Today, a day off.

I woke at 6.30 am, shortly before my alarm. A fitful night's sleep - I woke every hour on the hour. I'm hoping it was the death rattle of my jetlag.  Eli and I met for breakfast and made plans to head to the salt mines, a local historical landmark, but our ride ended up not quite happening. Instead, we thought we'd wander the city a bit. Shortly out of the hotel, we came across a banner for the National Theatre, which had a segment devoted to War of the Clowns:

The poster was in a large central square, where the second-largest church in Transylvania sits, along with a number of tents connected to the film festival:

The salt mine trip wasn't happening, but instead, we headed to the botanical gardens. The gardens were not far from the central of town, so we walked. We passed this storefront (this one's for you, Liz & Josh):

and a funky house with an improvised porch:

The botanical gardens were lovely.  The plants themselves seemed well-tended.  Eli thought the roses looked great, and there was a Japanese garden, an Italian garden, a cactus garden, a palm greenhouse, and a rambly forest.  The plants were tended well, but the grounds around the plants were a little less manicured.  Weeds were everywhere, paint was peeling, and there was the occasional piece of garbage tossed in a creek (bonus - there was a creek and a small waterfall!).  Huntington Gardens this was not, but it was a lovely park, and quite worth the $1.70 entrance fee.

The park was a atop a hill, and within the park was a tower. If you climbed the tower, you can see the town laid out below.  The spire in the center below is the same spire in the second picture above.

Climbing down from the tower, someone had written a grave warning in the cement:

After the gardens, we headed back into town for a bit of shopping (me for a book and a watch, Eli for a hat - fruitless on both our parts), lunch, and a siesta.  I took a small nap before meeting Eli for an afternoon of wandering.  We headed northwest from the town square, past a bunch of decrepit buildings...

...and into a beautiful park, packed with families and lovebirds walking hand-in-hand.

Eli had been trying to find a pool to swim in, and once we found it, we headed back to the main part of town to catch a movie in the town square after dark:

We only stayed for the first half, partly because it's long, partly because we were tired, and partly because it's so slow!

Tomorrow, back to rehearsal!  And my first play in Romania... I'll let it be a surprise for you...