Sibiu & Sibiel 🇷🇴
Hey there, friends, it’s another blog post from your friendly neighborhood social worker clinician traveling through Romania!
So it’s another kind of short post today but that’s mainly just because we only did stuff in the morning and then the afternoon I spent most of the time just resting. But this morning was actually really fun because we got to go and see this brilliant, open air walkable museum outside of Sibiu; the ASTRA Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization. The museum was established as a "shelter for keeping the past." Wander among windmills, houses, cottages, workshops, and exhibits highlighting historic objects and architecture from all around Transylvania. The grounds included actual homes and buildings from different villages and neighborhoods around Romania & Transylvania that have been transported and restored so that visitors are able to see the types of architecture, living arrangements and art styles across history & from all across the country. Mom and I got to take a lot of photos of some of the different buildings, as well as going to see the unique Romanian style for houses in the smaller villages, as well as the fences, the churches, and even the school houses. After our tour museum, we of course had to stop at the gift shop because well duh!
And then a tour group went and toured this lovely little museum in Sibiel, Zosim Oancea Museum of Icons on Glass, which is dedicated to the ancient practice of painting on glass. This small museum outside of an old orthodox church contained over four dozen different unique pieces of artwork, depicting biblical stories and saints on glass painted with naturally formulated paints from plants and food items. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take any photos because you have to pay an extra 15 lei in order to take photos but I will just tell you to look it up online because it is pretty cool.
After our tour of the glass museum, we then headed to a 100% pure authentic Romanian lunch, which was absolutely delicious. I do have to say on this trip for the past 3 1/2 weeks I’ve been spoiled when it comes to the food that I’ve been able to eat . This lunch included the Romanian specialty dish which involves mincemeat wrapped in cabbage with a side of polenta. Not usually what I’d order, but it was quite delicious. And we also got to taste some freshly made wine made from grapes that are grown right outside the restaurant .
We headed back to Sibiu. Our tour guides told us that we had the rest of the afternoon to do as we wish. Mom and Pat and I all really kind of needed the afternoon to re-organize our bags and to rest a little bit so we all three went to our rooms to take care of our own stuff. Myself I spent the time re-organizing my suitcase since tomorrow we head back to Bucharest to an airport hotel, and then a very very early Monday morning flight back to the states.
That’s the news for today; don’t be surprised if tomorrow’s also kind of a short report as well since I think our plan is just to tour one more orthodox church, and then we head to Bucharest and try to catch a few hours of sleep before we have to head out to our very early morning flights home. But of course, if there is anything to share, you know, I will be happy to include it in my stories.
Till tomorrow my gentle readers
Lowry 💜
