Barely returned from my trip to Timișoara I got together with two of my best friends and boarded a train towards Sibiu. After about four and a half hours, we arrived and we were picked up by our very kind and friendly host.
Sibiu is a really nice city. I’ve visited it back in 2015 and was really impressed by it. It’s clean, the people are polite, and even if it’s a fairly small city (about 150k inhabitants), it still has a lot of attractions to fill an extended weekend.
The old city center (called “Lower city”), is the middle-sized well-preserved fortified medieval town, featuring nice pedestrian streets with beautiful buildings with “eyes” at the top floors.
The eyes, which are a symbol and a tourist attraction of the city, have given Sibiu the nicknames of The City with Eyes, The City Where Houses Don’t Sleep and the portmanteau Seebiu.
There’s not much to say about the town itself, history is omnipresent and pretty much every building in the center has a story of itself, and this makes it walking around the town a beautiful and relaxing experience.
I’ll try to keep this short and visual and not talk about the city’s attractions and what you can do (and should do) while in Sibiu, because there are hundreds of guides and articles about that, so I’ll talk a bit about some experiences here.
We got pretty unlucky with the weather, as we had very low temperatures for April (even -1ºC during one night), so this made the city feel pretty empty and deserted, at some points during the day most of the streets were empty, even the restaurants in the Big Square and Little Square were pretty empty.
If we don’t take the cold into consideration, this was actually a good thing, as we could explore the city at our own pace without having to wait in queues to objectives or wait too much for food.
Which reminds me. The culinary experience is worth the trip to Sibiu alone. All the Transylvanian dishes done here are really good and there are some really nice places where you can eat both local dishes or continental food. We did find some really good places to eat (Lili’s, La Cuptor, Fain). The price ranges from cheap to pretty expensive, depending on where you go, but the quality is good across the board.
In one of the evenings we went to Oldies Pub, which is a really nice music-inspired club where had some drinks and partied a bit, and then we went to Music Pub, which is a music inspired bar/restaurant with good food at midnight.
However, one of our favourite places to go to eat was “Oua si Unt” (literally “Eggs and Butter”), a family run brunch bistro with delicious food, home-made desserts and specialty coffee. We loved the music there (Romanian Indie and Alternative Rock), the food (I had Daisy Bun, Scrambled eggs on toast, Polenta Cake and Pancakes with mascarpone and forest fruit) and the warmth of Octavian which instantly made us feel like at home. Read more about their story in this interview in Romanian.
On the events scene, I think the city needs a bit of training, to make the people consume more concerts, as we wanted to see Ovidiu Mihailescu perform on a Thursday, but it was in a restaurant which had all the tables reserved and we couldn’t get in, even for a standing ticket.
However, we were lucky enough to catch The Kryptonite Sparks on Saturday at Love Bar, and that was really really nice. I like their music a lot and they’re super cool dudes and it’s always a pleasure to see them. I think the last time I’ve seen them perform live was back in 2019, so it was long overdue. The concert was really energetic and had a lot of fun, we talked a bit after the concert and even drunk a bit together.
My close friends know I’m very nit-picky, it doesn’t matter how well I’m feeling or how much I like something, I will sooner or later find something to be annoyed by. And with Sibiu, I have to tell you it’s the fact that there’s not a single flat surface over 10x10 centimeters. Everything here is a tripping hazard, from drops where you wouldn’t expect them, loose cobblestones on the pavement, uneven steps, partly fixed overpass grills, slippery streets and clanking sewer caps. It’s like they made one of the prettiest cities in the country and then they put fucking traps everywhere, so instead of looking at the city, you need to watch your step. That’s why for me Sibiu is not “The City with Eyes”, nor “The City Where Houses Don’t Sleep”, nor “Sibiutiful”. It’s “The City of Traps”.
In conclusion, this is a beautiful city to spend some time, to roam the streets, have a drink, eat something and spend time with nice people. I have a strong feeling I’ll come back very soon, because even with all the traps, at the end of the day, the city really is Sibiutiful. Make sure to check the Photo Dump for a many more photos.
