Sept. 7: In the heart of Transylvania

[ES]
Last night we slept tucked away in our (unexpectedly) own house within a stone’s throw of the Biertan fortified church, an UNESCO world heritage site. Each fortified church we have visited has been in varying degrees of repair and usage. Some the day before seemed actively used by the Lutheran congregation while others like Biertan seem to be mostly preserving a time and place. The Biertan church/castle was very fun to walk around, and in particular I enjoyed the intricate woodwork mosaics on some of the doors and choir seats and an amazingly complex lock on the sacristy door.

The German influence is sometimes right at the surface - "I am the bread..."

We headed out by bike in the late morning which worked well as it was less hot. Fortunately we finally had a straightforward route! We went through Dumbraveni and were surprised to see a gigantic obviously Catholic Church in the center square. Even more surprising inside was some writing in a very different script and reference to a museum about Armenians in Romania. Armenians  were present in Transylvania also going back to the 14th century and many were assimilated (or forced) into Hungarian culture and the Catholic church. Reading more we also found that much later after the Armenian Genocide in 1915 Romania was the first country to officially welcome Armenian refugees - until the onslaught of Romania’s brand of crushing communism forced most to leave.

We passed several horse and carts with families or two people and began to be on the outskirts of Sighisoara. We had to travel on the main highway for a bit up and over a hill into Sighisoara which is not the most fun but it was cool to see how much forest surrounds the town down in the valley.

Sighisoara is definitely a storybook Transylvanian town. We are staying at a wonderful inn attached to one of the many towers in the citadel of Sighisoara, each of which were constructed, occupied and defended by a craftsman’s guild in the Middle Ages. We are right next to the Tailors’ Tower but the Shoemakers’ Tower has been our favorite. Sighisoara appears to have a higher density of tourists, and it is a much smaller city than Sibiu. Once we walked around the citadel part on the hill for a bit we made it down to the city square (actually a triangle) and there the town felt much more real and livable...just really colorful and unique architecture (including attic eyes again) paired with people just going about their daily business. Meanwhile there are definitely postcards in the citadel in contrast to most areas of Romania we have been!

There is electricity here...

We had one of my favorite meals yet - a Hungarian goulash with homemade thin dumplings in a spicy, peppery thick stew sauce. Delicious! Our routine has been to ride all day then get to our destination, take a shower, walk around a bit, and eat our big meal of the day in the afternoon. Wine pours are large here - 200-250 ml. I’m not complaining. And rose has been surprisingly my go to choice. Today, top that off with soft serve ice cream, which is ubiquitous here, and we were fueled up to again climb to the top of the citadel for an organ concert in the old Lutheran church. The organist was from Germany and there appears to be concerts in churches around Sighisoara every Friday. The powerful, all encompassing sound of the organ seemed fitting for a region that has weathered many sweeping changes. We have learned that Transylvania was often a place of religious tolerance, particularly during the Habsburg times when people with minority religious beliefs were pushed around the empire.

Our inn is kept by the most perfect innkeeper, Soren, whose background is Romanian and Greek. There are Greek books and posters everywhere in the place along with many of Transylvania. He has given many recommendations for places to eat, things to see, and hikes to take with detailed instructions of how to get there.

There have been more groups of women gathering here in the public space of Romania than in Serbia. In Serbia it felt like groups of men often dominated cafes and other public spaces. They were not necessarily outwardly intimidating but just seemed to take up more space and seemed to be more of the cell phone talking independent businessman type. Also the men seem to delight in their families in Romania, and Romanian family life is visibly central everywhere.