17th July
Set off from Mako towards Romania. Couldn't believe the instant difference over the border. As soon as we'd crossed we were bombarded with touts shouting and waving at us trying the sell us road tax, there were people selling stuff and children begging through the car windows when you were stopped at traffic lights, people riding horse and carts loaded with hay and their entire family and prostitutes at the side of the road. Although it was exciting to be somewhere new and very different, the drive was horrible. We must have chosen a main truck route because we were stuck between huge lorries driving like lunatics the whole day. For lunch we had a sandwich made in the back of the van whilst sitting in a traffic jam. The countryside was very pretty but we saw no campsite signs for hours, the only places to stay were truck stops which we definitely didn't fancy after the services incident. It was about seven o'clock when we saw our first campsite sign and followed a track through a village off the main road. (Roughly somewhere between Deva and Sebes.) The campsite was lovely, the owner sounded exactly like Dracula and we were so happy to get out the van! First things first we went into the village for our first Romanian beer. Rather than bars or cafes they just have tables and chairs outside the mini market. We had a couple of beers whilst watching the farmers on horse and carriage and the cows passing. All the people were very smiley and friendly, especially the old ladies sitting out the fronts of the houses, and we were liking Romania already. After a few beers we went back to the camp, cooked dinner and watched two owls hunting a few meters away. (The clocks are another hour ahead here so it is light until after ten o clock.) Lovely end to a long day.
Lots of the telegraph poles have stalks nests on top like this one. ^
Two owls! ^
18th July
Today we headed towards the town Sibiu, supposedly a pretty Transilvanian town. Thankfully the drive wasn't long and there were campsite signs as soon as we got to the town. Although it wasn't a town it was quite a big city with loads of roundabouts and the campsite was about 8 kilometers away in a village called Cisnadioara. This suited us fine though as we were surrounded by beautiful countryside instead. There was a big paddling pool which we dunked in because it was so hot and we relaxed in the campsite for the afternoon. Later we went for a wander to the village to see what was going on. There was a five year old boy driving a huge quad bike around the square which was a bit worrying and the locals here were definitely not as smily as last nights village, especially not the guy with a gun in his shirt pocket. We sat a people watched in another shop/bar anyway and again took in how rural life in Romania is. We were kept up all night by the neighbours living in caravans on the next field pumping out tunes.
First campsite in the morning. ^
Cisnadioara. ^
Also, on the drive today we were laughing at the town name Cunty when we saw that this was the bus going there. :)
19th July
In the morning we went to the village again and walked a hill to see the small fortified church with lots of graves of German people from the first world war. Apparently there used to be a lot of Germans living in Romania. We could also see from the hill that there was a bigger town a few kilometers away and we decided to walk there as we hadn't been to a cash point yet and we wanted some meat to barbeque. Quite a long, hot walk through scrub land and old apple orchards to the town (I think it was called Cisnadie.) The houses were really pretty but unfortunetly the entire main road had been dug up and was being re-done, although this didn't stop the Romanians from driving over it anyway. We discovered Romanian second hand shops and Pete got some funky swimming shorts and I got an even funkier shirt for less than a pound for both. We went to the supermarket and for lunch we went to a small street stall bakery. They have these things which are just fried dough filled with various things like cheese or jam and they are good. Another long walk back and for dinner we used the communal grill and had delicious pork chops. I had also befriended a fifteen year old German girl staying on the campsite whose family had been holidaying in Romania several times a year for six years. She showed us some photos of them hiking up in the mountains and told us a bit about Romania. Apparently the children here have three months off school in summer so that they can help their family with farming. We have definitaly seen evidence of this driving past entire families using sythes to cut the grass or teenage girls, dressed like English teenage girls, carrying pitch forks down the roads. Kept up again by the loud music next door.
20th July
Today we drove to Sighisoara, the birth place of Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula. We took a smaller road this time and the drive was stunning. The rolling hills are so lush and green you just want to lean out and stroke them! We drove through tiny villages waving at the farmers and the old ladies dressed in black woolen jumpers in thrity degree heat. We had some trouble finding a campsite as for some reason the owner made the smallest sign we've ever seen, but finally we did find it and it was pretty much the car park of a huge public swimming pool. But it was right in town and we got access to the pool so we thought it was alright for one night. Went out to look around the town. The old part of the town is on top of a hill and is really beautiful. We saw Draculas house (now a tourist restaurant) and walked to the top of the bigger hill to see the church. Quite touristy but very pretty town for an afternoon. We also saw a proper little raggamuffin boy steal a purse off a little girl and some Romanian tourists shouting 'police police' at him. Seen a few kids like that and they are very very cute, we think mostly they are Roma as they are dark and look like Indian children. We got a beer in a nice little bar - actually a bar this time, set up for tourists - under the shade of a willow tree and went back for a swim. In the evening the campsite got completely full and we met our new Swiss neighbours who had actually been on the previous campsite too. They loved our van and kept giving us compliments and taking photos, which of course we loved! A german couple came over for a chat too and when we found out it was Margit (the Swiss ladys) birthday everyone bought their chairs over and we had a little party! We offered whiskey and our cherry liquer and the Germans offered Romanian Palinka (like moonshine) which they got from a farmer and it was very very strong. Pete also managed to put his pipe to use again as Tao (the Swiss man) was a fully fledged pipe smoker for fifty years! The Germans also told us about a few villages they had visited in the north which sounded really nice and bit more 'off the beaten track' so we decided that we would head there in the morning.
A few pictures from the drive. ^
Dracula's house. ^
Pete and Dracula. ^
At the campsite. In the evening the entire sky was covered with crows - very 'Transilvanian'. ^
Tao and Pete smoking their pipes. ^
21st July
The campsite that the German couple had talked about was in a town called Sapanta all the way north on the Ukranian border. This was very far so we thought we'd head that way and have a nights stop about half way. Another beautiful drive through more gorgeous country side and picturesque villages which was nice and enjoyable for about the first six hours. After that the next four hours were tiring and stressful as we cursed leaving the beaten track to find there are no campsites. Anywhere. Aside from stopping for lunch next to a river, which wasn't as idyllic as it sounds as the Romanians leave litter where ever they go, we didn't stop driving for over ten hours! We were wishing we hadn't listened to the Germans when finally we came to the campsite and found it was at least quite nice and we parked up right next to a very pretty river. We were exhausted and ate tinned goulash and rice for dinner and welcomed Tao and Margrit, our Swiss friends from last night, when they arrived looking as worn out as us. We didn't know they were coming but obviously they had listened to the Germans too. All too knackered to socialise we went to bed. We were all ready to sleep and we closed the van sliding door and, just to end the day perfectly, it bloody fell off! We couldn't believe it! We managed to hang it on and we would deal with it in the morning.
A few more driving pictures. ^
22nd July
Today we had a day of sorting stuff. With some help from Tao we managed to get the van door back on and I sewed us a new seat for our deck chair as ours had fallen through the bottom. (Maybe all this cheap second hand stuff isn't as good as it looks!) Had a lovely relaxed day in the campsite, which was really very nice - surrounded again by hills and the constant sound of the river. We had a walk in the fields on the other side of the river and got in the water, which was freezing but just what you wanted on such a hot day. We sat right in the current so it was like having a massage. After a lunch time beer and a siesta we went to the campsite restaurant for dinner. The campsite is five pounds a night so we thought we could afford to treat ourselves. We got a lovely beef stew and a traditional Romanian dish which is minced meat and rice and stuff wrapped in cabbage, which was surprisingly delicious. Both served with mashed polenta, also traditional here. Lovely day!
A morning visit to the campsite from some horses. ^
View of WEX from the otherside of the river. ^
Our stew had been cooking all day. ^
23rd July
Went for a short walk along the track to the end of the village in the morning and saw the farmers tending their veg gardens. I made a picnic and we set off following the river out of town towards the hills. There were trees both sides so we did some scrambling and waded through the river and over the rocks. Very pretty! Stopped for lunch on a little rocky patch in the sunshine and kept on up the river. The sides opened out to a lovely grassy area where we stopped and watched the horses and cow grazing. We hadn't made it to the hills but we'd been walking over an hour and thought we'd gone quite far. But on the way back we followed the road instead and got back in about five minutes! After a rest and a wait until the sun had cooled down slightly we got the bikes off the roof and rode to the village. Because everyone has farms and land villages stretch on for miles along a single road usually, so it was actually quite a long cycle until we came to the church where the stalls and cafes were. We found a shop and bought some chicken for dinner and then got a beer and a cheese filled dough thing in a little shop/bar. We have seen a few of the ladies here sitting out the fronts of their houses spinning wool by hand and around the church there are loads of stalls selling beautiful traditional woolen rugs. We asked how much, just out of interest, and when we found they were only twenty pounds we thought we couldn't not! They would be hundreds at home! We didn't have enough money but we promised the lady that we'd come back in the morning. After this we had a look in the church, just because it was there, and we found the most incredible graveyard I've ever seen. Instead of stone the headstones are carved from wood and have painted pictures of the person and a long passage of writing underneath saying what they did in their lives (we think anyway, they were in Romanian obviously.) I can't explain properly but they were so cool and there are photos below. We cycled all the way back to the campsite and had a great barbeque for dinner using the communal grill again. All the campsites have them here and it saves us cleaning our own! After dinner we had a drink with Tao and Margrit and said goodbye as they were heading off towards Hungary in the morning. They own a B&B in Switzerland which they invited us to stay in if we are passing which looks beautiful in the mountains, so that's definitely put Switzerland in the plans.
Picnic spot.^
The graveyard. ^
24th July
We were leaving today as well and we got up early to set off. We of course went back to buy our rug and the lady was very very happy and even gave us a free magnet. The next destination was to see one or two of the monasteries, but that was a long drive away and we had seen a sign for a campsite about half way there in a town called Borsa. The drive was another nice one through lovely countryside and near Borsa it started becoming more mountainous. Romania definitely has some of the best scenery we've seen so far. We also stopped on the way to buy some ceps from a girl and her dad selling them on the side of the road. We have seen a few people selling huge amounts of mushrooms. We got six big ones for less than a pound, although the man wanted us to take both buckets full and give him our bikes! We got to Borsa and followed the camping sign and found it was a small place to camp in a families back garden. It had a nice grill and sitting area with old, rusty tools hanging on the wall and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. The owner had given us a little booklet in English and we realised we were right at the bottom of 'the tallest mountain in Northern Romania'. We thought we better go and have a look then and walked through the village, up towards the mountain. Of course we weren't going to climb it but we had a lovely walk seeing more five year old kids on motorbikes and picking wild thyme and chamomile. We had an incredible dinner of cep, wild thyme and pine infused risotto with pork chops. (Pete used pine needles in the stock so it tasted of the area we were in.) Yum yum. We even finished with barbequed chocolate bananas for pudding! We're definitely not starving out here.
Ceps! ^
25th July
If we thought Romania was pretty before it is stunning now. We drove through amazing pine forests winding up through the mountains towards the town of Guru Humorului. We had our morning coffee on top of a mountain, where actually it was quite cold. The drive was beautiful but the road was not. The pot holes were not to be underestimated, some of them over a foot deep and completely unavoidable. It was slow moving along there. And then where they had started to fix this problem we some how managed to find ourselves driving over wet tarmac. Luckily the pot holes later on bashed the tarmac off the tyres again! We saw more people selling mushrooms and people living in little shacks in the mountains. We were amazed at the amount of mushrooms everyone seemed to have so we decided to have a look ourselves. In about ten minutes walking we found several ceps and a few chanterelles. We also found wild strawberries and blueberries. Pete was in heaven. After a good few hours of slow driving and stopping for walks we got to Guru Humorului. This town has two famous monasteries so I assumed it would have a camp site. I was wrong. We drove around looking for signs, tried the tourist information - which was closed - and finally ended up driving to Voronet Monastery because we didn't know what else to do. We asked the man selling parking tickets where we could camp and he pointed us to a large grassy area we had seen whilst driving around the town. We got a coffee and asked the waiter about camping and he pointed us to the same place. We had heard about 'free camping areas' in Romania and this must be one of them. We stopped there and set up and ate scrambled egg with chanterelles on bread which was great. But for some reason we both felt there was something creepy about the place and after a while we decided that we couldn't relax and we drove off again. After another hour or so of driving, including following a sign saying 'camp' for four kilometers down a tiny, pot holed dirt track to a bloody kids summer camp, we finally saw a sign saying 'camping' with a picture of a tent and a camper. It even had two stars! We were happy! Followed another long dirt track through a suburb of the town Campulung Moldovenesc, following the signs. We were stopped twice on the way, once by a car of lads coming the other way telling us the campsite was no good and to follow them to a better camp site. We didn't fully trust them and wanted to see for ourselves and carried on. Then we were stopped by a car full of Orthodox Christian Priests shouting at us. Not sure what they wanted. We got to the so called campsite to find a semi circle of huts with a paved drive in the middle. Not exactly what we called two star camping but by this time it was getting dark and we didn't care anymore. The owner came out, he was a grumpy, miserable old man, and was extremely surprised to see us. It was as if he didn't know he had a camp site. He was rude and really un welcoming and Pete tried to be nice by offering him a whiskey, but he refused. He was just an all round arsehole. It started to rain after an hour or so so we got into our van and got cosy and read Roald Dahl short stories.
10 minutes searching! ^
'Campsite'. ^
26th July
Did not wave goodbye to the arsehole and drove off early from the worst place we've stayed so far. As we'd come all this way to see a monastery we thought we better see one, even though it it involved driving back the way we came. We chose Moldovita Monastery. The reason the monasteries in this area are famous is because they are covered inside and out by brightly coloured paitings of stories from the Bible done in the 1400s. It was really amazing. Spent a while looking at the pictures, trying to work out the stories, then set off again towards Vatra Dornei, heading south again now. We knew there was a campsite here from our road map and Pete was not up for another full day driving so we stopped here for a night. It was an average campsite in quite a big town, but it was a fine place to rest. There was a little bit of rain in the afternoon and when it stopped we thought we should go and have a look in the town. There were more second hand shops and Pete got the best shirt anyone has ever seen for about 30p. The town was okay, not much to see - definitely not picturesque - and we wondered why there was a campsite here of all places! We'll never know. Anyway we had a nice evening drinking and eating.
Moldovita Monastery. From a postcard and from outside - no photos inside.
Watermelon picnic and view from driving. ^
27th July
I had read on a blog about Bicaz Gorge and Lacu Rosu (Red Lake) and thought they looked like places we should visit. I wasn't exactly sure of where they were but I guessed the gorge would be near Bicaz town so we headed there. A nice drive - on good roads - towards Lake Izvorul Muntelui, a huge artificial lake before the town of Bicaz. It was a beautiful lake with a view of a huge mountain on the other side and although there was obviously no where to camp we stopped in a lay-by with a good view for lunch. We carried on the road towards Lacu Rosu and it all got quite touristy with shops and people everywhere - mostly Romanian. Just as I was thinking we must have taken the wrong road and we'd missed the gorge there it started. It was really amazing with huge over hangs on the road. We stopped a couple of times so Pete could have a look rather than just concentrating on avoiding the pot holes and sheer edges. It was quite busy with cars but I think worth it. We carried on down the road really hoping there would be somewhere to stay in this beautiful place and this time we were in luck. It was another campsite in a families back garden but it was absolutely perfect - simple with just a field and surrounded by forest. We went for a short walk in the forest and found an old logging truck that had fallen off a track and tipped upside down. Creepy. Then we walked about a kilometer down the road to Lacu Rosu and a supermarket. Lacu Rosu is a summer destination for the Romanians so it was quite busy with families and people hanging out having fun. We found some sausages for dinner, had a beer then headed back to the campsite for the evening. Used the grill again for dinner and were tired and had an early night.
Lunch. ^
In Bicaz Gorge. Cannot do it justice in the photos. ^
28th July
Today we are going back into Transilvania to the city of Brasov. It was quite a long road but thankfully it is a main road and is in good condition so the drive was actually quite fast. Not as scenic as what we're now used to but nevermind. Uneventful really except that we got stopped by the police and asked to show our passports. We don't know why, we guessed they were looking for something they could fine us for, but they just asked where we were going and sent us on our way. We arrived in Brasov, which is actually a massive city, with only a map in a guide book and an arrow towards the general direction of the campsite. Spent a while getting confused and annoyed in all the tiny one way streets and decided we would just leave the city and find somewhere else to go. Luckily the campsite was on the road we had chosen! It is six kilometers away from the centre but it's actually quite nice - not just a car park like many other city campsites. We were a bit grumpy after driving around and around a huge city so decided just to do nothing for the evening. We'd bought steak from the huge supermarket we went to and had a great dinner. We've been eating very well in Romania! Our neighbour campers were Jean-Claude and Colette from France who, before dinner, offered us a whiskey. Later on when Colette had gone to bed Jean-Claude invited us over to drink Palinka, he had two flavours - plum and cherry. Chatted with him a while and he told us about free camping in Europe (they are in their seventies and doing this) and how he has met so many lovely Romanians. We still plan to stay in Romania until our helpx in August so we would love to try free camping. He even gave us a specific place to go so we can try it. We also got an offer from him of a place to stay in Bordeaux if we pass. After he'd gone to bed we stayed up drinking more and got too drunk after mixing so many drinks!
