Coincidentally, my Cluj host Lucia was headed to Târgu Mureş the same day I was, so we took the bus together. We sadly parted ways when the bus dropped us off, and my new host Danny picked me up. Danny’s a software engineer who’s lived in Târgu Mureş all his life, with brief stints traveling and interning in the United States. He lived in a bloc close to the river, and gave me my own key, so I could wander around the city freely.
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| The P.O. boxes in Danny's bloc |
That night though, before he took me back to his place, he dropped me off at a coffee shop so he could help his Dad with his bicycle. I didn’t mind, and ordered an espresso at the cafe. The espresso was 6 lei (about $1.50) and so when the guy came with the receipt I gave him 10 lei...and then he didn’t come back! Was it because I was a foreigner? It was strange. So I went up to the counter and was like, “Can I have my change?” and he was like “Oh, yeah, sure. Here you go.” I didn’t know if that was a normal thing or what, but I asked Danny later and he said definitely not normal. So I’d experienced one of the small downsides of being a foreigner- the potential to get ripped off.
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| Tg Mures |
The next day, I hit up all the main spots in Târgu Mureş before heading back early- I was getting a cold and didn’t want to exacerbate it. That plan went out the window though when Dan, a guy I met on Couchsurfing, said he was free for dinner and offered to take me to a traditional restaurant, which I immediately accepted. Any time I post a public trip on CS, an email gets sent out to people in the area, so even if they can’t host they are able to meet people.
Dan’s a student at the medical school in Târgu Mureş, and was a lot of fun to talk to. He suggested I order goulash for dinner, with a side of bread. While goulash is a typical Hungarian dish, there is a large Hungarian population in Northern Romania, especially in Târgu Mureş. Dan showed me the proper way to eat goulash, which is to tear the bread and put it in the soup, then take a big spoonful of a little bit of everything- potatoes, meat, carrots, bread, etc. It was delicious. Dan ordered mamaliga with chicken in a cream sauce, which he told me he can cook at home. Definitely hitting him up for that recipe whenever I am settled down with a kitchen!
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| Ominous med school |
After dinner, Dan showed me around the University campus, including the medical school, a particularly imposing yet rather cool building, especially at night. After that, we wandered around a swimming pool park that for some reason is accessible after dark. There are a lot of swimming pools, playgrounds, and places to hang out. I bet the place is packed during the summer. There’s a part of the park that has a pool with boats for rent. There’s also a giant pirate ship on this pool/lake thing. I don’t know what it was initially used for, but now it’s for sale and vacant. We climbed on it, trying to avoid the floorboards that had been sunken in, and the massive spiderwebs. I felt like such a kid. It was one of the silliest and most random things I’ve done on this trip, and I love how it’s possible to do stuff like that with people you’ve just met.
The next morning, Danny drove me to the bus station, and I headed down to Sighișoara, a town with a medieval citadel on a hill. It was very picturesque. I have to admit it was nice to find myself among mostly tourists again. Sometimes you want to be with others who don’t fit in as well. I meandered around the town for a few hours, wandered through a graveyard, and then headed to the train station. I left my backpack at the luggage office, which is most convenient when you’re looking to only spend a day somewhere.
I was about 15 minutes early for the train, and was waiting on the platform with a couple of other travelers, including a man who looked to be in his late forties or early fifties, wearing a backpack slightly smaller than mine, and thumbing through a Romanian guide book. He had on a North Face jacket, which I took as a sign he might be American. I waited until I saw the cover of the book, to see what language it was in, before I struck up a conversation with him. It turns out he’s English, and traveling for work- Tim’s the co-author of the Rough Guide to Romania, and has been going around and updating the guide book. I’ve never thought about the fact that that’s how guidebooks are made and updated. It was really interesting to chat with him about it.
I was telling Tim about my trip, and how I plan to travel for a little while, then hunker down and work/volunteer for a bit before traveling again. Tim mentioned he had a friend in Romanian who’s looking for a house sitter this winter. He gave me his email address to contact him, just in case I was interested. It was kind of a crazy happenstance, and shows you never know what will happen after you strike up a conversation with someone.
That evening, I arrived in Sibiu, where I was hosted by Nikhil, a oral surgery resident, for two days. I got to his apartment around dinner time, and seeing as neither of us had eaten dinner, I offered to cook. Nikhil didn't have a lot in his fridge, but he did have cheese, eggs, butter, and bread. I whipped up grilled cheese "toad in a hole"s, when after you make the grilled cheese you cut a hole in the sandwich and fry an egg in the middle. It seemed like a great success:
The next day I headed off to the old town without much of an agenda. By this point I realized I was getting tired of wandering around alone looking for things to see. You can only visit so many city centers before they start to run together, and while I've enjoyed traveling solo, sometimes I can't motivate myself to go the extra mile when looking for things to do. Fortunately, Sibiu boasts an open-air folk museum outside of the city, which sounded like a worthwhile adventure. I hit up the tourist center for more information, and then aimlessly wandered for a while before finding an Indian fusion restaurant I had read about on Trip Advisor (I did my homework! yay!). After a warming meal of chicken curry and chapati, I hopped on the bus headed to the museum. Thanks to a generous student discount, I purchased a ticket for 75 cents- that U-Card still comes in handy, guys. Don't lose it.
I spent a couple of hours wandering through the park. It was fairly empty, and very tranquil. I snapped a lot of photos of the historical buildings that had been moved from their location in rural Romania to this museum. The park was quite large, and had examples of rural life in all aspects. My favorite part was the large windmills situated in the center of the park. They were pretty cool. After the folk museum, I headed back to Nikhil's to chill. The next afternoon, I headed to the train station. After an hour's delay, I jumped on the train to my next destination: Brașov!
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