Sibiu was our first real stop on our Transylvanian roadtrip and it was everything it was cracked up to be! And by that I mean it was just like all of the travel vlogs I watched on YouTube, lol.

Here is a map of Day 1, which shows us flying into Bucharest, staying at the Scala Boutique and then embarking by car to Sibiu. I wish the map was more detailed so you could see the crazy roads that lead us there!

And here are some quick facts about Sibiu:

• pronounced Si-BOO;
• it’s known for its Germanic architecture and most notably, the vents in the roofs look like eyeballs. I LOVED THIS, OBVI;
• it was built by the Saxons in the 12th century so it is super elderly as far as cities go.

I was really stoked to see this place with my own roof-top eyeballs!

Literally the first thing we did after finding a parking spot was go to our very first Luca! I fucked up and ordered something with ham & cheese and realized it before it was even in my hand, so I hurriedly added a pretzel-y thing to the order. I barely even got to taste it though because immediately after this, our guest house host came to get us! We were staying right across from Luca so that was how I found my way back each time, lol.

Dude, you know I’m framing this! Luca is extremely popular in Romania. They are honestly everywhere, sometimes even two on the same block. There are other similar places too – walk-up bakeries/cafes all over the place, you could never go hungry. Snacks abound, and extremely cheap! I think this pretzel thing was like $1 USD.

It was drizzly when we arrived but we had umbrellas and there was no way a little rain was going to hold us back after being in a million airports, planes, and a car for 4 hours that day. If I had to recap our stay in Sibiu, it would be that we literally just strolled about with no major plans, just taking it all in. Our first taste of Romania! I kept saying, “WE ARE IN ROMANIA” to which Henry would say, “Yes, I know.” But at least he wasn’t using his annoying dad tone. I could actually tell that he was excited to be here too and even though we were incredibly exhausted and jet-lagged, we had a really great first day. (If you ignore the fact that I changed out of a skirt into jeans in the parked car because it was raining and at least 15 degrees colder than it was when we left sunny Bucharest, and in doing so, I tweaked my back GOOD. So I spent the whole first day saying things like, “Oh look at that building—OW MY BACK.”)

(Oh, don’t worry – there would be other afflictions as the trip progressed, lol.)

Dude, Romanians LOVE gelato. There were at least 5 different gelato stands in the plaza outside of our guest house. It was insane.

Dude. 👀👀👀👀👀👀

Piata Mare (Big Square) is home to restaurants and the Roman Catholic Parish Church.

We would eat dinner at one of these places later that evening!

We paid a small fee to go to the top of the Council Tower after getting scammed by a man selling magnets for 5 LEI more than another souvenir in another square, which made Henry lecture me about my kneejerk purchases. Can it, Hank.

The lady in the admission booth was on the phone and  I felt like we were interrupting something important, being pesty tourists. Turns out, this would just be the general feeling as we went through the country, lol!

There were rooms along the tower with local artisan wares for sale.

At the top of the tower, there was one other couple but they left soon after we barged in like big clunky Americunts. It was really nice having this space all to ourselves knowing how crowded Sibiu gets during the spring and summer season.

When a city is this (Si)biutiful, not even some raindrops can detract from that. I could have looked out of these windows all damn day.

I don’t want shampoo I used in the hotel in Bucharest but shooooo, did it give me a great hair day! Actually, every day was a great hair day in Romania. I don’t know what was going on over there.

Trying to get the views in the background!

Aerial view of the treacherous steps. Not as scary as the ones in Tallinn, Estonia though!

The Bridge of Lies! Per Wiki because I am lazy:

The Bridge of Lies has many legends surrounding it because of its name. The most popular one has it that the bridge will collapse when someone tells a lie while standing on it.^[1] Another legend says that the bridge was often crossed by merchants who were trying to fool their clients. The ones who were caught were tossed off the bridge. According to another legend, the bridge was a meeting place for boys attending the military academy and their girlfriends. The boys wouldn’t show up, leaving their girlfriends to wait until realizing they have been lied to. One legend also has it that the bridge was often crossed by young lovers who swore each other eternal love. The girls swore that they were virgins, which often turned out to be a lie after the couples got married. As a punishment, they were thrown off the bridge, since it was the place where they had lied to their lovers.^[2] Another legend about the bridge talks about how there may have been a large lake underneath the bridge, in which freshwater mermaids lived. They would lie to their merman husbands to meet their mortal lovers on the bridge above. Then, they would jump off into the lake when finished.

Despite all the legends, its name has a different origin. The bridge was initially called Liegenbrücke, German for lying bridge (lying as in “to lie down”), which sounds very similar to Lügenbrücke, meaning “bridge of lies”. The legends have helped the latter spread among the city’s people, which is how the bridge came to get its current name.

Can I just quickly say that I bought that Vans crossbody mini-bag because it was the perfect size for my vacation journal? That bitchin’ book came with me e v e r y w h e r e, much to Henry’s chagrin. I wrote the ink out of approx. 4 pens in a week, I wish I was exaggerating. Every time we sat down, I was hunched over it, scribbling away. I didn’t want to forget a thing, especially since I knew I wouldn’t be blogging much while there. I am a freak for documenting my life, so sorry if that annoys you. (HENRY.)

Hermannstadt is the German name of Sibiu.

Here, enjoy some more pictures:

I loved the color of this building.

If you ignored the gaggle of cars parked haphazardly all over town, you really did feel like you had stepped back into another time. Obsessed.

This is getting too long so I’ll stop here and come back to tell you about our first taste of traditional food and experiencing a Saturday night mass at one of the churches, by chance. I told Henry it was my favorite part of our time in Sibiu and he mumbled, “It wasn’t mine.” Wow, heathen.

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