2012 Travels: Transylvania
From Iași, the next stop was Transylvania. While most rural areas of Romania have appeal, in that they retain older traditions and ways of life not always seen in the more modern parts of Europe, Transylvania holds special appeal. Of course, this is because we’ve heard of it, and without a doubt we queued up Dracula and Nosferatu for our viewing pleasure, and indulged in no end of cheap Transylvania humour, referencing vampire lore. For the most part, however, the reality is different. Here’s what we saw.
The first thing we did was take the train to Brașov. This train took forever, but we were cool with that because we knew that Transylvania is a giant plain fringed with mountains. Trains going through mountains are always fun, so the time spent on the train was no big thing. Except that it was. The train didn’t go through the mountains, but instead kept going south. And further south. And then south some more, until we were practically in Bucharest. Then it turned north, and cut quickly through the mountains, conveniently as dusk was falling so we couldn’t see any of it. So after spending a million hours puttering through boring plains at a pace not much faster than a donkey cart, we arrived in the mountains just in time to not see them. Of course, that’s just me finding a way to get cranky about something I shouldn’t really get cranky about.
Iași was, basically, an extension of Moldova. A little nicer, a little richer, but ultimately it was more or less in line with what we saw for the bulk of the trip. Brașov is nothing like that. The first thing you need to know is that most Transylvanian towns were built by Saxons (Germans). The towns look German. They have names in Romanian, German and Hungarian (lots of Hungarians around once, too). So we arrived in Brașov/Kronstadt and it looked German, and was a fully-developed tourist old town. Everybody was sitting in nice cafes drinking and eating, and this was easily the most “normal” (as in Western European) place we’ve been to since Krakow. And it really was Kronstadt, because the old town was completely German, since they ran things back then. (They got kicked out after WWII). The Romanians weren’t even allowed to live in the old town. All the villages in the area were also built by the Saxons once, though they are all Romanian today.
The Saxons left a legacy of fortified churches, since a lot of people passed through the area at various times to raid and pillage and whatnot. We saw a few of these churches, each one unique but focused on the churches surrounded by walls theme. We also saw Bran Castle, which is billed as Dracula Castle because it is so deliciously Gothic. And it is beautiful, and impressively is one of the few castles I’ve seen that was as fun on the inside as the outside. Despite being a total tourist trap, it was great. Also good was the cheese for sale outside the castle. There was smoked stringy cheese, similar to what we had in Ukraine (Bran Castle is also in the Carpathians). The best, however, was branza de burduf, which is a crumbly cheese matured in bark. The bark imparts a…well….barky taste to the cheese that is fantastic. We bought a lot, we ate a lot and we still wanted more.
We visited a few other towns in Transylvania as well. There was the gorgeous little town of Sighișoara; the bigger and similar town of Sibiu and a different experience in Cluj-Napoca. Cluj isn’t historic, though there are great buildings to look at. And they’re not German, either. They are, I guess, Romanian in origin. But Cluj is simply civilized. By way of happenstance, we ended up with a two-floor, three-bedroom apartment for 54 euros a night, right in the heart of town.
When we arrived at the bus station, our pickup was a no-show. We took a taxi to the apartment and went across the street to get lunch and Skype the landlord. The restaurant was rocking. Here’s the thing. In Transylvania, there are two kinds of restaurants. There’s pizzerias, and then there are pizzerias that have a couple of Romanian dishes. And it’s always the same couple — sausages and beans, or pork leg and beans. Now, I’m not insane — I like pizza and I like pork and beans. But twice a day, every day, and it starts to get old. So when we saw restaurants with other things on the menu — like normal Western fine dining restaurants but with Applebee’s prices — we were pretty pumped about that. We had green things, and soups without pork, it was amazing. For dessert, we had what they called Che Guevara ribs. No, not the ribs of Batista supporters Che killed. Though that would be more authentic, since these ribs owed more to King Kamehameha than anybody else, with their Hawaiian-style soy sauce marinade. So rich, so delicious.
We spent three days in Cluj luxuriating in our apart-mansion and hanging out in civilized establishments, eating and drinking civilized things. Fun fact — Romania is one of the best places on Earth to drink lemonade. I’m not kidding. They have it down. They like using fresh lemons, first of all, but then they take a great lemonade base, put barely any sugar in it because candied lemonade sucks and they’re smart enough to realize that, and then twist it with mint, or orange, or grapefruit. And it comes in a big glass, because lemonade is supposed to be refreshing and nobody gets refreshed on 200ml of anything.
After Cluj, we headed for Deva. While in Transylvania still, this Deva was pretty far from Rocky Horror, and closer more to House of Horrors. Like when your south-facing hotel room has no A/C when the temperature outside was 38C. Did I mention most of our Transylvania trip took place during an epic heat wave? It did. But we still hiked around to ruined Dacian fortresses, ancient oak forests, and in this case another castle. The next day, though, the rains came and washed it all away.
The rain ended in time for the bus ride to Timișoara to end, which was good because we had a long walk to the hotel and then another long walk into town. Timișoara is a pleasant enough place. Parents would appreciate it, since the Children’s Park there is probably the most epic kid’s park I’ve ever seen, with everything from boat rides to mini-trains to trampolines built into the ground (!) and a million other cool little things for kids to do. I still owe them a trampoline, having failed to read about the weight limit before testing it out.
Just kidding.
I read about the weight limit, I just chose to ignore out.
We spent a little more time in Timișoara than planned. You see, it is here that karma gaveth and then taketh away. We received some very good travel news (more on that eventually), but we also saw our trip begin to unravel a little bit.
