The Zike-Bike Diaries: Sibiu

Although it's only 218 km between Obedin and Sibiu (135 miles), it takes just over four hours to drive there. Most of the roads are two lanes and pass through villages where people are walking or riding bikes so you never really go faster than 50 km/hr (about 30 mph). The exception to this, of course, is if you are an idiot, in which case you pass other cars on blind curves and in clearly marked "no passing" zones. Romania has no shortage of idiot drivers and I've spent many a blogpost complaining about them. However, one of the nice differences between the south and north is that the farther north you go, the safer and more polite the drivers are. Not 100% safer, mind you, there will always be the idiot in the BMW or Mercedes (99 times out of 100 they'll be in one of those cars) but the improvement is noticeable.
Some of the other differences are that it is cleaner in the north and the water is better (to be fair, there is no municipal water in Obedin, we use a well and that water can't be consumed).
All of the niceties aside, Sibui remains my favorite Romanian city because it's full of theaters, museums, and art galleries. I have a long tradition of going to Sibiu and failing to see any of the above. There are advertisements for museums everywhere, there are booklets thick with details of the theater schedules but do I ever get to go? That's a(n almost) never (for the sake of honesty I have to admit that I've been to two museums here).
For some inexplicable reason, we're always using Sibiu as a sort of stop over, spending one night at Hotel Ibis and then rushing off elsewhere the following day. We have great meals and enjoy lovely cups of coffee in charming coffee shops but do I get to go to the theater? Again, not really, no.
I have a deal with myself that if I am ever diagnosed with a terminal illness, I'm going to book a flight to Romania and spend a week in Sibiu, doing nothing but going from art gallery to museum to live performance and repeat.
Until I am diagnosed, I will walk the city streets and you can see a sample of what Sibiu has to offer-from the outside of the theaters and museums of course.

The following dozen plus photos are from Griffin and Logan. It's January so we've got a lot of grey skies in the background.

The following are less impressive snapshots taken with my camera phone but I'm the one documenting the details of our trip so you're stuck with me

A bookstore with a cafe underneath

Proof that we didn't make up Mircea's name

Another cafe where we got ourselves (overly) pumped with caffeine before we left

Books stapled to the wall in the cafe. I don't know why they did it but it was actually a cool effect

Griffin impressing me with his willingness to walk up to the gogoșerie and order a pastry all on his own. He even paid for it using Romanian money with no assistance from anyone. They are delicious pastries by the way, my favorite is cheese and dill.

Very early morning caffeine. Even though it was Jan 3rd and technically the holiday is over, almost no one in Sibiu seemed willing to acknowledge that fact and we were hard pressed to find a cafe open at 7:30 in the morning