Holding back the Turkish invaders!

Just about everyone knows the legend of Dracula, but most people don't know about the REAL Dracula. He was Vlad Tepes, and he was called Dracula because it meant "Son of the Devil" - his father was called Dracul ("The Devil"). Both of them were rulers in medieval Transylvania, but Dracula got the most acclaim because he was particularly ruthless. As a matter of fact, he was also called "Vlad the Impaler", a name he got because he thought a particularly good way to make the Turks think twice about invading Romania was to defeat one of their armies and then impale the Turkish soldiers on wooden stakes for the next Turkish army to come across on their way through the mountains. He actually could have also been called "Vlad the Skin-You-Aliver" or Vlad the Boil-You-Aliver" since he liked to do those things to his enemies also. I'm sure he got pretty good service at restaurants.

All legends aside, it seems one of the main occupations of Translyvanians was to hold back invading Turks, so other than using gruesome torture methods, they also built some cool castles. When they couldn't swing building a full on castle, they would fortify their town's church to be used as a refuge in case of a seige. These castles and churches, some ruined and some intact, are scattered all over the countryside around Sibiu. One of the more interesting castles is at a town called Slimnic. It is the ruin of a castle that was the site of several battles over a period of hundreds of years. It changed hands many times, and standing in the ruin, or looking out of one of the few intact towers, its easy to imagine the valley below swarming with enemy soldiers. Our project works with local organizations to enhance these sites by installing signs in multiple languages and increase access by developing tour routes that visit these sites. Click on the link for pictures of Slimnic and other fortification sites http://www.okcomputer.org/gallery/album156

New York, Chicago, Bucharest, and now - Sibiu (pronounced SEE-bee-yew!)

Well, it looks like my life has been one sprawling metropolis after another, until now. I recently moved to the not-so-sprawling burg of Sibiu, in central Transylvania. Seriously, its small, and I had my doubts at first about how much I would like it, but its turning out to be surprisingly nice. It has beautiful architecture, nice people, and for a small place, quite a few good restaurants and fun places to hang out. Being one of the few Americans living here, I am sort of a novelty to the Romanians I meet. At first, I am usually taken for being German or British, which doesn't arouse much reaction, but when I say I am American, they perk up and start asking all kinds of questions! Recently, some American friends and I invited several Romanians to go to the new bowling alley that just opened up here. None of them had played before, and since we were American and bowling is considered to be a pretty much American "sport", we were of course looked to as experts. We showed them what little we knew, and they didn't seem to mind at all that they were learning to bowl from mediocre bowlers, at best!

I've got an apartment that is located in the center of town, only a block from where I work, and conveniently located close to most of the places I need to go. I live on the ground floor of a building that is located on a small courtyard, and connected to the other buildings that surround the courtyard. I had my choice between semi-luxury modern apartments in high rises (one had a jaccuzzi tub), but chose this one because of location and the "character" it has. Rather than me describing the "character" at length, check out the pictures at http://www.okcomputer.org/gallery/album154

Walking around Sibiu is an adventure in itself, because the streets often wind up and down, with little tunnel like passageways, small pedestrian bridges, and stairways that snake between the buildings. It is in every sense a medieval town. Sometimes I expect to see a mob of peasants, armed with torches and pitchforks, storming down the street, off to kill a witch or hang someone! The picture at left is one of the tunnels I go through most days on my way to and from work. Cobblestones cover most of the streets in the town center. It is pretty common to find restaurants and bars located in old wine cellars, and one my favorites is a little jazz club called Imperium. There are also a few towers to climb where you can get a good view of the city. This link shows some pictures I took walking around "Old town" Sibiu http://www.okcomputer.org/gallery/album155