{"id":374,"date":"2019-03-22T11:37:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T10:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/?p=374"},"modified":"2023-10-07T20:02:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-07T18:02:32","slug":"romania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/en\/2019\/03\/22\/romania\/","title":{"rendered":"Romania: Alternative Guide for Backpackers"},"content":{"rendered":"

What to see in Romania? Is Transylvania worth visiting? What to do in Sibiu and Sighisoara? Is Dracula\u2019s castle in Bran interesting? I started asking these questions when I already landed in Bucharest. The decision to go to there was rather spontaneous. Moreover, my first idea was to stay in Bucharest and go to the coast \u2013 it changed rapidly and enabled me to explore Transylvania. How to avoid dull tourist classics and discover real beauty of Romania \u2013 this is what I\u2019m going to discuss. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Bucharest: in Search of Dirt and Plastic<\/strong><\/p>\n

– As soon as you land in the capital, escape to the north \u2013 my friend told me \u2013 Interested in Konstanca? Oh no, don\u2019t go to this dirty resort!<\/p>\n

– But the ugliness is the most fascinating \u2013 I responded \u2013 I love taking pictures in such places \u2013 I was quite sure of my esthetical preferences, but it turned out that Bucharest overwhelmed me with dirt and chaos. It actually started during the flight \u2013 non-fiction book by Ma\u0142gorzata Rejmer, Polish traveller, presented Bucharest in a very negative light. Destruction of old districts, shabby socialist-style facades, marble so dirty that it looked like plastic\u2026 Then, when I arrived, the picture was completed with noise and exhaust fumes from traffic jams. In addition to that \u2013 July and real, overwhelming heat.<\/p>\n

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Soc district<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The entrance to the subway wasn’t very convincing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Romania at one picture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first idea was to stay in Bucharest for couple of days and then go to the coast. Two hours in Bucharest were enough to forget about my flight back, pack my backpack and head to the north. The next morning I was at the train station \u2013 together with two medicine students from Belgium. I met them randomly at the metro station. Enthusiastic about my spontaneous escape, I bought train ticket to Brasov.<\/p>\n

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Brasov: Mountains and Monuments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three-hour train trip through magnificent Carpathian mountains and here we are \u2013 Brasov welcomes us with Hollywood-like lettering on the top of the hill. This city is an evident opposite of dirty Romanian capital \u2013 green, calm and full of stylish, old architecture. Even though at the first glance it seems like communist era didn\u2019t influence Brasov a lot, even this name didn\u2019t survived! The City of Stalin \u2013 yes, this used to be an official name of Brasov for couple of years. Luckily, now Brasov is Brasov once again: full of relaxing cafes and surrounded by the mountains also encourages to go hiking (or just stay in the city center and order another macchiato). Some compromise between hiking and staying lazy is using funicular to get to the top of the mountain. I am quite shy to admit we were so relaxed that even didn\u2019t use this opportunity.<\/p>\n

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Bran \u2013 One of Tens Unique Drakula Castles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unique Drakula Castles in Romania are quite popular. One of them is located in Bran near Brasov and I went there just because the other people from our hostel decided to go. No doubt it was fun, but just because of them, not thanks to the castle. To be honest the most interesting thing about Drakula\u2019s residence was related to\u2026 the other tourists, compulsively taking pictures of everything, including themselves. Do they really watch these pictures later? Well, I\u2019m curious about it, but on the other hand I don\u2019t have much to watch by myself, I was too lazy to photograph both monotonous exposition and the castle itself. Contrariwise, the town of Bran turned out to be quite fascinating. I got enthusiastic about bizarre mixture of old houses, strange constructions of electric cables, stands with trashy souvenirs, kiosks and kebab houses. This mix no doubt deserved capturing and this is what I did \u2013 this \u201cshadow part\u201d of popular tourist classic turned out to be more fascinating than the obvious castle.<\/p>\n

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Belgian students has just discovered the idea of the slavic squat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Impressive dining offer in city of Bran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Sibiu \u2013 Cultural Heart of Transylvania<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever heard of Sibiu before? I haven\u2019t, this is why I didn\u2019t intend to go there. The reason for changing my decision was actually very prosaic \u2013 lack of free beds in the only youth of Sighisoara. I literally jumped to the train just before it left, joining my Belgian mates who wanted to visit Sibiu. This decision turned out to be very beneficial \u2013 Sibiu, former European Capital of Culture, impressed me with its beauty. Nicely renovated old town, large collection of paintings in Brukenthal Museum and general climate of summer laziness encouraged me to stay there for longer than I expected. I spend many hours just reading in the local park.<\/p>\n

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Poor framing, but cool pose!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Robert Kaplan, writer and traveller, describes his stay in Transylvania as \u201centering Center Europe through the kitchen door\u201d. Well, of course Transylvania is not Balkan at all \u2013 the oldest cities were founded by the Saxons. Moreover Austro-Hungarian influence is evident and easy to spot, what actually makes me feel like at home. But \u201ckitchen door\u201d? Please, don\u2019t say so! Transylvania is not worse, it\u2019s charming, picturesque and cool.<\/p>\n

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Sighisoara \u2013 Too Beautiful to Deal with<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sighisoara is well-renovated medieval town with colourful houses. 100% beautiful.  This beauty is so evident that there is no need to spend there more than couple of hours. The photos are not surprising at all \u2013 only perfect colours and picturesque surroundings. Sticker with David Bowie turned out to be rare exception. I was quite surprised by the fact that I didn\u2019t like Sighisoara that much \u2013 so if you have long way to get there, maybe you can just skip it. All in all, it took 5 hours by train from Sibiu to get there and the connections were not frequent.<\/p>\n

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Personally, I don\u2019t regret, because just by chance I met two groups of Polish tourists – spending an evening in the fortress with a good company was definitely worth it. In the fortress or rather \u2013 in the cheap camping in the surrounding district. All in all, definitely nice place to see the sunrise \u2013 it was magical. Artistically though \u2013 I would rather recommend you to explore Cluj-Napoka.<\/p>\n

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Cluj \u2013 the Capital of Students<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cluj. What to do in Cluj? The city located in the north of Romania is not typical tourist destination. One of the British travellers described it as \u201cdream city for travellers with contemplative personality. Crowded with students, full of impressive monuments, it could be Oxford of Eastern Europe\u201d. In the other hand in the recent movie \u201cExam\u201d by Cristian Mungiu it is sometimes presented as dirty, provincial and corrupted. Probably the truth lies in-between, but personally I fell in love with this stylish and alternative city, its calm Central Park, rainbow cultural center located in former office of Jewish commune. In addition to that \u2013 plenty of street art and cool cafes.<\/p>\n

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What to see in Cluj then? My number one apart from the attractions mentioned above – the botanical garden. The exhibition reminded me of the primary school trips. There was something extremely vintage about the exhibition, still it was worth-visiting. Outside, in the part, there are cute ponds filled with flowers, relaxing park and quite interesting sculptures. My best meal in Romania was also eaten in Cluj – at Samsara FoodHouse. Innovative attitude towards vegetarian cuisine, cosy place and cool, English-speaking service \u2013 I strongly recommend it. I never take pictures of food, actually I find it a bit strange, but this time the courgette spaghetti was to unique to miss this occasion!<\/p>\n

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All in all, as you can see Transylvania is both adorable and worth visiting. If whole Romania? I guess yes, but didn\u2019t have opportunity to check. If I was about to plan my trip once again, less spontaneously, I would focus on thre e main cities (Sibiu, Brasov and Cluj). Instead of going to Sighisoara and Bran I would spend more time in the nature \u2013 Poles that I met on the road told me they even saw bears in the mountains! Despite the fact that I found Bucharest rather repulsive, I\u2019d like to try exploring it when it\u2019s less than 30 degrees \u2013 no doubt I have to revisit Romania in the spring! In addition to that Dunabe\u2019s Delta would be cool. Despite some traveller from the 20s said so, visiting Romania is not like entering Eastern Europe through the kitchen entrance. It\u2019s like opening carved, colourful door to the unknown charm of the East.  <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What to see in Romania? Is Transylvania worth visiting? What to do in Sibiu and Sighisoara? Is Dracula\u2019s castle in Bran interesting? I started asking these questions when I already landed in Bucharest. The decision to go to there was rather spontaneous. Moreover, my first idea was to stay in Bucharest and go to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochapawlak.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}