I typed most of this travelogue on my phone, while sitting in some restaurant or travelling in the train

Initially, while I was planning my trip, I used to call it only Sibiu. But after seeing "Sibiu - Cultural Capital of Europe" pasted on every nook and corner of the city, I have also started calling it by that name! They got that award in 2007, but i guess they will keep pasting it on their walls for the next 3000 years! Sigh!

Sibiu - Cultural Capital of Europe

Strange things happen to me everywhere, and this place wasnt an exception. My train reached Sibiu around noon and I hired a cab to the hotel. Luckily, this cab driver knew english well. Just to start some small talk, he asked me “You look like a tourist, so where are you from?”. I replied India. His straight next question was “Are you a Musalman?” You got to be knowing India, or Hindi to say “Musalmaan”, right? Because it is a hindi word!! I said “Nopes, Hindu”. And suddenly, he slammed the brakes!! Took reverse on the main road and turned into a very narrow alley!

You know, sometimes you get this strange feeling in your stomach, like you are gonna die at that very moment? I had few seconds of that feeling! But strangely, we reached the hotel within next 20 seconds! Before dropping me off, he said “I believe in lord Buddha! My life completely changed since i started following him!!” Then he went on blah blah that he couldn’t cheat a brother who follows the same God, hence brought me from the short cut! Icing on the cake - He didn’t even take cab fare from me!! Firangi’s are weird I tell you! :D :D

I took the top floor in the hotel, as its balcony was shaped like a hut! :D But, i never knew, the shape of the hut roof is also the shape of the ceiling of the room! Slanted! It was weird when i entered but after 15 minutes, it seemed normal. I am so short i tell you, i cant even touch the slanted ceiling! :(

My hotel room

After taking a short 7 minute power nap, i mustered the courage to go out and walk in the snow! In just 10 minutes walk, i reached this place - Piatza Mare (Large square). Hey, this place too had a christmas village! And certainly much better than that of Timisoara! It played this car crashing game like we used to have in appu ghar!! It was fun to bang some blondes! :D You know what i mean! :P

Car banging game

I also tried my hand foot at ice skating! Sadly, i was thrown out within the first three minutes, as i fell like 5 times in that time! :( :( Ouch! My back still hurts!

During my trip, I tried so many different types of romanian food, i dont even remember the names! None of them was vegetarian though! :D And yeah, the hot and spicy wine tastes super awesome when the temperature is in negatives!

Post that i went to their History Museum. As with all the museums, it was borring! 200Rs wasted! Phew

I walked back to the hotel, thinking it must have been like 1 am seeing the darkness in the sky! I was wrong yet again! It was just around 8 pm. It gets dark here at 5pm in winters! Anyways, i had a lot of time, so took a long shower using free shampoo and conditioner provided by the hotel :D And i so so so want to buy this fluffy white towel which every hotel has!! :((

At around 9.30 pm, I went out to the hotel restaurant for dinner. There was a marriage party going on in the adjoining hall. Since the romanian people eat their dinner between 7-8.30 pm, i was pretty much all by my own in the dinner area! Now go back up and read the line where i say, strange things always happen to me! Suddenly, an old unclejee from the party saw me eating (and also doing sitting dance on Romanian songs :P )! He came over and invited me to show off the Romanian wedding! Duh! Never, ever in your life, try to show off the grandness of a wedding to a Punjabi! Trust me, our coctail parties are grander than the weddings here! :D

Anyhow, i went to the wedding for about an hour. Had some free whiskey, ate some free dessert (It was awesome!) And danced their Penguin dance! Its very very funny dance! You hop like a penguin!! Got tired, came back and crashed on the bed to sleep!

Went out once more, visited some Fortified towers! Seriously man, had it been 17th century, i would have shitted in my pants seeing the level of fortification here! You cant enter this whole town from anywhere, without snipers, hiding in the high walls of the gates and clock towers, arrowing you down! (Remember, there were no guns at that time!)

I also visited some churches! All these churches are being refurbished and their ceilings reconstructed! So you can imagine - No Photography - written in big bold letters outside each of them! Bahar se to ekdum chikne lag rahe the, but it seems, they dont want anyone to publish in inner ruins in the newspapers!

25 feet tall Christmas tree

Went out to that Christmas village one more time, bought some high tech gloves! You know the half-gloves, which only cover half of your fingers? Now on those gloves, add a Mitten (with which you hold dishes out of microvave) like finger cover! Now that mitton cover is removeable! So you can use it as a half-glove when you are inside the home or office and are typing, and you can put in the mitten like cap on the fingers while going out!! This place is full of geniuses i tell you! I bought the whole stock of the seller!! (Roughly 4-5 pairs!)

Then started the biggest snow storm i ever saw!! Within an hour, there was close to a foot of snow outside! I spent the hour watching whole town from a telescope, while sitting on one of the forified towers!

Snow blizzard

I ran back to the hotel, to my hot shower, as soon as the snow slowed down! Spent the rest of the day watching some stupid hindi serial - Bidaai - on Romanian National TV (as it was crazily snowing outside!) Dude, the lead chick in that serial does a bit over on the make-up side!! Secondly, why were they airing such a lame Hindi serial on Romanian National TV??

Got up, packed my bags, and went to catch the train! This cab driver didn’t speak english, so i had to pay cab fare this time! Sigh! :(