Sighisoara

Sighisoara is best known as the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, whom Stoker's Dracula story is based upon. However, the town has more to offer...it is a medieval citadel town built on a sizable hill, complete with an exhibit-filled 500-year old clock tower you can climb and peer out from the balcony.

As for Vlad's birthplace...it's now a restaurant/museum/bar type of place. The building itself looks to have been recently painted a bright yellow color, which seems a bit incongruous. The "museum" inside had a few interesting items, including an old set of armor, but the place as a whole was uninteresting. More interesting was the clock tower, which displays a different wooden figurine next to the clock itself depending on the day of the week. The clock tower historical museum was full of Middle Ages gear, instruments, and artifacts. The surgical display had an ancient drawing/cartoon of a guy with a handsaw going to work on a guy's leg. Not for the weak medieval times.

I would not want to complete this entry without at least a brief mention of the Middle Ages show that was put on in the town square that Saturday I was there. Ok, the show was in Romanian language so I clearly was not following everything that happened. However, the two dominant themes were apparent to anyone: 1) the phrase "Semper Vincit Amor" (which I know enough to know means something to the effect of "Love Conquers All"), which was repeated often throughout the 1.5 hour long show, and 2) the martial aspect of the show, as the whole production consisted of various battle/fighting scenes including: axe tosses, sword fights, wrestling matches, and other martial training. And so I was left wondering about the juxtaposition of those two themes. I won't call it a grand production, but it was entertaining and we all appreciated the effort put forth by the 8 or so cast members.

Sighisoara was a cool little town, but I cannot imagine spending more than a night there while traveling alone, as there simply was not a whole lot to it. Great for a night though.