General Impressions

I rushed through the Hungarian portion of the drive, essentially as we didn't make any significant stops and the drive is the plains. We didn't find the views that fascinating. Would have liked to stop in Szeged, which looked very nice, but you have to sacifice somewhere. We were planning more time in Hungary later.

I have to say here in that crossing the border, you very quickly realize you have arrived somewhere different. Hungary is full of tidy towns and cities, even with the occasional soviet block style building on the outskirts of town, with plenty of evidence of Hungary's ever growing connection with the West. But... when you cross the border into Romania, the clock goes ahead one hour, while the year almost seems to turn back to the 18th century in places. If you didn't see cars, power lines or the occasional satellite dish, you could be 200 years in the past in many towns and villages. One aspect of driving that we liked was the legacy of neatly lined mature trees down both sides of almost every road, the base of each trunk painted white. Not always the same species from road to road, but on any given stretch, they'd all be obviously planted as a beautification process from some years ago and still well kept.

I swear, I always saw horse carts in photos from Romania, but I figured people had just sort of sought out these photos on the chance they saw one passing by, which of course still occurred somewhat more frequently than the rest of Europe. Nooooo. This is not true. Horse carts are everywhere, all over the roads, even the major highways. In cities. You can drive through a tiny village along a main road and have to swerve around 4 or 5 in the time it takes to get through town. They share the road with bicyclists. And dogs. And herds of cattle. Sheep. Horses ala cart (which in this case means "without cart"). Chickens, ducks, geese, cats and even a pig. Bicyclists. There are almost no fences and we made a bit of a game out of trying to think of what kind of barnyard animal we had not yet seen on the road. Finally seeing a pig standing on the shoulder made it a full house. And people on the roads. Everyone stands on the side of the road to talk. Hitchhikers, including very elderly women and entire families waving in a distinctive style to indicate they need a ride. When they see that the car is foreign, the waving arms drop like rocks. Or it could have just been the sight of us.

At this point, if you're thinking that this is turning into a negative report, this is not the case. This is one of the most fascinating environments I've ever seen. We had a great time. Some of the nicest, most welcoming people I ever met were met on this trip. Now if we only knew what they were saying.

Just getting started. Make coffee... lots of it.

I'm doing Budapest last, by the way, as it's been done very well by so many others anyway.

Clifton,

Great report. Waiting for more.

Clifton, for someone who is writing his first report you are doing a fantastic job!!! What a read. I can hardly wait for the rest of your report.

What an intersting trip. Thank you for sharing.

Excellent trip report, CLifton. I'm waiting for more. We traveled in Romania and Budapest about 30 years ago, so I'm very interested to hear more about it today.

On the road (Pt 1 of ???)

We got a bit lost in Arad and wound around in a very bizarre way to get on the track to Timisoara. Arad is a good way to become shell-shocked quickly. I say this in case anyone enters Romania and quickly considers doing a U-turn. Arad looks rough but it's not indicative of the country as a whole. It's dusty, the streets are broken, the buildings are run down soviet style in most cases and the traffic is chaotic. A four lane road with double parked horse carts and Dacias. Drivers just weave and hop the curb, driving down the cobblestoned tram lines to get by. So we did too. This, for some odd reason, made me smile. Still does. Just get through Arad and you'll be fine. We did get a little lost. The signs were Deva/Timisoara all the way through, but suddenly it was just Deva (east). Knowing Timisoara was south, we took the south road which was unlabeled. Many, many blocks down the road and after a spirited discussion of the wisdom of our choice (of both the southern route and of Romania in general), we see a Timisoara sign that points hard left. Down a single, winding, rutted, cobblestone lane, more of an alley really, that meanders through town and through the stares of residents nearby. Yet the signs DO say "Timisoara" and my wife, to this day, swears that was the right road all along. It was the narrow alley and the fact that there was a tram track in the middle of this alley that I hold as evidence that there had to be a better way. Either way, we managed to connect with a suspiciously good road after 20 blocks or so and were on our way again. For those of you who are now certain that this isn't your kind of trip, please do know that this was about 20 mins of weirdness in an otherwise much more relaxing trip.

Timisoara

The roads and highways are 95% ok on the major and even secondary routes. A few are pretty rough, but most were quite good for 2 lane shoulder-less roads. If a road was good, it was pretty much all good. The two bad ones we found were pretty much all bad from start to finish and you knew it was going to be slow going for a while and could have been avoided.

This region is called the Banat and is about as flat as the plains of Hungary. We stayed in Timisoara for the night and this is the one town that felt a tiny bit dicey. Nothing we could put our finger on. I think it's that it's not geared for tourism yet, so we stood out here in a way we didn't anywhere else on the trip. Not that Romania itself is a hotspot in general, but Timisoara is well off the usual path. Yet, there is so much potential here. To Romanians, it is the city of flowers. This was a Habsburg city and some of the piatas show how great the town can be again. There's an Eiffel-designed bridge in town. It's horizontally striped Metropolitan Cathedral in deep red and orange is just so striking standing at the end of Piata Victoriei, a very long, bustling square with the Opera house at the opposite end. Umm, there's a McDonalds here too. Anyway. Standing on height at the top of the stairs, a line of people stream into the cathedral. We entered and slipped into a corner and watched each person walk up the rug to the priest for a blessing. No pews in this cathedral, but fascinating geometric painted patterns everywhere. Later we watched the priests swing the incense in a ritual that no one else was there to see.

When I step out on the Cathedral landing and was looking across the square, I was thinking about how much fairly recent history occurred in this square. This was where the local priest sparked the revolution of 89. The protestors were shot on these steps. Cafes line the walks where tanks had been just 15 years ago. Really something. Timisoarans are very proud of this history and memorials and street names reflect this everywhere.

It was also in this square that our first AND second pickpocket attempts occurred. They weren't even close though. I give the attempts a 4 and 2, respectively.

Higher up in the town is the Piata Unirii. By the way, the "t" in Piata is one that has a "tail" on it. I'm sure there's a proper name for this letter, but... it sounds like a "tz", making piata pronounced like the Italian "piazza". There'll be a quiz... Piata Unirii is a perfectly square plaza lined with a variety of regal Baroque buildings in search of a little care. I suspect this will someday be one of the most loved public spaces. Right now, age has sort of lent a mystique to the place, especially at dusk when we were there. Opposite each other on this square are the Catholic Church and Serbian Orthodox Church. One of my favorite buildings of the trip was also here. Just such a whimisical facade on it.

We stayed at the Hotel Banatul. Well, it was very clean and the bed was comfortable and right around the corner from Piata Victoriei. Have to admit that it was very basic and somewhat dreary. Think furnishings and bathroom doors made of plywood. But very nicely painted plywood in teal! High ceilings, big room, the shower was good and there was a Tv and a fridge. For a night it was ok. Paid 1300000 lei for the night. Get used to these big numbers! It was $42. Mo credit card accepted, but three atms on the block.

We ate outside at Lloyd, a restaurant in Piata Victoriei. It was a really nice night, just a heavy shirt or sweater was enough. For the life of me, I can't remember what my wife had but I remember I had a chicken schnitzel with mushroon side items and serbian rise that it wasn't bad. They had one pair of english menus in the place. What I do recall is that I tried the local lager called Timisorean that was very good. Much better than Urqell. Had crepes for dessert and paid approx $22 for 2. This was to become a pattern, except for a switch to bottles of good Romanian wine at $4-5 per 750mL bottle.

Come morning, we caught some early light for photos. We moved on southeast through Lugoj (a very pretty town along a small river) and Caransebes on a fairly rough highway, due to trucks, and headed into the Retezat Mountains and through the Iron Gates of Transylvania.

Next up: The Roman ruins at Sarmizegetusa, the church of Densus and Corvinus Castle at Hunedoara. But first, sleep.

I just realized that you all posted last night. Middle of the night and I figured no one would have been up reading all this. I ran out of steam.

Thanks for the kind words and that someone doesn't mind a long ramble.

Marilyn, you have been everywhere! I'm curious too how much must have changed in that time. Think of amount of history that past right in between. I bet a lot of it though has hardly changed a bit.

Will shoot for more tonight.

Thanks for posting, Clifton.

Verrrryyy interesting.

What a fascinating report, Clifton. Thanks for all the time you're putting into it.

This may sound like a very pedestrian comment, but I do appreciate the paragraph breaks! It makes reading so much easier!

Love the report, fascinating! Looking forward to more

GREAT report, Clifton! For a beginner, you're a natural!

Clifton, I hope to visit Romania someday, and I'm hanging on your every word. I look forward to reading more soon.

You tell a great story. Can't wait for the rest. Oh well, back to work....

Clifton, I am at work (travel agency)
and eventhough I'm quite hungry.. I read all thtough it !
You see here in Mexico it is difficult to get info for these countries so... thank you thank you ! what a report !!
Olga---

Aw, well. Thanks, glad you all are enjoying it. Here comes another one.

Sarmizegetusa
Going through the Retezat Mountains is a very pretty drive but not as dramatic as other ranges we went through later. The roadway runs through a valley once you cross a low pass called the Iron Gates of Transylvania and is surrounded by meadows and forested hills. And haystacks. It was harvest time and everywhere you looked throughout Romania, people are working by hand, horse and plow in the fields. Tall, old fashioned haystacks and corn stalk stacks abound throughout the countryside, each stacked around a make shift pole and braced by carefully placed branches. They dot the horizon everywhere. Horse carts are piled high with hay; corn stalks; women in head scarves and goulashes; men in hats, kids in Adidas. Workers along the roads carry wooden rakes and scythes. There are tractors here and there, more the exception than the rule. In many towns, you see a Polizia sign in the middle of town and sure enough, standing on the side of the road, next to the sign, is a uniformed officer. To top it off these drives, the autumn colors were still in much of their glory throughout the country, with only a few bare species. Yellows and oranges covered the hills and mixed with the evergreens, with only the reds past their prime. I bet a week to two earlier would be fantastic.

If there were ever iron in the Iron Gates, we didn't see it now. Whether it was at one time literal, I don't know. It was, from reading, a choke point of defense against the many waves of invaders over the years. From this point, we rolled down into the valley looking for the ruins. We crossed into and back out of the small town called Sarmizegetusa and pulled over, trying to figure out where we went wrong as there is only the one road. Doubled back to ask the officer when we spied the site right across from him. There's not a lot left in the way of marble and columns, but the foundations of the buildings and amphitheater remain. It was a site built by the Romans after defeating the Dacians who had a settlement of the same name just up the road. The Roman way of establishing their presence. They left a last impression here that remains in the language. Further, there are a number of statues of Romulus and Remus and the shewolf we saw displayed in various cities. If I recall correctly, there is a column in Rome that Trajan erected to commemorate the victory and the creation of Sarmizegetusa. Best of all, it's a great place to get out and stretch the legs, absorb the scenery and history and there's no admission charge.

Densus
Just up the highway and down a side road a few miles is the church of Densus. Unfortunately we found it in shored up with wooden beams and in scaffolding, it's interior closed for repairs. This church is such an anomoly, it's nice to see that it's being preserved. It's down at the end of a lane in a small village, with the caretaker's farmhouse right next door.

For those not familiar, this is an ancient church built simply without plans and I'd guess without a budget. It's built from whatever the local builders could find. Amazingly, what they found in medieval times was what the Romans left behind at Sarmizegetusa. It's such an oddity, but fascinating. As you walk around it, you see red brick, giant stone granite blocks and river stone all sort of meshed together in the walls. But most amazing, as you peer closer, is you see roman inscriptions on marble turned any which way, built right in with the rest. Several Roman artifacts lie around, including one deeply inscribed tablet leaning up against a transylvanian style lookout tower in the church yard. No two windows in the church are alike. The steeple bulges in odd spots. I'd have liked to have gone in to see the bones in the floor.

When we got there, a bus had just pulled up. Not a tour bus, but a bunch of Romanian kids of about 8 to 10 years old on a field trip. It was fun to watch them getting the pent-up road energy out, one teacher pleading for order "Va rog, VA ROG" (please, please) with little success. It's always good to have a stern 2nd along, and they did. An apparently retired drill instructor of a woman who had them lined up in seconds once she shouted a single command. Cool trick. The kids seemed to be enjoying the visit and the church caretaker helped each to light a candle in the Morti box out front. (these are in front of every church). They tried to talk to us, the poor folk who could only say "Nu inteleg Romaneste". But they talked anyway, me showing the camera when asked and my wife in the midst of the swarm. Nice kids. Then came the puppies up from the farmhouse. This took time and my wife picked her favorite who warmed quickly to her as well. As the kids filed down the hill, the woman who is caretaker and we stood and had a conversation in bits and pieces, mostly in gestures about the trouble that puppies always are.

Hunedoara and the Corvinus Castle
We stopped in Hateg, a boxy town with lots of communist influence, to get gas and moved on. Use one of the pumps that don't say diesel, unless of course, the car takes diesel. In other words, it was easy to figure out the difference. Modern gas stations with little convenience stores for soda and snacks are frequently available and the gas is cheaper than in Hungary by about 10-15%. Petrom stations are common. But again, no credit cards without a pin, which ours didn't have. Just as well.

We moved on north into Hunedoara. The south approach into town showed your average Romanian town. A bit down but overall, it was fine. The more common approach from the north, which was our departure route, is heavily industrial and not at all attractive. But this was a major destination in our plans, a must see for me. As we wound through the town, my wife spotted the castle before I did, in between houses. "whoa, is that it?"

This castle is something I don't know how to begin to describe in enough dimensions. It's huge and gothic and intact, sans furnishings. As you approach and especially as you pull through the gates into the parking lot in front, it just keeps getting bigger and more ominous. I've seen quite a few names for this 14th century castle: Corvin, Corvinus, Hunedoara, Hunyadi, Hunezadi, Castelul Huniazilor. It was the ancestral home of Ioan Hunyadi and his son, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. Vlad Tepes' (Dracula) brother was said to have been walled up within this castle as Corvinus was at times benefactor or enemy of the Tepes. There is a very small museum of artifacts housed inside. There were only us and a French couple touring the castle at the time, so it was quiet other than a xylophone player in one wing and an accompanying violinist playing in the great hall in another.

As I said, I can't describe how overwhelming the castle is, so a picture may do more justice.

http://www.travelisfatal.com/ro/Hunedoara Top row, third picture from the left

It's not a great picture, as the sun is almost never where you want it, but the arch doorway you can just see at the top of the ramp is about 15 feet high. This place is impressive in dimension, but you've probably got that by now. The portion of the "castle" in City Park in Budapest was modeled after the real deal here. The rest are other views.

Admission was 40000 lei. 78 cents, US. A bargain at any price.

While this was a very long day, we'd awoke early (and we're not morning people) and were up almost at sunrise. So we still had daylight on our side and headed for Sibiu, with a quick spin through the villages of the Marginimea Sibiului.

Great report, Clifton. Will you be posting pictures?

Duh. I skipped over your last post. Thanks for the links!

Good point! Actually, I guess I ought to go ahead and post the addresses instead of bits at a time, eh?

So here goes:

Photos

Romania: http://www.travelisfatal.com/ro/

Hungary: http://www.travelisfatal.com/hu/

I put a map up to show the route we took in each country and the links next to the map are the individual photo galleries. Yes, we got carried away, but be greatful that this is only about a quarter of the total number we took.

I see from your route map that you left out Bucharest. Was that purposeful, or did it just not work out logistically?

Wellll.. yeah, that was a subject a number of times as we talked through this. Time-wise, I I think we made a choice that made sense. I feel like we missed something (although not the only place we ended up missing) and when it came down to it, we just couldn't find enough positives about Bucharest's reputation to give up something elsewhere. Couple that with fact that we're usually small town/small city/countryside lovers and it made sense. Yet, we both loved wandering around Budapest, so who knows?

Clifton, neat trip report, neat photos.

Funny, I was just thinking to myself today, "What kind of posts do I enjoy?" Do I read posts about places that aren't in my immediate plans to visit or places I haven't been? "No," I thought, "No I don't."

Yet your post was very interesting to me, fun to read. I think it must have been the title that pulled me in, and once here, your report made me stay.

Mary Fran

Great report, but unbelievable photos! I plan to spend a lot more time enjoying these!

A correction on the last full post. Admission to Corvinus was 24000 lei.

Sibiel

We caught up with the main Arad-Deva-Sibiu E68 highway just north of Hunedoara and headed east. This highway moves, with some of the same highly questionable leapfrogging techniques we'd seen on the other major roads, but at a greatly increased speed. Still a two lane road, but a very good surface and a shoulder. We followed the custom of driving half on the shoulder at first, which allows cars to straddle the center line despite on coming trucks. This doesn't work so well when two opposing directions both decide to do it at the same time, but it seemed to work. Got a little carried away and joined in for a bit until I noticed we were keeping up and doing 130-150Kmhr between towns. Probably not the best idea, but by that time we were at the turnoff for Saliste and Sibiel.

These towns in the Marginimea Sibiului (margins of Sibiu) are a bit more tourist aware, I think, than most with exception of the Bran area. They've had some assistance from a French agency to help promote tourism in the region. The streets in the two towns are nicely kept and the houses freshly painted in whites and pale pastels. But they're not over the top, at least not in a souvenir stand sort of way. They have quite a few pensiunes available and my thought is that this would be a nice area to stay in if you wanted to relax, absorb a bit and not do a lot. Hiking, farmstays, etc. Sibiel was my favorite, as it has a community well right in the center of town, and a small stream cascading beneath a little one lane wooden bridge. Cows mosey home through the center, sometimes prodded along by a woman in a black housedress, sometimes of their own accord. The village is known for it's painted glass icons, and there is a village museum of the handiwork work next to the town church, adjoining the graveyard. Mostly we just mosied too, seeing a little, taking a few photos.

We didn't spend enough time here, I thought, but we wanted to get to Sibiu. Ben Haines had spoke highly of it and all I'd read supported that idea, so we wanted to get there before dark. At this point, we'd skipped lunch and were in need of liquid refreshment other than Coke Light. More importantly, bicyclists and horses are hard to see after dark on these roads.

Needing to do other things (imagine that), but we're on next to the Eyes of Sibiu and the full moon over Transylvania

Mary Fran, you know, I had debated writing one, for the opposite side of the same sort of reasoning. Thinking that if there wasn't much on Romania here, then there was probably reason for that. I'm glad I started though, it's sort of interesting to mentally review this stuff and to pick and choose what photos to post. I'm glad you've been enjoying it.

grasshopper, I think that most of it has to do with how photogenic these places are. This was our first run with this camera, and I'm never ever happy with how my pics turn out as it is. Well, maybe except for a few. I think the ones my wife took were better. She mostly did her camcorder, but snapped a few on the Nikon while I drove. Those would be ones without the thumb.

Clifton, this is just wonderful. We have brand new Romanian neighbors who talk a bit about their former country when asked. They have piqued my interest in a future trip to Romania. I am appreciating your insight into a place I had not really thought much about until just recently, and you have a clever writing style. It is fun and easy to read.

Clifton, the pictures are amazing, quite a few of them are postcard quality. And thank you for writing about this God forgoten place - although it does not have a proper turism industry and has it's own many problems it's still a warm, beautiful and interesting place.
I'm happy to see that you made it to Sapanta - a place that I've been dreaming about visiting. But I'll let you talk about it when the time comes.
Impatiently waiting to read about curses and blessings and cabbage.

Great report, Clifton.

Thanks for the pix.

Loving your report, you're an excellent and entertaining writer. And, your pictures are GREAT!

Romania has always been on my list of places to go, I'm now moving it up to the top . . . maybe this summer????

Can't wait for the next installment . . .

Sandy (in Denton)

Clifton,

Your trip report is fantastic. Please write more. I have one question for you-did you make it to Sarospatak? If so, do you recommend it? We are thinking of taking the train to Eger and then maybe on to Sarospatak. Can you recommend accommodations in Sarospatak?

Happy Travels, Ellen

Fantastic trip report. Thank you... and do please continue.

-Sharon

Clifton,
What a great report (and photos)! I'm hanging on every word...

mutter... can't believe I actually typed "greatful" in a past post. And thanks again, you all are very kind and well, apparently easy to please Here we go again.

Sibiu
Pulling into Sibiu, the outskirts of the city look like quite a few other towns, frankly. A bit modern, a bit ragged around the edges, a bit of that legendary Marxist style. But once you get closer in, even before the walled center, Sibiu is nice. We had some fun trying to get to the top of the citadel. You'd think this would be straightforward enough - there's a sign that says "Centru" as you pass through any city that has a center. Even an arrow. Yet in Sibiu, we'd drive back and forth past the ramparts, pointing upward and trying to figure out why getting up there from down here should be so much harder than you'd think. The trick: Turn off of the main drag that comes in from either Brasov or Deva (depending on your direction and turn not onto the street directly in front of the Bulevard Hotel, but on the one running parallel to it. This will take you right to the cathedral and around behind the piatas without ending up driving right into the square and pedestrian areas.

Sibiu, without a doubt, was my favorite urban setting in Romania. And darned but we didn't allow enough time for it because we did have one reservation within Romania a couple of days later and I wanted to get well up into the mountains at least once before then. If there is one thing I'd have changed about the trip, it would have been to spend more time in Sibiu.

Sibiu has much of the jewelbox feeling of Timisoara, but in an atmosphere that's less edgy, more laid back, less concerned with the presence of outsiders. There's good and bad in that. I like edgy. But as a foriegner, you can't help but notice that you get noticed as you travel around. In Timisoara and in small towns, people will watch you. People would walk out to meet each other in the road as we pass and huddle, pointing at the car as we drove on. Harmlessly, so it didn't bother us, but Sibiu and the following time in Sinaia were a break from that feeling. That is, except for the Eyes of Sibiu! Feel free to imagine a dramatic crescendo here.

The old town centers around 3 plazas at different elevations. The Piata Mare (the Large Square), Piata Mica (the Small Square), Piata Huet (the Square I didn't translate). Each are cobblestoned and Piatas Mare and Mica are interconnected by walking beneath the town's clock tower called the Councilor's Tower. There are towers all around the outer points of the old town. Around the Piata Mare's edge and on the side streets leading off are the Evenagelical Cathedral (Vlad's son is buried here. Sorry, can't escape the connections), the Brukenthal Museum and museums on ancient phamaceuticals, transylvanian artifacts and the history museum. The Piata Mica is the more interesting of the two main plazas. It is in a "C" shape, wrapped around a decending ramp of street proportions down into the new town. There is an ornate cast iron bridge that spans the ends of the "C" to cross over the ramp. This is called the Liar's Bridge. The legend - there's always a legend - is that if you tell a lie on the bridge, it will collapse beneath you. Therefore showing contributing negligence in any subsequent lawsuits. Beautifully restored buildings surround the piatas.

It's an active center, but be aware that if you need an ATM, you may to walk a couple blocks to just outside the ramparts to Piata Unirii. We found 2 there across the Coposu Blvd at the mini-mall. As we arrived, droves of people were getting off work and across the piatas.

Sibiu is called Hermannstadt by the Saxons, who built the city. They were brought in by the Hungarians when this was Hungarian territory and given land and rights in exchange for holding the lines of the frontier. They built a series of fortified cities across Transylvania and villages would fortify the church as a peasant fortess. Sibiu was one of these cities. Almost every town, big and small, in this area has a Romanian name, a German name and a Hungarian name. Even Transylvania itself is called Transilvania, Siebenburgen and Erdely in those three languages, respectively.

Oh yeah, the plot. We pulled into Sibiu as it was getting dark and we finally found our way above the walls. Still, we were trying to get to a hotel called the Imparatul Romanilor (aka The Roman Emperor). A nice old building with lots of character. We circled more once in the old town and parked back behind Piata Mica as we didn't have our bearings really. Left the bags and walked across both piatas to get to the hotel, which is just off Piata Mare, half block down on Strada N Balsescu, which is a pedestrian street, sort of. Saw a few cars, but also a blockade. We went into check in and find out about parking. They gave us a route that wound around to a small lot right behind the hotel. $1.50 a night for guarded parking.

This hotel is not characteristic of most of the rest of the trip but it was closest to the center, which is a biggie for us. And as it turns out, we really liked our room. But we paid $70 per night for it. Only the hotel in Sinaia cost as much. But the room. Had a kind size bed, turned on a diagonol. And still you couldn't reach the walls while sitting on the edge of the bed. Had a mini-fridge, tv and a soaking tub. But the reason I liked this room (remember, this sort of thing is usually not a big deal for us) was the view. We were on the top floor and out the window is a full on view of the Orthodox cathedral. Wow. It's modeled after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the light hit it perfect in the morning. You have to see a picture to get a small part of the full effect.

http://www.travelisfatal.com/ro/Sibiu/pages/sibiu_cath.html

We ate at a little restaurant just across the street and down a bit called Restaurantul Mara. Nothing fancy at all about the furnishings, but the wait staff is young and very nice and professional. Here we had some food that was more traditionally Romanian. Sarmale is a pork spiced meatball cooked within either a grape leaf, or more likely as in this case - cabbage. Tada! There's one down from the title. And here it was very very good. I had it a couple of times later and it was never quite as tender and flavorful as it was here. There was a light sauce with it which had a swirl of sour cream to top it off. Then there is the wine. My wife doesn't really care for red wines. We did find a Chianti she liked once, but never found it available again. So, anyway, we mostly choose a bottle of white when we both have wine. It's ok with me, I like some of either. We picked a dry Reisling off of the menu. Dry is good as long as it's not terribly acidic. Not at all like the sweet Reislings. Throughout the trip, we always picked Romanian wines and they generally ran about $4. Only had a couple of clunkers but the Varancea Cotesti at Mara was a winner. Total meal for 2 - 595000 lei. A little over $18.

Took a walk along the squares down to the ATMs and then up to the Hallers Bastion before turning in.

In the morning, I wandered out early (again??) and went looking for the light. There were groups families spilling out of arched entryways and gated courtyards everywhere as kids all tromped around me heading for school. We wandered around and went down once covered staircase to the new town and back up another. Breakfast was included in the room, so we ate in the hotel dining room from the buffet, then wandered some more, down to the cathedral and back. Now, about the eyes of Sibiu. There is building after building that have "eyes" within the roof. Usually a pair of ventilation openings that appear as eyes. I didn't make this term up - Sibiu is famous for them. And it really does feel like you're being watched by the town itself. Check the Sibiu section of the pictures, on the last of the Sibiu pages to see what they look like.

As I said, I wished we'd had more time and someday, I think we'll visit Sibiu again. But on this day we walked over to the little grocery across the way, a couple of doors down from the Mara. They had a nice selection of fresh pastries at a separate counter just inside the door. We picked up a couple of fresh french cremes (we used to call the creme horns) for 20 cents each and were on our way to the mountains for a walk.



Time for bed...

Sandy, I do think it's a beautiful place and fascinating. I would say, do read a lot on the subject, as our experiences may have been lucky. I guess what I'm saying is I don't want to mess up anyone else's vacation!! It is a challenging place as well and there is poverty. The comfort zone changed at the border, but I'd still go back and hope to in the future. When you do go, I'd love to read how your trip went too.

ellenblum - Actually, we did make it to Sarospatak, but we didn't spend the night. We stopped in Tokaj from exhaustion and just drove up to Sarospatak the next day. It really seems to be a very nice town, but we only saw the castle and there wasn't an English tour available at the time.

YIKES, the buildings do have eyes!! What a unique and fascinating place this must have been. I wanna go!!

.....I'm still hanging on your every word, and I look forward to more tales and pics.

Clifton-if this is your 1st shot at writing a trip report, you've made the grade and passed with flying colors! Excellent read! And it appears that you had fun writing this as well. To repeat what's already been said, thanks for sharing!!! Thank goodness you're not a man of few words!

Opting for fewer words seems good right about now. I think I'm tripling the amount written on Fodors about Romania. Should have just stuck with basic facts. Too late now, but I'll try to shorten it up a bit...


The Fagaras Mountains
Heading east out of Sibiu, we got most of the way along to the town of Fagaras when we decided to discuss what we wanted to do next. What we both felt like doing was on a southern turn off about 10 minutes behind us. We'd both thought that taking in a little mountain scenery would be nice, so we doubled back and took the road towards the Trans-Fagaras pass. The Fagaras is the highest range in the Carpathians, and this pass is one of the few crossing them and the highest. It's usually only open in warm weather months, but it had not snowed yet this year. Some patches of snow remain on the ground all year, but it was very pleasant temperatures. The mountains in this area are up to 2500m, with Moldoveanu the highest at 2544m (8346ft). Views are spectacular up here. We stopped at the Balea Cascada (waterfalls) and took a walk on the path up along the stream to the waterfalls, which are also the highest in Romania. The path is rocky, occasionally crosses the shallow stream, and has a fair rise to it, but it's a very pretty walk and we're not really hikers, so it's doable as a casual walk.
There's a cable car that runs from the parking area to the top at Balea Lake and crosses over the falls. The cars were closed in late October.

After the walk, we drove the remainer of the stretch to the lake on some hairpin ledge driving. There are guards and walls though. The ice lake itself isn't very scenic I thought, but it was good to go to the top of the pass. We turned back here and got back to our original route. Starting from the south end at Curtea de Arges would have probably been even better as a route.

The Bucegi Mountains to Sinaia
Back on the main road, we headed the direction of Brasov, but veered off again near the town of Sinca Veche. I almost hesitate to tell this bit. Well, what we did next was pretty off-beat and based on an account I read on Octavian's site spirit.ro. Sorry Octavian if you come across this and it doesn't come out exactly right. I'm sure the experience would have been different if we weren't so language challenged. Anyway, we went up to see what is an old makeshift temple in a small grotto. This was supposed to have been used as a hidden place of worship over the course of centuries.

Driving up a small dirt track out across a pasture, we found a man leaning against a post, just out in the middle of nowhere. He waved us in and he walked us up to the grotto. We followed him up the hill on a dirt path until we came to the opening. After a bit of negotiation on price (negotiation meaning that he spotted the best color bill peeking out of my wallet) he pulled aside a grate of lashed wood sticks and he walked us in, ducking as we entered. There was a hole dug to the surface above to let in light and a couple of alters carved into the walls. Oddly, in addition to many Christian symbols and artifacts, there was a Star of David carved on the wall and a yin and yang symbol. I can't vouch for the authenticity of all this, but he motioned us through the rituals at each point and gave us home made candles to light at the right points. My wife is catholic and this made more sense to her than it did to me, a german protestant, but I enjoyed it none the less. There was a pile of coins on main alter and he motioned for us to make an offering. I dug what coins I had out, split them between us and we added them to the pile. We snuck a grin at each other as he noticed that I'd somehow mixed my Hungarian coins with the Romanian and picked them out to carefully hand back to me. Apparently there aren't any exchange booths in the great beyond.

We wrapped up our look around and headed down the hill, each of us getting a hug from our guide before we exited the pasture and were underway again. The road out of Sinca Veche towards our destination at Sinaia was a great drive through fairy tale scenery, with rolling hills and valleys draped in a layer of fog, still exposing the farms ahead and the hilltops overhead. It was easy to see where all the tales of creatures and beasts come from.

Sinaia
Sinaia is a town set in the Prahova mountain valley, just outside the boundaries of Transylvania, in Wallachia. A ski town part of the year, it's ringed in mountain views. There are cable cars in summer and winter to take you to the tops. There a number of hiking trails and apparently there has been quite an issue with bears lately. 80% of all large carnivores in Europe are said to be in the Carpathian ranges of Romania, with not only bears, but wolves and lynx also sighted.

There are many towns between here and Brasov to the north, such as Busteni and Poiana Brasov, but those seemed to be filled with modern lodge-type hotels and we prefer something a little more old-world. So, we picked Sinaia and the Palace hotel, which is a turn of the century building but very still very westernized. Nice enough though and this area is more expensive. Paid $76 per night. The room was ok and large but the full size fridge in the room hummed. We plugged it back in in the morning. The views out the window were very nice, overlooking the wooded park and the mountains beyond. The breakfast was ok.

In Sinaia, there is the Peles Palace, a large estate home of King Carol built in the 1870s, but modeled after German Schloss and set nicely above the town. Just near the hotel and park is a WWI cemetary.

Our favorite bit though was the walk up to Sinaia Monastary, namesake of the town, itself named for a stone brought back from Mt. Sinai. There's a long stretch of stone stairs leading along the wooded hillside to the compound, but you can also drive up there. Inside the walls, there are two squares, each containing an Orthodox style church - the new Church and the Old. We visited the new but focused primarily on the old church. As we walked around, a number of Romanian groups of kids and teens worked around our slower pace. As we stood in the portico of the old church, looking at the frescos over our heads, we noticed a man in the doorway of one of the side buildings that make up the outer walls. He was waving to us and calling us over from across the gardens.

He was the handyman for the monastary and took us through the side chapels and buildings, pointing out faded frescos, mausoleums and alters in Romanian, writing the dates of things in the dust with a stick when necessary. In between his carrying of buckets and boards, he would rush back to us to explain that the old church was from 1572 or that the frescoes in the private monk's chapel were from 1690. On our way out of the gates back to town, he paused once more, pointing up to the belltower by the gate, giving it's year and weight in numbers scratched on the ground.

We found a canine friend in Sinaia as we did in most over spot we stopped. One of the things that we noticed, being animal people, is that dogs run loose everywhere. What we were always happy about is that we did not ever see a dog that appeared to be mistreated, neglected or starving. I'm sure that happens and understand the problem exists in Bucharest, but for where we were, it seemed to mostly be that dogs did their own thing. We scratched behind a lot of ears on this trip.

Bran
Within easy driving distance from Sinaia is the defensive structures of Bran Castle and Rasnov Fortress.

Bran Castle is easily well known tourist attaction in Romania. Every tour goes there, I'm sure. And as you pull into the parking lot, you can tell it. There are booths set up even in the time of year we went selling everything from handicrafts to spooky music CDs to schlocky monster masks. This is routinely and constantly referred to as "Dracula's Castle", despite the fact that the real man barely spent a night there and it wasn't his castle.

The Saxon castle itself sets well up on the hill and is actually impressive from a distance. It's really not that large once you're in it but it is well maintained and features timber framing and multi-level interior balconies over the courtyard. You're charched 80000 lei admission at the gate below, near the open air museum of village type buildings. Once up at the castle, you're directed to your right and are self-routed through that direction until you emerge from the other end, having passed various roped-off rooms with period furniture along the way.

It's ok... but my feeling is that it does not compare to the experience at Rasnov. If you go to both, do Bran first. Bran will be a let down if done the other way, as far as I'm concerned.

We did however find a very good little family run pizza place in town though called Bella Italia that makes fairly authentic Italian style pizzas and has a guesthouse about.

Rasnov
The Fortress at Rasnov is perched high above a dusty working town with a smokestack or two and you can see it from miles around. An entire small walled twon sitting on the top of a hill, a large crucifix mounted prominantly to the face of the most visible building. The restoration of the fortress is still going on, but it's quite impressive as it is. Once you find your way up there (off the main Sinaia road, on a small gravel road past the sports fields), you can see for miles from up there.

There is a turn of history of how the peasants built this fortress and how effective it was in holding off the Tartars and the Turks who attempted to siege it. You spiral your way around to the gates and enter, paying your 40000 admission ($1.20), then passing a display of implements like carts, stockades and cookware. We were a little amused though by the fact that in the course of restoration, someone had thought it a good idea to cut a couple holes in a very visible roof for modern insulated skylights for an office.

We continued on through this uninhabited stone town, spiraling upwards to the very top of the town. What views across the entire valley and the hills in 360 degrees beyond. We wound our way back down to look at the interior displays of unearthed wooden and ceramic pieces in the lower buildings.

No way were the Tartars sneaking up on this place.

A really interesting report, Clifton. Thanks

Yes Clifton, interesting indeed. Are you a teacher or professor by any chance? I had a history teacher once that brought the same type of interesting stories to his class. Even the normally not interested in studying students sat up and took notice when he talked. Thus my question. Although I and am sure most Fodorites do enjoy historical infomation. Your thread is most interesting. Thank you.

Harmann and Prejmer
We headed off from the Sinaia area towards Sighisoara and caught these two small towns along the way. We'd really wanted to see Brasov and the Black Church, but figured we could backtrack later. It never happened, and that's regretable, but we had 3 days of reservations in Sighisoara.

There are a multitude of Saxon originated villages spread out across southern Transylvania, each with a church in the center which had fortified walls surrounding it. This is where the townspeople would house their valuables and foodstores, a refuge in case of attack. Many of these are still standing and we visited several of the best preserved on this trip.

We stopped at Prejmer enroute and took a few photos of it's octagonal clock tower from outside, as it was closed, and moved on to Harmann. Here we found the gates open and the caretakers raking leaves in the inner yard, and issuing reprimands in German to David, their very active 3 year old son. We wandered around inside the walls as they worked, equally enjoying the bright day, the buildings and the boy rolling around in the leaves they'd just raked. As we made our way around to the outer gate again, the gentleman asked if we'd like to see the inside of the church itself. He took us in and instantly it reminded me of some of the old churches in the small river towns in Eastern Missouri near where I'd grown up. We talked about the similarities as the towns at home had many of only a generation or two ago who spoke only German and here in Romania, this was also an enclave where "Saxons", Germans of western Germany had settled back in the 1400's.

He told us about how until only 10 years ago, the village had been home to over 2000 German speaking residents among the ethnic Romanians and Hungarians. Now, since the revolution of 89, there are less than 200. The exodus of these people back to Germany is apparently widespread and continues.

The church itself is simple, yet elegant, with vaults, a gold guilded alterpiece and a pipe organ. Member's cushions and personal items remain in the pews, holding their seats.

We thanked our host for his time and purchased a couple of postcards to help in support of the maintenance of the church and headed up the road through similar villages such as Bod and Homorod, chasing sunlight on our way to Sighisoara.

Next - Sighisoara, the Pearl of Transylvania, Birthplace of Vlad - on Halloween

Hi LoveItaly,

No actually I'm a computer systems engineer out here in the corporate world. Not at all qualified to teach, but I am very interested in history and try to learn about why things are the way that I found them.

Well Clifton I disagree with you. You certainly are qualified to teach.

In all sincerity I find your thread absolutely enthralling.

Well, I might have gathered a few things, but credentials are quite another. Still, it's very nice of you to say.

Shall we go on?




Sighisoara
This town, at least the citadel, is not to be missed. I've read somewhere that it is the possibly the best preserved gothic citadel anywhere, but I have a lot of travel to do before I could verify that. Don't mind trying though.

It's not a big center, but once you're inside the walls, you're back in time. The origins here go back to a Roman citadel, but the current look is all medieval Saxon, back around the 16th century. What I like about it is that it's not squeeky clean and all restored for the tourist public. But you can't mistake here that they are well aware of the value of tourism. There are 4 small hotels in the citadel and a couple restaurants and internet cafes. I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. The Hotel Sighisoara is the largest at 28 rooms, I think. The Casa Cu Cerb (House with the Stag) is the most recently renovated and has a very good restaurant in the barrel vaulted center. The meals and service at Casa Wagner were both better though, and we found out here that even though the wine (Jidvai this time) is good and really cheap, two bottles is not necessarily better. There's also a little place called International Cafe with assorted baked things and has some very Americanized food choices if you're feeling like a bit of home: PB&J sandwiches, brownies, chili and cornbread.

Ultimately, for a place to stay, we chose option 4 - Casa Legenda, a small guest house. This is a hands off sort of operation (the room is not made up daily). But the decor is unique to each room, very homey with heavy arched wooden doors and wooden floors. Ours, the Countess room, opened directly to a little entryway outside, as did the "Old Room". Price was 1200000 ($36) per night. You can see the picture of the rooms at the website: legenda.ro

There is an internet cafe right next door that charges 50 cents per hour. The computers are almost as old as the building.

Back to the sightseeing, I'd say this one is a do not miss. I'm not sure you really need the three days we gave it, but it's also a good base and has decent rail connections to Sibiu, Brasov and Targu Mures. Ultimately though, the appeal of this town comes from the architecture and feel. We parked in a lower lot and walked up the stairs with just the backpack to find the Legenda. The tunnel-like entrance to the walled area is hard to locate and requires driving through a residential area, so we went back to bring the car up later. We were later able to drive around and park inside the walls. From the parking lots below, it would appear this is probably not the case in high season.

As we topped the stairs, we came right up on the covered walkway beneath the famous gothic clock tower. This is the symbol of Sighisoara. It has working wooden (nearly life-size) characters parading out each day, a different one each day, almost like a cuckoo clock. The tower itself is very large at 64 meters high and topped with a main spire and 4 surrounding ones. Very transylvanian. You can climb to the top during hours for a small fee (can't recall, and there is also a mesuem of torture devices and an old pharmacy inside. The most interesting part is that you can see the internal clockwork mechanisms and have a close up peep at the wooden characters. Then outside, you have an unobstructed view each direction.

We headed right, around the tower base and came up on a large crowd around costumed players, conducting a mock witch trial. Very animated, only Romanian spoken, but cute to watch. Lots of theatrics. It was a campy introduction to the city, but we enjoyed it. One block up is the house that Vlad himself was born in, and then across the tiny square and right again and there is the Legenda.

If you go straight at the square, you see the covered gates to the citadel. If you make a left (the Casa Cu Cerb is on this corner), you pass the Hotel Sighisoara and keep ascending the cobblestones until you reach the old covered wooden staircase (built in 1542). The staircase takes you to the very top of the hill, surpassing the height of the clock tower, to the church on the hill and the "old" German cemetary. I say old, but in fact, while it obviously has been here for centuries - activities, local visitors and recent dates show that it's still growing. (I was looking for a better word but "active" hardly seems correct).

Shoring up the outer walls at various points are 9 out of the original 14 towers, each labeled for a different occupation. There is a nice walk with a view of the modern town partially around the outside of the wall. This walk looks out on the modern black and white orthodox cathedral.

For those who are curious: No, there isn't really any activities, even in Sighisoara that are "Halloween-ish". But it was kind of intriguing to be there on that day, even if it was just as happenstance. We saw a jack-o-lantern in one pensiune window and that was it. The next day though is the Day of the Dead, a memorial day, and there were families everywhere taking flowers to the cemetary.

Shopping: We rarely shop, especially not for ourselves. Gifts sometime. Here though, we bought a couple of nice small carved ceramic vases for friends and this rolled glass vase by a local artist for ourselves. It has several layers of etched glass, each layer a different color, layered on after etching scenes into the prior layer. Gives it a 3D look and must have taken a long time to do. About $20.

Well, we covered the cabbage back in Sibiu (and frankly, a few too many times in other meals on the trip). It was here in Sighisoara that the blessing occurred. On approach to the old wooden staircase, we could see an older woman tucked just inside the entrance. She was selling black walnuts from a plastic bucket there and tried to get our attention without english, but with a nice smile and a wave toward her wares. We declined, just being on our way up and all. Several steps up was a young Russian girl who was growing impatient in trying to get a photo of the light breaking through at odd angles from the side slats of the bridge. Just as she'd get set, someone would appear at the top or from behind and get in the way. This time it was our turn to be the pests, but we waited and we got into a conversation about photography and cameras, us both trying to get the shot (got it!).

We wandered around at the top, looking at the church and at the headstones and of course, the views back towards town. We headed back down the staircase and decided at some point that we both sort of liked the idea of some walnuts. So we signed that would like a bag. What a sweet lady, after standing all day, even though we had no idea what each other said. And the walnuts were delicious at about 26 cents for a big bag (cracked, still in the shell). Munched off and on all day on these things and then decided it would be nice to have more for a day trip the next day. We walked back up as light was beginning to fail and motioned that we'd like another. Worked as hard as I could to ask in what Romanian I knew. Goodness, the response! She pointed to each of us, then pulling the corners of her mouth up with her fingers and reaching to ours to do the same. Ear to ear smiles from her as she hugged my wife and made the sign of the cross for each us and nudged us together. We each managed a "multumesc" (thank you) but overall, we got a bit of what all was going on. Not much. I handed her the same amount as before, and she dumps the remainder of the bucket into the bag, so that it would barely close. More hugs, more "talking" and a photo. More signs of good wishes. We sure felt blessed anyway.

As we walked away, we spot the young Russian girl again, still with her camera. She looks at us... looks at the walnuts... and we all crack up laughing as she teasingly rolls her eyes and shakes her head at us. Could we really be such soft touches? It was a good visit.

I'll save the daytrips for another post. Sighisoara deserves it's own.

Wonderful. Please go on and don't hold back on words.
(if you want a recipe for the cabbage rolls let me know )

Clifton, I have just spent the better part of my lunch hour travelling vicariously with you through Romania. (that is, catching up since I last checked in) So far this has been a great report, I can't wait to hear more.

Clifton - An excellent report. I was in Romania at the same time as you and didn't see this post in time but posted a small bit of my trip on the "thank you" posting that you started previously. (does that even make sense??) Anyway, if anyone would like to read mine (it's short) you can find it there. Although Clifton's is WAY better and I've found it fascinating. Great job!

Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic. What resources did you use to plan this trip? Your report has truly peaked my interest. I'd love a short list of what you found to be most useful and informative.

Thank you,
Sharon

Near Sighisoara - Biertan, Medias, Cris, etc
While Sighisoara could conceivably be be "done" in a day, I'm glad that we chose to base here for a little while. There are a number of other interesting places within an easy drive, some of which may be more difficult with public transport. I'm no authority there, but assume in the absence of trains to some of the places up next, there'd be public buses.

We set off south on a secondary road out of Sighisoara and were quickly out of town, passing through village after village, in the direction of the town of Agnita. A distinguishing characteristic of almost every village along the way is of a walled church. As in the case with Harmann and Prejmer, these were built as a defensive base for the local Saxon population, but each is different in some way. Many are unfortunately in some state of disrepair, but looked at another way, this seems to add to the sense of history surrounding them. For instance, the first we passed, in the town of Saes, has a clock tower that is split from top to bottom.

I want to insert a logistical note here which would have been useful earlier. The Freytag & Berndt map of Erdely/Transylvania was invaluable in locating these buildings. It has the names of each town in Romanian, Hungarian and German (where applicable) and a very good legend showing churches, castles, etc. The only drawback was that it cut off Bucovina, which makes sense, as that isn't in Transylvania. We did not see this map anywhere along the way, so if you're driving, I'd get it ahead of time.

Without trying to describe each town and each church (ok, ok - no cheering), just be aware that if you're into exploring, you can't go wrong wandering anywhere just south of Sighisoara. We passed each town, skipping some churches, checking out others. In Agnita, we drove to the center of town to check out the church there, bigger any we'd past so far, but similar. From here, we headed north, enjoying the rolling countryside.

Our next big stop was the city of Medias. It's not terribly attractive on the outskirts, but this is something you get used to after awhile. Continue to the center - parking is easily found near the main square. Medias is also on the main train line coming from Sighisoara. The old center of the town is very pleasant, with a host of colorful buildings surrounding a flower filled square. Never saw a tourist here anywhere, but that's true for most places we went. Above the square is a giant clock tower and other lookout towers. It's a nice walk going up the hill and finding your way back down around the brightly painted yellow and red church and through covered arched walkways. There's a very nice looking cafe just to the left of the square as you're facing the towers, but we opted to walk down to the base of the hill, to the modern town. We walked through the market, with hordes of vegetable and flower sellers filling quite a good sized area. Back around, we stopped in a little bakery and bought ourselves a slice of very questionable pizza. Here's something... uh, interesting. Something I'd read and caught just in time. You may want to ask for your pizza without catsup. I just caught her before she squirted the Heinz bottle. Of course, you may choose otherwise. Either way, the pizza was so-so, but the cakes were pretty good. Fended off a young boy who slipped in while my wife's back was turned and slowly was reaching for her bag. A quick little thing where I looked like I was coming out of my chair and he vanished. (I'm very scary)

From here, we went on to Biertan. Without a doubt, the largest and best preserved of the walled churches we saw. Imposing as it sits on a rise in the middle of town, it's double walled and there's a covered wooden staircase to the top. Biertan and it's church is a Unesco world heritage site. The town itself is small and well kept and there's a cafe at the base of the hill. At the top, there was a young lady sitting and reading on the lawn who walked us in and gave us a brief tour, in English, then allowed us to have our own look around, as she waited and answered our questions. She showed us to the treasure room of the church where the town valuables were kept. She explained that the door required both a key and a specially formed crank to unlock two different mechanisms. Inside the door, 14 iron rods slide into the floor and door frame in every direction. Overall, in my opinion, I'd say that Biertan would be the best single choice for a village to visit in this area. No charge for admission to the church, but there is a donation box.

From here, next was Cris, which is fairly close and moving in our clockwise circle back towards Sighisoara. We set out to see the church here too, but it didn't really turn out that way, and the church itself, while worth seeing, didn't compare to the impressiveness of the one at Biertan. But we enjoyed this stop most for another reason. There was also some sort of castle showing on the map, but I hadn't read anything about this.

Our first impression of the town was rather funny. We're driving down the main drag, which is really just a small paved road through town, when we see something of some size lying in the road ahead. We slowed way down, creeping forward, both of us leaned forwad trying to make out what it was. At first we thought maybe a horse, but a few yards closer we could see clothing and a bicycle wheel poking up from behind. A bicyclist was hit, we thought. We could see a number of people standing on a bridge on a side road ahead who were also looking. Two of the young guys from the crowd run down to the man in the road just as we're getting close and together lift the man to his feet just as we're getting there. The man who was just lying there a minute ago was napping, or more accurately, sleeping it off. He grins at us, red faced, stumbling and amazingly enough, takes a drag, as he still has his cigarette lit. The two young guys are laughing, wave and shrug. Welcome to Cris.

We eased past, turning over the bridge and spotted the castle in semi-ruin there above us. We turned into a gravel drive that led up the small hill but found that the 3 winged castle was fenced off at the opening. Figuring this was going to be not much more than an opportunity to snap a picture, I stepped out and just left the car running. It was then that a man in a sweater and cloth hat appeared out of nowhere and came to the gate in the fence. He came out and waved, motioned back to the castle with a questioning expression. I sort of nodded that way, pointed at myself and asked "da?" Nodding, he pointed at the car, made a turning key gesture with a "la machina". Yes, probably a good idea. From there, this very kind gentleman walked us through Bethlen Castle for well over an hour and a half with not another soul around. All other plans fell by the wayside. This gentleman was the caretaker for the property, which is currently being renovated to be turned into a hotel complex. Looks like it's going to be nice, but they are only in the initial stages of restoration now. It's funny but even though he spoke 3 words of English the entire time and us only a few more of Romanian, it's amazing how you manage to understand. Then there's that disturbing habit I have of nodding even when I'm not getting a word, but that's a matter for some other forum.

We climbed towers on rickety spiral staircases, went down into the cellars, from wing to wing. He diagrammed the property on the ground and pointed at the towere at each corner of the structure. "Uno, Due, Trei, Patru" as he pointed at each. As we walked around, he would refer to each tower by number. He gave us the history, pointing at the central turret, saying "ani" and scratching 1360 onto the ground. Pointing to the adjoining Italian style loggia, the number was 1402. He was always sure to make the gesture of a camera in use when something significant was near, such as the family crest of the Bethlen family, or the well carved from solid block of stone, or the original vaulted chapel. Charades communicated the spot where the new bar would be (drinking), where the dungeon was, or where alcove where hangings were performed (the old self hanging by a noose clue was pretty obvious). He made the motion of a trap door to show where the victims would drop afterwards. He showed us frescoes that are to be restored from photographs soon. At one point, he took us into the office and motioned that the camera should be put away before we entered. He then walked us through the blueprints of the plans for the hotel, re-using the gestures from before to point out each room on the plans.

Although we could have easily stayed longer, we'd taken enough of this man's time, said our goodbyes and thank yous and were off, back to Sighisoara.

jotravel,

I'd just read your report on the other thread. Enjoyed reading it!

Wasn't it a beautiful time to be there? Pretty cool that you went up to Poenari. I think that many steps could have done me in for the rest of the trip, but we did think about it. Thanks for posting yours too. I think Romania deserves more attention than it gets, so the more the merrier!

SharonNRay,

Besides the LP and Rough Guide, I had quite a few websites bookmarked. I'm not so sure you'd call it planning as much as research, but I found these very useful for orientation.

Octavian's site:
http://www.spirit.ro

Country info sites:
http://www.aboutromania.com/
http://www.beyondtheforest.com/
http://www.turism.ro
http://medieval.romanianfolkart.ro/

The great Romanian Bat's (Alex's)page on Virtual Tourist:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/30132/35f/
Be sure to look him up on Lonely Planet's Thorntree forum as well. Ask about Romania. He'll find you.

Language:
http://romaniaguide.tripod.com/language.html
http://www.travlang.com
http://www.jeroenvm.dds.nl/romlimba.htm

Hotels, guesthouses:
http://www.tourneo.net/F_New/
http://www.legenda.ro
http://www.ruraltourism.ro/indexen.html


Hope you all have a great time in Romania, will be posting the rest of the trip in a couple more posts, but let me know if I can help.

Luli, actually I enjoy experimenting with cooking different types of meals and yes, I would like to try making this. THe sarmale recipe would very much be appreciated. I liked the mititei as well (I think I spelled that wrong, but it's close)

And P_M - don't be starving yourself on our account. lunch is one of the 3 most important meals of the day.

Bicaz and Bucovina

The road out of Sighisoara to Bucovina can take you one of two ways - Up through Targu Mures, Bistrita and then the Borgo pass made famous by Bram Stoker or you can go through the Szekely land and through the Bicaz Gorge. We chose the latter, as we weren't on any sort of literary agenda.

The Szekely land is an area that is still primarily Hungarian and the churches were different than we saw elsewhere. We stopped only briefly though, as our goal was to get to Bucovina. We made our way through until we reached Gheorgheni and connected with the road to Lacu Rosu (Red Lake) and Bicaz. The scenery on this route is phenomenal, with the gorge being the centerpiece of the drive. After stopping off to eat a excellent lunch at a lodge on the shore of Lacu Rosu, we headed back into the mountains. You arrive at the gorge after passing ever more dramatic views of rock formations, until the gorge is upon you, literally looming above you as the road cuts through beneath the overhangs. Rather than to go on and on, have a look at the photos for this location. They do a better job than I can. Yosemite has competition. One particular peak reminds me a little of Devils Tower in Wyoming as well, but with a cross mounted at the summit.

At the town of Bicaz, we swung north and drove along Lake Bicaz and more great views before branching off in the direction of Targu Neamt. We finally (this day was mostly driving) made it to Gura Humorului, a large town amongst the monastaries that we'd come to see. Finding no ATM at first, we drove down the road towards Voronet and settled in at the Casa Elena. This was a very nice "guesthouse", although they have recently expanded and have a much large building to the back now. They also had a small restaurant and an excellent wait staff. More local wine and mititei, a type of spicy local sausage We finally found an ATM in town with the help of the folks at Elena, but it wasn't easy. It's right in the center of town. If you find the Best Western, it's right across the street, diagonally. The next day, it was out of order, so we lucked out as we needed to pay for the room in cash. The room was mid-range - not to basic, not flash. About $32US.

The stars of Bucovina (Southern Bucovina to be precise- Northern Bucovina is just across the border in Ukraine) are the painted monastaries. There are a number of other monastaries in the region with similar architectural styles, but 4 of them were painted centuries ago (16th century) with frescos that cover the exterior of the central church and still remain painted today. Absolutely phenomenal. Each a cigar shaped church with drastic wrap-around eves, completely (with one exception) covered in brilliant pictoral stories of martyrs, the crucifixion and judgement day. 3 of the 4 of these are surrounded by fortifications and each are attended to by orthodox nuns. Each monastary is known for a signature color. As you walk around these buildings, the art tells a story, panel by panel.

There is a small fee to enter each one and an additional small fee to take photos (this was true at other sites as well, but I've neglected to mention it. The camera fee is usually around 20000 lei, about 75 cents US)

The hotel is right up the road from the monastary at Voronet, so we were able to visit bright and early. It was rainy and a little chilly all day in this area, but manageable. Of the four monastaries we visited in the region, this was probably our least favorite. I think though, that was because there was construction on the pathways around it going on, and you couldn't get close to it. Still, the sight of the church is pretty inspiring and as each panel is about 5 foot tall, we could still admire the art, which is faded near the base due to the elements, the rest amazingly preserved. The color here may be found in some crayon boxes. It's called Voronet Blue. On one side is the Creation, the other, Judgement Day.

Moving along we went just north of Gura to Humor. Humor is red-based. While the themes are similar on the exterior, the interior of this church is just as fully covered. It's unique from the others by having the most elaborate interior. Inside, the theme is the martydom of the saints, with all the inhumanity of the tales on display. There is a mausoleum in one chamber and a stunning alterpiece at the end.

After an aborted attempt to take a white road from Humor, which quickly devolved into a mud plain, we backtracked to Gura and went the longer way around north to Sucevita. This was easily our favorite. Similar admission pricing, plus a 50 cent parking fee across the road. Sucevita is the most heavily fortified of the 4 monastaries, looking quite like a small fortress from the road. Inside the other walls sat the familiarly shaped church, this time in green. This church is larger than the others and we found the nuns out and about, arranging flowers at a table on the side and tending the garden. The church here is noticeably larger than the others, but almost bare on one side. I'd read that a painter had fallen and died and that the rest refused to finish the work, as an omen. None the less, the side that IS finished was my favorite. It depicts a ladder running diagonally the full height of the wall, with the march of man upwards, rung by rung. Above them angels assist, while those who were unsteady fall, devoured by the demons waiting at the foundation of the building. Further, Sucevita is ringed with tree covered hills, shrouded in a mist on the day of our visit.

Finally, there is Moldovita. And not to give short shrift to this place, but it's harder to find it as memorable, having already seen the best of the art and your own personal favorite beforehand. It's also a small fortress, the paintings are based around yellow as a theme, but are more faded than the others. It's theme is Constantinople, under attack by the Persians. The town itself is nice as well.

After leaving the area of the monastaries, we passed through the town of Ciocanesti, worth mentioning for it's unusual houses. The majority of the homes in this town are covered in unique geometric patterns, no two alike. We saw nothing else like this in any other town in the area or in Romania. I am still not sure what is the reason why this one town has taken to this practice, but I'm glad they did.

From here, we cross the Prislop pass for more views, then decend into Maramures, the most traditional area in Romania and home to the wooden churches.

Clifton, thank you so much for the resource list.

-Sharon

Clifton, I'll be happy to post the sarmale recipe but not before your trip report is over, as I don't want to mar its beauty.
As for the mititei (you spelled it right), you can order them from a small store in NY - the recipe it's pretty complicated and honestly, not easy to achieve decent results. Hard to believe for such an apparently simple dish.
But let's talk about foods of Romania later.

Clifton, thanks for another good read on my lunch hour. It's good to know there's still an inexpensive place left in this world of the incredible shrinking dollar. Thanks for the warning about catsup on pizza---YUK!!

I thought that catsup was interesting (not I would want to have any - yuck is right) but just interesting that they had it. Ah, American marketing.

Again Clifton, your report is so interesting. This must of taking you a lot of time to make notes and than post your trip. Very generous of you. Happy holidays to you and yours.

Marmures
Maramures is the most noticeably traditional area we visited anywhere along the course of our trip. After passing through over the Prislop pass, we made our way up to and settled in the main town of Sighetu Marmatiei, also known as Sighet. The twon itself is a suitable base for setting out towards the famous villages that surround it, but it also has a number of things to see there in town. Sighet isn't a particularly inspiring place, but it's also not unattractive. We stayed at the Perla hotel, having arrived too late to go knocking on doors for a homestay type place. I don't know, we weren't feeling that warm and fuzzy about the Perla's staff really, having gotten a general feeling that we were a bit of an imposition. A few smirks and a nod that the room was upstairs. Later one of the two at the front desk was also the waiter in the little restaurant and one of the dishes came out with one of those toothpick American flags. Could have been intended as a nice gesture - I don't know. Still, the room was clean, fairly roomy and it cost $26, so all's well.

In Sighet, the former Communist detention center for dissidents has been converted into a museum. Additionally in town is the home of the writer Elie Weisel, a folk art museum and an open air village museum. For us though, the focus was getting to a few of the Unesco listed villages in the surrounding area.

Branching off from Sighet are two valleys - the Mara and the Izei. We spent the majority of one day exploring around the Izei valley, heading as far west as Ieud. In Ieud, we drove into the village and immediately saw people everywhere of the older generation dressed traditionally, with men in wide brimmed hats and the women in colorful skirts and aprons, wide red and black horizontal strips being a predominant pattern. This sort of thing isn't retained for the benefit of tourism, but is just a part of life. Very few cars are seen here, except on the main road passing through near the towns. In fornt of houses, etc, only an occasional Dacia sits, but horses are everywhere. Every home has a tall wooden fence in front, each fence accessible through a wide carved wooden gate with a mini-"roof". No two gates are alike and each one has a small bench outside, where the women sit and talk and sew. Except at lunch time. At lunch, it seemed the towns were abandoned, everyone adjourning for lunch.

We pulled into Ieud, and like so many villages here, a tall, tall steeple of unfinished wood pokes up from above the homes. Everyone one of these churches are different, but it's obvious that together they make up a unique style that makes them exclusively a part of this region. Ieud has the oldest of these, built in 1364. Ieud, I'd read, was also one of the most traditional, evidenced by the fact that there'd been no divorces here for 300 years of people tracking that sort of thing.

After we pulled in, we wandered to old graveyard but found that church was locked. Ah well, it was still impressive from the outside, it's steeple so huge in relation to the size of the church itself. Clad in rough hewn dark wood and intricately cut and fitted pieces of wooden shake roofing. We wandered back out through the gate to the road where the car was parked when a man approached from across and up the road a little ways. He pointed at the church "biserca?". We nodded, hoping we'd understood the question and he headed off to another house and brought out a lady bearing a key. She didn't speak but a few words of English, but took us in.

Inside it's like another world. Nothing at all like those cathedrals of the cities or even of the simple Saxon churches. This church is as rustic and handfashioned from local logs as the outside is. Religious memorabilia abounds inside, decorating the walls with prints of the last supper, of icons and artifacts from wherever they may have been available. One was a Jesus hologram, his eyes following you around the small hall. I would motion to the steep ladder leading to the balcony. The woman responds "It is possible". (This caused us to hold back a grin, as "It is not possible" has been a running phrase throughout the trip whenever a dish was not available or a place not open). And the long white hand embroidered scarves are draped over everything - every painting, table, light fixture and window frame. Every scarf has a different pattern.

Grandeur isn't what you'd think of to describe these churches. But don't miss them.

Near Ieud is Poienile Izei. It too has a wooden church, which sits up on a hill next door to the new church. It's a bit harder to find as the town is hilly. We went the wrong way and sat as we watched a crew trying to back a truck through this town. Townspeople came from everywhere to watch as well, A few engaging us in a conversation of mime to discuss the goings on. Finally, we decided to back up and try going around somewhere else when we happened on the church we were looking for anyway. It's off to the left hand side of the main road. This church is in a picturesque setting, a graveyard steeply climbing away from the entry gate to the church above, haystacks piled among the grave markers. Unfortunately, we did not find the keeper of the key here, likely that they'd gone to see the excitement with the truck.

As we drove around these areas, I'd talked several times about the photos I'd seen of people from the area and how it's not so easy to just walk up and ask for a photo. We'd seen a group of elderly ladies on either side of the road as we'd entered town, one weaving from wool she had wrapped around a stick. What interesting features they'd had. My wife says, "well give me the camera, I'll ask" and as we head back out of town, she does. Holds the camera up as we approach the woman and the woman nods. Smiles and holds up her work as the picture is taken. What happens next is... well, unique. She says something to us which we don't understand. Even gestures that aren't getting through to us. The two women, sitting across the road, each dressed in all in black are laughing as our subject gets louder and louder. Thinking the best recourse after several minutes of miserably failed communications is to pull back! This is when one of the two on the opposite side, who are both still laughing to tears, gives the biggest, most oddly satisfied smile I've seen in some time - as she drags her rigidly held forefinger slowly across her throat. LOL I kid you not.

Anyway, we also visited the beautifully kept monastary at Barsana and the village of Calinesti and Desesti in the Mara Valley and the Meery Cemetary of Sapanta

The Merry Cemetary of Sapanta (can't remember the exact admission but apprx. 30000 lei plus camera fee) is without a doubt an unmissable part of Maramures. It's due east of Sighet and just a mile or so from the Ukraine border.

For the last several generations, nearly every single person buried here has a tall wooden marker carved, with a depiction of their life on the front and often, a similar depiction of their death in the back. Each board is usually blue, with the older ones fading among the new. Many also carry a verse to explain the person or to explain their departure. While my Romanian isn't good enough to read them, I've seen a couple which had been translated. My favorite:

Here lies my mother-in-law.
Had she lived another year,
I'd have lied here.

More often though, from the carvings, as simple as they may be, the feeling is poignant or solemn, such as seeing a mother depicted with her children, or of a farmer beheaded by a man in uniform. This place could take as long as you'd like to look.

With that, we leave Romania and enter Hungary at the town of Petea, after gassing up and giving the little bit of leftover lei to some young kids who were playing in a town near the border.

to be continued... but not for much longer, I promise.

By the way, the Poinile Izei incident is where the curse came in. Or could be... probably as close as we'll ever come. Either it wasn't the best curse, they were actually wishing us well or the earlier blessing from Sighisoara was even better. However it came about, after this point, we got he best room in the hotel back in Budapest, an exit aisle on the BA flight back to London and a business class upgrade on the trans-atlantic on AA. Now if I could only figure out what this strange growth is...

Luli, I'll take you up on that once it's finished. Happy Holidays to all of you.

Hungary

Nyiregyhaza, Tokaj and Sarospatak
We entered back into Hungary rather late in the day, short on forints and daylight. We stopped off in Nyiregyhaza to look for an ATM and ended up doing a brief walk around the city center. We hadn't done any research on the town but was surprised how pleasant it was to walk around. Not historic in appearance, but quite a bustling cosmopolitan sort of feel to the place. We both agreed that we'd like to come back and explore further someday.

After we'd located an ATM and checked out the main square and a church, we headed back out, making it to Tokaj just after dark. You can make up some time on Hungarian roads, with everyone zipping along very quickly. We'd considered Sarospatak as our night's stop, but were really just tired and ready to stop. We found the Millennium hotel just over the bridge into town and to the left and got a room. The rooms here have a very contemporary feel to them and the bed was low and a little firm, but it was perfectly fine. We paid about $50 for the night. Next door is a little internet facility (not a cafe) and at the end of the hotel is a tiny restaurant with 6 tables. Very good paprika based dishes and a friendly owner who recommended local golden Tokaj wines.

And Tokaj, if anything, is a wine town. It's a very pleasant, clean little town that seems completely focused around selling wine. Now the Tokaj wine we tried was good but all seemed like dessert wine to us, the first small glass being sweet, but too sweet for our tastes beyond the first small portion. In the morning, we walked up the main street, looking in shops, both wine and other, before heading off. Strange that we found the town sort of generally appealing, but not terribly interesting. Didn't even haul out the camera, which is rare for me.

Sarospatak is just a 30 min drive or so from Tokaj, heading north west, so we decided to see it before continuing east. Sarospatak too is a nice town, much bigger than Tokaj, much more a living town. We'd set out to see the castle here and found it without any really difficulty due to the signs through town. Rakoczi castle itself is partially of the stone tower variety from the 15th century and partially newer renaissance style. It houses a museum, but unfortunately, there were no English tours available at the time we were there.

We particularly enjoyed to gardens here, full of autumn color and outer wall remnants, and we strolled around these for a good while. We hoped to make it further east before the day was out and devote some time to Eger and the drive there, so we headed off.

The route we chose took us through the city of Miskolc, which is a largely industrial town, full of communist era housing blocks. Not much to detain us here other than a series of signs directing us through town towards Lillifured. Suddenly, after one major jog left, the signs ended, leaving us to guess from then on. Determined that we were heading for those hills over there, we just kept pointing the car generally in that direction and oddly enough, emerged on the road to Lillifured and the Bukk Hills.

Lillifured seems to be a gradn hotel and spa area set in the foothills just east of Miskolc. Beautiful setting. Spas are not our thing, but this location couldn't be beat for those who enjoy that sort of thing. The road leading off from Lillifured takes you through the very pretty Bukk Hills, with a road winding through a hilly forest. Eventually it leads you down from the north into the city of Eger.

Clifton, I'm trying to make sense of the old woman's gesture, but any scenario I imagine leads to a probable joke. The people of Maramures are known not only as hard working but wise and happy, and jokesters by birth. I'm assuming you run into the village comedienne and she probably said something like "if you post this picture of mine on the internet I'll kill you" LOL
Or maybe "if you don't send me a copy of this picture I'll kill you". Take your pick.
Kidding aside, I know they're such gentle people that only the murder of a family member (or the equivalent of hurt) would bring them to curse the wrongdoer. Too bad you didn't understand what she said, I'm sure you would've had a laugh along with her neighbors.
But please go on with your wonderful writing.

Luli, we thought, after we walked away that she was definitely having some fun. It was actually not the woman who was talking to us, but one of the one's opposite her. The whole thing was VERY funny but right at that moment, very disarming. She did confirm that as a day I won't forget.

I've just got to write up a little on the Eger visit, with a stop at a Buddhist stupa in the hills as we headed back to Budapest. Not long now.

Many thanks for sharing. Enjoy your posts very much. Probably heading for Romania next spring.

I wish you lots of luck with your trip Judy. If we can help at all, just post and I look forward to hearing about your experiences!


Eger
Eger is just as beautiful as everyone says it is. Except for finding parking. That, I can't say is a beautiful experience. It's there though, hidden down alleys and very near the center.

But it's well worth getting to the center. This is a great little town. Next time we go (and there will be a next time), we won't spend less that three full days. After trying to figure out how to get to the center of the town center using just a Lonely Planet inset map from the book, we parked at the market, dropped a few forints in the meter and walked a block and a half to the southern end of the main square - Dobo Istvan ter.

The town is extraordinary enough just gettign lost around the few block area near here, but once we walked out into that plaza, we really connected with the town. You have the gorgeous twin towered Minorite Church to your left as your turn north, you have a great statue directly in front of you. Beyond that is a bridge that crosses over a stream and divides the two ends of the long plaza. Across the bridge sits a wedge of colorful baroque buildings that split into a "Y" and to literally top it off, you have the castle remnants looming above it all.

There's a well known hotel right at the center of the "Y" called the Senator House, which we considered. I'd seen pictures of their room on the net and they'd looked ok. Can't beat the location, that's for sure.

But we ultimately were very pleased with our decision to stay at the Offi Haz. What a nice little place and just as close, it sits on Dobo Istvan too, the pretty little yellow building right along the bridge with the red geraniums in the flowerboxes. It's got only 5 rooms and is run but a very nice couple. We were in room 5. I'm not one to go on about these things, but the room was definitely a bonus. As you walked in, you have sort of an entry room tucked into a dormer window area, with a lounger and a small dining table and chairs. To the left is a large washroom with marble fixtures (just a shower though), to the right the separate vaulted bedroom with it's own door and it's own dormer window. Both windows have heavy curtains to draw and look right out on the square and just a bit across to the Minorite Church. Cost per night was a little under 10000 forints (less than $50). There is an excellect small etterem (restaurant) in the ground floor of the hotel as you walk in. Our hostess gave us directions on how to get to the metered parking directly behind the hotel and we did eventually find our way. No overnight parking fees from 8pm to 8am.

Sightseeing: There's the castle, which is really just in partial ruins now, but the elevation gives a great 360 degree view of Eger from the top and much has been added up there. There are all sorts of great stories about the lengths to townspeople went to hold off the Ottoman invasion for 50 years, including combat assistance from the town's women, finally succumbing to the Turks. The name of the wine that the town made famous - Bikaver or Bull's Blood reportedly came from this period. Where ever it came from, I became a big fan of this wine. But then, I favor the deep, dry red wines. But this was as good as nearly any Chianti I've had.

Speaking of the Turks, they left behind a minaret in a nearby secondary square, the most northernly one they built. You can climb it for a charge but I'll say this - it's more narrow in diameter than most any church tower you've likely seen. More like a ladder than stairs inside this pencil thin tower and we decided we liked the view well enough from the castle to stay on the ground for this one.

Then there are the churches. The most prominent one, at least from our viewpoint, was the Minorite Church as mentioned before. It's a pale tangerine, twin-towered, Baroque masterpiece. Inside, the colors turn to pale grey swirls in white marble, decked with pinks, golds and painted ceilings. We attended a service here again after our first visit.

There is the giant Eger Basilica with it's line of statues along the edge. Also worth seeing is the Franciscan Church on Kossuth Lajos utca. Very pretty interior and a quiet place to slip into after dark as we did. In fact, this whole street is nice for an evening stroll. Food Reco: Matjan pastisserie on this street. The Hungarians seem to do a fantastic job with baked goods and this one topped Gerbeaud, the famous shop in Budapest, for quality (but not atmosphere). Still, it's a very good shop, easy to settle in and lots of selection. Can't decide? Eszterhazy Torte. Oh, trust me. There'd be big trouble if I spend too much time in Hungary.

We ate once at the Senator House, once at the Minorite Cafe and once at our own hotel (the Arany Oroszlan etterem), which was the best meal we had in town. Great little place, we had roasted goose with red cabbage and rice, and I had the Bikaver while a local mixed band showed up to play a little impromptu jazz just outside in the square. There's only one answer here to the question "what wine would you suggest?"... but I enjoyed asking it anyway. That way, the wine comes with a story.

There are plenty of other streets two wander, some old, some not so old. Lots of shops of various types, including one where we attempted to do a little early Christmas present for my mom and buy a porcelain doll. Ah, but the shopkeeper could not figure out how to operate her CC machine. We were near the end of the trip and had pretty much just ATM'd it to this point, but this was a very elaborate doll. She didn't speak english, nor us any useful amount of Hungarian, but we did manage to say a few key things back and forth in Italian. Never did buy the doll though. She walked us around town, first to an ATM (wasn't interested in a cash advance and the fees and interest involved with that), then she went and rounded up our hotel hostess plus a few other people in an entourage back to the shop. Finally it was declared that the card was "no good" (we were waiting for "it is not possible" but that was to remain back in Romania). Although we knew the card was fine and that likely no one had simply pressed the right buttons first, it seemed like this was probably one of those karma things and thanked them each for their time.

Just a personal after thought on places like Eger. Sometimes, I think, it seems so many itineraries go from one major city/capital to the next. It's a shame, I think, as in many ways, Eger (and I'm sure many places like it) has too much to offer to take a pass on and a single day spent here would be as full as a single day elsewhere.

Anyway, meaningless editorializing aside, when we did leave Eger, we chose to leave by a northwesternly path, rather than south to the main highway to Budapest.

We stopped off near the village of Tar to see a white Buddhist stupa that sits along the road. It was built in honor of a Hungarian Franciscan monk who converted to Buddhism and became a monk in that faith. The building was consecrated by the Dali Lama. Now, I have no idea why this originally was an idea, but it was kind of interesting for a very brief stop. I mean, how many Buddhist stupas to you come across driving in the European countryside? It's just a pure white single structure with a large prayer wheel inside, and prayer flags along the walk, sitting up on the hill above a little gift shop. Ah, we have designs on going to Bhutan in the next few years, so this is was a start on a future vacation.

From here, we rolled on into Budapest.

Budapest - Eating and Sleeping
Here's where we do a little juggling. If you remember back to 1975 when I started this trip report, you may remember that I was in a great hurry to get on the road. Before you knew it we were crossing the border. In reality, we spent a few days in Budapest first, and spent another when we returned. It made sense at the time to roll all this into one section and well, here it is.

I've covered the logistics and I already warned that hotels and food are sort of secondary concerns. Keep that in mind when reading this bit. We stayed in two different hotels. The Taverna on Vaci Utca in Pest before we drove out, and the Victoria Hotel in Buda, overlooking the river, when we got back. Both hotels are fine, but the Victoria far and away surpasses the other for the niceness of the room. When we got to the Victoria, she gave us room 93 which is on the top floor and has a balcony. Great views of both Parliament and the Chain Bridge. Paid 79Euro as it was now after Nov. 1st. We felt a little badly as the lady who greeted us wanted so much to help with restaurant recommendations and such, but we already had in mind where dinner was to be.

Which takes us to the other hotel. The Taverna. For location, we loved it. Pop out the door and you're in the thick of the pedestrian street. The staff are ok, some good some a little distracted. The rooms are basic and there's not much to look out on from the window, but at this point we had no intention of looking out of windows when we could be looking up at them. The bed(s) is low, two twins pushed together and pretty hard/firm. But all in all, the room was acceptable at $103 still in "high" season. There's also a private room with two PCs setup for internet access off the lobby. We met quite a lot of Germans and French guests at this hotel. The hotel has a restaurant one floor up from ground called Gambrinus and a bake shop/cafe called Zsolnay Kave Haz on the ground floor. Ok, what the hotel lacks in room amenities, it makes up for in the food service area. We ate at the famous Gerbeaud shop a couple blocks up and it was good. Very atmospheric. But the actual goods at Zlotney are far better, we thought.

Then there's Gambrinus. I can recommend a few places we ate in Budapest for one reason or another, but Gambrinus is in a class of it's own based on purely food considerations. One word - wow. We both agreed that this place may have served us each two of the best meals we ever had. And we only ate there the first time because we came back to the hotel late and didn't feel like going back out one night. The second time was when we got back from Romania, and walked all the way from the Victoria back to the Taverna just so we could eat there again.

The service? Funny actually. The waiters, at least ours, seems to be a little lost but in a funny sort of way. Occasionally asking us a question such as "where are you from", then listening, pausing, then responding "oh, ok... thanks!" and hustling away. The atmosphere is nada. It's obviously in a function room of the hotel. Except for a four piece self proclaimed "gypsy orchestra" (and yes they're actually quite good. We bought the CD. Hehehe).

The food though. The food. We spend $70-ish the first time (with wine) and $60 the second. The chef should get a medal actually and the pastry chef, they say, has won the Hungarian national prize the last 3 years. I had Veal Scallops with Nut and Roquefort, Rigattoni with Boletus Mushrooms (both times. I couldn't leave without a repeat preformance). My wife had Caraway Flavoured Fillet Mignon of Pork with Creamed Courgettes the first go'round, and Breast of Turkey with Spinach, Pine Nuts, and Sage Noodles the second. Various experiments with the desserts each time. No disappointments, but many whispered "oh my god"s.

Our first night, we'd eaten at a little place called Rondela, generally a bar and grill on a side street off of Vaci Utca. No one spoke english here, but we managed. It was cute when I pointed at one item on the menu and the young waitress grinned and moved my attention to another item just below it (same price) and grinned. Egen? Egen. So out it came, a pork shank in a giant rye bread roll. Eyes big as I'm sure I'll never eat all this, and she elbows me, so I had to man up to it and give it a go. A bit fatty really, but ok. Playing it safe with chicken on the other side of the table for the first night.

We ate at Bagylovar, a home-spun version of Gundel near the City park. We had lunch here and the Paprika Chicken and Gulyas were very good, as was the service from the all woman staff. Very "country home". I think there's a fair number of people who post on this board who'd like this place a lot.

Was on a search on a very late night meal one night and walked all the way down to Fatale on the far southern end of the Vaci, well past the Elizabet bridge. We showed up at 11:30 pm and piled into the noisy underground space, where we shared a table with a Finnish man who had a schnitzel the size of a large pizza spread out on a cutting board and mounded with potatoes. He offered a bite while we waited on our meals. (2 skillets of Hungarian pork with tomato, peas and fried potatoes) Walking out after a beer or uh, so... it was so quiet and the back alley that it's on did make me think about what it must have been like to be found out on quiet streets like this just 20 years ago or so.

We also ate at one of the tourist restaurants on Buda hill, near Matyas Church. Ugh, let's not go there.

Thank you for your most informative and interesting report.

I am taking my university (college) age son to Europe soon and Budapest is one of our stops. Eating is one of his strengths so we now know where to head for that.

Having found this site by sheer good luck from the land of Oz I must say I have really enjoyed your reports and photos.

Thank you for your time.

Budapest - Just Being Tourists
Well, what did we do? There's a lot of folks seeing Budapest and posting about it, so I'll keep this very last post relatively short.

We first got a feel for our home area around Vaci Utca, walking arounf, listening to the street musicians, avoiding a couple of people doing "surveys" and just locating an ATM and such. We took our first walk down by the river, the first look at the Danube for either of us. Interesting when you first see something you've heard about all your life. We leaned on the rail there, our first night and spent some time just watching the river and Buda side in lights.

The Varosmarty Ter station on the yellow metro line is just up at the end of Vaci Utca. We caught this line up to Heroes Square at the entrance to Varosliget (aka City park). The metro is very easy and cheap - just remember to validate that ticket before boarding. Once there at Heroes Square, we listened to a couple of musicians play as we admired the statues and as the tour buses rolled in. We decided to head off into the park and we made our way through the "castle" complex there, actually an exhibition modeled after various periods of architecture. The gothic end is a dead ringer for Corvin Castle mentioned in this thread.

It was a great walk, this, stopping in the chapel which was brought in from Austria and kicking through the autumn leaves in full color force throughout the park. Of course, stopped and sat to watch the kids, the dogs, the ducks and other distractions before walking over the Baglyovar. As you can tell, in a city, we're into low key tourism. We're ok just hanging out and don't feel we're missing out. After lunch, we walked down Andrassy Street back to home base, stopping at Liszt ter and the Opera House along the way.

Also on the Pest side, we checked out St. Stephans Cathedral and the Great Synagogue. Both are quite impressive.

We crossed the Chain bridge more times than I can count (well, ok, I can count higher than that) but everytime seemed to literally be an event.

Our first time was a cross over just to see the bridge when we got our first good look at the Parliament building.

That night, the bridge was bathed in purple light. The usual street lights were off. We saw this from a distance and headed back up again from our nightly stroll and found a huge crowd of people massing in Roosevelt ter, with a ribbon closing the roadway. As we approached, a even bigger mass of people came walking up from the Academy of Sciences building and photographers lined up with tripods, waiting on the other side of the ribbon. A distinguished gentleman lead the crowd and performed a ribbon cutting. Then, the entire mass of people marched across the bridge and back again, and so did we, staying with the crowd. It would have been nice to know then why we were marching and behind whom, but later we found that it was the mayor and that it was in memorial to the '56 uprising. We followed everyone back to the front of the Sciences Building where the crowd gathered and a stage was built. Listened to hungarian pop music and had no idea what was being sung, but it was a good night.

The Taverna houses a little booking office at the Vaci entrance, just inside, but available to anyone. It appeared they had tours going all sorts of places. We just booked two tickets on the short Danube night cruise for approx $25 each. We both found that we didn't really warm up to this experience. While to views are of course incredible along the banks, overall we found the setting almost as romantic as a bus. COuld have been the time of year, as the boat was glassed in. It may also been the narration on the english version of the audio thing, when we listened. It's told from the point of the river - "She gently strokes my shores..." was a bit much, so we put down the headphones and just watched from our vantage point behind the glass.

Another day, we crossed and went up to Buda Hill, taking the funicular to the top and then walking back down. We watched a man fish from the bridge on the way. We headed up and took in Matyas Church (which is partially under scaffolding) but the interior is amazing. Sort of a flattened feel to the painting, with geometric designs and touches of the Turkish occupiers as well. Very cool.

Walked along Fisherman's bastion and assisted a lady fend off the pidgeons so that she could feed the one with the broken foot. Oh, and by the way, the views are great from up here as are the few back streets. Very well restored here.

As we walked back down and crossed the bridge again, we came around one of the supports where they jut out to go around the brick work and found a man there who had set up row after row of photographs on the pavement. Each was pasted neatly to a white piece of posterboard and what caught my attention was places I'd seen in books. Now this was our last day in Budapest before heading off in the car for Romania and here, these photos were all from Romania. Of course, we stopped to look. The man - Tibor - who took these photos, began to explain where they were from when I said we'd be going there tomorrow. This was all we needed to say. From here, we spent an hour on the bridge, bikes wizzing by, photo selling forgotten. He told us about how he'd been a guide in Romania before. What a great guy. He talked about how hard it was when Budapest police would ask for money to let him stay, or when all his work blew into the Danube. We talked about US politics and his life in Maramures. We sat in a corner and with a pen and scrap piece of paper, mapped out the entire route through Romania, scratching and redrawing until we were all happy. He hugged us, and was about to send us on our way when we backtracked and reminded him that we'd not selected any photos. I bought one of the larger ones... and Tibor insisted that my wife pick one more, on him. After a bit longer, we were on our way, ready for the next morning.

And that's where this whole thread started.

His photos are brilliant by the way, and here on the desk now. We have already discussed how long we should give Budapest next time.

Take care and happy holidays. That's it, no more story until the next trip.

Oh, and one last thank you to everyone who responded so nicely. I hope everyone who reads here gets some use from it, even if just for a bit of distraction.

Any questions on the areas we did visit, I'll try to answer.

And oztravellers, I hope you have a great trip to Budapest. Neither my wife nor I are really city people at heart, having grown up in midwest US and near the Yarra Valley area outside Melbourne, respectively, but we enjoyed Budapest right away and always felt right at home as we walked around.

Finding good food was never a bit of problem there. Good luck!

Clifton,
Thanks again for the thoughtful and detailed report. It was an absolute pleasure to read. Bravo.

Multumesc, Bardo!

Köszönöm [thank you], Clifton. That was an exceptional trip report.

Clifton, again thank you for your beautiful and most interesting report. You do have a way with words. Wish I did.

I too enjoy small villages. I like large cities also but find just as much to enchant me in small villages and so enjoy meeting the residents. Your experience with the photographer Tibor is special. This is what makes traveling pure joy IMHO.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

Clifton, thanks again for an absolutely wonderful report.
And here's the cabbage rolls recipe I promised. If you have any q's, don't hesitate to ask.
In NY I find whole pickled cabbage, but you can use fresh cabbage blanched for a minute in boiling water, until the leaves are coming apart easely. (remove the stem/core first for easier peeling). Once you have a pile of leaves, you get to the meat mixture.

I use about 2 lbs ground meat (usually just fairly fatty pork, but you can use a mixture of pork and beef) for a large cabbage, usually cutting the larger leaves in two and removing the tough rib. The odd leaves, cabbage heart (not the core) and the ribs get chopped medium fine. If you use fresh cabbage, mix with a bag of sauerkraut. Cover very well the bottom of a dutch oven with the chopped cabbage, reserving the rest.

Mix the meat with salt, pepper, thyme to taste, a handfull (1/3 to 1/2 cup) of washed rice (you can leave it in warm water for 10 min before), a large onion chopped very fine and sauteed until translucent, 3-4 tbls ice cold water and one egg.
Place a bit of the meat mixture (golf ball size) on the wider part of the cabbage leaf and roll once to cover the meat, then fold the sides in and continue rolling. If the sides are sticking out, push them in with your finger holding the roll firmly in your hand wrapped around it.
Place the rolls in the pot close together but not packed. Every layer gets a layer of chopped cabbage on top and, if available and so desired, a few pieces of smoked bacon cut in 1/2 by 1 inch slices. Finish off with chopped cabbage, add a couple of bay leaves, sprinkle some additional thyme, pour over about 4 oz. of tomato sauce, than pour boiling water over, up to level. Make sure the pot is tall enough as the cabbage will rise while boiling - give it a couple of inches of space.
Bring to a boil on high heat, than reduce to low for a couple of hours. You can finish them off in the oven (med. heat) for the last hour or so or you can cook them entirely in the oven (375-400 F). Check if done opening a roll and tasting the filling - the rice should be done.
Serve with polenta and sour cream if desired.

- the fattier the meat, the better they will taste - even more truthful in this case
- if you use pickled cabbage, taste for saltiness. if too salty, keep overnight in cold water and don't add much salt to the meat
- it sounds much more complicated than it actually is, although it's not a fast meal

For mititei, you can order from Sunnyside Meat Market in NY - (718) 786-2626. They have pickled cabbage also.

And Happy Holidays to you and your family, and all your readers.

Hi Cliff

I digested your trip report and for a minute there I felt like I'm not a romanian anymore and I'm discovering again this amazing country. Good job

Is it ok if I republish this on spirit.ro's forums, because I'm sure that lots of our visitors will enjoy it at least as much as I did. They'll also probably appreciate pretty much your pictures taken in Romania.

Great job again and thanks for "helping" us show the world a different face of Romania!

Octavian

Clifton, thanks for all you have taught me. Not just about your trip, but how to write a good trip report. I don't know what I will do on my lunch hour now that my virtual trip with you has ended. I suppose I could go back and re-read it and live the experience with you again. Or I could just eat my lunch....

Judy, Szívesen (you're welcome). And thank you too.

LoveItaly, it seems like those times are always the one's that stick in my head. Looking at buildings and landscapes are great, but they're sort of static. I doubt I ever forget that hour on the bridge though, even if I don't remember the emblem on the stones over our heads.

P_M, wow, I hope you learned mostly that proofreading is a good idea. I re-looked at a couple of posts I typed on the fly right in the box here on Fodors and cringed. Typos, spellos and grammatical blunders galore. But hey, when I read other people's reports (there are some fantastic ones on this board), it's always heart and attitude that sells me. I wrote a grand total of 2 lines in a journal. The rest I typed in the message box here or on notepad just before I posted, looking at a crumpled wad of receipts. I'm not sure that qualifies as technique. I was just reading indytravel's report on France. Now that's writing. Still, do eat your lunch. It's good for you...

Luli, that's some recipe. I'm looking forward to tackling that one after all these holidays get by. Any cooking skills that I have to this point involved making decent sauces that I can't replicate again later. If it goes well, I'll pop back in to let you know. Thank you very much for sharing it.

Octavian, I wouldn't mind at all. You and your site have been such a great help to us in learning about Romania. I would be honored that want to use any part of this to help other people. Just be sure to fix my typing flubs, eh? Anything we can do to help adventurous people find your beautiful country on the map and in their future plans seems like a good thing to me. If you want to link it like the others, I'll probably copy and paste it to the travelisfatal.com website pretty soon as more of a permanent location. Thanks much for asking.

Ho, ho, ho, off we go. Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Clifton, I was enjoying the report so much I never noticed the typos. Now I'll have to go back and read it all again to find those.

Happy holidays to you and all Fodorites.

Clifton, this was a wonderful trip report. I truly enjoyed it, thanks a lot.
Now I need to plan a vacation to Sighisoara, Maramures, all those wonderful places. And your pictures...oh boy, loved them. Thanks.

Clifton, I sometimes feel so bad because since I have been coming on Fodors this year I feel as though I do not have much to contribute.

I have never been good at keeping journals. Only did one time in 1998 and that was more like a diary than a travel journal.

I went through the entire house last January and tossed so much including all info regarding hotels, restaurants etc. Info I had kept for years.

Than discovered Fodors. And how I wish I had all the information I had thrown away. I know where to go to this restaurant and that, this sight and that, but the exact names etc. I no longer have. And I go to small town and villages that are out of the way, so the average traveler would not have the time to investigate so no point even mentioning these.
But the memories are like yours with the artist on the bridge. And that is mostly what is in my mind. The memories of people, the kindness, the relating to one another. No matter if language is a problem.

That is why I enjoyed your trip report so much. The relationships you had with people on your journey. And I know in my heart that you and your wife will be in their memories forever too.

Wishing both of you Happy Holidays and many more beautiful and interesting trips.

LoveItaly says, "I sometimes feel so bad because since I have been coming on Fodors this year I feel as though I do not have much to contribute."

WHAT!?!? You contribute a great deal to this forum. I appreciate your wit and charm, and especially appreciate your kind words on the other thread about my underpacking habit. It's only the trolls who have nothing to contribute, and you are certainly not one of those.

P_M, thank you for the very kind words.
But isn't it ironic once one decides to simplify their life and get rid of things you do than have a desire to have them back. I did have so much info, it just makes me sick it is all gone. Well future trips will have me doing a trip journal for sure.

Happy Holidays!

LoveItaly, I couldn't agree more with P_M. And I have to say - I didn't keep a journal on this trip. I meant to, but I didn't. My wife even bought me a great little leather bound book, guaranteed to make me feel like the next Hemingway, but in the end, I was out like a light at the end of most nights. The receipts I still had were a wadded up mess in that top little otherwise-useless pocket of my suitcase.

But you know what? To me, none of that matters (except I still plan on making sure my wife knows I love that little book, or at least those romantic notions behind it). What does matter to me is the stuff that makes you look forward all year to the next trip, whatever that something is. Write about what you love, write for yourself. If you have a fact or figure, then throw it in for the next person. Mostly though, this fascination we have with the world is personal. Please yourself and give back what you enjoy giving, I figure. Let people find what need and if they find intrigue or a smile instead of prices and opening times, then so be it.

PS - Let those little people make up new names daily and see who they can pester on the internet. Ever think that they hide behind that little cloak because they have no idea who they are or what it is they really ought to be doing? To me, if someone is giving back the best part of their experiences, they're already light years ahead of that poor soul.

Clifton, I want to thank you for the insightful, detailed and intriguing trip report. Maybe you could tell (and others that traveled to Romania) how did you managed the driving in Hungary and especially in Romania. Did you find it difficult? I am used to the 6 lanes US highways style of driving and am a little intimidated when thinking of the Romanian 2 lane mountain roads. I also read about the danger of having your car damaged or even disappear. Did you worry about that? Thanks

Hi A_G,

I found driving in Hungary pretty easy over all. The "M" designation highways are divided 4 lane mostly and very good quality. The other roads and highways in Hungary are of course smaller, but well paved and maintained. People drive very fast and overtake on these small roads at times you would not expect them to, but not so very different than driving in Western Europe and better, frankly, than in Ireland. The law dictates that you always drive with your lights on, day and night, in Hungary.

But Romania. Ok, there are very few 4 lane roads in Romania, divided or otherwise. A few through cities, but the activity there is often chaotic enough to make up for the improvement. Only once, on a 10 mile stretch between Brasov and Harmann did we see a full 4 lane road between towns. I'm sure there must be more around Bucharest, but I don't know.

The majority are 2 lane roads and actually aren't that bad. I've seen worse in Ireland, Missouri, Illinois, etc. Truly, what makes it tricky is that you are almost never alone on the road. Rare is the time that you can look ahead (at least on the routing we took) and only see cars ahead. You will almost always see something coming up that will need to be avoided - people, animals of every type, tractors, bicycles. They will be on the road and you will have to cross the middle of the road to go around.

Other drivers here will also be driving at high speeds like in Hungary, and making even more questionable decisions. Lots of "Oh man, I thought they were going to hit head on for sure!" But they don't, at least that we ever saw.

The best advice I can give for driving in Hungary is - if you drove ok in other Euro countries, you'll probably be ok there.

The best advice I can give for driving in Romania is - constantly keep your attention on the road and try not to drive after dark if possible. Other feelings one might have about what they see in Romania aside, specific to driving - if one is more a driving enthusiast and not timid, you may enjoy driving in Romania. If you like nice relaxing drives, I wouldn't choose to drive there.

As far as worrying about the car, yes, we did at first. Usually we tried to set up a base at the hotel before we went out. And we don't carry anything of great value except for the gizmos which I had with me (sort of a hiking kit looking thing) and the cash (flip wallet). So we mainly worried about the car itself. But we had the master card coverage and well, all you can do is to minimize the risks within the choices you make and hope for the best, right? We came out ok and didn't have any close calls in that respect. We did try to be aware of where we parked, use secure parking where available, etc.

Clifton, you are one of the most faithful and valuable contributors that I ever seen. It’s simply awesome to see someone like you willing to share his travel experience with others the way you are doing. I am planning a trip to Romania with my wife, either this fall or in late spring next year and started gathering info already. Never to early to start making plans, right?! We are thinking to follow your itinerary, but eventually get to Bucharest and maybe Black See. I also like to visit Baile Herculane and Valea Oltului. Would 2 weeks be enough? We were thinking of flying in Bucharest or Budapest and then take the trains, however, after reading your postings we start questioning if the rental car thing might work for us too. We are pretty adventurous people and gladly exchange the train’s worries for car worries. Can I ask what type of car you had? Next time (I know id going to be a next time), would you chose the same car? Thanks again!

Time needed is always tricky one. I think you can see a lot in 2 weeks, but never everything. Ours was two weeks. But we didn't spend as long as we'd like in some places, and couldn't see it all. I suppose that could be said af any trip in any country though. As you say - next time.

We had a Ford Focus and I was happy with that. Enough pep to get around obstacles before oncoming cars got there, but not so big that we couldn't squeeze down the narrow streets in Sighisoara citadel. We rented from Budget out of Budapest, through AutoEurope.com. They had more leniency for taking the car into Romania than Budget allowed on it's own web site. I will say that finding a company that would let you pickup in Romania and drop off in Hungary, or vice versa, was just about impossible. We could only find Hertz that would allow it, and the drop fee was HUGE. That's one of the main reasons we did a circle back to Budapest and didn't do an open-jaw flight.

I can imagine that spring would be a great time to go. We're very glad we went in fall though. Seeing the harvest with the workers, the haystacks and all the carts full of crops and families made it seem like a special time to be there. I hope you all have a good trip. As you said, it's never too soon to plan and I can't wait to hear how it goes, especially in areas we haven't been yet!

Thanks Clifton for the info. I will do more research, explore other options and post more questions soon.

Clifton, for the life of me I can't figure why I haven't read this thread until today. I've been traveling and overworking but so what else is new?

All I want to say at this point is BRAVO! I will need more days to digest this but you've definitely hit a button; Hungary and Romania are not presently on my life list, but the opportunity is likely to present itself later this year and so your accounts may be a central asset. Meanwhile, thank you and well done.

Good luck A_G. Will try to help if I can.

I know what you mean about work, Gardyloo. I've always enjoyed your writing here and am glad I could contribute something in return. I think you'll like both places. They have a lot to offer as destinations, each in their own way.

Clifton; Your report was fantastic and was loaded with information. I was planning to go to Romainia in late September, and after reading your report I am surely going. Like you I will land in BUD and than drive to Battonya (17 klicks from Arad). If I can find a decent hotel there I will stay the night, if not I will stay in Arad. From your description of the city, I prefer not to do so. From there onto Sibiu for the next day and night. Than to Brasov for 3 nights. After that I will go onto Sighisora for a night. The following morning I will drive onto Gheorghieni on highway 13b, than to Lacu Rosa the 12c than follow the road on the east side of lake Bicas. I want to make it to Gura Humorulul for the night as I read in the Rough Guide that there is a fairly new Best Western. I will stay there two nights and a full day in order to see the Painted Monasteries. After that onto Cluj for a night and than onto Hungary. My original goal was to try and find my Grandfather's village which I believe to be in Moldova, because he said that he was from a part of Romania called Bessarabia. However I cannot find his village on a map so I think I might have to skip it. I would like to know, what is the best route from lake Bicas to Gura Humorulul and can I make it in daylight hours? I am 70 years old, and driving in the dark is impossible for me on roads that I do not know. Also how may Monasteries can I see in one full day while staing in Gura? Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

Hi A20,

I hope you turn out to enjoy Romania as much as we did. I would agree completely about the late night driving. I felt a little like anything could pop out into the view of the headlights after dark, and sometimes did, so we tried to avoid that too.

That said, the day we spent trying to go from Sighisoara to Gura via Bicaz was verrrrrry long and we did end up driving at night, despite an early start. We went through Gheorghieni and on up through Bicaz (Lacu Rosu is quite a bit closer to Gheorghieni that then town of Bicaz is). We ate at a lodge along the lake and then headed north along the eastern shore of Lake Bicaz, which is pretty. This turned out to be a looong way and we started losing daylight. We'd planned on going on to Vatra Dornei, but we decided the lake and river route was too winding to make time, and headed west on 15B passing north of Targu Neamt.

We actually stopped in front of the Best Western in Gura. Looked ok, nothing flashy. Gura isn't a hotspot for restaurants (or anything else really), and since the BW looked a little bland to us, we went down a couple of miles on the offshoot road for Voronet. Ended up at the Casa Elena which was also simple, but run by some really nice, personable young people. They had a small restaurant on site. Voronet was within quick striking distance in the morning.

Realistically, you might be able to see 4 monestaries in a day. The four I listed are within a fairly short drive of each other. The main factor would be how long you might spend studying the frescos that cover the inner churches.

Brasov has a lot of attractions within reach - Harmann, Prejmer, Sinaia, Rasnov and Bran (if time permits). Do try to see the Saxon villages while you're there. You won't be sorry. As far as Arad, well... it may actually have a nice center. I don't know. Even Brasov doesn't make the best impression on the outskirts. Sibiu and Sighisoara too. Many of the towns seem dusty and industrial on the fringes, but shine once you're past that outer ring. Arad may be that way too and it's possible that we just went through the wrong part.

On more resource you might find useful - www.maporama.com

It was the ONLY online mapping program that was able to locate the smallest village in Romania (provided spelling was a match, of course). Viamichelin.com and mappy.com only were able to find the major towns and rarely more than the main highways. Good luck finding your grandfather's village. This sounds like it's shaping up to be a fine trip!

AG20, you might want to search for your grandfather's village North of the Romanian borders, in Republic of Moldova. As you might know after the WWII the Soviet Union grabbed a good part of Northern Moldova and now that part is the independent Republic of Moldova. Good luck!

Message: Hello Clifton:

Thanks for your promp reply. I am still trying to figure out if I can make to Gura before dark.

I think that I will follow your route and head NW on the 15B and if darkness is on the horizon I will stop in Piatra Neamt, although I don't think there is any place nice to stay, but it
would be better than sleeping in the car.

You say that you started out early from Sighisora. What time is early? I must admit that we usually don't get on the road till about 9:30 -10 AM. I also assume that you stopped in Lacu Rosa for a leisurely lunch and that you made quite a few stops for picture taking. I would like to stop at Lacu Rosa for lunch also, but I think that I will have to keep both activities to a minimum in order to travel in daylight as much as possible.

I am not sure if I will stay in Brasov for three nights or perhaps I will stay in Poiana Brasov. I know that I will stay in either place for three nights as there is so much to see around that area including the Saxon Villages.

In any event I appreciate your help, and I would be grateful if you can fill me in on just a bit more on the time sequence for the trip up to Gura.

Thanks again.

By the way, A G, thanks for the advice
on the area where my Grandfather is probably from. I think that you are correct. I believe he is from a vilage that is in Moldova since that is where Bessarabia is located. I just have to find a good map of Moldova, but there is the possibility that the village no longer exits, or the name has changed. A lot has happened in the past 100 years since he left the area. I'll have to dig up his Romainian passport so I will know the exact spelling of his village.

Again, thanks for your advise

A20, I seem to recall leaving out from Sighisoara around 9:30, once we'd checked out and all. We were warned by a resident not to take the road 13B from Sovata to Gheorgheni, as it is said to be in bad shape, so we went cut over through Odorheiu Secuiesc and turned north at Miercurea Ciuc.

We stopped briefly at Gheorgheni to look for an ATM (no luck) and then again at Lacu Rosu for lunch - about an hour to hour and a half. You know how you can never rush through meals in Europe, even if you want to. Took less than an hour around the gorges, and still ran out of daylight before Targu Neamt. I can't recall the time that was, but then this was in late October too - so the day was shorter too, which I hadn't really thought of before. I imagine in September, we may have made it all the way to Voronet before nightfall.

Maporama.com showed the route as being about 200 miles. The thing to remember is how often you come to full stops and wait because carts are slowly passing each other, or there are people, dogs, chickens in the road, or a herd of cattle are being hereded all around the car. It adds up. If you really get stuck though, there were several lodges (hotel + restaurant) at Lacu Rosu, although I have to admit, I didn't see the appeal of the lake itself as an attraction. Different strokes - but the gorges are sure worth taking that route!

Clifton, I want to ask a few more logistic questions while your memories are still fresh in your mind. How many hours did you drove from Budapest to Timisoara and Timisoara to Sarmisegetuza? Would it be realistic to make the Budapest Sarmisegetuza trip in one day? On the map is not that far, however, as you mention the roads are unpredictable. How much of a problem was finding rest areas (bathrooms) in Hungary or Romania? Thanks

A_G, it's about 200 miles from Budapest to Timisoara. About 3 to 3.5 hours not counting the stops, the border crossing and getting lost in Arad. The roads in Hungary made for good time, even some with divided highway. Don't forget to turn your lights on, by the way. Legal requirement.

From Timisoara to Sarmizegetusa is something like 1.5 hours. Sarmizegetusa is a very small village though, with the ruins and not much else - just a couple of houses. If you go straight through from Budapest, make sure to leave enough time to get to lodging.

Hi Clifton--

I haven't read this board in months and then tonight decided to check it out. Great trip report that brought back all sorts of memories of our trip now almost four years ago. It sounds as though the tourist infrastructure has improved vastly in the past few years. We never saw some of the things you mentioned like a pizza shop, a bakery with pastries, or nice places to stop for lunch. It also sounds as though prices have risen considerably from the time we visited.

For the person who is wondering about going in the spring. We went the last few days of April and spent the first two weeks of May in Hungary and Romania. Apparently it was an early spring, but it was beautiful weather. When we were in the Bran area all the apple orchards were in bloom. We plan to return some time and since we are rather outdoorsy people I think we may do some hiking in the beautiful mountains.

Great report for an under-visited country.

Hi Julies,

I don't know if you'd come across the thank you thread I'd sent out first, but in case you haven't, here's another big thanks to you for all the information and help you supplied.

Yes, it seems like there have been quite a few enterprising Romanians lately. They've got a quite a few eateries and things going now. I suppose it makes sense. Still, nothing ostentatious, just simple cafes and such. In a way, I almost don't mind the rise in prices when I see that it may help the economy. And overall, it was still much less than Hungary which is still trailing behind Western Europe, so we didn't spend much, we felt. I have to admit though, I hope Romania doesn't reach the "What's the best 5* hotel or where's the cutest B&B" level of tourism too soon - at least not before you get back.

The hikes aren't the Fagaras or the Bucegi have got to be awe-inspiring. Our half-day walk was great (and reminded us that we don't walk like that everyday, huff-puff) Let us know all about it, will you?

The hikes aren't the Fagaras or the Bucegi

The hikes AROUND the Fagaras or the Bucegi

I had to re-read that sentence 3 times before *I* figured out what I was saying, so I thought I should fix it up.

Clifton: Have you ever travelled in Czech or Slovak Republics? How would you compare Romania to them?

tomboy, I haven't been to either - yet. Very much like to see both, but can't compare yet

I've been to Czech Republic twice, a small part of Slovakia and also southern Poland. Romania is definitely behind the others as far as tourist infrastructure if that is what you are wondering about. It really is like visiting a preWWII European country. However, its scenery and atmosphere can't be beat.

Thanks Clifton. Also there is a Romanian website with maps, directions and distances between only Romanian cities.
http://www.sosele.com/

Well, yes, you've hit on what I'm wondering about. Clifton did a wonderful job of describing his trip, yet I seem to be trying to identify with how difficult it would be. I found driving on the autobahns the same, whether in Germany, Austria, CzRep, or Slovakia. Non-autobahn, equally easy, given equal traffic loads. I guess I'm leary of herds of animals every 500 feet. Every 3 miles might be ok. Wouldn't mind the quaintness, just the inconvenience. How prevalent/available are rooms with private bathroom? Would you suggest hotels versus pensions? How did you order meals without Romanian (our knowledge of German favored us in this respect in eastern Slovakia)? Is Romanian close enough to Spanish to be able to much through a menu?

Julies-can you expand on your comment about "the atmosphere can't be beat"?

Oh, and Clifton, did you need to buy or bring your own toilet paper?

tomboy,

We actually brought a couple of rolls of the travel toilet paper, but never needed it. We brought it mostly because you never know how long you'll be out on the road, but in hotels and guesthouses, it wasnt a problem.

To the roads - well, first, there were no autobahns in the areas of Romania we were in. There was a brief section of 4 lane between Brasov and Harmann, of about 5 miles. The rest of the roads we drove on throughout the country were 2 lanes, 80-90% of which did not have shoulders to speak of.

The road surfaces themselves were not quite up to par with Hungary, which I would think is not unlike much of the rest of Europe. Hungary was certainly comparable to Ireland, perhaps even a bit better.

Romania does have decent enough roads and of course, different highways have differnt levels of quality. For instance, the primary highways running from Deva to Subiu to Brasov; or Bucharest to Brasov are of very good quality and we could easily maintain (or exceed) posted limits. While there still might have been carts or other slow moving obstructions ahead, but not as many, on these roads we were able to anticipate and manuever around without breaking our pace significantly. We tried to learn and follow the habits of the local drivers (where they didnt' seem less than wise, at least)

Small roads between villages and non-primary towns, are slower, of a lesser quality and more likely to be filled with life in all forms. What we found is that if we needed to make time, it was usually due to us changing bases, such as from Sinaia to Sighisoara. In these cases, we had no trouble and the roads were mostly ok (major issues spaced more than 3 miles apart), unless of course, we sidetracked into villages and tangents for siteseeing - which we did. On routes where small roads are chosen, expect to move fairly slowly and carefully. Sighisoara to Agnita by back road would be an example of this, as would the route through the Bicaz Gorges.

Finally, I will say that some of the valume of carts and workers may have been due to it being harvest time. I'm sure that farming work continues throughout the year, but harvest surely brought out cart after cart loaded with crops and field workers, creating many things to swerve around.
On these backroads, at harvest time (obviously the only time I know about), expect a few miles between villages where there may or may not be a cart or flock of sheep between, and then quite a lot of activity in the village itself. In some villages, we straddled the center almost all the way through. Fortunately, in many villages, competing cars are fairly rare.

On eating, well - all the places I described had either a young person who spoke english, a english menu tucked away somewhere, or items we came to recognize and knew we liked, such as the sarmale. We stayed mostly in hotels or well established guesthouses, but there's some pensuine websites that list by region that detail the amenities a cazare have (rented room), languages spoken and that sort of thing.

And I will say this - some of the best talks we had were with those whom we shared no common language, odd as that sounds.

We as always had a phrase book with us and American toilet paper (their's is of the crepe paper variety, and also sometimes the bushes were the only toilet option). I was hoping that my French might help us out, but I never found anyone who spoke it. We very rarely found an English menu, but sometimes found English speakers. Otherwise, we depended on the phrase book. However, you are not going to Romania for the food. Never plan to make more than 25 to 30 miles an hour when driving. We found the animals and carts on the road to add to the charm of the experience. Once we even passed a pair of traditional gypsy wagons with the people in traditional costume walking behind them on the roadway. With one exception we stayed in places that were mentioned in Lonely Planet and were satisfied with the lodging. BUT, we are pretty low-key and undemeanding and do not need fancy accomodations.

I really liked being in a place that was so obviously different. First of all, our clothing (which is just basic casual) made us stand out as foreigners right away. We are not used to seeing people in traditional dress and we commonly saw this all over Romania. It was interesting for us to see Gypsies in their typical dress. We are adventuresome and several times stopped along the side of the road to buy local cheeses or at the ubiquitious sausage stands at lunchtime. When I bought a hand-loomed rug outside one of the monasteries, the weaver took us into her home so we could see all her pieces. Out guide in the Maramures area took us into the homes of several local craftsmen. There are no farm implements or machines; driving through the countryside you see people working the fields by hand as they have for centuries. The people we met absolutely loved Americans which isn't always the case in the rest of Europe. All in all, this discussion is making me think of a return visit this year. We'd given up on the idea of Europe this year since the dollar stinks, but this might be affordable and we said we'd return.

Hello Clifton:

Thanks again for the advise regarding the trip from Sighisora to Gura Humorulul.

As per your suggestion I will avoid the
13B and follow your route to Miercurea Ciuc and than head north to Gheorghieni. It looks like it might be as much as 100 klicks out of the way, so I might have to avoid a lunch at a restaurant. Perhaps I can buy some sausage and cheese on the road side and we can have a picnic. Also as you say, I might have more daylight as it is late September.

Again, I want to thank you for your help. You are the pioneer.

Good luck A20. As far as I know, that's still the best way around (or through Targu Mures), from what I was told by a local gentleman who posts on the Lonely planet board. Still, you might find that whole area interesting anyway, from a historical aspect. By several accounts, the Szekely Land residents (around Georghini and M. Cuic)are said to be the Huns, decendants of Atilla.

Im not sure how pioneer we are, but we had a lot of fun. Hope that you do as well.

And A_G, I missed your post earlier, but checked out that site. Very handy. Wish we had had that earlier!

Clifton, I discovered another good interactive site , however is all in Romanian language and you have to register (Inregistrare.) After you login, can look up in really great detail most of the roads, cities and villages. The only word you need to know is "harti", meaning maps.
http://www.drum.ro

Thanks A_G. Will be awhile before we need to work out the next Romanian map (Asia next, we think), but I'll always remember "harti" - still have the harta turistivka we lived by, sitting on my desk. I'll check out that site though.

Clifton, I can imagine that you are not going back to Romania any time soon. However, that could be good info for future use or somebody else that is thinking about traveling to Romania. Pretty funny how much travelers are like evangelists; when we find something interesting we want to share the gospel with everyone willing to listen. As for you upcoming trip to Asia, keep us posted, I'm sure is going to be a fun trip and look forward to your trip report.

Clifton:

THANK YOU!!! I lived in Budapest for a year in 97-98 and reading your post brought it all back to me. I had the chance to go to Bucharest only in Romania for work and hope to get back there to explore more. You and your wife sound like my kind of travelers. The trip report was incredible!!

A_G, I'd like to get back and expect that we will, but you know how it is. Always a list of other places too. Add whatever you'd like here - evangelize away! I'm all for this being a useful thread when people go looking later for resources on the two countries.

kittrdg, thanks for the kind words. Budapest is a great town. I'd be in big trouble living in Budapest with all the good wine and pastry (emphasis on "BIG")

Clifton,

I liked the report. But how many days were you in Romania? I'm trying to figure out if 19 days will allow us to see Romania and parts of Bulgaria.

Thanks Michael. We had 12 days in Romania (not counting Hungary portion) and probably moved around more than most.

Clifton,

Can you explain these comments of yours, as I could not find the reference to Julies' comments? Thanks.

"Just after we left immigration, there was a large gas station and a bunch of guys at the end of the parking lot near the road. A number of cars are pulled over. Two came running out onto the road, waving their arms, wearing jump suits."

Michael,

That comment from julie had come from another thread that I can not find now either. In it, she'd mentioned being stopped at the border by "disinfectant" men, who pulled them over and wanted something like $5 to spray down their car as they crossed into Romania. If I remember correctly, she'd paid them the same amount not to do it and they obliged.

As we entered Romania (a different crossing), we discovered the group of people I mentioned above. What their particular pitch was and how much they wanted, I don't know. But with julie's sharing of her experience and my feeling that it didn't look official to me, we had no trouble going around the arm-wavers. I think these guys are counting on lack of familiarity to cause enough confusion that people panic a bit and think "well maybe I better pull over or I might get in trouble", and then pull over.

Had julie not said what she did in another post, I'd have probably done the same before I stopped to wonder why were these guys in a parking lot of a gas station, why did the officials at the booth not say anything, etc. It just happens so fast after you pull out of the booth at immigration that you don't have time for logic if you didn't expect they'd be there.

WOW Clifton! Sure hope the Fodor folks are taking note of some of your insightful info on these amazing places!

Aw thanks chocobon. Now if I could just work out a deal on some sort of residuals...

Hi Clifton,

I just discovered you wonderful trip report...it's amazing!

I've been in Romania several times, I lived there for some months and I went there as a simple tourist more or less one year ago (yes I love that country)... and your report is definetely outstanding!

I am now plannig a trip to NE Hungary and Maramures (never been there), and I will surely take your report with me.

thanks for sharing!

ciao ciao!

ste

Hi Clifton! Thanks for the great info on Romania. I am trying to get a summer internship in Bucharest. I have traveled extensively in Europe including Hungary but have never been to Romania. I will be going over there alone and being a woman, I was curious how it is over there traveling alone? I appreciate your help.

Clifton- I'm sorry I wasn't clear. I am wanting to know how safe you felt and if there were any concerns I should know about. thanks!

Apologies for taking awhile to respond, but I've been away, traveling a bit this past week.

Ste, I have to agree (of course) that there's a lot to love about Romania. No doubt that I'll always remember this trip. I think you'll like Maramures. It's so close geographically to some areas of northeast Hungary and yet a million miles apart culturally. It should make a nice mix of things to see and do. I hope you have a great trip and hope you share the outcome with us.

san9325, well, Bucharest I don't know, but what I can tell you about the relative feeling of safety we had is this: like most places, cities felt somewhat less safe than small villages. I suppose that's true everywhere. Yet together at least, we only felt like there was "something in the air" in TImisoara. Yet other than a few pickpocket attempts (3 in a 24 hr timeframe), there was nothing that would really have prompted that other than our being new arrivals in Romania and we hadn't become accustomed to so many people stopping to watch us walk by. In Sibiu and most larger towns, this really didn't happen. In Medias we were also a bit of a spectacle, but by this time, we were used to people in villages checking us out, so we didn't really pay much attention or just nodded and said hello.

At no point did anything on our trip leave us feeling threatened though. Not to say that something couldn't happen - I'm sure that it could, almost anyplace. And I'd read accounts, but then I read about these things in my own hometown everyday. Ok, enough ramble... I guess I'm saying that I'm sure things can and do happen in Romania to travelers, but we didn't feel unsafe. Being solo, I'd think that extra precautions about watching where you and your belongings are would be a heightened concern, as it would be in other places and generalized solo travel advice would apply here as well. I hopy you too have a wonderful time and look forward to hearing how it went.

Clifton,
I have just finished your report on Romania and I find it very accurate and detailed. I am headed for Sighetu Marmatiei at the end of June and I have made reservations for Perla Sigheteana. To my great amazement, they are charging now $55 for a room! You were there last October and you only paid $27. Isn't that amazing? I stayed at the same hotel in August of 2002 when I was charged $21 for a room. I wonder what made them jack the price up so abruptly!? There is another hotel called Siesta about 200 yards down the road from Perla. I am thinking about canceling my reservation at Perla and switching to Siesta.

One more thing: where can I see the pictures you took while in Maramures and Romania?

adrian, $55 seems very steep, but then you've also seen the rooms and that they're ok, not flashy or upscale. With the location of the Perla being a little ways outside of townand not within easy walking distance of Sighet's center, I'm not sure I could have justified $55. That is quite a hike. I don't know the Siesta and don't remember seeing it but I'd have to think it was worth checking into.

Does Sighet really have a high season? I mean, it might, but I'm not sure. I was just thinking you might be able to swing in and see the Siesta or the Tisza (I think that's right) in the town center before making a decision on the Perla. Risky though... I have no idea about June.

On pics, I have some up at http://www.travelisfatal.com/ro/

They're not great quality, just resized and posted. Just vacations snaps really, but I've been working on versions I'll post someday now that I'm learning how to post process a little better.

I like the way you put in A bit about us, Gizmos etc

Clifton, I'm joying your trip report and your photos and I thank you.
I believe they paint the trees white at their base for the auto lights to see and avoid a crash.

Thanks to you both for your kind words! Mimi, you could be right as that would make sense for those along the roadside.

I was just looking at an old photo of a monastery's grounds though and they too had the base of the trees all painted, far from the road, behind the walls. Perhaps to protect from insects? Now I wish I'd asked someone!

hi cliff,

can you please drop me a line at
octavian (at) spirit.ro so I can get your e-mail address. i can't seem to find a way to send a private message in here

as for the painted trees - indeed this is done for protection against the insects. the white thing is not paint but lime (calcium oxide)

The trees are also painted white at the base to protect them mainly from rabbits, which seem to enjoy the taste of the tree bark.

Adrian, that makes a lot of sense too.

Octavian, I've mailed you!

We are having a family reunion in Transylvania and seven of us are attending from the USA. We are flying into Prague staying for 2 days. We plan to take a night train to Budapest and then a night train from Budapest to Brasov. Has anyone on the forum done this? I have found how to get our Eurail passes but I have not found how to make the sleeping car reservations for Budapest to Brasov. I would appreciate any help and suggestions. We will be visiting family in Matisfalva and will be staying in a Pension while we are there. Thank you so much for your postings. They have been very interesting and helpful. Diane

Clifton,
My wife and I spent 16 days during May in Romania. Every night but 3 we spent in their version of B&B. We found your trip report to be invaluable. I am writing a trip report, mainly about the foks we met along the way. I am afraid that anything I could say about the churches, castles, forts, etc., would be very redundant and not nearly as descriptive as yours. Thanks again. John Regal, Canyon, TX.

Diane, I've never done the train but I know another poster here, Ben Haines, has taken the train from Budapest into central Romania and can speak to sleepers. Look up his very recent trip report and he may be in the position to respond.

John, I have to say that I'm very pleased that you found the story useful. My biggest purpose behind the pitch above was to help, and to get people to consider going to Romania. I hope you enjoyed the trip. Please, describe as much as you like. (Personally, I'm no great fan of my own writing but enjoy reading others). I look forward to hearing about your time there.

Hi Clifton,

Your report and pictures are fascinating. I really liked the part about Marmures. Would you mind if I showed some of your pictures to my English class here in Switzerland? I think they will be just as impressed with your report as I was.

By the way, fifteen years ago I worked for a company that did business in Eastern Europe. The sales managers would come back from a business trip in Romania and tell us a secret: that Romania has some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe. You've given proof to that. Thanks!

Oh no, of course I don't mind. That's very nice of you, actually. Thank you. I hope they enjoy them.

I've since done up what I think are much better versions of those photos. Better size, etc. I've put them on a site that I participate where people share and discuss photos from around the world. I think they may like these versions better and I've included some that I hadn't posted before. Here's the address for the Romania pictures:

http://www.trekearth.com/members/CliffW/photos/Europe/Romania/

PS - I think your manager was right!

Hi, Clifton
I am in the middle of reading Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts, which depicts Romania in 1990 as backwards, grey, and unfriendly, so I thought that I'd check out Fodor's and see how things have changed in 15 years. I couldn't stop reading your thread! I am sitting here with the book, your report, your wonderful photos and webshots.com minimized so that I can look up pictures of whatever you describe. I am having such a wonderful time that Romania has now moved up to the top of my travel destination list!!
Thank you for the wonderful, humorous, interesting report!

Hi partypoet. Thanks for the kind words. Sounds like it's a good thing I hadn't read the book or I might have been hesitant of going!

Do keep in mind, there are still very much signs everywhere of that world he describes. Especially in the cities like Sibiu, Brasov and Medias. Even Sighisoara. The outskirts will be offputting and you'll encounter poverty, rough buildings and grime. I suppose you'd see similar in many cities outside of Romania as well. But do expect that if you go. Keep in mind we tourists tend to look for and remember the best of things. It shows in our photos and sometime we make sure we aim so as to not get that ugly building next door.

Journalists, I think (perhaps like your author), seem the opposite and look for the worst sometimes. Although I am sure improvements have been made since 90. I suspect though the Romania you find will be a bit of both. I say all this because I'm always a little worried when someone says "because of your report.." lol.. gulp, I'd hate to have someone come back going "Romania was a dump, growl, growl.."

So it's good that you've got the book there for balance and this is my little disclaimer - your mileage may vary; not intended for internal use; not valid in California, Iowa or Guam; if rash develops please consult...

Many thanks for your fantastic report. I read it with great interest as I would be travelling in the same neck of the wood this summer. Our family just returned from a three week adventure that took us from Budapest to Erdely (Transylvania) to Brasov, Sibiu, Szeged, Pecs, Vienna,and back to Budapest. Our visit was primarily to reconnect with family so it was of a different vein than your trip. I'm going to try to put together a report soon.

Partypoet
When I crossed the border into Romania the first large centre was Oradea. I will admit to all, I was very uneasy about driving through this country. I had never seen anything like this. I said to my wife "this part of the trip had better be worth it".

I am glad to say that it was. I met and stayed with family in a small mountain village and had great experiences in the Transylvanian cities. Do go and experience this part of the world.

Cliff.old boy, I certainly enjoyed your marvelous account. Your photos are first class and brought back many memories. I have auto-traveled Romania several times over the past twenty years, and on October 17th I'm escorting a group of 16 of my readers on more or less a "footsteps" tour of the country (I'm a novelist whose last historical novel is centered on old Romania c. 1900)...I can tell you some hair-raising experiences of the "old days", pre-revolution, where such items as food and petrol were daily battles to come by..but through it all, the Romanians were wonderful people ...I have many more warm memories than cold ones. My book will be made into a feature film next year...and in fact, I'm meeting our Romanian production chief to scout a few of the more important locations while I'm there. The group will get a big kick out of this.
Stuart Tower

I hadn't returned to this thread lately (or Fodors all that often really).

Techboy, I hadn't seen that report yet, but I know how it is once you get back from a trip. So much to catch up on. I'm looking forward to it. Especially Pecs, as we'd like to visit there on a return trip someday. I check the Romania search lately, so I'm thinking I'll see it when it goes up.

Stuart, kind words for my amateur efforts - thank you. I got nosy before I clicked reply and had a peek on Amazon for your work. Would it be The Wayfarers getting the Hollywood treatment?

Sounds like a really fun trip. A bit of old transylvania and a smidge of tinseltown rolled into one. I'd certainly have tried to wrangle a seat if I weren't off in a different direction for the next trip. I'm sure they'll have fun with that, as will you. Seeing familiar places through new eyes, and all that.

Fill us in on the details of the film when you have them? Limited release or will I be getting the chance to see the final results out here in the flyover? And will the title be the same as the book? Anyway, it does look an interesting topic and I do need some interesting new material for the plane! It's a long way to Cambodia and a good book is a real asset during those times.

Clifton....yes, The Wayfarers, also in Barnes and Noble and order-able through any bookstore. If you'll give me an e-mail address I would be happy to send you linked "stuff" on the book and the film treatment...it will be a feature film, hopefully widely distributed..but in the "biz", that's always an iffy thing. As you may know, Cold Mountain (Miramax...Nicole Kidman and Jude Law) was shot in it's entirety in Romania. Our Romanian production company managed to get Miramax over 100 Romanian army soldiers to be the Confedrate and Unon armies..at $5 a day per soldier..he promises to do the same for The Wayfarers...we need several army scenes.

A20Traveler...give me the name of granpa's town and I will pinpoint it for you. I have very detailed maps gathered from prior trips...one is an army topographical map showing everything imaginable.

A G....use Autoeurope..I always did, even before the '89 revolution. Driving Romania is a challenge...pre-revolution there were countless army roadblocks throughout the country, and infact i have a scene that depicts them in my latest novel. Food and petrol were a daily problem...many times we ate in a village market scavenging whatever they had on their barren shelves. Food lines in Romania pre-revolution were longer and more frustrating than those in the neighboring USSR. Happy to say that although the revoltuon didn't solve all problems, advances for the good have been made and is a constant work-in-progress.

Clifton..my e-mail is rozstu1@aol.com
Stu Tower

Tower:

Thanks for your help. I have photocopy of my grandfathers passport in front of me. It is a Romanian passport. He was born in 1863 in Briceni. However, it ays Basarabia. I believe this is present day Moldovo The nameof his village, I was aways told, was Sucoron. I have no idea if the spelling is correct.

Again, many thanks for your help. I leave for Romania the 25th of Sept. and I wll lt you all know how it went.

A20 Traveler (Charles)

I am interested Stu.

I'm not on my own PC at the moment. I've got mine in various pieces around my study at the moment, but once I am able to email, I'll be sending one your way.

A20Traveler:
Yep..I've pinpointed Grandpa's towns...Briceni, once in Romania, is now Brichany in Northern Moldova...and closeby is a Ukrainian town called Sekiryany which is probably the old Sucoron. The final "i" in Romanian is not pronounced, so Birceni would have been "Birchen". Therefore, both towns are in what was the Bessarabian region of old Romania . Sekiryany is just over the Ukrainian border. I would not advise going over either border with a car you rent in Romania. Pleasew rite me at my e-mail address Rozstu1@aol.com
Stu

I meant "Brichen" of course...at any rate...there it is A20..
Stu

Snickering to myself, at how easy this is to find, Clifton... just search on Romania in the "country box" - - it comes up number two on the liat, since it has been topped just this week. And curently number 10, searching on your own name!

Best wishes,

Rex

Well, yes. I do know how to find it - I hadn't lost my own trip report! LOL But you really only found it because it was about a lesser discussed country, it was topped recently and/or you knew who wrote it (plus I only post once or twice every other day or so lately on average, so it hasn't sank much by name).

My main point was that it wasn't searchable by specific information from the text of this thread - the example I gave was "Sibiu", which is of course a city and not in the country list. All's well, since it's Romania and there are only a few reports to pick from, this one was fairly easy anyway.

If the same were to be searched in the case of a small village in Italy by a new forum visitor who didn't know of a certain poster to focus on, my thinking is that finding recent info on, say, Bassano, would be less successful. And not so easy to manually extract from the massive volume of Italy posts.

I used the example that I did BECAUSE it was a very specific example that could be found by other means in order to see that it wasn't working. And it's easily verifiable as a search issue outside of the May cutoff. If I were looking at this forum for the first time in planning a trip to Sibiu, Romania, I'm thinking I'd type "Sibiu" in the test box and click Romania on the country. Try it. This post will not come up. And that was my point, badly as I may have made it, but admittedly intended for a different audience. I do try to post info more for those, I think, who might wander in and actually be planning a trip, but may well not be so familiar with the ins and outs of the forum.

Anyway, I'd prefer to not turn the report into a tech discussion (although I do end up in a lot of those in the course of a normal day!). I'd be happy to banter technicalities on the other thread though.

Okay, I guess you are right. I didn't "get it". There are indexing holes; they have been documented before, and this appears to be one that is (perhaps?) part of something larger than I realized, from late last year.

Thanks for clarifying.

clifton, what a great report. It had me on the edge of my seat. As it turns out, I am headed for Budapest from Oct. 20-24. Seems like I will be there during their National Holiday remembering the revolution on Oct. 23. This will be a Sunday. Should I expect that everything will be closed, including museums?Anyone else know the answer to this?
mhk

This being an old and well-read thread, you might get better response in a new, separate posting.

Thanks mhk. I'm trying to think now if I remember anything being closed that day, other than the Chain Bridge roadway, but I don't. Of course, I can't exactly recall what we did do that day. lol I know we didn't check on all the attractions, so some could be closed, I'm sure. Restaurants and bars were open, that I do know.

tomboy is right though. You'd probably attract a larger body of knowledge if you were to repost the question as it's own thread, so that other people might see it and help out as well. Hope you have a great trip to Budapest.

YO CLIFTON!!

Your report has an honorable mention on the Freaky Friday Rant's and Raves thread today. Please see my post.

I will have some questions for you later.

Well fire away on the questions when you're ready! I saw you're not far off from going.

OK, here we go:

1. What is the best way to call the US from Romania? I will have my cell with me for emergencies but that's expensive so I'm hoping they have calling cards which are easy to use.

2. Is there any reason to take €'s to Romania? I understand they are part of the EU but still using the lei. Are there situations where the € is preferred?

That's all I can think of for now, thanks.

hey there P_M,

ok, I'm already kind of useless on #1 so this doesn't bode well. We had our t-mobile phone and it's tri-band, so it worked there. We used it to call home once and to call ahead to the guesthouse in Sighisoara once. And my wife's dad called her from Australia once, which was sort of surreal. It was expensive as all get out and we didn't have a better method than that. Come to think if it, we still haven't on later trips. I know the "buy a local sim card" posts sound great, but I've never just went and looked for one when we got to a new country. Or a calling card for that matter. And in the meantime, I kind of revel in having pulled a disappearing act. So, as I said - useless.

On #2, no we never used euro. And it's kind of like Budapest or Morocco. They quote from a distance in euro because it solidifies the prices they're advertising. But they're doing an exchange once you get there to local currency anyway and charging in lei. So your standard "get local currency from the atm" wisdom still holds true. But watch some of the hotels. They're doing the dynamic currency exchange thing in "your currency" and soaking on the rate, like they often do in Ireland. You might want to be prepared to reel 'em back in and get them to charge a card in lei.

Hi Clifton,

Your advice is never useless. I also have a T-Mobile quad band phone so if all else fails I'll just pay thru the nose for that. I have heard of the SIM cards but I don't know if I'll make enough calls to justify the time and trouble. I've found that texting is cheaper than calling so I'll stick to my usual plan of just a few calls and a few more texts.

As for question #2, I have seen hotel prices in €s so that's what prompted me to ask this question. So I will skip the €s and like the good little Fodorita I am, I will use the ATM and beware of the DCC scam. We did get caught in DCC while traveling in Ireland, but that was in my pre-Fodorita days so I didn't have a clue. But now that I'm a member of this board, I'm much more savvy.

One more question--are internet cafes plentiful? I assume so, just looking for confirmation.

Thanks.

hehe - pre-Fodorita sounds like the trip home from work. "then I had 3 fodoritas and was feeling no pain". (wonder what goes into a fodorita. Savvy yawn blanc?)

Anywayyyyyy....

I know I saw a few and used at least one. The one I went to was in Sighisoara, on the same street as the Legenda, down in the basement of a building about 3 doors up. I saw one off the main square in Sibiu also. I can't say I saw any in Maramures or Bukovina that I can recall, but Gura Humorlei was probably big enough to have one (although it only has one atm, so....)

Maramures is such a different sort of place though.... I would almost be surprised to find that there was an internet cafe there. It's hard to explain, but in some ways it seems even more lost in time than, well, anyway I can recall being. Sighet *might* have one by now.

After 4 years, I'm going to be really interesting in how things have changed. Julies had went a few years before us and I know we found changes that surprised her too.

I just realized the link I had for the pics was broken when I redid my website. Also cleaned up the pics a bit.

This is the new link for my galleries. Romania is at the bottom:

http://www.travelisfatal.com/gallery/

The one with the nun walking away, along the line of trees, ended up getting published in Lonely Planet.

Ahha..I just knew you were the one that pulled up this wonderful trip report of Clifton's dear P_M! I need to reread it when I have time. Have fun planning your trip! And hello Clifton, imagine that precious daughter of yours is keeping you on your toes.

She sure is LI. She's just turned 18 months last week and in the 5 months since she's been home, she's grown 3 1/2 inches. We've been teaching her sign language and now she has enough signs that she can argue with me - usually about the fact that she thinks it's never a bad time to go driving in the car. She's got the wanderlust!.

Hi again Clifton, thanks for the info and for updating the link to the pics. I will enjoy revisiting your Romania trip as well as a few of your other trips. Give the baby a hug for me.

Just did P_M. One of those were yours!

Let me know if you have anything I can help with and I'm looking forward to your report too

I just thought of another question, Clifton.

What is the custom for tipping in restaurants, bars, etc?

Don't worry, I won't tip the pilot.

10% in restaurants. But I gave much more in one because of the server's honesty. I think that I mentioned it in my report.

Glad to see this pop up again. Reread it, of course. This is my favorite Fodors trip report by far.

bardo1, this is one of my faves too. Thanks for the info Michael, I bookmarked your report and I look forward to reading it over the weekend.

Yes, please don't tip the pilot. It only encourages them to expect it every time, and I can't afford to fly as it is.

We hung around the 10% mark for eating and drinking too or did the European rounding up thing, as I recall, if it seemed like the kind of place you'd tip at all. Got some thank yous, never any raised brows, so must have been ok.

Thanks Bardo!

Clifton - I didn't read this the first time around, but I just read your Budapest section as I had just returned from Budapest. Just so you know, the Matyas Church up on Buda Hill is STILL under scaffolding, 4.5 years later...

Holy cow yk, that's some project.

I was reading your report on the Vienna portion over on TTG, but it was my b-day yesterday so I was mostly out and haven't seen if you got to Budapest yet. But I'm looking forward to it!

A Belated Happy Birthday to you, Clifton!

Oh, thanks yk!

Clifton, I just happened to read your report now. Thank you for your honest and affectionate report on Romania. I am from Romania and I am well aware of the beauty and the pitfalls of my country. I am glad someone enjoyed it for what it is.

Thank you Andreea. I'm glad that you enjoyed the report! You have a wonderful and unique country there.

3 more days 'til Romania....

Woo hoo! Excited for you P_M! Bet it's a fun trip.

Have you ever mentioned anywhere what your itinerary looks like? Just curious what you'll be up to.

Hi Clifton, I'll be traveling with a group of 6 people thru Imaginative Traveller. Here's the scoop:

http://www.imaginative-traveller.com/trips/UTDR/itinerary

Ooo, I don't think I've read any reports here about the Delta. I'm going to be extra curious how that area turns out.

Haven't been to Cluj either, but I know Ben Haines was fond of that city, so I'm thinking it's going to be interesting!

Clifton, I haven't seen you on the board for a while, I hope you are well. My Romania pics are posted on Photobucket and I wanted to share them with you. I hope it's OK to post this link on your thread. Here they are:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v416/PamKM/Turkey/Romania%202009/?albumview=slideshow

ttt to read later

Hey there P_M. Of course it's ok to post a link!

I had to scroll too quickly through the rest of the shots, but I saw the house with the eyes. Very cool, and I get a liner note besides. I'll definitely be looking back over the rest as soon as I can.

Sorry I haven't been around too much. This is the first I've been on a bit. We've been in the process of moving to Melbourne, Australia this past week or so. We're pretty much now in spare bedrooms, borrowing internet connects for awhile as well. So much to do when switching countries, that's for sure!