Day 2 Touring Romania

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Here is today's tour description: Day 2: Bucharest - Curtea de Arges - Sibiu We have breakfast and depart to Sibiu. On the way we visit Monastery of Curtea de Arges and continue with a visit to Cozia Monastery. We continue our tour with Sibiu, the city which was chosen as The European Capital of Culture in 2007 along with the city of Luxembourg. Visit the medieval old town and overnight in a central located 4* hotel.

It was raining when we woke up and mercifully cooler. We had breakfast, checked out of the Europa Royale for now and loaded the small VW van Vlad calls Snow White because it is white and seats 7. We were on our way North by around 9 am. About 2 hours out at Bascov we had a potty break and Vlad needed a smoke. The rain had completely cleared. Although we'd cross the Carpathians mountain range the day would just get hotter.  At 11:30 am we reached a series of roadside stands alongside the Trans-Europe Motorway. Vlad told us this was the birthplace of Romania's mici, or charcoal grilled skinless sausage. We stopped for brunch. It was a busy place. They were good.

In the early afternoon, we stopped for a guided tour of Cozia Monastery. Our tour description says 2 monasteries but we skipped Curta de Arges without comment. We continued on our route following the scenic Olt River valley.

We drove on North and out of the mountains and into Transylvania. We arrived at the Continental Forum Hotel in Sibiu at about 2:45 pm. Vlad got us checked in and left us to settle in and regroup at 3:30 pm to begin a walking tour of the old town of Sibiu. We walked around as he pointed out architecture and history for 2 hours before we begged off any more. He showed us the place he thought would be best for dinner and offered an alternative but we stayed at Crama Sibiul Vechi. It was perfect for us in an old wine cellar, so quiet, cool and no smoking since it was indoors. Clay had some really good sarmale, or Romanian cabbage rolls. I was nearly ill with exhaustion and overheating and didn't really want to eat and everything with meat sounded overwhelming. I ordered mamaliga cu branza si smantana, which was polenta with sour cow's cheese and sour cream. It was awful. Neither of us liked the really sour tasting melted cheese. I scraped it off and ate about half the polenta and sour cream. With beer and a rare find for us Coke Zero in a restaurant, we paid 75 lei or about $17.50. On the walk back to the hotel, Clay had pistachio gelato and I had a chocolate Langos.

Vlad will pick us up at 9 am after breakfast at the hotel. He says we may not reach tomorrow's hotel until after 7 pm! I hope he doesn't think we'll go on another city walking tour then! It seems that even private and easy paced tours are still too strenuous for us now!

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