Romania

February 2018

I had already visited Romania twice. Once in 2005 with my father as part of the ‘Eastern Europe and Then Some” tour, which had taken in some of the more famous sights and then in 2008 with Trevor en route to Mongolia. That trip had been a drive through although we stayed the night. Wendy had never visited Romania and with a half term holiday and a few days of annual leave left, I booked flights from Stanstead to Bucharest, the capital.

The 7pm flight on Saturday February was delayed and we arrived around midnight, two hours ahead of the UK. I had reserved a car with a company called ‘Klass Wagon’ and someone was there to meet us and drive us down the road to their office to pick up a Volkswagen. On the same road a few miles away was our reserved hotel, the Best Western – Briston Hotel at Otopeni. It was a nice room and we were glad to have found it with ease around 1am.

Stealing from my previous account: “Romania in a nutshell: Romania gained independence from the old Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1878. It supported the Allied Powers against Germany in the First World War and came out well, but backed Germany in the Second World War and was overrun by the Soviet Union. A Communist “people’s republic” was established and Nicol Ceausescu took over as a de facto dictator in 1965, setting up a police state which became increasingly oppressive and draconian throughout the 1980s. He was overthrown and executed in 1989. Gradually the other Communists lost power and now a democratic system of sorts is improving while Romania is clawing itself forward, slowly and surely trying to lose the remnants of the Ceausescu era.

It’s the 11th largest country in Europe, about the size of Oregon. Bordered by Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia & Montenegro, and Ukraine. Access to the Black Sea. 22 million people. Romanian language. Eastern orthodox religion. Natural resources: petroleum (reserves declining), timber, natural gas, coal, iron ore, salt. Agricultural (wheat, corn, barley, sugar beet, sunflower seeds, potatoes) and manufacturing industries. Average income $7,700. 29% below the poverty level. Currency is the Leu (plural Lei – read like lay). Hot summers (average 23’C) and cold winters (average -3’C).”

Sunday February 11th

After an excellent all you can eat breakfast, we stopped at an Auchan supermarket (I hadn’t seen these in 2006 – we would also find Carrefours) to stock up with road food and then headed northeast away from Bucharest. I had a new addition to my travel gear. I had been given a Sat Nav as a present and it contained all of Europe on it. To my surprise, it worked in Romania and when we were not sure, we could plug it in for instructions.

Along Route 1. It was a twisting road through valleys and small towns. It had snowed recently but it was thawing. For some reason, all the traffic was coming in the opposite direction and it would be backed up in many towns. We did not spot any event that was attracting them, but they must have sat a long time to get where they wanted to go. After skirting around Ploiesti, we made for the second biggest city Brasnov, but turned southwest before reaching the centre and made for Brad.

Using my previous notes “Situated 28km southwest of Brasnov, the town commands the entrance to a pass and a castle was built here around 1370. Vlad the Impaler probably attacked it in 1460 from which it gets its “Dracula’s castle” label. Perched on a rocky bluff, and protected from site by trees, it rises in tiers of towers and ramparts from the woods with a mountain backdrop (invisible today due to low lying cloud/fog/rain).” Snow was lying around but the road was clear. The town didn’t seem to have changed in the twelve years since my last visit. I even remembered the Dracula Camping site.

We parked up and walked to the small centre where there was a souvenir market. Some people were eating outside on picnic tables in the cold and we asked where the food was. They pointed at a stall. Wendy chose a fried meat (it turned out to be pork with peppers) and oversized chips (potatoes that had been quartered and fried). It was tasty enough. We strolled around the souvenir markets covered in snow, bought a fridge magnet and got back in the warm car and made for Sighisoara. On the last 50km into Sighisoara on the E60, we saw some attractive villages with old houses covered by beautiful red tiled roofs warped over the centuries as well as church bell towers and an abandoned castle on a hill.

I had reserved a guest house in Sighisoara called ‘Pensiunea Joker’. The owner Peter was expecting us and led us up to our spacious room. Out of season, the place seemed deserted. Since we were ahead of the UK, it was dark before 6pm. I went out for a walk later to see the old town spot-lit in the darkness.

Monday February 12th

I had toured Sighisoara extensively on my first visit to Romania. The Rough Guide had said “A forbidding silhouette of battlements and needle spires looms over Sighisoara…and it seems fitting that this was the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler – the man known as Dracula.”

My account said “Sighisoara had been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, principally for its intact medieval centre. The old town or citadel dominated the newer quarters from a rocky massif whose slopes supported a jumble of ancient, leaning houses, their windows overlooking the steps leading up to the main gateway. Above rose the mighty 14th Century Clock Tower. Sighisoara was initially a free town controlled by craft guilds, each of which had to finance the construction of a bastion and defend it during wartime (The hexagonal Shoemakers Tower is the most impressive remaining of the nine left). The town grew rich on trade profits and the old residences were all rebuilt after an earthquake and fire in 1676. There were also the impressively covered wooden Scholars’ Stairs (175 of them) that rise steeply to the Church On the Hill (still being restored). Built in 1642, I hadn’t seen anything like these anywhere else in Europe. The cobbled backstreets revealed beautiful medieval buildings with timber frames and painted plaster in between. There was a nice touch on one corner of an inn. A painted deer had a real pair of horns stuck out from the wall at the edge that looked as if they belonged to the painting.

But everyone had come to see Dracula’s birthplace. It was an impressive yellow painted three story structure, with a cafe on the ground floor. Born in 1481, Vlad was born here who later earned the title as ‘the Impaler’. Abroad, he is better known as Dracula (Son of the Devil or Dragon). Vlad had a privileged childhood since his dad was a Knight of the Order of the Dragon after fighting the Turks. Dad then got to take charge of the region of Wallachia and later, for whatever reason, decided to become an early dysfunctional family by sending Vlad and his brother to Turkey as hostages to the Turkish Sultan in an attempt to gain favouritism. This was no picnic and the young lads lived in daily fear of getting buggered or strangled. Needlesstosay, Vlad came home, eventually took over and spent the rest of his life trying to extract revenge on the Turks. Apparently, he made sure whenever he ate his main meal that some Turk was wriggling in front of him impaled on a stake.”

Peter provided us with an excellent breakfast and a view over some picturesque old roofs. He recommended that we visit Viscri back down the E60. With his poor English, he said “white”. So we did. This wasn’t on my list, but we were feeling spontaneous. The fields on either side of the road were covered in snow and the forests lacked any greenery.

At Bunesti, we turned off the main road and headed along a single concrete track that then deteriorated into a muddy track (not helped with the melting snow). Locals were sat on carts being pulled by horses and a couple of kids came past on a donkey. Another man was chopping wood and loading it onto his donkey. We felt as if we were seeing the traditional pre-EU Romania.

With the state of the road and no signs, it seemed to take an age to find Viscri. It was a bit of a surprise to find a virtually deserted village full of single story houses built in the late 19th and the first quarter of the 20th century. The official Romanian Tourist website said that “Viscri is one of the most beautiful Saxon villages in Transylvania, designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO” and that “Many of the traditional buildings have been salvaged and restored since 1999”. Crawling along the muddy lanes, it didn’t look very beautiful on a dull February morning, but the fortified Church that dominated the town was outstanding. The towering walls and towers had been painted white which must have been what Peter our pension owner was on about. It looked equally impressive with snow lying at it’s base on the grass.

The construction of the fortified church in the village centre began in 1100 A.D. The church gave the village its name – as it was one of the most impressive in all Transylvania. The first towers were added around 1525. In the 18th century, a 7 metre defensive wall and a covered passageway were built. From the fortification’s towers you can admire the village scenery, with its hills and meadows, as well as the authentic hand-tiled roofs of the houses and barns. The Rough Guide only had a few lines on Viscri but said it had “one of the most impressive of all the Romanian citadels.” The Fortified church was locked today but we could enter the grounds and stroll around the walls. Since it was on a hill, you could look over the village without climbing the towers.

Rather than backtrack along the muddy road, we decided to continue on out of the village. The mud turned to concrete and eventually we found our way back to Bunesti. We retraced the E60 stopping off to view and photograph all the nice villages we had seen yesterday. From Sighisoara we made for the small town of Biertan using Route 14.

Biertan is located in a long valley surrounded by hills and vineyards and according to Rough Guide “contains the best known of all the Saxon fortified churches, set high on a hill within two and a half rings of walls linked by a splendid covered staircase.” The village was founded in 1283 and is dominated by the 15th century fortified Saint Mary’s citadel and church. Completed in 1522, this hilltop medieval construction had three tiers of 35-foot-high defensive walls, connected by towers and gates, encircled the complex, making the church impossible to conquer during medieval times. Couples seeking divorce were locked in the Prison Tower for two weeks. Sharing one set of cutlery and one bed, the couple had to make their final decision. In 400 years, only one couple decided afterwards to go through with the divorce! Biertan was an important ecclesiastical and commercial centre and had been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since it was a Monday, it was closed, but no matter, we got a good view of it in the near deserted village.

Having spent so much time today pottering around and not hurrying, we started to run out of daylight and rejoining Route 14, made for Sibiu, a major town. A few kilometres outside in Sura Mare, we spotted the ‘Horeum Boutique Hotel’. The one thing I had noticed since my previous trips was the fact that some decent hotels had been built.

That said, when we got a room, it smelt of smoke, so we asked for another where the TV didn’t work. Finally we got a room that was fine. I had visited Sibiu in 2005 when it was preparing to be the “European Cultural City of 2007” and was having a rapid makeover probably UNESCO financed. This involved digging up all three major squares at the same time and fencing them off.

We decided to drive into Sibiu (pop 150,000) and find a restaurant. After 45 minutes of driving around the city, we had seen nothing but a Pizza takeaway! In the old town I finally spotted, you guessed it, an Italian restaurant called ‘Max’ where I had pizza. I assume Pizza is Sibiu’s favourite meal. The restaurant was nice, warm and cosy and afterwards, having driven so many roads, I was easily able to get my bearings and find the road to our hotel.

Tuesday February 13th

We had one full last day and flicking through the Rough Guide, I planned a long roundabout route taking in two major sights and if time, a smaller one. Waddling to the car after another enormous hotel breakfast we set off and I was rather surprised to find ourselves on a fast motorway (Route 1). It was supposedly a toll road, but the tolls had been removed. After all the slow driving on narrow twisting roads, stuck behind trucks, this was lovely. We were making for somewhere called Alba Iulia which was further west of Sibiu.

One of the oldest settlements in Romania, Alba Iulia served as the largest military and economic centre during the Roman occupation. An Episcopal citadel and an important political, military and cultural centre, Alba Iulia reached its peak between 1542-1690, serving as the capital of the independent Principality of Transylvania.

The Alba Iulia citadel, designed by an Italian architect called Visconti, was built between 1715 and 1738 by 20,000 serfs, using the Vauban military architectural system—the largest of this kind in South Eastern Europe. The fortress is outstanding both for its architectural elements and for the beauty of its six gates, unique in European military structures. About 7.2 miles of ramparts made of brick and quarry stones form a seven-point star shape with seven bastions guarded by six monumental baroque gates.

The Rough Guide said “The tension between the Hungarian and Romanian communities is symbolised in Alba Iulia by the juxtaposition of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals in the heart of its citadel.” Located near the western entrance of the citadel, the impressive Orthodox Cathedral was built between 1921 and 1923 to celebrate Transylvania's reunification with Romania. The first monarchs of unified Romania, King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie were crowned there on 15 October 1922. The Catholic Cathedral, built in the 13th century features one of the most impressive early Renaissance interiors in Transylvania – or would have had it been open. Within the citadel, the Act of Unification between Romania and Transylvania was signed in the ornate marble Unification Hall on December 1st 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed.

I was rather taken aback by this citadel. First of all, the sheer vastness and size of the defensive walls all built of brick. They were so formidable, it took a couple of attempts to find a way in (which was a walkway over two major defensive walls). Once we entered, the Orthodox church looked very Italian with orange coloured colonnades and an entry under a tall tower. Inside it was quite small for the size of the grounds outside. Just across the way, the grey Cathothic church, while impressive in size, looked a bit gloomy.

The citadel had been laid out in a grid pattern with lovely wide walkways to explore it. It was quiet today. There were numerous life size sculptures of people scattered around with who you could take comical photographs. We walked past the Unification Hall, various museums and at the other end, one of the University buildings. There was a ramp down to another of the ornamental gates. I was really impressed with this citadel.

Making our way back out of Alba Iulia to Route 1, we rejoined the final section of the motorway southwest joining the E79 to Hundedoara. We had come to see “The greatest fortress in Romania” (Rough Guide). What we found was a large ugly industrial town and near the castle was a large and ugly steelworks (deliberately built there by the Communists when they were in charge of Romania). Pretending that none of this existed, we concentrated on Corvin Castle that looks like something straight out of a fairy tale, largely because restorers thought that it should.

It is moated to a depth of 30m and approached by a narrow bridge upheld by tall stone piers, terminating beneath a mighty barbarian, its roof bristling with spikes, and overlooked by multitudes of towers. Founded during the 14th century and rebuilt in 1453 with a Renaissance-style wing added, it was extensively restored in the late 1960s. The castle is a large and imposing building with tall and diversely coloured roofs, towers and myriad windows and balconies adorned with stone carvings.

A number of legends are associated with the castle, the most prominent among them being that Vlad the Impaler spent some seven years in the dungeons of Corvin Castle, a stay which resulted in his eventual madness. This does not seem to be true, at least not in the details, but tourists are still told the story. Even though this is unlikely to be true, Corvin Castle still seems like just the sort of place where a Dracula might have been held.

Glad to be leaving Hundedoara, we left the outskirts on a different road to rejoin the E79 and came across a strange sight. What can only be described as a series gaudy palaces lining a road. The walls were brightly coloured – reds, yellows etc but it was the highly decorated grey roofs that stood out. They looked like they belonged to Indian temples with figures and ‘dangly’ bits. As we stopped to have a look and take photos, I was thinking, I haven’t seen architecture like this anywhere in Romania. Why here? It wasn’t until I came home and looked them up that I discovered that they are 'gypsy palaces' suspected of being built by Romany criminal masterminds on the back of criminal gang activities in the UK and other European countries over the last decade. The local authorities would like to have them demolished because they were built illegally with no planning permission and many of them are safety hazards. I think I would publicise them as a tourist attraction.

South of Hundedoara, the lovely countryside was full of forests on the hills and fields and meadows covered in snow. It must look gorgeous in the summer. There were a couple of National Parks on either side (Gradistea Muncelului and Retezat) before we entered another called Defileul Jiului. The E79 turned into a twisting road that wound its way through a narrow valley following the picturesque Jui river, surrounded by forested steep cliffs. It was a beautiful drive, even in the rain. The scenery made a refreshing change from the industrial side of Romania but we had one more ugly town to negotiate.

Targu Jiu was described by Rough Guide as a “busy, dusty town, dominated by windswept, concrete buildings“ and it was today apart from the dust. Constantin Brancusi, one of the most influential modern sculptors of the 20th century, was born near Targu Jiu. Although he lived and worked for most of his life in Paris, his legacy is also preserved in Romania, in the city of Targu Jiu where he created monumental sculptures in the late 1930s as a war memorial for the town of his boyhood. The Jiu River valley (which we had driven through) was the scene of heavy fighting during World War I and World War II. Here, in a monumental ensemble, Brancusi created three sculptures as a memorial to the 8,500 Romanian soldiers who died defending the Jiu Valley from the advancing German army.

The three sculptures, the Silence Table, the Kiss Gate and the Endless Column are placed on mile-long east-west axis that runs through the heart of the city. The Table of Silence, made from limestone, features twelve chairs, originally placed much closer to the table and arranged in pairs. The Kiss Gate, made out of marble, features a kiss motif on the gate pillars. The entire structure is supported on a steel axle, set in a concrete foundation of five square meters. But it is the Endless Column which was the most impressive where 17 stacks of smooth rhomboidal cast iron blocks create a 30-meter high column or totem pole. Completed in 1938, the column was restored in 1964. I wouldn’t drive out of your way to see these but if like us, you were passing….

We had at least a 5 hour drive back to Bucharest for our flight tomorrow and decided to keep going until we found somewhere to stop. I never liked driving in the dark in Romania (at least not in the past) because there was always a chance of crashing into an unlit horse and cart. We left Targu Jiu and headed east on route 67. Every village that we passed through seemed to be in complete darkness with no cars parked outside the buildings. Since it was getting on for 7pm, we thought people would be home from work by now. But there was no sign of life in these places. It then occurred to us that everyone could be living or working abroad and leaving their houses empty.

It wasn’t until we reached Horezu that we spotted a local hotel called unsurprisingly, Hotel Horezu. It was at a local price too. The room was small and dated and most of the TV was Romanian, but it was warm and cosy and fine for a night. We finished up our road food and watched the snow come down outside.

Wednesday February 14th

Valentine’s Day. There was a restaurant attached to the hotel where we could order a breakfast, except that it was mostly in Romanian apart from badly translated English such as ‘Fried Brains’. We managed to order omelettes, bread, jam and coffee.

Our car had two inches of snow on it and the surrounding countryside was a blanket of white. It was still snowing as we set off along slush covered roads and trucks throwing up the slush into our windscreen. We pottered along past forests where snow had been blasted onto trunks and branches making for a very attractive setting, until the next truck came slushing past.

Locals were clearing their driveways and paths with shovels and everyone seemed to be out as normal despite the ice and snow. In England, we would have shut everything down and stayed inside. Snow ploughs kept the road open.

It was a very slow journey to Ramnicu Valcea where we picked up the E81, a motorway all the way to Bucharest. The snow ploughs were in action here on the other side of the barriers. We made good time until everything ground to a halt. I thought we were waiting to follow a snow plough but it was an accident. We sat stationary for about 20 minutes only being entertained when a policeman asked a truck driver to move off the hard shoulder to let a snow plough through and the driver refused or made a comment and the policeman gave him a verbal bollicking asking to see all his paperwork. This was right outside our car.

Eventually we were moving again only for the snow to turn into a heavy rainstorm. As we approached Bucharest, the traffic lines thickened and slowed with endless traffic lights and flooded streets. We were glad we had done the extra mileage last night because it took an age to get up to the airport and drop off the car. We arrived bang on time around 3 o’clock. We were dropped by Klass Wagon back at the airport and board the Ryanair flight at 16:40 arriving at Stansted at 18:10.

Romania is one of those places that not many people visit but I think it’s worth a look. There is plenty to see and even staying in just Transylvania for most of this trip, we didn’t have enough time to see everything. It was a good introduction for Wendy and I got to see some new sights. Not everyone can speak English but you can make yourself understood. I think I would visit outside the winter months, but this trip was certainly different in scenery to my last one in July 2008.