Our drive through Transylvania takes us through many smaller and larger villages and towns. These make a very welcoming and warm impression on us with their always colourful façades in all kinds of colours and their often well-restored appearance. In many cases, rose bushes or other colourful flowers are planted along the roadsides, and the whole village scene looks very well-kept and friendly to us. Not at all like the fantasy images we had in our heads when we thought of “a village in Romania” before entering the country. In fact, this village image seems to be typical for Transylvania and we don’t find it in other parts of the country.
A large part of the roads in Romania also require vignettes. Although we are travelling off the motorways again, this time it is unavoidable to buy the “Ro Vignetta” and thus pay the toll. This is required on all national roads and thus on virtually all connecting routes across the country. With a price of around 13 EUR for 3 months for motorhomes, this is more than affordable. There is also a 30-day option, but we prefer to be flexible with the longer period.
And the roads in Romania surprise us in a totally positive way – the roads we drive are mostly in good to very good condition, only occasionally there are “deep hits”, which we then also feel in the whole body in the truest sense of the word 😉 The good road conditions are quite welcome, because it seems as if the general rule in the whole country is “maximum speed + 20km/h”, no matter if for cars or trucks. So the choice is to drive the same way in towns and cities or to be prepared for permanent overtaking manoeuvres. Among the victims of high speeds are above all cats and dogs, whose carcasses repeatedly line the roadsides.
We prefer to be overtaken and drive slowly towards Hermannstadt (Sibiu in Romanian). Luck is on our side and we get a parking space 50 metres before the area of the old town that is closed to vehicles, thanks to an attentive parker who hands over his parking space to us.
We browse leisurely through the guidebook in a small café. Thanks again to Günter and Christine for the inheritance 😉 It is always nice to leaf through a printed book. Why do we emphasise this at this point? For our previous and future destinations, we did not and do not have any travel guides “in our luggage”. We rely entirely on the “digital edition” of the libraries, the so-called Onleihe. We have already tried it out a bit and can definitely recommend it, especially if you are travelling for a longer period of time or want to visit several countries.
As we leafed through the guidebook and gained our first impressions on the spot, we realised what a “jewel” awaited us here. The old town centre is traffic-calmed and can be walked through in a very relaxed way, admiring the traces of the Transylvanian Saxons. But the neighbouring streets also invite you to discover historical buildings. These are presented in a wide variety of sizes and colours. The more central, the better their condition. Especially the houses that have not yet been renovated have their own great character and authentically shape the overall picture. Here we notice for the first time that the historic buildings are marked with an appropriate sign. These bear the inscription “Monument istoric”, the respective century in which the corresponding building was built, and usually also information about the history of the house. This makes us aware again and again of the historical past of these places and how special it is to be able to discover so much of it in its renovated or original state.
We stay for three nights and, thanks to our Silvio motorhome’s inconspicuous appearance and its self-sufficient design, we have no problem staying just two streets away from the inviting old town centre.
Up to now, we have almost always only enjoyed a meal out in a restaurant in the capital cities, but in Sibiu we treat ourselves to two new culinary delights. On the one hand we discover Gogoşi – sweet or savoury filled and deep-fried huge pockets in the shape of a half moon with a dough similar to the Bavarian “Auszogenen”. Really greasy, tasty fillers! And then, in a café, we have homemade “walnut jam” to go with the sweet polenta cake we ordered, which turns out to be absolutely delicious: For this, the still unripe green walnuts are harvested and, together with their shell and still soft husk, are transformed into something wonderfully sweet and spicy in an elaborate process with a few other ingredients. A palate pleaser to the power of ten for us 🙂
For some of our impressions from this and the other cities, click on the respective gallery.
Via the villages of Transylvania and the fortified churches of Frauendorf and Biertan, we travel to the city of Schäßburg (Romanian: Sighișoara). We read about an open-air swimming pool where we can spend the night in the car park for a fee. So we head straight for it and settle in within sight of the old town centre, which sits enthroned on a hill. After a short swim in the ice-cold water of the pool and some sunshine, we set off to discover the alleys of the old town. Completely surrounded by a wall, the houses here are packed tightly together. This, together with the bright colours of the house walls, creates a homely feeling. The overall picture of the “castle hill” is completed by the 9 towers that still exist, which fit in along the city wall.
We crown our discovery of the city with a delicious breakfast in a cosy little café with a terrace surrounded by vines on the day we continue our journey. Here we not only enjoy another freshly squeezed orange juice, which you can get at very reasonable prices in restaurants and cafés all over Romania, but also discover our first zacusca! This is a typical Romanian spread made from smoked peppers, tomatoes and aubergines. Really delicious! 🙂
As the last city in Transylvania, our way leads us to Kronstadt (Romanian Brașov). Situated at the foothills of the Southern Carpathians, the name of the city is already clearly visible from a distance. Hollywood probably served as a model and so oversized letters above the town form the town’s name. It is the weekend and most of the 250,000 inhabitants are also out and about in the city centre. While we had total peace and quiet at the city’s fortress, which is probably not open to tourists at the moment, there is a lot going on in the square in front of the old wheel house. The rest of the old town is also very busy. In contrast to the two cities we visited before, not the entire old town is traffic-calmed. There are also many graffiti sprayings in the cityscape, unfortunately also on historical buildings. For all the reasons mentioned, our visit is shorter than in the previous cities, and we are still drawn eastwards by the prospect of quiet days on the Black Sea 😉
We are writing these lines from our current travel destination Bulgaria. The experiences and pictures date from mid-September. Hence the summery impression they convey. Surprisingly, we encountered summer-like weather and temperatures again here in southern Bulgaria. This week we were already able to enjoy an astonishing 27 degrees. Shorts and T-shirts in November? Feels a bit like “wintering in the south” 🙂
In the time between this and the last post, we continued to be creative! 😉 Our blog now has a “welcome page”, have a look: Welcome
At the end of the year we want to let our creativity run free. You can already look forward with us to the possible results. If everything goes according to plan, we will be able to give you a first glimpse as early as next weekend. 🙂
Drum bun, wherever you are!
Chris & Sophia