Sunny Sibiu

Once we wandered down into Turnu Rosu at the end of our tramp (1 August) we waved goodbye to the straggly friendly little dog which followed us all the way from the top of the mountain into the town and pulled out of the station heading for Sibiu.

We couldn't have asked for a better place to blob after our strenuous tramp. The town is the 2007 'Cultural Capital of Europe' and it was buzzing with music, people, shows and delicious food. It's an old town with lots of big squares and cathedrals, and we soon navigated our way around all the best bakeries, pizzerias and ice creameries. We stayed in the 'Alt stadt' hostel which is right on one of the main squares, so for 3 days we didn't really venture much further than the city centre.

We had interesting times at one restaurant with our lack of Romanian. The first time we went there we ended up with five large cups of coffee laid in front of us when we had tried only to order three, and then on a second visit Chris wanted to order the strudel, but this did not seem to be possible. Eventually he went inside and pointed into the cabinet at the strudel and the waiter came and dumped the largest piece of strudel imaginable on his plate...which had us all in stitches, the waiter included.

So after three enjoyable days we packed up our bags and jumped on the train for Cluj which took a full day to reach because we were travelling this time on a 'slow train' which meant we spent 4 hours waiting at a station in between trains, but we entertained ourselves photgraphing the odd horse and cart as it trotted past and the authentic 'haystacks' which sit in every paddock.