July
2006
Sighisoara, 1st part (Warning - huge post, lots of pics)
At the beginning of the summer we decided that we’ll either go to the rock festival in Tg. Mures or to the medieval one in Sighisoara. The rock festival lost, mainly because of my ear infection, since the one act we were interested in was on Friday, when I was in no shape to travel. We were no strangers to the second event, since we went there in 2002. That year wasn’t exactly the most glamorous for it though - lots of drunk / high people, plastic beer glasses scattered on the streets and kitschy merchandise everywhere. Fortunately, this year the situation looked a lot better. Lemme show you:
This is the western entrance to the citadel, and you can see me, Julia the apprentice (the girl in the black skirt) and our mutual friend Nora (sporting black trousers) in front of it, in probably the only vanity picture taken there. There was too much beauty to spoil it with some self-promotion, y’all.
The streets were narrow and the houses were placed in the most improbable angles possible. The colours of the houses covered the whole spectrum.
There was a clocktower:
A church in the middle of the citadel:
And one up the hill
to which you had to climb a huge amount of stairs
but it was worth it, because there was a preclassical concerto inside, and some gorgeous mural paintings and altars.
There was also the house in which Dracula’s dad (actually, the chieftain which inspired that particular vampire) lived for a while:
This allowed the merchants to put mr D. on everything, from mugs to T-shirts to paintings to diplomas certifying that you got to this place unbitten.
The rest of the pics, completed with explanations (yes, Raluca, you’ll find out what were those Indians doing there) - tomorrow .
In the church up the hill, and up alllllll those stairs, there is a great graveyard where most of the markers are identified with numbers. Next time you’re in the ‘city of Dracula’ be sure to leave a coin on grave 666 to appease the evil spirits like I once did.
Love the pictures. Thanks for sharing.
I’ll tune in for the rest of the story. I like how you build the suspense
My mind is boggled - truly boggled! How can so many beautiful things/people be in one planet? Honestly, I just can’t wrap my mind around it!! (talking about both picture-posts, here)
Romerican - so they put the sign with “Whoever you are, remember that this is a cemetery” for a reason, hmm?
Raluca - you got it
Mrs.S - Transilvania is full of towns with their medieval parts preserved (just ask Romerican, he lives in one of them). Since I’m nuts about old cities,I wouldn’t want to move out of here for the world (well maybe in case of a war, but I’ll bite my tongue)
As for the beautiful girls - foreigners come here to marry for a reason, heh .