Panoramic - Sibiu from Council tower - Evangelical Cathedral
13 April, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.
The Easter holiday has already come and gone, and Spring is fully sprung. I spent the Easter weekend in Sibiu, with Veronika who joined me from Slovakia. I'd heard a lot about Sibiu, so after failing to organize a lecture stop there, thought Easter would be a good time to venture to the city. Without too much trouble (thank-you Raluca B.) I managed to rent a Skoda Fabia, and Veronika and I braved the rough Romanian roads, travelling south through Cluj and eventually arriving in Sibiu. Our travelling weather was superb, and the sun was still shining well into the evening on our first night in they city. Lucky thing. It poured rain for half the day on Saturday, putting a cool wind and damper on the Sibiu sites. We stayed at a very nice little bed & breakfast hotel -- Ela Hotel -- conveniently located within walking distance of Sibiu's historic and scenic old town. On our drive back on Sunday, we made a stop in Alba Iulia, where on 1 December, 1918, the union between Transylvania and Romania was announced.
Barely back in Baia Mare two days, the 4th International Unconventional Meeting of Young Canadianists got underway on 8 April. Two years ago this meeting was my introduction to Baia Mare and Romania, so it was something of an anniversary for me. This time, however, I wasn't the only Canadian present -- Canadian participants this time included Joe Blades, Janet Paterson, Jacques Rancourt, Michelle Gadpaille, and the Ambassador of Canada, Phillipe Beaulne. Participants joined us from around Romania (Cluj, Iasi, and Bucharest), Hungary, and Czech Republic. It was a good conference, which would have been perfect if not for the general disinterest of our own Baia Mare students (a few did participate, mind you, but not as many as I had hoped or encouraged). My francophone colleagues at the university, Crina Bud and Dana Puiu, did a fine job organizing this event, under trying circumstances.
Tomorrow morning I head out on my final tour stop: Timisoara, another city well-spoken of.
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