It’s crazy looking back on this day because we truly just strolled around almost the whole time. Shopped. Ate. Poked around in alleys and explored little trails. But in my head, it felt like we did so much. For such a small town, I wasn’t bored at all! It was really all about the vibes.

After gorging on pie, we definitely needed to walk more. I had to take a picture of these two buildings for future paint palette inspo.

Hail Vlad, the national hero of Romania.

We were sitting on a nearby bench watching some girl making her IG Husband undertake a full photoshoot of her posing in this spot. I had just wanted a quick picture but they were taking so long that we actually left and came back. This is me “monkey see monkey do”ing, lol.

Henry is sort of getting better at taking pictures.

You guys, seriously. The colors.

In the late afternoon, we made our way back down the hill into the non-Old Town portion of Sighisoara.

It’s not too much more modern down there though!

We stopped at Atelier for a coffee break.

It was very cozy there and I was happy to sit for a while and write in my vacation journal.

Târnava Mare River with the Holy Trinity Church in the background.

We stopped in this bar called Murphy’s Law. I opted out of a beer though because I was holding out for more of the local stuff we had at the cherry pie cafe.

It was a nice vibe in there though!

After that, we walked back up the hill and stopped at our guest house for a bit of a rest before heading out again in search of papanasi. The lights were on now! I can’t express deeply enough how enchanted I was by this place.

Here’s Henry chatting with the hotel concierge guy who made me coffee!

We walked around looking for somewhere to have papanasi. I don’t think either of us were particularly hungry for a full dinner, but we definitely had room for dessert! Since the Vlad Restaurant was closed, we chose this place – Casa cu Cerb – because they also had Trepte beer! I was such a fan of that beer.

I brought this can home with us! It’s slightly dented but that’s OK. It’s on our buffet and I smile every time I look at it. I love that it has the Scholar’s Stairs on it!!

We did end up ordering real food too – I got this vegetable plate which doesn’t sound like much but that was the best zucchini I have ever had in my life. I still think about it! It was the perfect dinner for me.

Henry got some kind of soup.

We were cracking up because the complete opposite happened from the time we ate dinner in Cluj and were the oldest people in there – this time, even HENRY was younger than everyone else. There must have been a group tour there that day and all the elderly people had converged upon this place, but the even funnier part was that it was actually quite late – nearly 9PM – and all these Elders just kept filing in for dinner.

Papanasi! I definitely preferred this version over the boiled one we had in Sibiu but Henry was still a staunch supporter of those boiled balls. I’ll tell you, papanasi is really good but that it is maybe THE ONE THING that I might have overhyped in my head prior to this trip. Because I will tell you with absolute authority and certainty that the sour cherry pie we had earlier that day was far excelsior to papanasi.

Sighisoara was eerily quiet after we left the restaurant. Of course I wanted to take a digestive stroll which was fine by Henry because he wanted to go back down into the main part of town to get some drinks at the store down there.

LOL I had to take this for Chooch. “LOOK WHAT YOUR DAD FOUND.”

Henry was like “MMMMFFFFFFFfffff” when I suggested, “HEY LET’S WALK UP THE SCHOLAR’S STAIRS AT NIGHT!”

There was a man playing guitar at the top so that provided some chill ambiance for us.

It was well after 10PM by this time and Henry was like, “CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK NOW.” Sorry, I’m just always trying to get the most out of these things! WE MIGHT NEVER BE BACK.

I kind of regret not getting food at our actual guest house restaurant because look at how romantic this courtyard dining area is! Although, I would have had to find better company, LOL.

This was the view from our loft window before we went to bed. I am so in love with Sighisoara. :(

P.S. Here’s the video recap of the day! Notes:

• the city in the beginning is Targu Mures, our first taste of “city life” after being in the Maramures
• coming down the Scholar’s Stairs behind the COOL GIRLS after school let out
• you can see the lady hard-massaging her companion at lunch
• also the Instagram couple who were hogging the corner photo spot along the wall in Sighisoara
• it ends with some military transport convoy thing that I didn’t even notice until Henry was totally tweaking out over it. YOU KNOW I TEXTED CHOOCH IMMEDIATELY. According to my texts to Chooch, Henry whispered, “There were rocket launchers on top.” WOW.

Remember how I said I found THE THING in the gift shop inside Casa Vlad Dracul? I finally went back later that day to buy it. The lady at the gift shop assured me that this, along with the wooden crucifix I also bought, were made in Romania.

“100%!” she added for good measure, and you know, I believed her. She was very mysterious and cool.

I always like to make sure I’m getting actual wares made by local artisans, and in a Taiwan factory. No offense to the Taiwan factories! But I want real Romanian shit that could potentially be crafted from wood from a haunted Transylvanian forest.

Anyway, Henry was very *deep sigh* when I saw the wall of masks and did that thing I do where I stop dramatically and clutch my chest. When you know, you know. And I knew. One of those masks was coming home with me.

After a few minutes of deliberation, this is the one I chose and never looked back! I can’t remember how much it cost but that and the cross were well under $100. I texted this picture to Chooch and he said he wanted it! Can you believe I bought something that’s Chooch-approved?? I told him I’ll put it in my Will.

Here it is on my wall now! Getting it home was a pain in the ass, I will admit to that. We carried it through 4 airports and stowed it under the seat in 3 planes in a black bag that looked like a small garbage bag and I kept forgetting about it until I would notice people giving us furtive double-takes. That’s when I noticed that a tuft of its hair was peering out of an opening in the bag, lol.

My first therapy appointment back was telehealth. My therapist asked if there was anything I brought back that I could show her and I was like, “Actually…..*thrusts the mask into the screen*” She visibly recoiled and said, “Oh!” But then she did say it was cool, lol.

And here’s the crucifix! If you’ve been to my house, you might know that my bathroom is religious-themed and this will be going in there soon.

There was another shop selling these beautiful painted spoons and plaques that we saw immediately upon entering the citadel that day. We still had our luggage with us, en route to check in, so Henry was like NOT RIGHT NOW. Thankfully, Sighisoara is small so we walked past it numerous times that day and I finally ran in and bought the above plaque and the two spoons pictured below:

I love my Sighisoara haul!

For lunch, we chose this place right at the bottom of the Scholar’s Stairs called Pensiunea Restaurant Bastion – La Strada. At least I think that’s what it was called! Other things say it’s “Crama Restaurant.” It was part of the Pensiunea Bastion. (I was really excited that Romania calls their guest houses “pensiunea” and Korea calls their “pensions.” FUN FACT FOR NO ONE.)

I ordered an Ursus IPA to start. Ursus is one of the biggest Romanian beers, I would say. The IPA was very refreshing! Usually, I drop off halfway through a full pour, but I finished this one easily.

God only knows what he’s mansplaining here.

Our young waiter seemed perplexed that all I ordered was a cheese plate and two vegetable dips. I’m telling you, not eating meat is a daily challenge and it was especially difficult at times in Romania – thankful for restaurants that post their menu outside the door so we can peruse and move on if needed! But when I saw that this place had a fresh, local cheese plate, the traditional roasted eggplant spread (Salata De Vinete) and roasted red pepper spread (Zacusca), that was all I needed to know! I had been dying to try the eggplant spread because it was referenced in so many travel videos.

This was the perfect lunch for me. Our waiter brought me a basket of bread for the spreads and I was so content.

Henry got the traditional bean ciorba (soup) that comes in a carb top hat. It smelled so good but I know it was loaded with MEATS even though it was billed as a bean soup.

OMG there were several adorable kittens cruising through the patio the whole time we were there – good food and free kitten pats?? Yes.

Also, school kids descending the Scholar’s Stairs in the background!

I thoroughly our view from the table. I loved that the weather was mild enough to eat outside comfortably. It was just and these two ladies at another table. The one lady stood up at one point and was fully massaging the other lady’s shoulders for a solid 15 minutes it seemed like. Like, aggressively rubbing them with the hands of a trained masseuse (or assassin). It was very entertaining to watch and I even have it in the background of a video that I was taking of the kittens so look forward to my Sighisoara video at the end of the final recap, I guess.

After lunch (loved it!), we continued on our stroll through the cobblestone streets where my predilection of walking with my head down came in handy – no tripping on uneven terrain for me! I’m a trained walker.

There were a lot of old people milling about. I assume they were tourists? I do think that people live in the old town but it felt like there were some small tour groups there as well. All I know is that it wasn’t crowded at all and I loved it.

To the right is Casa Vlad Dracul again and in case I didn’t mention this in my last post, it’s the oldest building in town dating back to the mid 1300s.

The Clock Tower was such a true beauty. According to Wiki, “its purpose was to defend the main gate of the citadel back in the medieval times. It also served as the town hall until 1656. It is now considered one of the most important clock towers in the whole of Transylvania.”

Papanasi is the national dessert of Romania! We were considering getting some from this window but held off and waited for the evening. This was the only time I saw a chocolate version though and kind of have belated regertz now that I’m looking at this!

I’m sorry, can you tell I was smitten with the clock tower? Am I annoying you?

There was random art displayed on this wall at the base of my boyfriend the clock tower and I really wanted to know if this clown painting for sale but Henry was like KEEP IT MOVING.

Heading out of the old town.  Yes, Henry wore his Canada hat every day. Do not associate us with Trump, thank you.

LOOK THERE I AM WITH THE CLOCK TOWER.

Dear Sighisoara, I miss you.

To the right you can see the Vlad Restaurant. We were going to go there later that night for papanasi but it was closed!

Sighisoara’s color palette is so pleasing.

Sorry, no marching bands allowed up here.

I watched some travel vloggers eat a cherry pie at this place called Casa Cositorarului and I had to have it. We weren’t purposely looking for it at this moment but when we stumbled upon it, I was like, “I MEAN, THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR PIE, AMIRITE” and Henry was like, “Let’s gooooo” except with way less enthusiasm because it’s Henry and he only runs on one setting. I mean, Romania might have been MAGICAL but it wasn’t performing MIRACLES.

Immediately after walking in, we were met with UTTER CONTEMPT from the guy working there. We walked in and said hi and he was legit like, “OK and???” So, I said, “Can we order pie?” and he was like, “WHAT DO YOU WANT???” while brusquely gesturing toward the dessert case. I chose the sour cheery pie of course and Henry went with a traditional Romanian cake (after deigning to ask the guy what it was) and then I was like, “Can we sit in here?” and he was like, “*gestures toward the dining area*”

We found a table in another room and I started to crack the fuck up. “That guy HATES us!” I wheezed. The best way I can describe him is imagine Michael Ian Black portraying a disgruntled Transylvanian cafe server. This tends to be the general demeanor, though, and you have to just not let it get to you. And a lot of times, the wall breaks down and then suddenly they are nice to you. But you have to coax them to that point!

I did look up some reviews recently and a lot of people were like, “THE SERVER WAS SO RUDE!” which made me laugh hysterically all over again because why did I actually admire his zero tolerance for us?! I referenced him so many times during our trip after that and at 0ne point considered him a “trip highlight.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Henry mumbled.

This place is also a guest house. MAYBE I WILL STAY THERE IF I EVER RETURN.

No. Stop it. WTF EVEN WAS THIS. Like God hired the best angel baker in Heaven to make the most delectable dessert for Jesus’s birthday and this is what they came up with. Fucking Biblical. Literally–they should print the recipe in the back of the Bible. It was like a pie and cake hybrid – instead of a crust filled with the sour cherries like a regular pie, the sour cherries were baked into whatever dough they used so it was like a dense and buttery cake, topped with something akin to streusel and a scoop of toffee ice cream with CRUNCHIES on top just like I love to get on soft serve!

Good Lord, the way I dream of this cake. Dare I say it blew papanasi out of the water? This is the Romanian dessert of my dreams. And prayers. Please someone learn how to bake this for me. Maybe that’s the theme of the next pie party? RECREATE THE FAMOUS SIGHISOARA SOUR CHERRY PIE TO WIN ERIN’S HEART???

Henry got this local beer from 176 Trepte brewery and it was nice! I peeled the label off with a deftness and saved it.

Then Henry had to go to the bathroom and I watched him walk past it so I was yelling, “HENRY HENRY!” but Gramps didn’t hear so he walked all the way back to where Transylvanian Michael Ian Black was glowering behind the counter and ASKED HIM WHERE THE BATHROOM WAS. That guy was probably like, “You stupid American fuck, you walked right past it on your way here to bother me.”

While Henry was in the bathroom, TMIB came into the room to collect our plates. I told him, in my BEST Pollyanna Goes to the Medieval Town intonation, that I LOVED the pie.

He paused and then monotoned. “Thank you. I am happy you like it.” I could tell that pained him. I was so giddy by the time Henry returned and I was like “I TALKED TO HIM!!!”

The bathroom was in the basement, down these very steep and narrow steps! I didn’t even have to pee but I needed to see what it looked like down there LOL.

Yeah, I definitely think I need to come back and stay there.

These are pictures from our walk to the nearby ATM after Henry tried to pay and TMIB was like, “CASH ONLY.”

This VLAD BUST was in the lobby of the hotel down the street where we had to go to use the ATM.

Henry doing the walk of shame back to the place to pay, LOL.

Back in the cafe to pay our debts.  I wish that kitty had sat in the room with us while we were there! Anyway, Henry paid and also tipped the guy which suddenly made his surly facade crack the teeniest bit.

“Thanks for trusting us to come back!” Henry said in this really cringey UPBEAT tone that he adopts from time to time when he is trying to fake a personality. I swear I almost saw TMIB smirk a little. Come on, bro. YOU LIKED US, YOU REALLY LIKED US.

I wish I had bought a whole pie to go.

After we checked into our guest house, I was like LET’S GO, BRUH! I could not WAIT to go full tourist lookie-loo on this place. Just going through these pictures is bringing me so much joy.

Sighisoara is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in case you care about that stuff.

For instance, what you see in front of you here is the actual house that Vlad Tepes lived in as a child! It’s now a gift shop, restaurant, and HAUNTED HOUSE (well, kind of) but that part of it is sadly closed on Tuesdays. As soon as I walked into the gift shop though, I spotted THE THING. You know, that ONE THING that you find on vacation that completely speaks to your soul? The one thing that you were holding out for without even knowing yet what it was, and then convince yourself that it costs $$$$ but YOU WILL SPARE NO EXPENSE?

Yeah, I found that thing here and Henry was all, “NOT RIGHT NOW, I’M CARRYING THAT AROUND. WE’LL COME BACK” and I was like, “Hooooo, you listen, motherfucker – if we come back and it’s GONE*, I will channel Vlad himself and go full vamp on your ass.”

*(OK, there was a wall of THE THING but there was one in particular that had called to me, so apologies Henry if I was frantic about purchasing THIS THING. We’ll talk about that later!)

It’s actually embarrassing how many times I went into this gift shop. The girl running it was exhausted by me after a point, I think.

It was completely uncrowded in Sighisoara when we were there. The hotel guy told Henry that it is super crowded in the summer and I can only imagine. This was also the scene of public executions back in the medieval times. Things were much less barbaric when we were there (well, until it was Henry’s feeding time).

The Clock Tower being a pretty princess in the background. More on that later!

The colors of the buildings, ugh.

The first “tourist” thing we did was walk up the famous Scholar’s Steps. I knew that these were built way back in the day (1642 if you’re a history dork) for the kids to get to the school at the top of the hill.

OMG are we scholars now.

That’s the toy camera I used to take these pictures, by the way!

At the top!

The Scholar’s Stairs is one of the oldest covered wooden steps in the world!

In addition to the church and school, the Sighisoara Saxon Cemetery is also located at the top of the hill. The story is that when the Pied Piper lead the kids out of Germany, he brought them to Romania and they are now buried here, I guess? This is a pretty interesting read.

It was so quiet and tranquil here. A few people were walking around here and there, but it definitely did not feel like a tourist attraction.

When Henry says, “Do something.” My instinct is to pretend my bones have melted. Limp Vogue, I think is what they call it in the ballroom scene.

Romania, you guys.

My feet on Romanian ground!

As we made our way back to the Scholar’s Stairs to find a spot for lunch, an actual school was letting out for the day and we got to walk down the steps with REAL LIFE SIGHISOARAN HIGH SCHOOL KIDS!!! I was so giddy about this, especially when we happened to be behind these three girls who I just KNOW are the popular girls, it was so obvious. I have a short video that I recorded on the way down, which made Henry shake his head in disappointment.

I don’t think I had one bad moment in Sighisoara, if I’m being honest. I might not have even yelled at Henry at all??

OOTD (lol) selfie before leaving the Casa Alba guest house in Beclean on foggy Tuesday morning, which would eventually clear up. Autumn weather in Romania was consistently cycling throughout the days we were there. I have to say, I woke up super giddy because we were traveling to my most-anticipated town on the road trip: Sighisoara (pronounced Sig-e-SHARW-a). This is the historical, medieval birthplace of THE VLAD TEPES, everyone. Vlad the Impaler. VLAD DRACUL. Even aside from that hugely important piece of history, I just felt like this was going to be my place.

But first, we had something like a 2 hour drive ahead of us.

In my vacation journal, I wrote at 10:14am: “Just a reminder that Henry is annoying. Even just going to a gas station with him is frustrating.”

Anyway, this beautiful place is Galatii Bistritei.

We kept seeing these giant bird nests on top of telephone poles and finally learned that they were OSTRICH NESTS! We didn’t see any ostriches though because I think they had already migrated, I don’t know, I’m not exactly known for my ornithology knowledge.

Apparently, we had already left the Maramures before making it to Beclean, so we had already started the day back in Transylvania. Henry was at odds with Google maps and Waze all morning to the point where I was seriously concerned we weren’t going to make it to Sighisoara.

Eventually, we made it out of the rural areas that were fucking with Henry’s GPS and suddenly found ourselves in a city with traffic lights and actual….traffic. It ended up being a city called Targu Mures and they even had a zoo! Henry was calling other drivers assholes and dumbasses but I can only imagine what they were calling him.

These next few pictures are from when we were driving through a commune called Teaca. It’s composed of six villages this was apparently Ville Tecii.

It was hard to take pictures as Henry was impatiently attempting to pass other drivers and generally driving like a crazed American on the lam, but I really wanted to include these here despite the shitty quality because I loved the way the houses looked!

I just loved how we would be driving through these towns/villages and then suddenly, we’re back in the mountains, or we’re back in farmland. I was sad when we were in Targu Mares because I wasn’t ready to be back in fast-paced civilization but then we turned a corner and suddenly we were winding up the side of a mountain again. It was magical.

We did eventually make it to Sighisoara though, around 11:30am, but it took a while to actually DO ANYTHING because Henry was being an absolute foreigner about parking, etc. We were staying in the old town of Sighisoara and you can’t park there, so the hotel concierge had advised Henry to park at the bottom and walk up. We found a parking spot IMMEDIATELY but Henry had to dart around asking people how to pay, etc. He was being so embarrassing as usual. I was like COME ON I WANT TO GOOOOO! Literally felt like a kid being made to wait in the parking lot of Disneyworld, you know? SO CLOSE YET SO FAR BECAUSE DAD IS FUCKING AROUND WITH PARKING RATES.

Finally on our way up! It wasn’t that bad, maybe a 5 minute walk and yes it was uphill, but it wasn’t bad. Plus, a bunch of old women were in front of us making the same trek.

I think you’re allowed to drive up there but there is really nowhere to park, which is the issue. We did see some cars while we were there and I feel like it was people who worked up there. I personally wished there were no cars at all!

Passing through Catherine’s Gate into the city!

Immediately smitten. Sighisoara in the autumn? Vibin’.

First peek at Citadel’s Square, but first we had to go left and find our guest house.

All the little side streets looked like this! I was so happy!

Our guest house for the night! Fun fact, this was the first place we booked when planning our trip. I saw this on Booking.com and was like, “THIS ONE, THIS IS THE ONE.”

Lobby selfie!

The inner courtyard is also a restaurant! It’s an open-air ceiling but they did have a canvas covering over it since it was chilly.

We were following the concierge guy to our room so I was snapping these while walking like a dork.

After passing through the small lobby, there was this little sitting area. This was taken with my back to our room door and facing back out toward the front of the place.

Room 3 for the night!

The room was very small – as soon as you walk in, there was a very small sitting area and a bathroom. Then steps that went up to the bedroom loft, which is what I specifically requested because I thought, “Oh, that’s fun!” And you know what, once I got over the shock of how small it was, it actually was extremely fun staying there and super cozy. I think I had one of the best sleeps there.

Lowkey obsessed, tbh. I booked this room because it seemed to have the best views out of that slanted window, and it not disappoint in real life.

The Bootmakers Tower. 

When I say I leaned out the window and stared at this thing for minutes on end, I’m not lying.

View of the other, modern part of Sighisoara outside of the Citadel.

I walked so tentatively up and down these steps, LOL.

Ugh, Sighisoara. I have so much more to say but wanted to show where we stayed first. I loved it so much. I have a feeling that there were a lot of really incredible places to stay there, but I do not regret my choice. Also, the hotel guy was so friendly (in a droll Romanian way that we had come to expect from the men there, LOL) and accommodating. When I realized later that day, when we had come back  to rest for a bit, that the kettle in our room was only for tea, Henry went out to ask him if there was coffee available and he actually took Henry down into the breakfast room and made a cup speficially for me! He also asked Henry if he wanted to take a shot and Lame Ass Henry said NO?! I was really disappointed in him when he came back to the room and told me that. He could have made friends with that guy!!

This is the last leg of the Maramures adventures and also when things began to unravel – you knew it was bound to happen!

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT GODDAMN ICE-CAPPED MOUNTAIN BACK THERE THOUGH?? I don’t think I have ever snapped so many pictures out of a car window before in my life. But anyway, this was after we left the Barsana Monastery and stupidly said, “Eh, we’ll eat at the next stop!” when we were considering whether or not to get something from the food vendor in the monastery parking lot. Dumb dumb dumb.

The geotag on this picture tells me we were passing through Strimtura. Also, I’d like to note that lots of elderly people bike around in Romania. I was saying that you rarely see this in the States and Henry immediately referenced two old men who bike through our town of Brookline regularly and I was like, “OK HENRY, BUT ASIDE FROM THEM!!!” God.

Calinesti provided some STOP THE CAR! worthy views.

So, in an effort to keep this final Maramures recap short and short (I really want to move on to SIGHISOARA which was my favorite town in Romania!!), after leaving the monastery (maybe by the end of this post I will have learned how to spell MONASTERY on the first try and nope, that one was not it) I had thought we were headed to Budesti but Henry had looked at an incorrect version of the itinerary that Copilot had lovingly helped me craft and he was heading somewhere else which I didn’t know until we reached that somewhere else and discovered that the only road to reach it was blocked off by the electric company and a small huddle of villagers. I don’t know what was going on, but it was clear that the incident was not close to being resolved.

Henry was all, “THERE HAS GOT TO BE ANOTHER ROAD TO GET THERE” and started jabbing at the car’s navigation screen with his angry man stubs. This brought us to a DIRT ROAD that wound up a hill and into farmland and then eventually turned into a DIRT PATH which prompted Henry to scream “WE ARE ON SOMEONE’S PROPERTY I THINK THIS IS A FUCKING HORSE TRAIL” as the car was catapulting us over rocks and divots. I have some video of this – it was cracking me up, but Henry was SCARED. (Not of some farmer coming after us with a shotgun, but that he was going to bust the rental car and be in BIG TROUBLE with the Enterprise guy at the Bucharest airport who fucking haaaaaaaated us.)

It was around this point when I realized, “Hey wait, where are you even trying to get us to?” after I really – finally – looked at the map on the screen.  Henry was trying to get us to Ieud, but I wanted to go to Budesti. I still don’t know exactly at what point the miscommunication started to bake this casserole of chaos, but here we were in the middle of nowhere, Henry frantically trying not to get the car stuck or send us careening over a surprise cliff.

Green = where we started

Blue = where we were lost

Red = where we needed to be

Of course, the only way to get to Budesti from Ieud was to go all the way back to Barsana and down to Budesti. We were running out of daylight and had to check in to our guest house by no later than 8:30 that evening, so it was a frantic drive from here on out (spoiler – everything in Budesti was either closed by the time we got there or we missed some magical entrance, so basically the whole last half of our day was spent in the car, starving because we didn’t pass a single store until much later!).

I will say it wasn’t all a bust though because the scenery in Budesti was chef’s kiss. Not to mention we had another “YOU CAN’T TAKE THIS NORMAL ROAD SO WE ARE REDIRECTING YOU TO SOME RARELY USED MOUNTAIN ROAD” moment which was terrifying because the road was pockmarked with potholes and if ever we were going to break down and get mauled by bears, it would have had to have been on this portion of the drive. Especially since the sun was setting and every roiling shadow I saw on the sides of the road just SCREAMED “big bear silhouette!!! alert!!!” to me.

Honestly though, we might have missed out on whatever crafty local wares were to be had in the village of Budesti, but we got to cleanse our eyeballs with some poppin’ views.

Cernesti brings the vistas.

Driving through a town called Strimbu-Baiut – the sky was immaculate.

After stopping at a convenience store in some tiny town and stocking up on snacks* in lieu of dinner (REMMEBER WHEN I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO EAT DINNER IN BUDESTI LOLOLOL), we made it to the town of Beclean around 8:30 as expected and the owner (?) of the guest house was waiting for us. We were the only guests in the whole place and I felt so awful when I learned later from Henry that she had come out specifically to meet us and check us in. Ugh, hopefully she lives close by and didn’t have to sit there all evening watching the news (which I noticed was talking about Charlie Kirk #vom when we walked past the office to enter the house.

*(I got some delicious pastry that I grudgingly shared with Henry, and cheese curls. Both were good but not SATISFYING.)

After bringing our stuff in, we headed out to two nearby grocery stores (one was the ubiquitous Penny and the other one was a smaller shop that I didn’t write down the name of but did say that Henry majorly embarrassed me at the bakery counter by saying CHEESE? CHEESE? over and over to the confounded lady working back there until I waved him off and just pointed to the one I wanted after determining on my own that it was a fruit something or other and when I ate it in the next morning in the car, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was filled with a delicious raspberry filling) for some more sustenance and things to eat in the morning. I was obsessed with these 7 Days “croissants” that were pretty stale tasting but filled with delicious things like chocolate and various fruits. I preferred the “forest fruit” variety. It was just a cheap and super-convenient breakfast pastry to eat in the car and also something that I would never eat at home, so it was also a treat! I didn’t think they were strictly distinct to Romania only but when I googled, the website has a New Jersey contact address which made me LOL. Maybe I can find them in Wawa next time I’m out that way?? BUT WILL THEY HAVE FOREST FRUIT.

I did also see in my Internet travels that Romania specifically is “obsessed” with them. Someone asked “why” on Reddit and there is a whole thread of Romanians arguing about if they’re good or not lol. It sounds like the general consensus is that it’s a nostalgia thing – grabbing one from a convenience store on the way to school as a kid type shit.

That Candy Can sat in the car, unfinished, for a few days before I finally tossed it. It was like drinking sparkling simple syrup. My teeth were screaming.

It’s amazing how tired simply being in a car for most of the day can make you. I slept real well that night!

I took these pictures the next morning before we left (it was actually kind of creepy being the only guests there, I’m not going to lie):

We sat out here the night before, drinking a beer and I wrote some postcards – MAYBE IT WAS FOR YOU.

This was the beer we drank that night, I had to take this picture the next morning when I realized that GOD FORBID I had forgotten to check it into Untapped.

Here’s a compilation of our Maramures day – the last clip is my favorite, also I purposely recorded for nearly the entirety of Call Me Maybe because it reminded me of MY LOVING SON, CHOOCH.

Our next stop after the Memorial to the Victims of Communism was a 28 minutes drive to a town called Barsana. There is a beautiful wooden church and monastery there that I had to see. I was so nervous that it was going to be closed because we were really racing against the setting sun – there is just never enough time when you’re on vacation!

This will mostly just serve as a photo dump because nothing super memorable happened other than me and Henry admiring the wooden structures.

This was a town called Oncesti, halfway between Sighetu Marmatiel and Barsana.

We made it! It is free to enter, but we did of course stop by the gift shop on the way out for magnets. I mean, obvi.

Most of the buildings here are inaccessible to the general public because this is an active nunnery. I didn’t see any of the nuns while we were there though unless the older lady in the gift shop was one.

I actually felt like we were in Switzerland for a minute!

I love religious art so much.

The inside of the church was so beautiful! There were a handful of other visitors there at the same time and they all seemed to be actively religious people so I was trying to hang back until they were done praying and fearing God, etc.

I kept going on and on about how much I loved the color palette and Henry was like, “Ok. Cool.”

I’m not a religious person but I love going inside churches and cathedrals in other places and then I always feel like, “Wow, maybe I really am religious” until we’re in the car driving away and suddenly I’m back to hailing Satan and puking up green pea soup (FORESHADOWING lol).

Looking back at these pictures, though, I’m filled with this super cozy, sentimental feeling. It was such a beautiful afternoon, barely anyone else was there, and Henry and I were still card-carrying members of the Get Along Gang. Somehow, someway! Maybe it was all the churches we visited, infecting us with Christ-dust, but I really feel like our couple’s road trip through Romania made us like each other more or something, I don’t know, don’t make me say more.

Rimetea, Romania

It’s always a crap shoot with these cameras, but I brought one of my toy cameras – the Diana – to Romania with me because it’s been literally over 15 years since I used her. In fact, there was a roll of film in her that we never even got developed (there was nothing salvageable on it, sadly). These cameras might be cheap AF, but the film really isn’t, especially when there’s no guarantee that the pictures will turn out.

But, when in Romania, right?? I had two rolls and only used up one full one and was pleasantly surprised that every INTENTIONAL shot I took actually came out. Then there were the three fuck ups, but we knew about those so those ones weren’t a shock, lol.

Anyway, here they are! I’m going to get them printed, definitely.

Signature Green Window in Rimetea

Merry Cemetery, Sapanta

Church in the Merry Cemetery

Saxon Cemetery, Sighisoara

OK we didn’t get to the Sighisoara section of the trip recaps yet but I will tell you now that it was my favorite town in Romania. I miss it so much everyday! (And I love saying it out loud: SiggiSHWARA.

I don’t know what all is on the other roll. I guess I’ll have to make Chooch pose for some pictures while he’s home, and maybe take it to Chicago next month to use up the rest of the roll. WITH INTENTION! This shit is expensive, I’m not going to take 8 pictures of myself in the mirror with the flash on like my grandma used to do when she wanted to use up a roll that needed developed, lol.

(Speaking of, I miss Ritz Camera sooo much. I have so many memories of going to the mall between shifts at Olan Mills to drop off my film (2 hour development!), charge a bunch of slutty clothes from Contempo to my corporate American Express that my mom paid, and then maybe go to the movies by myself before having to go back to work! Split shifts, man,)

Our next stop was Sighetu Marmației to visit the Victims of Communism Memorial which is housed in the old Sighet prison. Actually, as we were about to have lunch in Sapanta, we passed a HORDE of school kids who were filing into the Merry Cemetery. We weren’t sure if it was a local school attending mass or what, but there had to have been over 50 kids so we really dodged that bullet.

But then afterward, when we arrived in Sighetu Marmetiei and were looking for the communism museum, the same kids were walking in organized clumps down the sidewalk and we had to laugh because they were clearly on a field trip and beat us to this place.

Rather than attempt to go inside at the same time, we popped into a cafe right across the courtyard to give them some time to disperse into the museum.

I got a cappuccino because I didn’t want to screw myself with another thimble of espresso and cappuccinos are cappuccinos, you know(ccino)? Henry got “some lemon thing” that he can’t remember now. He ordered it after saying he didn’t want anything so as usual he was keeping his streak of making baristas hate him.

By the time we finished our drinks, the school kids were well entrenched in the prison walls so we actually walked through the whole thing alone. It was very informative and intense, and there were many times when I just lost my shit and started ranting about how “THIS IS NOT TOO FAR OFF FROM WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE NOW.” The parallels. You don’t have to be a mega history buff to see that.

This was definitely a very somber afternoon.

This place was EXTENSIVE and thorough. You really need at least 2 hours to fully absorb it all.

Henry: “It was very interesting.”

Mmm. Thanks for the words.

It’s just so crazy to me that while the Romanians were revolting and uprising in 1989, I was rollerskating and probably crying because I didn’t get something dumb that I wanted for Christmas, having no idea that the people there were completely cut off from the rest of the world and living in forced economic squalor. And then not learning about this later in school or even overhearing my parents talking about it – DID ANY ADULT IN MY FAMILY CARE/KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING? I am very protective of Romania now and I am upset about this.

I LIT THAT CANDLE. (And teared up while doing it.)

I’ve been seeing comments on anti-Trump posts sharing “Remember Romania 1989” sentiments and I’m like YES. Let’s start a fucking revolution!

Very heavy. It wasn’t a fun way to spend the afternoon but it was important to remember and learn, especially as an American under the rule of a batshit crazy regime who would love to start throwing educated and outspoken citizens into labor camps and prison, I’m sure. Again, the parallels. Fucking scary.

Random picture of a cemetery that I took from the car window early on Monday morning, 10/13/25. We left our beautiful and quirky guest house in Cluj (farewell to my husband the massage chair, I think I still have bruises on my ankles) super early in the AM. I believe it was around 6AM. We wanted to get an early start because our first stop in the Maramures region was about 4 hours from Cluj.

OH, WTF IS A MARAMURES, you ask? It’s a region in the northern part of Romania (and parts of Western Ukraine) known for its rural majesty and cultural goodness. I know, how has Condè Nast not hired me.

Originally, I only wanted to the Merry Cemetery which was one of the first things I ever discovered about Romanian years ago when I became dead set on visiting one day and googled Romanian cemeteries, as one does when exploring options for a then-imaginary itinerary. But then when planning this trip, I started looking more into the Maramures and decided to add more  to that day’s itinerary rather than immediately driving to the next stop.

Henry and I are in rare agreeance over this – the Maramures was our favorite day in Romania. We ended up being in the car for most of it but it was the best scenery of the whole trip. The mountains!! The rolling fields!! The gas station where I discovered my period was starting and I bought a FOREST FRUIT danish for breakfast!

You don’t care about those details.

The entrance to the Maramures!

Some of the scenery we saw upon entering the Maramures, which is Romania’s “most traditional” county according to some. I believe it!

I loved these…township markers?

In the mountains! I have so much video footage from the car, it’s actually pathetic and annoying. Please look forward to that.

Anyway, I wanted to just focus on the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta for this post. I took so many pictures and I want to share them all. Someone might ask the Internet one day for pictures of the Merry Cemetery and then maybe my blog will come up and they’ll discover their long lost relative was buried there thanks to Oh Honestly Erin.

Yooooo, immediately it’s popping off. The colors!!

We did have to pay to enter. There is a little ticket booth at the entrance and we happily paid the equivalent of $2.29 to enter.

The draw of this cemetery, in addition to the cheerful palette, is that the man who started it wanted to bring some humor into the tombstones so each one has a quirky, sometimes super dark, little epitaph describing either the person’s life or how they met their demise. Obviously, we don’t read Romanian but there are translations online and I encourage you to check them out!

I just could not believe we were here!

I love that you can see the mountains in the background.

I also want to point out that it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy when we were there, but the skies were like, “They lied.” It couldn’t have been a more magical morning! Also, aside from some men working along the periphery, we were the only people there until a group a three people arrived after us and it was crazy how un-touristy this place felt.

Also, in the Maramures, most of the older women actually do dress in traditional attire I love it. And I love the apples on this tombstone.

The first tombstone was handmade by Stan Ioan Pătraș in 1935 and grew into what is now known as one of the Seven Wonders of Romania.

The detail on the exterior of this church though!!

We had this whole joint to ourselves! My eyes were drunk off these colors. It was my style!! Mentally shelving inspo for interior projects YOU NEVER KNOW goldleaf might be in my (Henry’s) future.

I’m trying to write this recap but every time I scroll to the next picture, I have to stop and stare dreamily at it like it’s 1992 and I’m at the ice skating rink lusting over some guy from another school that I took private tennis lessons with but in all honesty I realized he wasn’t even that cute one day when he lifted his hat so it wasn’t covering most of his face  –  wait, what were we talking about.

I asked Henry if he liked the church and he said, “YESITHOUGHTITWASVERYINTERESTING” just like that, like someone gave him a cue card and he was in a hurry to spit it out. But then he followed up with, “I liked the cemetery too, I thought it was cool.” Wow, an ad lib! HE CAN DO THAT???

I miss this place. I miss the whole area! Even though Henry was being super annoying because he kept taking really bad pictures of me (woof), I enjoyed the time we spent in the cemetery. Oh!! And we went to the little gift shop where I of course bought magnets but also a small wooden reproduction of one of the tombstones, two crosses for the bathroom, and a rope bracelet in the Romanian colors which I proceeded to wear every day after that.

After this, we decided to look for somewhere to eat right across from the cemetery. I will say that the village of Sapanta seems to make the most of the cemetery and they gently lean into tourism but setting up their wares alongside the road and doing the most to lure people into their food establishments. For instance, when we were looking at menu, some woman came over and VERY CHEERFULLY moved us down to another place, which looked to be a stand that was selling placinta (cheese pies) which I actually really wanted and started to excitedly approach the counter to order, but then some other woman popped out of a doorway and it turned out that the first woman was sending us to HER not the placinta place and I was like, “Oh maybe it’s just the inside though” so we followed her through the door but no, it was an entirely separate place and the only thing on the menu that wasn’t meat was fries so that’s what I ended up ordering because the LADY WAS SO NICE AND IT WAS SUCH AN ORDEAL getting us there, these three women all helping each other out to make sure they were dividing the business up amongst themselves, so I was happily obliged to just stay there and eat the fries.

Henry got his first ever mici (meech) and really liked it!

Those fries were seriously super good so I wasn’t mad about it. And the lady (the owner I guess?) was soooo concerned about us and I appreciated that.

OMG OMG OMG after this we went into one of the little shops and I found THE THING. You know, that ONE THING that you spend the rest of your life showing to people and saying I GOT THIS IN < wherever >.

LOL! I love that the girl looks half-decapitated.

Anyway, an elderly woman was running the joint (she actually had left the place unmanned which could never happen in America) and even though we couldn’t speak each others’ languages, she was pantomiming that she liked my shirt (I mean, I think so – she might have been telling me I wasn’t pulling it off very well) and then gave me the magnet that I picked out for free.

“Souvenir!” she said, closing my fingers around it.

I LOVED SAPANTA.

(Henry won’t contribute anything else because I called him out for being annoying – he was mindlessly rubbing his arms while watching TV next to me and the sound of RUBBING SKIN was about to make me launch off the couch and through the roof – so now he’s pouting and being mad at me. The honeymoon is LITERALLY over haha.)

When we (“we” – pahahaha! It was all me stitching together this itinerary from scratch I WILL THANK YOU VERY MUCH) were planning the road trip, it made sense to add Cluj-Napoca as an overnight stop because it was the biggest city in between Sibiu and our next full destination of the Maramures region. Plus it was less than hour away from our last stop that Sunday – the Salina Turda Salt Mines – so we figured we’d spend the rest of the day there, eat dinner, whatever. I had NO EXPECTATIONS because for some reason, after watching travel videos of Cluj, it just didn’t resonate with me. The general consensus was that it’s a college town, good nightlife, etc. On this trip, I was more interested in the smaller cities and towns, so I was considering this a pit-stop and nothing more. (Especially after Copilot told me sadly that there no Bela Karolyi points of interest here, even though it was his birthplace! Boo!)

Well, touche, Cluj. You are an awesome, vibrant, incredible city and now I am sad that we didn’t have MORE time there! Honestly, I’d have rather had two nights here than Brasov or Bucharest because we barely scratched the surface. Duly noted for the future!

Only having less than half of a day to explore, we mostly stayed in the area where our guest house was and as luck would have it, it was in the middle of a bustling area. Right down the street was a little farmer’s market type of thing set up in the Avram Iancu Square and we spent a good bit of time here because I had to get my magnet, god forbid, but also there were several tables selling locally made jewelry and I needed to shop.

We had the most adorable interaction with this one older woman. I had stopped to look at some beaded jewelry and she was trying to entice us with her table of bags of coffee. Then she learned we were American and said her daughter had just come home from New York and brought all those bags of coffee back from there. “Never mind about the coffee then!” she laughed, and focused on trying to make a jewelry sale instead.

When I asked if she made the jewelry, she said, “No, no, my friend did!” and then waved her over, saying, “And she speaks better English than me too!” (Um, her English was fantastic as well, and as usual I felt like an asshole since she had to talk to us in English AT ALL.)

Anyway, I ended up buying this pretty bracelet from her friend because this design is all over houses and buildings in Romania so it felt perfect. Meanwhile, the first lady had set her sights on Henry and was trying to get him to buy jewelry too and then moved on  to the coffee, but he kept smiling and shaking his head no. Then she pretended to cry and her friend who made the jewelry was like, “Oh for god’s sake, ignore her” lol. But then someone DID come over to buy her coffee and she was like, “HA! SEE! SOMEONE WANTS MY COFFEE!” It was so funny but you know what they say about having to be there, etc.

Now I wish we had bought a bag of her New York coffee because she was so cute and funny!

I had to take this picture with the flash on because it’s sitting on my religious dresser which is illuminated by the red light of the LED cross.

I also got this hand-painted pendant from another table being manned by a friend of the artist. I love both of these so much! I don’t require expensive jewelry, I just like pieces that have a story/memory attached and these both definitely do because that was such a fun little square to walk through!

I got this pumpkin masala chai latte at Tucano Coffee and it was foarte delicios. Finally, something that wasn’t just a shot of espresso in a cup!

St. Michael’s Church.

I feel like we stood here for quite some time while Henry looked up places to eat and then we ended up going to one of the places our host suggested, which ended up being very memorable for weird  (not bad!) reasons.

Enigma Secret Garden!

It turns out this was a popular hangout for local college kids (there was a backroom / outdoor area that was bustling). We sat inside and Henry annoyed because some of the YOUTH at the table behind us were smoking and I was like, “Europe, Henry. Europe.”

One of my favorite things about this place, aside from the steampunk aesthetics, was that there were two guys working there who seemed very young and confused. I kept joking that one of them was a high schooler filling in for his college-aged brother. They literally just walked around looking so lost and I loved this so much. Plus, we were the OLDEST PEOPLE there which also was cracking me up for some reason, like we had stumbled onto the set of Felicity. (That was the first TV Show I thought of, don’t ask.)

This was the beer I had. It was pretty standard beer-tasting. I was just having fun getting to check in beers from Romania on Untapped like the dumb dork that I am!

MAMALIGA!!!!!! This was the culinary embodiment of “I want to dip my balls in it!” It was everything that I had been looking forward to in Romania, all folded up into a hot pouch of cheesy polenta with a cold cap of sour cream. Please hold while I go scream in a pillow.

I miss this so much.

I couldn’t finish it though so off it went to Henry, lol. I had a piece of his pizza and it was also delectable – super thin which I like.

Henry had to get up to find our server at one point and the kid tried to play it off like he was on his way over to us already. I don’t know why, can’t explain it, but these guys were so effing hilarious to watch.

I thoroughly enjoyed our time at this strange little bar/restaurant, even with all the vape and cigarette smoke wisps hanging in the air around us. It was a big fat vibe and made me feel like I was back in the 90s, man, fetch me my duster and bootcut Mudd jeans.

After this, we found a bar to go to that had craft and local beers. On the way there, we passed another square that we had walked through before dinner, but now there was LIVE MUSIC happening on a stage! Ofc we had to slip into the audience and partake in the festive, traditional singing.

I got REALLY excited because it turned out that we were standing next to the family members of my FAVORITE ONE OF THE SINGERS. “SHOULD I GO SAY SOMETHING???” I squealed to Henry when she joined her family later for hugs. Henry just scowled at me. You know, the usual. I was in a state of suspended glee in Cluj-Napoca. I really liked this Romanian version of myself!

This broad was also really amazing. I have clips from these performances which you can look forward to at the end of the post. (See also: PLEASE WATCH MY VIDEOS, I AM SUCH A SAD AND LONELY GIRL.)

I really enjoy traditional Romanian music, btw.

After this performance, a woman MC came on stage and started talking non-stop and super quickly and obviously this was all in Romanian so we decided to continue on to the bar.

Then this happened! ^^^

Loved the cobblestone alleys in Cluj.

The girls behind the bar at the BrewHouse were so friendly and cute! I wanted to stay inside but Henry was like “LET’S GO OUTSIDE” and then Santa Claus’d his way out the door.

In case you are a beer aficionado and care, this was a Pilsdet from Blackout Brewing, local to Cluj.

And this was a Speltbound (saison) from Hophead Brewing, also local to Cluj! Untapped tells me that I earned the “Baking in Balkan” and “Roamin’ in Romania” badges with this one!

OMG OMG OMG I have been following for Hop Hooligans for a bit on Instagram and have become such a little fan bitch over them. I was so excited to finally get my lips on one of their cans, I don’t care how that sounds!! And yes, I took the can back to the room so we could peel off the label for the mems. (See also: me being a packrat again.)

I got irrationality bitchy around this point and it turned out it was PMS lol. MORE TO COME ON THAT.

What a great little bar. I would go back in a heartbeat. (I really do want to go back to Cluj someday.)

OMG on the way back to the room, this guy was closing out the show and I totally imprinted on him!!! WE MADE EYE CONTACT AT ONE POINT AND I SCRAMMED, “HENRY HE LOOKED AT ME” and not even Henry, my biggest fact-checker, could deny this.

This was so joyful! I wanted to join in but I was also afraid of jacking up the flow and/or completely biting it because I was feeling semi-tipsy from the beers. I never built up an alcohol tolerance!

Yo this crowd was eating him up!

There was also a young man dancing with a girl in a traditional dress and he doing the most to outshine her. Also he looked like Fred aka Lucas Cruikshank. I sent a picture to Chooch and his response was “ugh.”

That was also his response to my imprinting red alert.

This diva!!

ILYSM!!!

Oh, Cluj. One day, I’ll be back.

I was expecting the haunted house round-up to be a little on the low end this year since we were away for two of the weekends and didn’t get started until the end of the month – I told Henry, “We’ll just go to like, 2. I swear.” Yet somehow, we ended up doing 6 for the 2025 season, including ONE IN ROMANIA!

This haunt sits at the bottom of the legendary Bran Castle (a/k/a Dracula’s Castle) in Bran, Romania. I won’t like – the area surrounding the entrance to the Castle is lined with lots of souvenir stands that MAY OR MAY NOT be ripping off tourists. I mean, if you want to tour Bran Castle and then buy a deformed Labubu, you can do this here! I bought a magnet and postcards, who cares. Take my money.

But also in this area is the haunted house that everyone online warns is a tourist trap. But as a haunted house enthusiast, can you imagine me going to DRACULA’S CASTLE (it’s not really but you know what I mean!) and then just strolling past the haunted house on the way back to the car without going in?! ME, the dork who still writes haunted house reviews in a paper journal?!

Thank god this was open because it wasn’t even 11am yet by the time we exited the Castle after our tour. As expected, no one else was there, no line to stand in, no wait. We paid the equivalent of $9 USD to the ambivalent young man in the ticket booth and then entered!

Ok my memory of this is wrecked because shortly after we left Bran, the curse of Vlad Tepes hit me by way of a violent stomach virus. But I do remember thoroughly enjoying it even though there was only one scare actor inside, creepily trailing Henry through several rooms.

But it was actually more aesthetic than I was expecting. I guess I was thinking it was going to be super low-tech and no frills, like the old YMCA haunts of the 80a where the walls were lined with garbage bags, but the scenes were kind of popping off, not going lie! There was one room in particular with a slight balcony, and you could look all the way up to the ceiling of the room above, and all the way down to the floor below. I don’t know how to explain it better but while I was distracted taking in all the decorations and scenery, there was a slight trick-floor action where it made you feel like you were tipping over the balcony. I screamed for real, lol.

Overall, it was pretty short and maybe they have more actors inside at night, but as a haunted house girlie, this was a must-do and with admission that cheap, WHY NOT?

I was so stoked that we got to do this!

The first haunt we went to back home was late in the season for us – 10/24! Usually we would have at least 4 or 5 under our belts by then but I was on a mission to make the best of it. We left right after work for Crawford School of Terror(I don’t even think I said goodbye to anyone, I was in such a rush to get there!).

This is usually one of my favorites. They got rid of the digital group # thing so we had to stand in an actual line which was whatever. We had gotten there pretty soon after they opened so the wait wasn’t too bad.

I usually have either a REALLY AWESOME EXPERIENCE HERE or just a so-so one. This was a so-so year but to no fault of the haunt. I still loved the theming and the actors (maybe the upper school-themed floor is kind of getting stale, I’ll admit), but it didn’t hit as hard this year and here’s why:

They just aren’t great at keeping groups from converging. I get that some people run through, others go slow, but if they could have some “check-points” where scare actors step in for crowd control, that would be really awesome because then we wouldn’t have caught up with the parents who brought two girls under the age of 5 in with them, one was so young that the dad was carrying her through, and the scare actors really toned it down around them which was sad for us.

However, it did allow me to have a super cringey and creepy moment with one of the actors after she told the little girls that they were cute and I said WHAT ABOUT ME AM I CUTE TOO with my hands spread out like a serving platter under my chin.

She hesitated but did ultimately say yes! I asked Henry later if he was so proud of me but he just scowled.

Not that I am normal in general but haunted houses really exacerbate whatever is broken in my brain and I can get real dumb and filterless.

This was us afterward when I was being sad that my favorite crowd-pleasing scare actor didn’t seem to be there that night (unless he was a new character that I didn’t recognize?). I do want to also add that I got a pumpkin spice latte from ten Crawford Cafe and it was excelsior. Also, the DJ was asking for requests and I kept saying DO YOU DARE ME TO REQUEST G-DRAGON but Henry wouldn’t bite. So I did not request anything but that DJ was admittedly playing some decent stuff unlike another haunt which I will get to in part 2!! (I’m still angry about it!!)

The following Sunday, we went to the Tour-Ed Haunted Mine. We’ve been here a few times over the years but this was one of the best visits! The people who run it are so friendly and you can tell the volunteers put their whole heart into their parts. I screamed and scrammed my face off, you guys.

There’s a good bit of indoor and outdoor walk-throughs until you get to the entrance of the mine which is the best part, obvi. We got into the mine cart thingie with two other groups, but our car was the last one to be unlocked by a clown so we were at the end of the group while waiting to go into the actual mine portion of the haunt. The clown ripped their mask off and tossed it to the side, revealing an older lady underneath who looked at me and said, “I can’t lock these doors when I’m wearing the mask!” We both chuckled and it felt like a really special moment (or just me needing to get extra therapy because I am always on the hunt for older women maternal figures to latch on to).

“You guys can hang back and go in after the rest of them,” she said, like she knows I’m always antsy about having to go thru haunts with large groups! Then she said I looked familiar and asked me my name and then was like “eh guess not” but then continued to make small talk with us for another minute or two before saying, “ok yinz can go in now. ERIN’S COMING!!!!! WE GOT ERIN HERE!!!”

Goddammit I can’t believe I fell for that!! lol.

Long story short, this was incredibly fun with a plethora of excellent jump scares waiting around every corner. The actors were relentless and effed with us so hard (Henry said of them kept pushing past him to get to me – I think he actually gets sad when he gets passed over because I’m the ultimate target. Poor Henry.)

They got me GOOD at the end, and I ran out screaming bloody murder not realizing that the exit spilled out right by the line of people waiting to get in so, super embarrassing for me but great publicity for the mine!

I was in such a good mood when we left. I love it when haunts make me feel like I’m in high school again!

We ended day two in the second largest city in Romania, Cluj-Napoca, known to some as the BIRTHPLACE OF CONTROVERSIAL GYMNASTIC COACH BELA KAROLYI.

“I forgot to bring my Bela Karolyi shirt!” I wailed in the car.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Henry mumbled. Apparently, Bela defected from Romania back in the day and is likely not a very popular person there anymore anyway. I mean, he’s buried in Texas, for God’s sake. I asked Copilot prior to our trip if there were any Bela-related points of interest to be found around the city and my one true friend Copilot answered, “No.”

Nary a statue. Not even a gym named after him.

Anyway!! We chose to crash in Cluj after our day in Rimetea and Turda because it’s nearby and on the way to the next day’s first attraction. It’s kind of funny because I had little interest in this city as I was mostly focusing on small towns, medieval villages, etc. But wow, even though we only spent a few hours here, I reallllly ended up latching on hard to it.

Before I get into that though, I want to first just talk about the outrageous guest house we had here. I found it on Booking.com (that’s where we booked all of the places we stayed) but I’m not even sure I realized it was a guest house because the pictures made it look like an actual hotel (an old one, which I like).

But then the host was messaging Henry with basically geocache instructions on how to access the place, where to park. She said we could park in the courtyard of the apartment building where she lives, which was within walking distance, but we legit could not figure out how to enter – there was a huge door that needed to be opened and it was right off a busy road so were afraid to attempt that and ended up lucking out by finding street parking right in front of the actual building that the guest room was in.

First we had the wrong floor so that was fun, trying to push open a locked balcony door like we were robbers.

As usual, don’t judge Romanian guest rooms / houses from the outside. The lobby of the building was majorly sketch, the elevator looked like it had been broken for decades, and the outside balcony to the rooms was its own interesting vibe, but then we opened the door….

…to this vibrant palace looking motherfucker??? And we had two bedrooms!?!?

I wrote postcards at this table!

That was the door to the first bedroom. When we first entered, it put us into a tiny foyer, with the door to our room on the left, and the other guest room on the right. Our host said no one was staying in that one at the time, though.

Random top hat! This tracks though because she gave us a list of recommendations in the area and one of the was a steampunk bar/restaurant. And she also invited us as her guests to the RETRO DANCE CLUB that she and her husband own but Henry was like, “I AM NOT GOING TO A CLUB” because let us not forget how he earned the permanent nickname Hoover, after all. To be fair, it didn’t open until 9PM and we were still jet-lagged and exhausted from a full day of touristing and needed to leave by 6AM the next morning because our first stop was 4 hours away. So, I guess I will lay off Henry this time.

But that could have been our chance to make new friends. :(

This is the second room.

This furniture. Shit.

This was the outside of the apartment building.

The host told Henry in a message that the scratches on the massage chair were from her cats LOL so she moved it to the guest room. I tried it when we came back late that night after exploring the city and immediately screamed into the other room, “HENRY WE NEED ONE OF THESE AT HOME.” It had all of the bells and whistles. I made Henry try it after me and he was like, “OK it’s pretty cool but I don’t think we need one?” and then I realized that I didn’t do it right, because I didn’t put my feet in the little foot pockets. So, after Henry was finished with his cycle, I stuffed myself back into it, feet included, and gave it another go. It was actually painful at moments because it felt like very strong hands were gripping me by the ankles and pulling. Like, it had latched onto me like a baby finding a nipple and I started to get a little panicked that it was turning sentient and I was about to have a “Barbara Hershey in The Entity” moment so I turned it off and ran screaming into the other bedroom.

Um, also I didn’t realize that I had been sitting in that chair for about 60 minutes, going through all the different settings. Losing time in a massage chair? That thing is definitely demonic.

Literally, in my vacation journal I wrote:

(11:08pm): So, I had every intention of recapping the rest of the day but when we got back to the room tonight in Cluj-Napoca (birthplace of Bela Karolyi FYI*), I decided to try out the massage chair in one of the rooms and then that turned into me needing to try every setting & suddenly an hour had passed and I have a new husband now. 0.O

*omg can you tell how obsessed I am.

We could see this church steeple peeking out from our balcony.

This was written on the inside of the entrance door to the apartment building, and I thought for sure it was saying something “Go home USA cunts” or something equally disparaging but it turns out “uşă” in Romanian is “door” and it literally says, “Please shut the door.”

After a magical morning in Rimetea, we headed to our next stop: the Salina Turda salt mine! According to the Internet, it was first mentioned in 1271 and has continuously produced table salt from the Middle Ages. It was used as a shelter during WWII!

In 1992, it officially was rebranded as a tourist destination (apparently making it on a 2013 Business Insider “25 hidden gems around the world that are worth the trek” list). Salt therapy must be legit because I felt fucking great the whole time we were there, and now that I think about it, it was probably the longest uninterrupted span of time I have made it without Henry totally getting on my nerves. I actually LIKED him while we were here…

Maybe I need to pad my house with salt lamps. (Those are bad for cats I think so never mind, hard no.)

After paying for our admission, we got to walk down this cool (literally, the temp was dropping as we descended) stairwell.

Looking chopped.

SALT.

This hallway led us to another small set of steps which opened up into THIS:

You can either take an elevator down to the bottom or walk down. There is a set of steps on both ends of the mine, and we opted to cross over to the steps that weren’t near the elevator, since there was a moderate crowd on that side waiting for the elevator.

We were halfway across one of those catwalks, in an attempt to get to the staircase at the other side, when I looked across and it dawned on me that the walkway was held up by wood planks lodged into the rock. I got VERY SCARED, VERY QUICKLY. Like, my heartrate skyrocketed and I kept murmuring, “omgomgomg” and practically sprinted on Bambi legs to the other side. Hoo boy, that was something. I 100% made sure we came up the steps on the other side when we were done, so that we wouldn’t have to walk across that again.

I kept stopping every so often to take another picture from a landing the lower we got. I just thought it was so incredible, being there! And blessedly not very crowded AT ALL for a Sunday. Although, there was a large group of kids that arrived JUST as we were leaving, so we dodged that bullet.

I read that this is the only underground Ferris wheel! It wasn’t operating that day but it’s not what I was there for so I wasn’t sad about that. (There was only ONE ACTIVITY that I was interested in and you will see that soon.)

I thought the lighting in this bitch was so stunning, legitimately.

I kept thinking these were flatrides over there but it was just random lighting around seating areas and the gift shop-thing. (You KNOW I bought a magnet.)

I was getting nervous though because the thing that I wanted to do was nowhere to be found and then I discovered that we weren’t actually all  the way down in the lowest layer yet! There was a separate staircase (and elevator) to take us down the remaining 11 or 13 flights, I can’t remember how many now.

Made it to the bowels of Salina Turda!

THIS IS WHAT I WANTED TO DO THE MOST!!!!!! And it was so un-crowded that day that we didn’t even have to wait! There were only like 5 boats out there at a time and it was so exciting!!

I was supposed to be the navigator but then I got tired of that and stopped and Henry ended up rowing us against the wall and getting his oar caught in the netting, which apparently was my fault. I couldn’t stop laughing about this because Henry was so distraught over it and couldn’t really see what was going on so I tried to convince him that he pulling the whole thing down and that he was probably going to be on the news – “the dumb American who pulled down part of the Salina Turda wall” – and I could NOT stop laughing over this. There must not have been much oxygen down there because I was ridiculously slap-happy.

I also felt a strong kinship to all of the other boaters out there with us. Especially when a boat of three Japanese girls collided with a Romanian (I think?) couple and had a good laugh, I joined in like we were apart of this, even though Henry was only colliding with fragile salt infrastructure and not other boats.

Henry couldn’t see this because it was happening behind him haha. Everything exciting happened behind him.

Salt beach.

He kept having to “take breaks” and “rest” his “arms.” Wow, OK gramps, sorry to cut into your nappy time.

I honestly was obsessed with this weird salt mine lake thing. Henry might disagree because he complained bigly of how strenuous the rowing was and of course I was like, “Wow, I’m so fat, just say it.”

Hearing the water sloshing in this surreal cave was soothing but also kind of scary. OK look, a long time ago I had a REALLY BAD DREAM that I was in a rowboat at night trying to navigate around disgusting and harrowing glaciers in Alaska and that’s why I am, to this day, terrified and DISGUSTED by Alaska and never want to go there. Oh, and the water was actually blood and this whole thing was a rescue mission because there was some awful tragedy like a sunk ship or crashed plane, I can’t remember but it was awful.

And this kind of reminded me of that! But without blood and glaciers. And I actually enjoyed it but also there was an underlying sheath of fear.  So, I was sort of confronting some lingering psychological issues that I legit dreamt up (JUST LIKE MY MOM SAYS ABOUT ALL OF MY PROBLEMS AND TRAUMA).

I love the Romanian flag a lot.

My phone lens was not a fan of this part of the trip though lol. It was on the struggle bus, trying to capture non-blurry shots for me!

Henry big-struggled every time we went under this bridge. Also, we got to do 4 laps because the guy in charge did not give a shit at all. Pretty sure we went way over the 20 minutes we paid for. At one point, Henry called over to him, “DO YOU WANT US TO COME BACK NOW” and dude was like, “Oh, no – you can go around again!”

Henry mumbled, “Great. Thanks.”

:)

These were just sitting areas but the lighting features made it feel like art installations. This reminded me of Korea a little bit!

He’s smiling this big because he’s finally off rowing duty. And probably delirious.

But now he’s just tired.

This was right before it was time to walk back up all of the steps. Remember in September when Henry had to walk up 20 FLIGHTS OF STEPS AT CHOOCH’S APARTMENT BUILDING and then CHOOCH AND I WALKED WAY AHEAD OF HIM and HENRY COULD HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK??? Well, that was training for our future day at Salina Turda, obvi.

The only thing this place was missing was A CAROUSEL. IMAGINE A ROMANIAN SALT MINE CAROUSELFIE!!

Anyway, what a hugely enjoyable visit! I’m sure our tune would have been completely different if we were here on a summer weekend, but this particular Sunday in October was perfect.

Oh, also note that the elevator to the very bottom only hold 4 people, and the main elevator only holds 7 or 8, so I can only imagine how long those lines can get. JUST SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND IF YOU ARE EVER IN ROMANIA.

——————–

Please enjoy (or don’t) a series of clips from the first Rimetea and Salina Turda (especially if you want to see Henry rowing my fat ass around an echo chamber).

Henry’s recap of our time at Rimetea: “I walked up a hill, I walked down a hill, I took a couple of pictures.” He is actually stunned that I have managed to take a 2 hour late morning stop and stretch it into three whole blog posts.

Hello. It’s me. Erin Appledale. Did you fucking FORGET?

We’re currently en route to Columbus, Ohio for a concert so I figured maybe we could collab on this last recap but he said, “No.”

So anyway! What had happened after the waterwheel detour was that we saw a rocky lane leading up toward the mountains so we decided to walk up that way and see some closer views.

This was the view facing back down toward the town.

  Me being me.

On the way up here, we passed a small parking lot where a group of people were preparing to head out on a hike. And across from them in a small clearing was a man laying down with another pacing around him and giving him what appeared to be a pep talk. I think the man laying down didn’t want to hike the mountain lol. He ended up joining the rest of their group though so good for him!

We weren’t dressed for a hike so we admired the mountains from here.

I actually love this picture so much because I didn’t know Henry was taking it and he caught me genuinely admiring the scenery. No fake smiles!

Ew.

Selfies from both directions, of course.

Chatted with this biggun’ on the way back down but then he found people more interesting in the hiking parking lot and strutted away from us. Typical.

Walked around some more, taking it all in. I just kept saying, “I can’t believe we’re here. Can you believe we’re here???”

Henry said “the scenery” when I asked him for two things he liked about Rimetea and he is either still thinking of a second one or forgot the question already because I never received a follow up.

We wanted to get langos before leaving but I needed to wash my hands first after petting so many dogs and cats during our leisurely strolling. There was a public restroom back by the church. I started to go up the steps to enter but it was a pay-to-pee sitch and the payment thing was broken. Some girl limbo’d under the barrier thing but I was like “no I’m not doing that in these tight jeans and bad back” and also there was an old woman there who also was like “guess I’m not peeing” At least I assume that’s what she was saying in Romanian.

Henry meanwhile was like, “what is the problem? Is this an opportunity for me to be a hero??” And so he walked up to inspect the payment thing and then realized that the turnstile could just be pulled open so he did that for me and then the old lady was like “!!!!” So she was also able to pee, thanks to Henry who earned his “Even in Romania” hero complex badge.

It was a nice little “breaking the language barrier” moment.

After stopping at a gift shop to acquire my magnet, it was finally langos time!! Of course we didn’t know this then but langos is of Hungarian origins – I just knew that it was a popular street food in parts of Romania so it was on my list. It’s fried dough – like a savory elephant ear that you’d get a fair – and the version we got had a creamy garlic sauce and the most delicious salty shredded cheese on it.

There’s a polarizing pizza place in Pittsburgh called Betos that notoriously tops their pizza with cold shredded cheese after the pizza has been baked and I fucking HATE IT. However, this works so well on langos and it gradually melted as we were eating it. Betos could NEVER.

I dream of this langos.

This was intentional – I wanted a picture of our feet on Rimetea ground lol.

Post office! Of course when I don’t need one (yet – this would eat up lots of time in Bucharest because me and my postcard habit) , we seem to bump into them constantly.

Took one last stroll to walk off the langos which we BEASTED.

Even the haystacks in Romania are adorable!!

It was on this street where we passed a house that had a dog that looked like Bambi :( I sent a video to Chooch and he was like OMG THAT DOG HATES YOU!!! because it was barking so angrily lol.

Before leaving, we stopped by the kurtos vending in the parking lot. I did know that this was a Hungarian treat (chimney cakes) but it was here that the vendor struck up a friendly conversation with us after learning we were American (ugh) and explained to us the history of Rimetea, how it was part of Hungary and that most of the people living there are Hungarian. It all made sense after that! I don’t know how I didn’t learn that in my itinerary-planning and appreciated that he took the time to tell us all of this while making us a fresh cinnamon kurtos. (See?? This is why I told Henry not to buy one from that guy in Sibiu. Now our first kurtos got to be an authentic & fresh one!)

This guy was so nice! I will never forget him. Or that kurtos. It was perfectly crispy and cinnamony on the outside, soft and pillowy (and piping hot!!) on the inside.

Mmm. Kurtos.