Transylvania, Day 2: Mountain Fortress!

Today was a long but amazing day. We started with a climb up a mountain. Literally, we climbed 1480 steps up a very steep mountainside to find Poienari Fortress, which Vlad the Impaler used for two things: (1) hiding from assassins, and (2) keeping prisoners. It was quite a climb, but also quite invigorating with the fresh, January mountain air. The top was totally worth the effort, as we wandered around the ruins of the fortress completely unsupervised.

There are lots of stray dogs in Romania, which is not a big surprise. Just like in some other countries I've visited, the government pays for all of these dogs to be vaccinated and neutered. The dogs are friendly, and one adopted us on the climb up the mountain. Below there's a picture of the dog cuddling in between my legs. I wanted to keep him!

In the afternoon we had a quick stop at a rural church and monastery started by Vlad's grandfather, then a walking tour of Sibiu, which has a mix of buildings from the last 700 years. Several beautiful churches are here, and it's an interesting mix of Romanian, German, and Hungarian cultures.

We then drove to the small village of Sibiel (which means "Little Sibiu"), where we toured a museum of one of the local crafts, painting icons on glass. They are unique because most icons are painted by educated priests, but these are made by uneducated peasants. Thus, people like Jesus and the saints are wearing traditional Romanian rural outfits and doing things like playing Romanian musical instruments. It was very charming.

Afterward, we were welcomed into a private person's home, where a family cooked us a traditional dinner which consisted of appetizers of meats and sheep cheese, an entree of pork and stuffed cabbage rolls, and dessert of sweet breads. All of this was accompanied by a local brandy made from plums.

Below are two pictures from the fortress, the dog we met at the fortress, some gummy vampire teeth we saw at the store, and the main square of Sibiu.