Our tourist trip to the tip

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We have the chance to go to Sighisoura with Jo, as she is visiting P”s sister who still live on the tip where P and her brother were living until their mother died. We drive through beautiful countryside, seeing local people selling beautiful copper stills and pots and pans. Apparently many people make their own hooch, a very old lady in our village offered to sell us some very acceptable cognac. The haystacks are amazing in Romania, we can see them being constructed by people cutting the hay with enormous scythes.

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We leave our car by the entrance of the tip as the ground is very bumpy and go with Jo in her 4x4. After a short distance we arrive at a small hovel, consisting of two rooms. Two partly dressed toddlers roam about without shoes and their parents come to greet us. Jo goes at least once a month with food and clothing for them. A small crowd of people join us, some of whom have built shanty homes along side the hovel we are invited to go and see. The police have ordered the family to leave the tip but they have nowhere else to go, so the atmosphere is tense and they are clearly worried. The roof on their house is rotten with large holes. There is no clean water and no utilities. There are layers of decaying lino covering the ground and the place is full of flies. But this the life that is familiar to them and Jo explains that it may take some time to adjust to modern living. Undaunted Jo offers to do what she can to help. It does seem incredible that people are living like this in an EU Country but we hear many stories of Romania’s communist history and the legacy that is left.

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As we have driven about 60 kilometers to get here, we decide to have a look at the town of Sighisoura. We head for the old Saxon fortified town where Vlad the Impaler was born. The town needs some restoration work but it is charming with little alleyways and an open square with outdoor cafes. The Saxon church has a beautiful roof consisting of different coloured tiles and an interesting looking clock that fails to deliver it’s moving figures on the hour –shame.