Plepe's Blog

I decided to spend one night and one day in Sighişoara (German: Schässburg), which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (I think I should start to compile a list of World Heritage Sites that I’ve already seen). It’s a little town with 30.000 inhabitants, topped with a citadel (a kind of inhabited castle). The citadel was built in the 12th centry by German settlers, and still looks like a medieval place.

The citadel from the next hill

On the central square in the citadel

The main entrance: An impressive clock tower

On the way to Sibiu I had to change trains in Mediaş (German: Mediasch). I didn’t know what I can expect of this city, as it was not covered by my guide book, but I decided to make a little break. My worst fear was, that it’s a city, built during communist times, only with grey block buildings. I was wrong, it’s another old city, built by German settlers, with a fortified church in the centre (more about fortified churches in my tale about Sibiu).

The fortified church

Street with old buildings

The train station in Mediaş

Sorry for my short description, next – about Sibiu – will be longer. Promise. Enjoy your time!

I think it was a good idea to leave Bucharest after two days, first I thought about staying three days. As I already wrote, my next destination was Braşov. It’s a city with about 280.000 inhabitants, in the central part of Romania, called Transylvania. Transylvania was settled by German colonists (the Transylvanian Saxons) in medieval times, Braşov was one of their settlements. Transylvania is called „Siebenbürgen“ in German, Braşov „Kronstadt“. The German population was very strong until the Second World War, you still can see many inscriptions in German language.
When I arrived in Braşov it was still raining and cold, therefore I just had a short walk around the city centre and searched for a coffee-shop where I can get dry and do stuff on the internet (Free Wireless Lan rules). I had to wait several hours until I could go to my CouchSurfers. The next morning it was very foggy, but in the afternoon the sun came out.
Braşov has a beautiful city centre, consisting of old houses. It reminds me on my hometown, Graz. It’s still surrounded by the original fortification walls on several places and some defense towers. On three sides the city centre is separated by hills from the outlying districts – which are not worth to see anyway as they were built in communist times and consist of block buildings.
One of the most impressive sights was the Black Church (built in 14th-15th century), the biggest Gothic church in Romania. It’s a protestant church, therefore everything is written in German language, even the new works of the children.

The central place with Casa Sfatului and the Black Church in background	Street Republica, the central pedestrian zone	Little houses on one of the hills
The main square and one of the hills (with the Black Tower)	View from the White Tower on the city centre	View from the opposite hill on the city centre. You can clearly see Case Sfatului, the Black Church and the White Tower.

Before leaving to Sighişoara I went to see the Bran Castle – said to be one of the most famous castles in Romania. In my guide book it says that it’s „a bit of an anti-climax inside, elbowing your way through tourist groups“. I think it was a good idea to go there in January, it was really calm and I just met a bunch of other people (and a lot of cleaning personnel). It’s definitely worth the 1,50 EUR entrance fee for students (it wouldn’t be worth 10 EUR), it’s totally rambled, you can dream about hidden rooms and staircases. Outside there’s a village museum, displaying old farm houses of the surrounding area. Sadly you can’t see them from inside.

Bran Castle

This is what I call rambled

One of the houses on display in the village museum

As I said, next is Sighişoara, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and then Sibiu (Hermannstadt) one of the two Cultural Capitals of Europe in 2007. I hope you liked my text and my pictures.

I used to end of my visa to Turkey for a second visit to Istanbul, together with two friends, Marie and Ewa. I was a little bit concerned before, if I really want to go again, at least it’s a long travel and I’ve already seen a lot. But it’s really a city worth to see (again). The streets are full of life, there are so many interesting views. What surprised me again and again, that people selling things on the street are artists. They all have their own way of advertising their things by shouting, but also arranging their things in a special way. And usually they don’t insist too much (But now I can’t hear „Excuse me, can I ask you a question?“, „Where are you from?“ any more). But they are all men …

This time we didn’t have so much stress to see all the sightseeing spots, we spent most of the time walking around and feeling the city … and shopping.

Fishermen, early in the morning	Sideroad of Istiklal Street with restaurants and bars	A bazaar in a side street, where they only sell tools
Taksim Square at night	Illuminated road – it feels untrue, every building looks the same	Playground for adults

If you go to Istanbul, you should definitly go to the Galata Tower, the view from their is fascinating. And with an entrance fee of 10 Lira (5 Euros) it’s comparable cheap.

Galata Tower in morning sunshine

View on the Bosporus

View on the historical part of Istanbul (Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar, …)

One morning, when my friends went to Aya Sofia which I’ve already seen before, I spent in the area around Taksim Square and Istiklal Street, the most European part of Istanbul (you can also see a lot of women there), taking pictures of city landscapes.

Street to the Golden Horn, next to Galata Tower

The oldtimer tramway on Istiklal Street

Here it’s getting less European

Our hostel (Chillout Cengo) was also located in the area. Very colorful and nice place, and very cheap. I can really recommend it. One evening we went to a pub after we heard good live music from the window – „The Beatles“ (the name of the pub, not of the band, although I would really have enjoyed to see the Beatles – but I think, I’m too young for this). The surprising thing: They didn’t serve alcohol there, everybody was drinking tea. And smoking.

An old laptop as free internet workstation

A swing as meeting point

View through the hostel

The day before we went to Istanbul I spent in Veliko Tarnovo again. I already told some things about this place in early November. It’s a wonderful place situated in a meander of the river Yantra. And it’s surprisingly difficult to take pictures there, you need the full view and the impression of distances.

After Istanbul I joined Marie for a day to Svishtov, a small town in the North of Bulgaria, located at the Danube river (which we couldn’t see because of heavy fog). Our bus back from Istanbul went to Veliko Tarnovo, where we arrived around 5am. It was „fucking“ cold, and we walked to another bus station for the bus to Svishtov (we could have taken a taxi, but then we would have waited at the other bus station for an hour, which would have been even worse). What to say about Svishtov? It has a university and therefore a lot of students, which brings life to the city. It’s at the Danube and has a port and some industry. There’s a high school which is said to be a copy of the University of Vienna (at least not the main building, but for sure it looks ‚Austrian‘).

The town hall of Svishtov

The highschool which looks „Austrian“

Church of the Holy Trinity. And an old Austrian bus ;)

You can see more pictures of this journey on my photopages.

After these days I decided to stay some days in Sofia. There’s some work to do at university (exams and home work) and some social things (Erasmus party, concert of one flat-mate, …). Hope you liked my views from Istanbul and the Bulgarian towns.