after calling the NCSECU and going out unsuccessfully to find another teller, and getting lost again, I asked a cab driver if he would take Forints (Hungarian's currency) and he said it was too much trouble but he'd give me a free ride.

One of the members of my reading audience located a friend in Sibiu I could call upon for help, and of course that was the same day I was able to activate cash advances on my credit card and be back in the money, so to speak, but I sure did appreciate knowing that the world is small enough that I was only three degrees of separation from someone's good friend in Sibiu. Thanks Ken. Other than this adventure, those first there days don't leave much in the way of interesting blog material unless you want to hear me bitch.

Seriously, though, I've learned a hard lesson. If you travel abroad, it doesn't matter how much money you lose at an exchange house or at the bank, get some local currency the expensive way before leaving your home country. Don't get stuck in Romania lost at midnight with no cab fare. That being said, Romania is probably the best country to be stuck in with no money.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, allow me to share some photographs of my first 24 hours in Sibiu. Stay tuned. . .

Oh, and here's the Bob Dylan, edited a bit.  :)

Oh, the ragman draws circles

Up and down the block

I'd ask him what the matter was

But I know that he don't talk

And the ladies treat me kindly

And furnish me with tape

But deep inside my heart

I know I can't escape

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Well Shakespeare he's in the alley

With his pointed shoes and his bells

Speaking to some French girl

Who says she knows me well

And I would send a message

To find out if she's talked

But the post office has been stolen

And the mailbox is locked

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Mona tried to tell me

To stay away from the train line

She said that all the railroad men

Just drink up your blood like wine

And I said "Oh I didn't know that

But then again there's only one I've met

And he just smoked my eyelids

And punched my cigarette"

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Grandpa died last week

And now he's buried in the rocks

But everybody still talks about

How badly they were shocked

But me, I expected it to happen

I knew he'd lost control

When he built a fire on Main Street

And shot it full of holes

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Now the senator came down here

Showing ev'ryone his gun

Handing out free tickets

To the wedding of his son

And me, I nearly get bursted

And wouldn't it be my luck

To get caught without a ticket

And be discovered beneath a truck

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Now the preacher looked so baffled

When I asked him why he dressed

With twenty pounds of headlines

Stapled to his chest

But he cursed me when I proved it to him

Then I whispered, "Not even you can hide

You see, you're just like me

I hope you're satisfied"

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Now the rainman gave me two cures

Then he said, "Jump right in"

The one was Texas medicine

The other was just railroad gin

And like a fool I mixed them

And it strangled up my mind

And now, people just get uglier

And I have no sense of time

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

When Ruthie says come see her

In her honky-tonk lagoon

Where I can watch her waltz for free

'Neath her Panamanian moon

And I say, "Aw come on now

You know you know about my debutante"

And she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need

But I know what you want"

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street

Where the neon madmen climb

They all fall there so perfectly

It all seems so well timed

And here I sit so patiently

Waiting to find out what price

You have to pay to get out of

Going through all these things twice

Oh, Mama, is this really the end

To be stuck inside of Sibiu

With the Budapest blues again.

First Impressions

Salut!

I wanted to share my first impressions of Romania. First I should state that in all of these countries it seems like the train stations are the ugliest places. You can see what I like to call the lingering effects of socialism. Cheap buildings, slapped up in a slip shod fashion, which are now rotting away. Abandoned industrial sites. Shacks. Abandoned train cars. If there weren't cute little towns past the ugly outskirts it would be pretty depressing. I often wonder what it was like in say, Stalin's time, on a bleak winter day, when you were having to go to your horrible job, in fear of the secret police, taking a train out of one of these pitiable train stations.

So, the first thing I saw in Transylvania was ugly telephone poles and abandoned train cars.

Bleak Countryside

Abandoned Train Cars in Romania 

More Abandoned Train Cars

This quickly gave way to more interesting sites, however. Here is a funky looking church.

Cool Church in Romania as Seen from Train 

Cool Church Alternate View

These towns quickly gave way to the Transylvanian countryside. By this time the train was moving a little faster and the angle of the sun was such that my photos weren't coming out very good. They tended to reflect the camera in the train window. I did try to take pictures anyway.

Before I show the pics I want to tell you how it felt. I first started to pass train stations that had little grape arbors and fruit trees. Then I started to pass little cottages that had chickens and dogs in the backyard with outhouses, fruit trees, grape arbors, and signs of busy happy life.

I passed a bunch of beehives, which they seem to paint bright colors in Romania. Here is a shot.

Colorful Beehives 

Colorful Beehives Whizzing By

The entire time we were gradually going up, and you could see beautiful mountains in the background. Jimmy could have probably told me how high above sea level we were. I passed some ponds which actually looked a lot cooler than these shots convey.

Romanian Pond with Hut 

Another Shot of the Romanian Pond

Then stuff started to look REALLY cool, and I wish I had better pictures. We started to get into forested areas with patches of fields and crops. We crossed beautiful rivers and I saw people trout fishing. It reminded me of Hemingway in the Sun Also Rises. I saw these huge, beautiful, black and white birds wheeling over the cornfields and sunflower fields, obviously feasting on what was left of the crop. I saw old fashioned haystacks that looked like they were made just for Halloween. The hay was piled around crooked sticks. I saw a real shepherd tending his flock, and I saw a man walking home from work carrying a sickle. He looked timeless, like he could have stepped out of the last century, or the century before that. He most certainly didn't look like somebody from the 21st century. I tried to take pictures but they didn't come out very well.

Romanian Forest

Romanian Hills

More Romanian Hills

Bad View of Hills and Steeple from Train Window

I know this shot of the train window with the curtains looks all Orient Express, but trust me, it wasn't. There was a drunk man behind me who must have drunk at least 3 bottles of whiskey and who kept holing up in the WC to smoke, and a Gypsy boy who kept trying to sell me laminated cards of religious icons. I was a hard sell but boy did he try.

This is a terrible shot of an old fashioned horse cart, but hopefully you'll get the picture.

Romanian Horse Cart

Here is a shot of a Romanian hillside. I don't know if this one has been strip mined or if this is natural. Most likely it's a result of strip mining, considering what the evil Commies did.

Romanian Mountain

Romania Haystacks

Who the Hell is Annoyin' Conqueror?

Hello Again,

I know, I know, who is this Annoyin' Conqueror? C'est moi!

When you live alone, and have many night time hours to fill, you do things like customize your google home page so you can feed a hamster and some turtles, and you also do things like generate your Wu Tang name. Check it out:

http://www.mess.be/inickgenwuname.php

I know somebody out there who shall remain nameless who would say the Wu Tang Clan generated the perfect name for me. I'll let the rest of you see how this pans out as I conquer Europe with one Annoyin' Blog Post at a time!

Szia!

Daddy Are We There Yet? A Travel Advisory from Annoyin’ Conqueror

Hey Ya'll,

I’m on my way to Romania today. I just checked the clock on my cell phone and it’s 2:00. Which means I have 8 ½ hours left to go. Yikes! I’m getting to see the Hungarian countryside. It’s very flat, and I’ve seen miles of cornfields and sunflower fields. I had no idea Hungary mass-produced sunflowers but they most certainly do. I’ve seen some cool little bog areas and actually saw a heron and two egrets in the fields near the bogs.

It kind of reminds me of Southeastern Oklahoma if that's possible. And yes it's possible. Take a look for yourself.

Hungary or Oklahoma?

Sunflowers as Seen from Train Window

Trust me, those are sunflowers. And here is a picture of the wide open Hungarian sky.

Hungarian Sky

I decided to bring my computer at the last minute and I’m glad I did. At least I can watch some movies or something. This is longer than a flight across the Atlantic. I left Keleti station today at 11:10 and am scheduled to arrive in Sibiu (pronounced C-B-U) at 10:20 PM, or 22:20 for us folks over here on the Europe side of things. Or those of you in the armed forces.

Here's a shot of Keleti yesterday when I was buying my ticket. It looked like something out of a Soviet nightmare if you want to know the truth. It didn't look so bad this morning in the sunshine.

Keleti Station in the Rain

Side View of Keleti Station

My day actually started pretty early. I was up to go to the bakery to buy bread for my sandwiches, which I'm very glad I packed. Pack it in or you'll starve on these trains. I got to Keleti about 10:00 AM for fear of being late, and so I sat on a bench and watched pigeons while I waited to board the train.

Keleti Pigeon 

Keleti Pigeons

If you want to get specific, I watched pigeons crap all over the floor, and tried to avoid getting crapped on from above. They actually have a bird roost in Keleti. INSIDE the building.

Fake Bird Roosting at Keleti

Real Bird Roosting at Keleti

I don't really understand the point of the fake bird roosting. If they think the pigeons don't know to roost on whatever is roostable, than they don't know pigeons. And well they should. This city is swarming with them. What is it that Homer calls them? Flying rats?


I was sitting in front of a big pile of pigeon poop, watching person after person walk through it and step on it, and wondering why I was the only one who seemed to notice it.

Pigeon Poop

I know you're asking yourself why I didn't point this out to people, but where's the fun in that? My excuse is that I don't know the Hungarian words for "pigeon poop".  :)


Anyway, enough pigeon talk. . .


My goal on this trip is to visit the Saxon Churches of Transylvania. I’m sure there will be too many to see in one trip so I plan to see a few really well, and then I’ll make another trip back to see the rest. I’m excited.

As always, I wish I had some friends by my side to share in the adventure, but traveling without friends is better than not traveling at all. Let’s hope I feel that way when this adventure is over.

More later. . .

Oh, we are just now crossing the border into Romania and I am having to hand somebody my passport. Yay! How exciting!

Here is a picture of the border.

Romanian Border

Now I’d better go practice how to say, “Can you tell me how to get into the Saxon Church?” (The border patrol just stamped my passport, yay!)

That reminds me, I’m becoming fairly well traveled. Here’s what my passport says so far:

El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Frankfurt Germany (airport), France, Barcelona Spain, Dubrovnik Croatia, Munich Germany (airport), Hungary, and now Romania. Yay!!!!! Conquering the world, one country at a time, this is Annoyin’ Conqueror signing off. For now that is.

Bunnies Cause Avalanches?

Hey there,

I want to have a running post of European road signs. I keep seeing some really funny ones but sometimes I don't have my camera with me.

This first one is one I like to call Bunnies Cause Avalanches? I saw it the first time I walked up to Castle Hill. It was at the foot of an embankment where workmen were doing some construction. It appears to me to be saying, well, bunnies might cause avalanches? Or, any critter might cause an avalanche? Substitute rock slide for avalanche if you're into the whole precise thing.

Bunnies Cause Avalanches

It's not the best photo I've ever taken but I couldn't get close to it because of a hole in the road. There is a picture of what appears to be a bunny at the top, then cascading rocks? I think it's funny.

Here's another hilarious one. This one was taken in Slovakia, but you see these everywhere. I like to call them Critter Crossing.

Critter Crossing

It's just a generic animal. Sort of a splice between a dog and cat and a possum. And yes, I know they don't have possums in Europe.

I love the way Europeans announce to you that you're leaving a town.

Canceling Esztergom

To be continued. . .