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.

We left off at the part of the day where we paid to see some old-ass water wheel but here are some other pictures taken prior to that with the DSLR. It took me forever to edit these because apparently our computer is on its last leg so that’s cool. I almost took a sledgehammer to it last night. Many tantrums were had.

The Orthodox Church. For some reason I didn’t get many great pictures of it, but I do have it captured on video which I will post at some point.

I just couldn’t get over the architecture of these houses and that foreboding rocky slab looming in the background! Look, this was a very quiet commune. Yes, there were some tour groups (all seemed to be regional) milling about here and there but it was extremely serene and didn’t feel like a money grab. Well…until we got to the water wheel thing where we were told by the old man manning the grounds that we had to pau 20 LEI to see it, or at least that’s what we figured what was going on. There was no signage or anything and Henry said he felt like maybe we only had to pay because he could tell we were dumb ‘mericans BUT I read on a blog that he apparently does ask that a “pay what you can” donation be made to see his collection of vintage Romanian/Hungarian items and, had we been able to understand Romanian, he’d have taken time to give us a brief tour. I think now, in hindsight, that’s what he was attempting to do. Stupid fucking English. I wish we knew more languages. :(

Here’s the man that collected our watermill dues. Honestly, I was happy to contribute to the livelihood of this charming place and to see his collection.

Henry was like, “NO I DON’T THINK SO!!!” when I asked, “Do you think we’re allowed to climb up there?” but then the watermill guy guided me back in later on and made sure that I climbed up there!! I had to wait because there were idiot kids up there with their parents, doing idiot kid things. But then it was my turn and I got to see the water wheel thing from a different vantage and it was cool, especially because Henry didn’t get to go up there and see it for himself so I felt special.

Apparently, this traditional furniture was hand-painted by the watermill guy’s wife. It was all so beautiful!

Has to be haunted.

Corn is corn no matter where you are, I guess.

But no, come on.  Autumnal visuals on lock!

God forbid I end this post without including any pictures of my goofy mug.

One more Rimetea post coming up and then I swear we will move on to…the afternoon of Day 2. I’M SORRY, EVEN VIRTUALLY I AM A FREAKING YAPPER. I have only gotten to talk about this stuff IRL to 4 people: Sue & Margie last week at dinner, and then my therapist and dietician, LOL. So, I have a lot of words to expel!

Hello! Sunday started off bright and early with some last minute appreciation of Sibiu. I got a “long black” at what appeared to be a pretty trendy cafe called Amor Perfecto. This was when I was starting to remember that Europe doesn’t do “coffee” like we do in the U.S., but my fancy Romanian espresso was enough to breathe life into me, lol. I’m laughing right now as I skim my vacation journal because after this, I wrote, “I drank it because caffeine is caffeine but I need to figure out how to get just a cup of coffee.”

Yeah, that didn’t happen. Imagine how easy it could have been to just google that but I kept putting it off until I just eventually quit caring.

Anyway, the first item on the agenda for Sunday was a very small commune in Alba County called Rimetea. Approx. 1,000 people live there and it’s about a 90 minutes slightly northwest of Sibiu, below Cluj-Napoca which would be the ultimate destination of the day. The reason I added Rimetea to the itinerary is because I stumbled upon a video about it claiming that the “sun rises twice”  there, thanks to the Piatra Secuiului mountains blocking the sun as it rises, forcing it to “re-rise” a second time as it makes it over the peak. I probably explained that super jankily but hopefully you get it.

As usual, the scenery was so interesting during the drive. I don’t think I ever stopped looking out the window except to scribble thoughts in my vacation journal. I was obsessed with all of the roadside Jesus memorials and cemeteries!

The Aiud Citadel. I’m telling you, if we didn’t have a finite number of days for this roadtrip, we’d have been making all kinds of impromptu stops along the way. As it were, we only had a small window and couldn’t really afford, timewise, to veer off schedule. So there was a lot of, “Ooooh, what’s that???“s shouted dreamily from the car.

But I guess sometimes it’s better to see things in person from a car window than not at all. Sigh.

Eventually, there were less and less towns and mostly just lush mountain views and tiny villages. Plus, stray dogs.

Literally, it was view after view. Every time I would put my phone down, we’d round a bend and I’d be like, “OOoooh gotta get a video of that!” So many of my Romania videos are just me filming out of an open window and I don’t care.

And then suddenly, we drove straight into Rimetea. Google was actually telling us to keep going, but it was very clear that we had reached the part of the village where visitors park, so we don’t know where exactly Google was taking us.

Rimetea is known for it’s white-washed houses and green shutters. I don’t know about Henry but I was charmed immediately. Let’s enjoy some pictures.

A working well! I stuck my head in there and of course thought of “Ringu” and quickly backed away.

It seemed like the other people visiting were Romanian. It was not crowded at all, but there are people who come here to hike the mountain so we did see several groups preparing for that later.

Ew.

The Unitarian Church. It was Sunday and there was a service going on (it honestly felt like the bells were gonging the entire time we were there) so we didn’t go inside.

We saw a bunch of stray dogs and cats while here. I learned pretty quickly in Romania that the stray cats are taken very good care of by the locals (especially the restaurants, who must reward them for being natural rat-repellant) but I’m sadly not  too sure about the dogs. However, here in Rimetea there were quite a few that were chilling comfortably along the main drag where several food stands and shops were located.

THAT GLARE! Channeling my beloved Marcy, I think lol. I could see Marcy being reincarnated and living her best new life in Transylvania.

I was truly so in love with this commune. Quiet. Serene. Beautiful. It really felt like going back to another time.

Can you imagine those mountain peaks looming so Captain Caj in your backyard? Like, oh, that mountain? Yeah, we just deal with it.

Some other facts about Rimetea:

• it was an old mining town
• it’s been around since the 13th century!
• we would learn at the very end of our day there, through conversation with a kurtos vendor, that Rimetea is a Hungarian commune. It’s a plot of land originally owned by Hungary, and the residents are predominately Hungarian who work hard to preserve their culture. I was really confused why the shops were selling things that said Rimetea AND Torocko, and it turns out that Torocko is the Hungarian name
• the Székelys make up another portion of the population, and they are a subgroup of Hungarians living in the Székely Land. I don’t know much about Romanian history but what we learned from the kurtos man is that Transylvania was originally NOT a part of Romania. When it became part of Romanian in 1920 due to some treaty (I’m not a scholar), there was a group of Hungarians who were like, “NO, WE ARE STAYING HUNGARIAN” and I guess designated areas were allocated to them?? You are free to google because my paraphrasing is a mess.

I have more to say about Rimetea but I took some pictures with the DSLR that I need to upload here to go along with that and Photoshop is cooked right now. So, I will be back with a part 2, ugh.

Before we left Sibiu on Sunday, we put all of our luggage in the car (that thankfully wasn’t booted because we couldn’t figure out the parking machine, but we think it was broken because actual Romanians were also going over to it, squinting, shrugging, and walking away lol), we took one final stroll around old town. We brought the “good camera” and as usual barely used it, but I wanted to get some final shots in because I didn’t feel ready to leave!

I don’t know why this shot is here – it was probably a test but here we are. Part of Sibiu, keeping it!

OMG I look so cooked. The jetlag was real with this one.

The next post will be about the cutest Hungarian village in Romania called Rimetea!

Welcome to my home for the day, isn’t she gorgina?

We didn’t even need an itinerary – just walking these rain-slick cobblestones was entertaining. There is nothing I love more than walking around a new-to-me city.

I can’t stand how pretty it is!!!!

You know we had to pop inside the Korean market, wtf so unexpected! They had New Jeans Pepero and I have regertz now – I should have bought it. I love that Korean is Coreean in Romanian! Also, Magazin = Store/Shop. I fucking flipped out one day (I was on my period, OK??) on Henry for asking what Magazin meant. I was like “HOW HAVE YOU NOT FIGURED IT OUT BY NOW, USE CONTEXT CLUES, MY GUY.”

OK now it’s time for the ROMANIAN FOOD portion of the Sibiu recap! This was an exciting meal because it was our first sit-down meal since we arrived and it was traditional food! (We actually walked out of two other places because it wasn’t true Romanian food and/or there were no veg options, and I hate walking out like that but they were places that didn’t have their menus posted out front so we didn’t know!)

For some bizarre reason, I didn’t write in my vacation journal the name of the restaurant we chose after reading the menu that was set up in the big square, so I will have to ask Henry to look at his receipts when he comes home and will edit this at that point because I don’t feel like waiting.

(Hours later I’m here to report that the restaurant’s name is Zestrea!

We were taken down into the cave-like dining room which was exactly what I had hoped for! Before ordering, the host brought over two shots for us (I’ve been calling it palincă but it apparently has other names depending on the fruit used in it). The ones we were given were plum and cherry. The cherry was actually incredible even for my low-intolerance ass. Granted, it gave me an instant headache but I definitely really liked the taste. Henry’s experience appeared to be more on the excruciating end of the spectrum, lol. I don’t think I have ever seen him wince like that before!

Our waitress was young and super personable – I loved her so much. She helped us each choose a Romanian beer. I got this Bergenbier which is apparently a pilsner whatever that means. It was fine! I couldn’t finish it all though.

Henry got this Caraiman beer, a lager, and I just learned that Caraiman is the name of one of the peaks of the Carpathian mountains!

DUDE IT’S BABY’S FIRST AUTHENTIC ROMANIAN MAMALIGA! I went through a heavy polenta obsession back during the days when I worked at the Tina & Eleanor Company, so 2007-2008 I guess. I remember Bob and Colin used to make fun of me because I would bring different variations of it for my late shift dinner – Henry ended up getting really creative with it too, adding mushrooms, one time we made it dessert-y with blueberries. It was a time to be alive, for sure! I even told my dietician that I anticipated on subsisting primarily on polenta during our trip and she said that was fine, haha.

(Side note: I apparently was so obsessed with polenta back then that I even made an entire CATEGORY for it on this blog, so now I’m excited to add new posts to it, lol.)

I was just going to order some additional sides to go along with it but our waitress suggested the vegetable soup after learning that I don’t eat meat. It was a great decision – warm and hearty on a chilly and rainy day in Transylvania! Can you even imagine a better dinner? I mean, probably everyone reading this (how presumptuous of me, thinking I have readers lol) eats meat so you are all probably thinking, “Yeah, Erin, actually I can think of a thousand better dinners.”

But you guys, this was so filling and delicious. I was so happy.

LOL I just noticed how fucking exhausted he looks.

OK but then the time came for DESSERT and even though we were so stuffed (I can’t even remember now what Henry got???? Sarmale, I think??), we HAD to order papanasi (pronounced papa-nawsh) because that is all the travel vloggers talk about. I knew that there were different types too and that they say you need to try it more  than once, so when we asked our waitress for an order, she hesitated.

“Yes….” she said slowly. “we have papanasi, but…” and here is where I thought she was going to say it cannot be served to Americans, it’s made with pig lard, they were out of some important ingredient….You know how it is with me and getting my hopes dashed at restaurants! But then she went on to say in a cautionary tone, “it’s boiled.”

I was like, “OMG, that’s fine! We don’t care! We haven’t had ANY papanasi yet so we want to try all versions and have nothing to compare it to!” She looked relieved and said, “OK! Well, boiled is MY favorite, so I think you are going to like it.”

I was stoked either way! In fact, I had really only seen people eating the fried version which seems way more popular and accessible, so now we wouldn’t have to hunt down the boiled version!

She brought us each a serving even though we only asked for one, and I was like, “Bro, I don’t even care if my stomach rips open, I am eating all of this. WHEN IN ROMANIA.”

Henry had to ask her for forks, which I think she was already about to retrieve for us from a nearby table, but she jokingly said, “Maybe next time I will have you eat with your hands.” IT WAS SO FUCKING ADORABLE, IN HER ROMANIAN ACCENT, I WAS OBSESSED WITH HER.

I’m on a time crunch here, so I asked Copilot to explain this to you:

• • Rolled in a mixture of toasted breadcrumbs and sugar (sometimes with cinnamon or ground nuts added).
  • Served warm with a dollop of sour cream and a fruit jam, such as sour cherry or blueberry jam. 

Then we walked back to the room to lay down for a little bit a/k/a die a little.

But then we went back out once it was fully dark and this part was actually my favorite: we turned down this one street and heard what sounded like singing. I thought it was the group of people ahead of us that were singing loudly but it turned out that it was actually chanting coming from a nearby Romanian Orthodox Cathedral.

Isn’t it fucking gorgeous? I love churches so much.

You know it’s beautiful when there’s a large group of young guys who were clamoring to get their pictures taken in front of it. First, they were taking turns snapping pictures of each other and then finally some guy took a group photo for them. It was actually really adorable to watch.

Meanwhile, I went over to the side where candles were set up because if there is one thing I love doing, it’s paying churches for the permission to light a candle.

There are so many things to light a candle for these days, it was hard to choose.

Then I saw that people were just walking in freely so… monkey see / monkey do.

There was definitely a small mass going on. I thought it was interesting that the entire floor was devoid of pews, but people were kneeling and/or sitting in these ornate high-rise wooded chairs along the sides.

I was trying to take covert pictures from my hip. This is the ceiling.

We stayed for about 15 minutes, listening to the church-y chant/singing, and then continued on our evening stroll of Sibiu. I told Henry later that this was my highlight from Sibiu and he looked perplexed because it wasn’t his, lol.

(In my vacation journal, I wrote: “He said it wasn’t his favorite part but he found it ‘interesting.” Wow OK no one asked.”)

The Bridge of Lies at night.

There was a little market happening in a small square near the Bridge of Lies, so we went and checked that out. I almost bought a fake/deformed Labubu just so I could say that I bought a fake Labubu in Romania but I honestly couldn’t choose one, they were all so perfectly ugly! Henry almost got a kurtas (Hungarian chimney cake) but I stopped him because the guy was handing out ones that were sitting there, wrapped in plastic, and not ones that he had freshly made. “You don’t want your first kurtas to be cold and stale!” so he actually listened to me and bought a house-shaped gingerbread cookie from another stand instead, to save for the drive the next day.

We went to a little store called CarreFour to look around and ended up buying two bottles of beer (one was Ciuc which Henry drank that night in the room, picture in the Victorian House blog post!) and an Ursus IPA. I got to help one of the older women workers find something she was attempting to restock in the candy aisle and it was a nice and pleasant moment that broke the language barrier. I was so excited to beat Henry too because I could tell he was about to point it out for her.

On the way back to the room, we relented and stopped at one of the many gelato stands because I needed to know, even though we were so full. I chose some baklava flavor and asked for a small scoop in a cup. Being handed the equivalent of a shallow Dixie cup in return was a jarring (but good!) reminder that we weren’t in fat-ass America anymore, where a “small” is comparable to a “large” everywhere else in the world. It was the perfect amount – maybe about 5 or 6 bites. It definitely wasn’t the best gelato I’ve ever had though, I will tell you that honestly lol. (I HAVE BEEN TO ITALY, BRO.)

Then we went back, put on a Romanian music channel on TV, and passed the fuck out.

p.s. Here’s one of my lame and pointless videos recapping our Românian arrival that morning (1AMish!) and then the morning driving to Sibiu after we allowed ourselves to crash for 5 hours.

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.