Luckily I looked on Google Maps to find out where our train was and it seemed we had a delay of about 2 hours. That gave me some time to explore the coach. I saw that the way Romanians look at railway security is very different from the way Belgians do. For example, the doors of the train are unblocked all the time and can thus be opened at any time, making passengers start disembarking before the train comes to a complete stop. Our coach had only 2 exit doors at one side of the coach and at the other side the inter circular door was closed with bolts, since it didn't lock properly, which made that there in fact was no proper emergency exit if there would be a fire in the corridor.
About 20 minutes before arrival, the attendant came to warn us that we should prepare to get off the train. Due to the delay we missed our connection to Sibiu, but luckily the next train was bound to leave 15 minutes after our new arrival time. We got out of our night train and changed immediately to the other train. Theoretically this train had to leave at 12h47, but at 13h05 we were still at the station with no information being distributed. We were on the right train though, as we saw other passengers with tickets for Sibiu. Finally the train manager walked through the train informing us in Romanian that we would stay there for another 25 minutes due to infrastructure problems. Luckily there was a passenger who spoke English and translated it for us, otherwise this information would have been lost for us.
At 13h30 the train finally left the station, about 45 minutes late. The train took about 1h30 to get to Sibiu. It ran through a beautiful rough landscape with some small villages spread along the line. Upon arrival in Sibiu, we quickly found a hostel not far from the station (hostel Felinarul). The hostel has its own alley way and a bed only costs 12 euro per night, breakfast included. The owner, who is a Romanian cook living with his wife in Ireland, told us that we would be the only guests, apart from 'a German guy who checked in two hours earlier'.
We walked around in Sibiu, though pitifully enough it was raining all the time. Sibiu is a nice city, with old buildings in typical Romanian style, small alleys and a gorgeous citadel. Our walk lead us to the central cemetery. On the way we visited a local mall. This mall was quite odd and not very inviting. The shops were divided by white-painted cardboard walls and the individual shops didn't have any doors, so in fact it looked as if it was one big store, like Galleria Inno in Belgium. The only thing that gave away that it were all independent shops, were the signs stating the company name of each shop. The building itself had room for escalators going up and down, though only the escalators going up were installed. The other part of the floor opening was closed with... Cardboard walls!
As we arrived at the cemetery, we saw that it was huge and stretched out as far as we could see. We didn't go in though, so we wouldn't disturb the dead. From the cemetery we returned by bus to the city centre and dined in a restaurant which was advised to us by the owner of the hostel, restaurant Crama Sibiul Vechi. As starter we took a cheese platter with local cheeses, followed by beef in spicy sauce (which wasn't really spicy at all). The food was quite good. When we finished our meal, the German guy we met in the night train from Budapest entered the restaurant, hence he was the other guy at the hostel. We learned that in the mean time two other Germans checked in at the hostel. As the German guy joined us at our table and still had to eat, we took dessert. I had apples with red forest fruit, ice cream and a pancake. It was very sweet, but very delicious!
As soon as we finished our supper, we looked for a bar. We found a hidden bar on the first floor of an old building, which had a very interesting interior: it consisted of very old classic-style couches, cupboards, tables and chairs, classic wall paintings and high ceilings. We had some drinks and then returned to the hostel, where we met the other two Germans. We asked if they knew the results of the soccer game, they didn't know though. We checked internet and were quite pleased that Belgium won 2-1 against Algeria. With this in mind, we will probably have a very good nights rest!
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