Romania was probably the main reason we decided to travel into Eastern Europe, so we were quite excited to arrive here.
In the EU but not being a Schengen country, we had to go through border control formalities—no problem for us—but the queue of lorries trying to get in from Hungary stretched for 2Km, the poor sods must have to wait all day to pass…
We also had to buy a vignette to drive on the roads.
Anyway, we entered near Oradea, so stopped in to visit for a couple of hours. It’s a mass sprawl of communist concrete blocks on the outside but the centre has some lovely Art Nouveau buildings, dating back when this county of Romania (Crisana) was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire—in fact a third of it was at the outbreak of WWI, including Transylvania.
From there we drove on for about an hour in an Easterly direction to get to a place where we could stop over for the night, by a cave called the Unguru Mare, which means Great Hungarian. What a beautiful spot in a valley on a U-bend in the river.
We barely arrived and settled when two guys in their 20s came over to us inviting us to drink some Palinka (brandy). Well we couldn’t refuse and we ended up chatting, then eating and drinking wine together for the evening and into the night. Imi, a Romanian/Hungarian from the town we had just visited, and Sal from Murcia in Spain where such nice guys. They had taken the train down and were camping here for just the one night, to look at the cave and do some rock climbing, so we were lucky to bump into them I suppose.
The next day, after having swam in the very cold river to wake us up as we felt a little ‘tired’ (and also it was very hot and sticky), then visiting the cave, we said our goodbyes as they went back to Oradea and we drove south over into the Apuseni Mountains to camp for the night at a place in the middle of nowhere, about 1000m up in an area called Glavoi. The last 2Km took over 10 minutes! due to the road conditions, well actually there was no road, it was unpaved and covered in stones.
It’s like some crazy hippy commune up here, that’s being gently commercialised by entrepreneurs who have built up little shacks here and there and sell food and drinks—the journey to the nearest town to get more supplies is at least 30 mins drive, so they are dedicated. There is a large clearing in the coniferous forest were people are allowed to camp out for free. It felt like a festival site but with no music. There are lots of walking trails but also it seems to just be a nice place to hang out, if, the weather is good. Sadly for us it wasn’t going to be good—the forecast was for hard rain—so we didn’t stay long, nor could we walk as the trails has been closed due to recent land slides after torrential rains.
Oh well, it was still worth the drive to see it.
So before the rain came, we went back down the mountain to visit the so called Bear Cave—named after the fossilised bones of Ice Age Cave Bears that were found inside when the cave was discovered in the 1970s.
The bears had got stuck inside after their entry point collapsed in, so there were fragments of bones around and one completely intact one (must have been the last one to survive after it had eaten the others).
This was a very impressive cave, with excellent stalactite, stalagmite formations, some of the best we’ve seen, and of course the Bear bones were a new thing. It was guided and photos weren’t really allowed unless you paid quite a bit extra for the privilege, but we sneaked a few in.
After that we drove further south across some crazy roads that were fantastically smooth and then the bumpiest unpaved, unfinished paths, until we passed over into Transylvania and then things changed suddenly, the main trunk road was perfect.
We stopped over in Deva at a window repair shop. Sadly the window in the sliding door had become unstuck in one corner. On inspection, the window guys said whoever fitted it before did a bad job, they took it out and refitted it properly for us, it looks good so fingers crossed this time.
The rain did catch up with us in the late evening, but we found our spot to wild camp for the night in a place that could so easily have been the South Downs. We were looked after by some stray dogs.
In the morning, the sun was back, some nosey cows decided to come and sniff around the van and we enjoyed the view much better than the night before.
A short drive took us to a town called Hunedoara, not much of a place really, lots of forgotten communist factories and buildings on the outskirts, but it does have the fantastic Corvin Castle. If you’ve read ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, you may be familiar with it.
Great place to visit, even if parts were restored in the 1960s, they did a great job.
Next was a short drive to a campsite in a village called Aurel Vlaicu. Unbeknown to us, this is the name of Romania’s own version of the Wright Brothers—the village was renamed in 1927 in his honour and the man also appears on the 50Lei (RON) bank note—and on the Sunday there was the annual remembrance day.
So we stayed a little longer to see this, it was all very village fete and very sweet. Some prayers, some words from the mayor, which followed a fly-pass from a couple of planes and a military helicopter, then off to the village green for some bbq, beers, and folk singing/music. It was a fun experience, even if the music was the same for about 4 hours. We assumed the songs were all about love and such, as are a lot of traditional songs (although I can understand a lot of written Romanian words, being Latin based, speech is a different story altogether).
We decided to stay another day at the campsite as there is a town about 30 mins away called Alba Iluia, which is of historical note, so we thought we should visit.
Romania announced their union with Transylvania (amongst other territories) here in 1599—if only for two years—and again after WWI, in 1918. So Romania as we know it today is 100 years old this year, there should be some fantastic celebrations on 1st Dec to commemorate this.
The city boasts a complete citadel in the Vauban style and some very well restored buildings and churches inside the walls and many bronze statues dotted about. On the outside it’s a different story, very much a communist concrete block, but that’s to be expected in Romania. The trick is to not be put off by the outside and actually venture into the middle.
So far so good here, we’re loving it, feel very safe, and the people are very friendly.
Oradea
In the Apuseni Mountains
In the EU but not being a Schengen country, we had to go through border control formalities—no problem for us—but the queue of lorries trying to get in from Hungary stretched for 2Km, the poor sods must have to wait all day to pass…
We also had to buy a vignette to drive on the roads.
Anyway, we entered near Oradea, so stopped in to visit for a couple of hours. It’s a mass sprawl of communist concrete blocks on the outside but the centre has some lovely Art Nouveau buildings, dating back when this county of Romania (Crisana) was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire—in fact a third of it was at the outbreak of WWI, including Transylvania.
From there we drove on for about an hour in an Easterly direction to get to a place where we could stop over for the night, by a cave called the Unguru Mare, which means Great Hungarian. What a beautiful spot in a valley on a U-bend in the river.
We barely arrived and settled when two guys in their 20s came over to us inviting us to drink some Palinka (brandy). Well we couldn’t refuse and we ended up chatting, then eating and drinking wine together for the evening and into the night. Imi, a Romanian/Hungarian from the town we had just visited, and Sal from Murcia in Spain where such nice guys. They had taken the train down and were camping here for just the one night, to look at the cave and do some rock climbing, so we were lucky to bump into them I suppose.
The next day, after having swam in the very cold river to wake us up as we felt a little ‘tired’ (and also it was very hot and sticky), then visiting the cave, we said our goodbyes as they went back to Oradea and we drove south over into the Apuseni Mountains to camp for the night at a place in the middle of nowhere, about 1000m up in an area called Glavoi. The last 2Km took over 10 minutes! due to the road conditions, well actually there was no road, it was unpaved and covered in stones.
It’s like some crazy hippy commune up here, that’s being gently commercialised by entrepreneurs who have built up little shacks here and there and sell food and drinks—the journey to the nearest town to get more supplies is at least 30 mins drive, so they are dedicated. There is a large clearing in the coniferous forest were people are allowed to camp out for free. It felt like a festival site but with no music. There are lots of walking trails but also it seems to just be a nice place to hang out, if, the weather is good. Sadly for us it wasn’t going to be good—the forecast was for hard rain—so we didn’t stay long, nor could we walk as the trails has been closed due to recent land slides after torrential rains.
Oh well, it was still worth the drive to see it.
So before the rain came, we went back down the mountain to visit the so called Bear Cave—named after the fossilised bones of Ice Age Cave Bears that were found inside when the cave was discovered in the 1970s.
The bears had got stuck inside after their entry point collapsed in, so there were fragments of bones around and one completely intact one (must have been the last one to survive after it had eaten the others).
This was a very impressive cave, with excellent stalactite, stalagmite formations, some of the best we’ve seen, and of course the Bear bones were a new thing. It was guided and photos weren’t really allowed unless you paid quite a bit extra for the privilege, but we sneaked a few in.
After that we drove further south across some crazy roads that were fantastically smooth and then the bumpiest unpaved, unfinished paths, until we passed over into Transylvania and then things changed suddenly, the main trunk road was perfect.
We stopped over in Deva at a window repair shop. Sadly the window in the sliding door had become unstuck in one corner. On inspection, the window guys said whoever fitted it before did a bad job, they took it out and refitted it properly for us, it looks good so fingers crossed this time.
The rain did catch up with us in the late evening, but we found our spot to wild camp for the night in a place that could so easily have been the South Downs. We were looked after by some stray dogs.
In the morning, the sun was back, some nosey cows decided to come and sniff around the van and we enjoyed the view much better than the night before.
A short drive took us to a town called Hunedoara, not much of a place really, lots of forgotten communist factories and buildings on the outskirts, but it does have the fantastic Corvin Castle. If you’ve read ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, you may be familiar with it.
Great place to visit, even if parts were restored in the 1960s, they did a great job.
Next was a short drive to a campsite in a village called Aurel Vlaicu. Unbeknown to us, this is the name of Romania’s own version of the Wright Brothers—the village was renamed in 1927 in his honour and the man also appears on the 50Lei (RON) bank note—and on the Sunday there was the annual remembrance day.
So we stayed a little longer to see this, it was all very village fete and very sweet. Some prayers, some words from the mayor, which followed a fly-pass from a couple of planes and a military helicopter, then off to the village green for some bbq, beers, and folk singing/music. It was a fun experience, even if the music was the same for about 4 hours. We assumed the songs were all about love and such, as are a lot of traditional songs (although I can understand a lot of written Romanian words, being Latin based, speech is a different story altogether).
We decided to stay another day at the campsite as there is a town about 30 mins away called Alba Iluia, which is of historical note, so we thought we should visit.
Romania announced their union with Transylvania (amongst other territories) here in 1599—if only for two years—and again after WWI, in 1918. So Romania as we know it today is 100 years old this year, there should be some fantastic celebrations on 1st Dec to commemorate this.
The city boasts a complete citadel in the Vauban style and some very well restored buildings and churches inside the walls and many bronze statues dotted about. On the outside it’s a different story, very much a communist concrete block, but that’s to be expected in Romania. The trick is to not be put off by the outside and actually venture into the middle.
So far so good here, we’re loving it, feel very safe, and the people are very friendly.
Oradea
Great Hungarian Cave
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| Imi and Sal |
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| The bumpy track |
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| The 'festival' field |
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| Have you got any food? |
Bear Cave
Random Things...
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| Window refitted |
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| Morning! |
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| Our guardians |
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| We've seen this about on lots of new builds, this ostentacious guttering, must be a trend in Romania |
Corvin Castle
Aurel Vlaicu
Alba Iluia
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| There are many wooden churches in Romania, this is the first one we've looked at |
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| Of course Alba Iluia was Roman too... |
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| Outside the Citadel, things are a little less pretty. |
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| Michael the Brave, a national hero |
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| Where the unification was signed in 1918 |
Hello. Thank you for visitting my lovely country. Hope you enjoyed your visit and you will come back to visit more places that deserve to be visited :) About one of the photos you uploaded, the one with the title: We've seen this about on lots of new builds, this ostentacious guttering, must be a trend in Romania", I would like to I would like to clarify that those buildingd belong to a minority in our country, the Gypsies who are accustomed to build such houses. :) Again, thank you. Sincerely, Dana
ReplyDeleteHello Dana, thanks for your comment, we are still here and we will be here for a couple more weeks at least seeing lots more things. Thanks for clarifying about the houses, we had no idea!
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