Land of the fortified churches
In contrast to the negative weather outlook, it was one of the nicest mornings I had yet experienced and I was in no hurry to get ready. I slept well, had some breakfast and enjoyed the view of the snow-capped Fagaras Mountains. It must have been well after nine that I started biking.
I soon met yet another biker from the UK, he was 66 years old and had traveled to many places in the world, including the Himalayas in Pakistan...and he had the Fagaras ascent in front of him, I did not envy him.
I chose some really minor roads, first hitting a fortified church in Carta, where the priest was of German and his wife of Hungarian origin. They just gave me the large keys to the church, told me not to break anything inside. I must have been tired from the day before: when I finished visiting the church, I could not find those large keys, I searched for them all over the place; secretly thinking I was on candid camera. When I found it, I fiddled around with the lockpad, returned the keys, when I realized I had locked in my helmet. Oh, by the way, the church is really beautiful.
Outside a little cute dog started playing with me and I gave him some bread (and had some myself), when an elderly woman reprimanded me saying I should have fed the children instead. Yes, there is also poverty in Romania, next to the beautiful nature.
Somewhat in a dampened mood, I went through some amazing countryside, still seeing the peaks I had crossed the day before behind me, meeting a fox, seeing all sorts of birds of prey hovering above - it was nature pure. The excellent road ended and a large part of my journey to Agnita was on an unpaved surface, I struggled quite a bit, especially as it was getting rather warm.
After taking a rest there, I went towards Barghis, when I met Sebastian, a guy from Denmark, who was walking (yes, just on foot) from Cluj to Brassau. His story coincided with mine, saying how friendly the Romanians were. Just to underline this statement: I went inside a school to get internet connection, the principal let me use her laptop and gave me a number of places to visit. The only issue is that the number of places I could potentially visit in Romania is growing day by day and I am realizing that not even a month would be enough to cover these.
My goal was to reach Biertan, one of the UNESCO sites (the one earlier was in Horezu) and I found a small road, which was under construction and it was the worst part of my trip. It was only 5 kilometers, most of it downwards, but I was completely out of breadth by the time I spotted the impressive fortress of Biertan. Well, it is a place which I hope will be preserved for another 1000 years - it is something not to be missed.
Sighisoara (Segesvar) is another town on the UNESCO list, so it was my next destination - and the final one for the day. I hit a major highway (number 14), which was unpleasant not only due to the trucks, but also as it was being reconstructed. I think it was the most unpleasant portion of my trip, it was warm, getting overcast, dusty - one of the few times I really questioned my preference for sitting on that saddle; which, by the way, broke somewhere on the way. Also broken was a spoke, in addition to my pedals emitting an unpleasant sound. Not the best combination - so I knew a visit to a bike shop was a must.
Finally reaching Sighisoara, I treated myself to a four-star hotel (after some haggling, for some 40 Euros) and I got a suite with a bath tub and an enormous TV (with about 15 Hungarian channels). Even thought the town was Saxon, quite a few Hungarians live there. The town is also the reputed death place of Petofi, a famous poet of the Magyars, who died in the battlefield next to the city in 1848.
Ladies and gentlemen, this town is yet another must-see. I could go into details about the clock tower, the castle district, the churches and the beautiful buildings, but I think I'll just mentioned it reminded me of Krakow, Prag, Innsbruck and Cesky Krumlov at the same time. I did a nice tour of the city, making it to the highest point, with a beautiful view of the surroundings. There a somewhat eccentric Italian sculptor invited me to his house, which expanded multiple floors (even though the levels were small) and they were crammed with artifacts, he was collecting ancient items of all sorts, globes, ships, swords, stuffed birds. I was wondering if I would end up as a stuffed animal as in Dahl's Unexpected Tales, especially as the house was hardly lit and was still under construction. However, I came out alive, at least I think I am.
The place has a real night life, with a number of pubs right next to each other. I allowed myself a nice beer and a bean soup with onions served in a bun, it felt great. A huge thunderstorm hit the town, I let it pass before I returned to my spacious suite and took a relaxing bath and dozed off watching news about the flooding in Hungarian.