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.

<b>Sibiel</b>

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.

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

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...

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

<b>Sibiu</b>
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 &quot;Centru&quot; 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 &quot;C&quot; 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 &quot;C&quot; 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/Sibi...ibiu_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 &quot;eyes&quot; 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.



<i>Time for bed...</i>

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>I don't want to mess up anyone else's vacation!!</i> 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...


<b>The Fagaras Mountains</b>
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.

<b>The Bucegi Mountains to Sinaia</b>
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.

<b>Sinaia</b>
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.

<b>Bran</b>
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 &quot;Dracula's Castle&quot;, 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.

<b>Rasnov</b>
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