Adventures in Romania Part 2: Sighisora

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

After an almost sleepless night, I (Hans) woke up in a bad mood.  At 5:30am.  We left early at 6:30 and walked through the town in the cold, dim morning.  We waited 10 minutes for the Maxi-Taxi, a large, long van with about 15 seats.  It took us 15 minutes to get from Codlea to Brasov, where we boarded a bus to the train station.  We purchased our tickets at the Brasov train station and waited to board.  We almost got on the wrong train!  This time, we rode was the "Personal" train, which is the cheapest and dirtiest.  Alina spent a few minutes cleaning off our seat.  We enjoyed a bright, sunny, 3 hour ride looking out at the rural villages, people, and scenery of Romania.

We arrived in the city of Sighisora, which is know for it's ancient citadel.  We walked past a beautiful Romanian Orthodox church and downtown area.  Before our exploration, we ate lunch at a nice park (sandwiches prepared the night before).  The citadel was made in 1191 and is a beautiful place to get a glimpse of the past. We climbed many steps to enjoy the clock tower, restaurants, and other historic monuments.  There was a long sheltered staircase that led to an old church and a Romanian/German cemetery.  Apparently, there had been a lot of German settlers that merged with the Romanian gene pool.  And still continues today ;)   We concluded our time in the citadel with a cappuccino at a Christian coffee shop called, "House on the Rock", and then walked back to the train station.  

As we waited for the train to Brasov, we saw many families of Gypsy men, women, and children.  They traveled with trash bags for holding their belongings and sent their kids around to beg for food or money.  Just watching them made us sad-- to have such a hard life.  We see if for only brief moments in time, but they live with the poverty everyday.  Later I would read a verse in Proverbs, "Whoever oppressed the poor insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him", Proverbs 14:31.  I pray to God that we would honor him with our time here.