I had the best weather on the day I was in Sibiu, and being in this cheap and kind country made me feel absolutely wonderful.
Before I set off, many friends warned me: "Romania is dangerous" / "There are thieves everywhere" / "Taxi drivers will scam you," which really made me a bit scared before the trip. Perhaps these ideas were just hearsay without firsthand experience, leading people to think that former Soviet countries are all "poor" and have terrible security. But I found the locals here friendlier than those in Western Europe—that was my greatest takeaway from this trip.
Although many Romanians don’t speak English well, when they see you looking lost with a map, they will proactively come up to help. I believe even Hong Kong can’t do this. Once, on a train, I didn’t know where to get off (because there were no announcements like "The next station is XXX," and the platforms often had no station names), but a passenger who knew I was getting off helped me by grabbing my luggage and jumping off the train. I didn’t even have time to thank them.
Sighisoara is a beautiful, colorful ancient town, and its iconic old clock tower is simply enchanting.
Also, taking long-distance buses here feels like a foreigner taking a minibus in Hong Kong—there’s no English at all, the bus stops randomly, and who knows where you are? The bus was completely full, and the driver didn’t speak English. Instead of just nodding along, he actually asked around if anyone on the bus spoke English and found several passengers who volunteered to translate. In the end, it turned out the driver just wanted to give me a “friendly reminder”—the ride would be two hours long. He asked, “Sure?” if I could really stand for that long. Right before we started, he used his “limited English” to check.
As for restaurants, it’s just like how foreigners might feel at a cha chaan teng in Hong Kong—how can you understand those “chicken-scratch” characters? The waitstaff may not all speak English, but they still try hard to use gestures to explain the dishes. The phrase I heard most was: “Sorry I don’t know English, but...” Most of them were willing to try hard to explain, and their hospitality is truly commendable.
Perhaps because my preconceptions before the trip were so negative, the goodness of the Romanian people was beyond what I had imagined.
Bran Castle is one of the highlights for many visitors to Romania. I personally recommend the nearby Rasnov Fortress, whose scenery of “mountains within mountains and castles within castles” is also incredibly beautiful.
It rained heavily the first two days, but then the sun came out for the following days. The weather was so nice it felt like I was in a fairy-tale world. Romania’s most famous attractions are, of course, its castles (especially the so-called “Dracula’s Castle,” Bran Castle). The castles may not be as glamorous as those in Western Europe, and the churches aren’t as grand either, but I love the old-world charm preserved in their simplicity. Some castles even have a self-contained atmosphere, giving a feeling of “castles within castles and mountains within mountains.” Plus, it was the low season, with not too many tourists, so being there felt like stepping through a time tunnel into another world.
There are few large squares or Western European-style architecture in Eastern Europe. But when I arrived in Sibiu, I unexpectedly saw the beauty of East-meets-West.
Both the scenery (except for that slightly eerie capital) and the people were much better than I had imagined, even full of surprises. Maybe compared to Western European countries, the aesthetics here are slightly less refined, but they have their own unique charm. It’s worth mentioning that prices in Romania are unbelievably low. I didn’t go as an extreme budget backpacker, nor did I dine lavishly—yet my total cost for food and lodging for a week was under 2000 Hong Kong dollars.
Photos taken in Sibiu, Sighisoara Clock Tower, Bran Castle, Rasnov Fortress @ Transylvania, Romania
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