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James and Ellie in Europe
We slept in this morning, but just about managed to get ready in time to do some brief sightseeing before getting our 10 O'clock train to Sighisoara. We left the hotel and walked through the town, there were some really beautful old buildings. We wanted to see one church in particular; the moon church with a clock that tells you the current phase of the moon. There is only one like this in Europe, maybe even the world. So we were pretty excited, and very disappointed when we arrived and discovered that the church was covered in scaffolding and you couldn't see a thing!
We looked in a couple of shops, ran back to the hotel to grab our stuff and again just made the train. It was a really narrow escape this time!! So we were kind of even more distressed when we found out we didn't have our tickets with us!!! We phoned the hotel to discover that we had left them there, so we had to get off at the next stop (some 30 mins down the line) and wait an hour to get the train back again. Then we had to wait three hours in Oradea for the next train. This comletely ruined our schedule, and we had to miss out a visit to Cluj-Napoca altogether. Anyway, we had longer to spend in Oradea. We did some shopping (we had no clean clothes left at this point and had had no time to wash them), and looked for some lunch.
We had to walk a long way to actually find anywherethat looked like it might serve food, and then even further to find a place that actually did. We ate pizza. Again - not easy bein Veggie in eastern Europe!!!
We gotback on the train after lunch and prepeared ourselves for a long journey. The time passed ok, we rang ahead to the appartment we were staying in that night and explained the situation. We would not arrive there unti 11 instead of 6!
Just before arriving in Sighisoara, we started talking to this couple who we had been sharing the compartment with for some hours! They spoke perfect English and told us a lot about the surrounding area, what to see etc. We even had some cake that his mum had made - v. tasty!! Mmmmm cake! :o)
They guy had told us that there was a festical going on at the moment. When we arrived it really was very busy, and people everywhere were trying to offer us a place to stay, but we were supposed to get a taxi to our appartment. However, none of the taxi's would actually take us because the fare was so small, we were told not to waste their time!!
So we had to call the appartment again. We were told they had been waiting for us since 6! Anyway, a guy (Marian) came to meet us. It turned out we were staying in a foundation that supported abandoned children, and Marian was a social worker. The appartment was lovely, and Marian invited us for a drink the next day to talk about the work he does. He was really very nice, and we felt guilty about keeping him up for so long!
We did some washing (hurrah!) and went to bed.
Ellie and James xxx
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