The colorful streets of Sighisoara
By a wonderful coincidence, Lonely Planet just released their top travel destinations for 2016 and Transylvania, Romania is number one on the regions’ list (Link here). Romania is beautiful and has enormous tourism potential, however, if I have to be honest, there are still lots of things we have to work on. It was my first time visiting Sighisoara, a famous medieval town in Transylvania and I was surprised and slightly disappointed by few things: 1. people don’t smile and I came across unnecessary rudeness (it feels like locals are annoyed they have visitors), 2. touristic commerce is appalling (it has nothing to do with the wonderful traditional Romanian handcraft, especially disappointing considering Sighisoara is a craftsmen’s town), 3. the house where Count Dracula (Vlad The Impaler) was born is a bad joke and I would never recommend anyone to spend 5 lei to visit it (a dark room covered with cheap red and black satin like fabric, a table and 2 statues, red light and a drunk man sitting in a coffin, all of such a bad taste, I was embarrassed).
Apart of these things the tourism board of Sighisoara can work on, the town is magical and deserves its reputation as one of the most beautiful medieval town / citadels in Europe. On the plus side, I was impressed with the accommodation; we stayed at the Sighisoara Hotel, a building dating from 1520 located in the heart of the old town, where the price was great, the people friendly and helpful, amazing architecture and good wifi. (Green and yellow building in Image 7). A cheerful and somehow unexpected sight was the many groups of school kids (so many for such a small place) flocking from the few schools in the citadel, speaking Romanian and German and just being kids (I couldn’t help thinking they were lucky to be able to walk home from school, breathe the fresh air and being surrounded by such amazing architecture).
I’ll start with few photos of the colorful streets and I’ll continue with another set of photos in a different post.
Claudia Curici Photography 
Looks beautiful! I love all of the colours. Hopefully I will make it to Romania and I’ll make sure to remember this hotel 🙂
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Hi Kimberly, I’m happy you love the photos and I hope you will get to Romania soon. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you do. All the best x
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OMG what a collection! We havent been but always wanted too – this gives us more drive 🙂 Thanks
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Thank you so much! I totally recommend Romania, and I’m not biased 🙂 Please get in touch if you need help.
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I will definitely make a note of it… Check my blog out and see if there’s anywhere u may like to visit. Always happy to help
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I already checked, I always do with people checking my profile, I would have loved to find your name somewhere though 🙂 As per traveling now, since I am in the US, I will keep an eye on the North America part, New York might be next on my list, Alaska sounds intriguing too. I’ll definitely check with you, thanks for offering. Good luck with your new adventures.
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The names David… It’s littered around as is my wife’s Megan. Oooh I have been to nyc 12 times and we are due to book again very shortly… I’ll be reviewing it around new year very shortly. I used to live in Colorado and highly recommend that and Utah
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Hi David and Megan 🙂 Colorado and Utah also on the list. Will get in touch for sure.
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Of course… Please do I’ve done Florida, New York, mass, Dc, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Cali, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Illinois and lived in Canada for a year… So more than happy to help email is travel@awanderingmemory.com. We live in the uk now…
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Sometimes is a curse to live in a old place with touristic potential. Usually is hard to even open business because laws are more strict about modifications in favor of conservation and that can lead to frustration in population. very colorful place indeed, thanks for share.
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As always, such a pertinent point. It crossed my mind too, and I know they must have their reasons, the citadel is still inhabited and maybe they feel their privacy is invaded… It is the tourism board’s job to make sure tourism can benefit the local community rather than annoy it… and still a smile can go a long way 🙂
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