Longer than expected journey from Bulgaria to Romania
It was Saturday and we had been standing at the Bulgarian-Romanian border for ages. Even though both states belong to the EU, border control is taken seriously here. A woman in our bus did not have a permit to travel across the border with her child and finally had to turn back to Bulgaria.
More hours passed before me and my Bulgarian buddy arrived in Sibiu afterwards, although the distance is not very far. In Romania, however, there are only a few highways, so that the bus sneaked around on country roads. Finally the clock struck almost midnight and we finally reached our destination in Transylvania, also called Siebenbürgen. To make matters worse, my travel bag was broken, so I had to carry it on my back instead of rolling it.
German heritage
Sibiu also has the German name "Hermannstadt", because the region of Transylvania was formerly inhabited by many Germans. But since a massive wave of emigration after World War II, only a few Germans remain living in the region. In 2007 about 2000 Germans called Sibiu their place of residence, in the 1970s it was ten times as many. Even today you can still see some German signposts. And the newspaper Hermannstädter Zeitung informs the inhabitants weekly in German about the latest news in the German community.
The German influence can also be seen in the architecture of the old town. Noble Saxon history is evident in every Art Nouveau building, the brick roofs and the gold-embossed churches. A distinctive feature of this city are the windows, which are shaped like eyes and seem to stare at you.
The tourists are all concentrated in the small centre of the city, as the rest of the city is not really worth seeing. For me as a German, the German-style buildings were of course not very impressive, but surely this is unusual for an Eastern European city.
A center of culture since many decades
Famous composers such as Strauss, Brahms and Liszt played here in the 19th century, and even today many festivals are held here for music, opera, theatre or even film lovers. The first hospital, the first school, the first library and the first pharmacy of the country were built here.
Even when we were there, a medieval festival was taking place, where dances were performed during the day or you could try typical local specialities. In the evening rock bands played on a big stage.
"You MUST speak Romanian in Romania"
Together with my buddy I visited a small bistro next to the local market. Neither of us understood Romanian, which, unlike most languages in Eastern Europe, does not belong to the Slavic but to the Latin language family, so it is more related to Spanish.
So we asked the twenty-something cashier if he could explain to us what he was offering. First I wanted to find out if he could speak English.
"Sure" he answered. And he added "But I don't want to speak English here. You are in Romania you MUST speak Romanian", this idiot said. We left the place immediately.
Such a self-centred impertinence has never happened to me in any country before and is in some ways typical of Romanians. To ask a tourist to already speak the language of the country he is visiting seems to border on debility. If you live in a foreign country for a long time - of course, then you should learn the language of the country. This is a matter of respect and appreciation of the culture in which one is staying. However, to require this for short stays shows an attitude of arrogance.
In general, Romanians are patriotic and often emphasise how great Romania actually is. A Romanian I met said almost after every sentence: "Everything is better in Romania". Well, let's see about that...
