Sibiu

As I've mentioned, Sibiu is our favorite city in Romania, and we've been there about as many times as we've been to Budapest (so fair warning, this post might a snooze-fest for some of you). 

It holds many happy memories including an unforgettable gothic museum tour with my parents, Annand and Tali, where we posed in front of marble busts and mimicked Saturday Night Live skits. There have also been countless early morning walks along strada Nicolae Bălcescu with the smell of coffee and gogşi filling the air, and post-dinner strolls through Piata Mare with the lights twinkling above, 

Our visits this time weren't strictly for sight-seeing. Most of our time was spent picking out things like flooring, tile, and doors, which took us to areas of the city we've never visited before. While shopping for anything is not my favorite pastime, it afforded us the opportunity to explore other areas of the city and we found a few restaurants, cafes, and pretty walks that we've added to our list of places to return to.

Below are my randomly ordered and (let's be honest) not terribly inspired photos.

We found another traditional Romanian restaurant that takes you underground. While the food wasn't quite as good as the other place, I tried the house rose and it was surprisingly drinkable. Romania is improving in its wine offerings.

Luci's favorite shoarma place. I think he went there every single day.

Just off Piata Mare, we found a wine shop that sells Italian and Austrian wines so we're hopeful that we can buy good wine locally now. Unfortunately, we didn't get taste what we bought since we ended up giving it to Gabi Tudor when we went to his house for dinner.

This was a sweet little airbnb we stayed in. Not only was it extremely clean, but it had the advantage of being around the corner from the shwarma place Luci liked so well. 

The Friday markets. We wished we could take all of the honey back to California

This was the paneling on the bathroom wall in the other airbnbs we stayed in. An unexpected sight, to be sure.

Our favorite coffee place on Strada Nicolae Bălcescu

Second favorite coffee place on Strada Nicolae Bălcescu

It's true, the quality of wine is improving, but mostly we stuck to beer and were happy with that.

As I mentioned, the purpose of both trips was more business than pleasure and I didn't bring my camera with me on this trip so my photos are likely underwhelming. However, I've posted what I have, once again, with the ulterior motive of inducing some of you to make good on your promise to come visit us.