The word is a very exciting place

I hadn't planned on visiting Sibiu, but I decided to break the journey up between Timisoara and Brasov, and so found Sibiu on route. Its a charming little place, with a pretty little central square with a cathedral, and plenty of medieval buildings and walls dotted around. Yes, it was a torrential rainstorm when I took this picture while I was hiding under someone's balcony!                                                             This car was so cool! The main attraction for me was the Astra National Museum. Its another open air ethnographic living museum (Try saying that all in one breath!). I love places like this, just seeing how life was before modern life took over. It was also a day that I learned what wet paint - do not touch in Romanian was. Guess which one I leant against?               ...

Timisoara is a charming city in the west of Romania. Its a well connected transport hub with both Romania and the rest of Europe. Several people I spoke to in hostels around Romania had recommended it to me, so I figured it would be worth a visit. While there's not masses of things that I wanted to do there, it was nice just to wander the streets without rushing or hurrying about. The main thing to see is the Revolution memorial museum. Its a really interesting museum all about the fall of communism in Romania, as well as the removal of Ceausescu and his wife. It also had some interesting artwork there, and the guide that showed me around, Adena, was simply brilliant. Not only did she explain the exhibits, but she also took the time to give me a personal insight of what it was like living in Romania in the 80's. Make sure you find this painting too, it has a wonderful story behind it! And also, apologies, I cant remember where it was, but there is an alleyway coming off the mai...

Salina Turda, despite the awful sounding name is actually one of the most magical yet strangest places I have ever visited. Its an easy day trip from Cluj-Napoca, and it will literally take your breath away, literally and figuratively.  It's a deep salt mine, over a hundred years old, and still features some of the old wooden mining kit. Some areas are polished, and it almost looks like glass, other places the salt deposits look like freshly lain snow. And then, things get even more random. Inside the main cavern is a mini Blackpool pleasure beach, with a Ferris wheel, rowing boats and even mini golf, the place is teeming with people, but you don't really notice them, you just sort of see through them at the walls of the salt cavern. In fact, its hard to describe exactly, the feeling is incredible. As you descend down the stairs, a feeling of...I'm not entirely sure what the feeling was, but it was incredible. One of the places to visit before you die. I repeat, if you ever...

Hello and welcome to part 2 of Cluj Napoca. This post is all about the Transylvania Ethnographic museum. As you are all probably aware by now, I love a good outdoor ethnographic museum. I'm not entirely sure why, but I try to visit every single one that I can. Part of me loves to see how people lived years ago, and another part of me wonders if in a hundred years time, we will be adding houses and our current lifestyle into these museums, and we will be looking back and wondering on earth how we coped being so primitive with our reliance on electricity and WI-FI. But I guess that's got a little way to go just yet! The museum is on the outskirts of Cluj, away from the city centre. It was a beautiful day, so I walked from the Train station (Gara) to it, grabbing something to eat from a bakery on the way. I'm not sure why, but eastern Europe, and to some degree parts of western Europe, have a bakery on every street. An its brilliant. You can try all these different types of br...

Cluj-Napoca (often just called Cluj) is a wonderful place, nestled in the Transylvanian countryside, full of wonders. The city centre has a beautiful cathedral, St Michaels. Its an interesting mix of Gothic architectures, and the centre around it has many little nooks and cranny's to explore. The city centre as a whole has many interesting monuments as well to see.  Also worth a visit, is the Assumption Cathedral. Its more of an orthodox style cathedral, not too dissimilar from the ones I saw in Ukraine. Just behind it, is a small park with a water fountain. There's a little touristy market there, and also the theatre and Opera house. And just behind that is a concrete construction that is beginning to take shape as another cathedral. Just how many do people need? In the city centre, there is also the tailors tower, which had an exhibition of artwork from the local children. And its worth wandering around too, I found a little sort of ethnographic/histor...