Heart of Translyvannia

This is the medieval town of Sighisoara in the heart of Translyvannia. Its a tiny place enclosed in a citadel on the top of a hill. It does have a new town attached to it at the bottom of the hill but that is neither quaint nor historical. The whole village in on the Unesco world heritage list - its that good. Tiny is not a good enough adjective to describe it - minute would be better. It takes all of a good 10 minutes to circle the place but somehow once you enter the city walls it seems to be hours before you re-emerge. That is certainly what happened to me. I ran into so many friends I had made in previous Romanian towns that the day soon passed in a haze of laughter and very good cheap wine. It meant I could spend another day here taking in the many sights! Apart from the clock tower the main reason people flock to Sighisoara is to see the house on the right. It is the birthplace of Vlad Tepes - son of Vlad Dracul - who later was known as Vlad the Impaler and Dracula (which literally means son of Dracul). Vlad Senior was made a member of the order of the Dragon by other members of Eastern European royalty. It was a society whose members fought together to try and stop the Turks from conquering their lands. Vlad Senior minted all his coins and his own seal with the symbol of the Dragon and hence became known as Vlad Dracul (meaning of the Dragon - notof the Devil as some people mistakenly think) Not alot of people know that! Sighisoara is a very rural place and I saw more horse and carts going past than I did cars. Stunnigly picturesque but still very small so it was time to move onto my final stopover in Romania. Cluj-Napoica.
Cluj is very different to the last few places I have visited. It is a university town and has a big city feel to it with its many bars, clubs and restaurant. I have certaintly moved away from the rural Romania. I have been spending the day here chilling out - I should really baking in the heat. Here it is hot. No idea if the heat wave is still in England but its definately in full swing here. Tomorrow morning at an ungodly time (5.15 am) I will be bording a train bound for the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Tomorrow is going to be fun!