Having fun Romanian style

After Brasov came what we really were waiting for – In Transylvania – a festival in the middle of Fagaras Mountains with just right line-up to make these four days unbelievably fun! We also had our little secret mission – to try a local Țuică – home-made strong alcohol. 

 

The venue of the festival was a small village Sâmbăta de Sus or rather its touristic complex which was few km further than that. We had some plan how to get there, pretty complicated and we were afraid it won’t work out, but as we couldn’t come up with anything else we wanted to stick to it. 

Almost there

But on the station in Brasov we met this Czech couple and their companion – one Romanian guy named Sergiu who came with them from the hostel to help them finding the bus to Orsova. Sergiu was really amazing guy, he immediately took care also of us saying that our plan is not good and we should take another way. Then he arranged everything with the driver, where he should stop for us and so on and he spent with us like 2 hours talking some bullshit stories and taking care that we get to right bus and will get to our destination. And that’s all just like this, like he said – to make better publicity for Romania in the world, so foreign people would know that Romanians are nice and the country worth visiting! That’s pretty impressive for me! Thanks to him we really saved a lot of time and troubles and got to Sambata fast and without any problems. Another example of amazing Romanian hospitality, that makes every visit to this country so special :)

 

The festival venue was really cool, still not too many people as it was Thursday afternoon. We put the tent up and decided to head to the touristic complex to eat something. Complex of Sâmbăta is not too big, only few hotels, and one restaurant, but it was too expensive. But we found there a barbeque “open air bar”, you know this kind of place next to the road that looks quite creepy and no one eats there. But it was good enough for us, we decided to try it out. We took some mici (Romanian rolled minced meat) with fries and the bar became our second home for whole 4 days! The meat was simply delicious, the portions were big and all was really cheap. The food at the festival didn’t taste even half as good as this. 

Our first meal in the favorite place

 

We also drunk there a lot of beer and wine and already the first day we felt like it’s the right place to complete our secret mission. Firstly, we were a bit shy to ask directly about țuică, but finally I did this (mission is mission) in the best Romanian I could:

• Scuzatii-me, spuneti, nu stiti unde putem a cumpar o tuica?
• Ce???? Tuica? – a woman answered with a bit of shock on her face.

It seems like our mission will fail, but her friend sitting in this bar almost all the time heard it and said.

• Cine vrea a cumpar tiuca?
• Fetele. (girls) anwered woman
• Fetele??? – he said loudly but with the wide smile on his face. – Miine, mine… (tomorrow).

And that’s how we complete our mission buying 1 l of local țuică for enormously high price like we got to know later from our camping neighbors, some bikers from Bran (btw with Țuică written on their caps, what make them quite a professionals in this field). Of course we planned to bring some țuică with us to Moldova, but it appeared to be impossible, Fagaras Mountains don’t let their secrets out and what happens in Sâmbăta stays in Sâmbăta ;) 

 

The festival was as awesome as we thought, with a bunch of great music, a sea of țuică and of my favorite Ciuc Radler, once even gotten for free from the staff and with a T-shirt of Basska, one of the groups playing, given straight to my hands by its leader ; ) 

Local beer from Brasov region

We had some plans to hike in the mountains, but somehow we just stayed whole mornings in hammocks, napping and relaxing. Also quite a good plan!

On the way back we caught this car of one Bosnian couple, they were coming back from festival to Bucharest where they live now. With them we made a stop in Făgăraș, had a chance to visit their fortress and eat really nice breakfast. Then we got to Brasov and from there already by bus to Chisinau. Ehhh, sad, sad life when you have to go back from Romania… Well, hopefully not for too long ;) 

P.S Great thanks for Annely for some pictures that are here ;) 

Festival venue

Camping place

Crazy nights

And in addition beautiful Fagaras nature:

 

On the way to Romania

Did I already say that I love Romania? Because if not – that’s what you have to know! Because it’s just an amazing country! And what’s best, with every trip I love it even more and it seems like every single trip is just better than the previous one…

This time I went for whole week and destinations were two – Brasov and then Sambata de Sus in Fagaras mountains for the festival In Transylvania.

But the story begins in Chisinau, on the road next to Gara de Sud where my first ever hitchhiking trip started. It was early morning (around 11 am :P) and we should be in Brasov in the night same day. Sounds like a plan? Well, not really!

 

The first thing I got to know very fast it’s that hitchhiking sucks! Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, but seems like this sport it totally not for me! Too much waiting, too much sun, too much things that get on my nerves and I end up mad all the time. 

Beautiful Brasov

We waited quite long time for the first car, but we managed to get with it to the border with Romania, so it was very lucky, only that we had to pay for it anyway. Because that’s how autostop looks in Moldova or Romania, it’s just a normal mean of transport that you pay for. But fortunately it wasn’t all the time like this, in Romania we managed to catch 3 cars where the guys where really friendly and understood that for foreign tourists hitchhiking means something different and they didn’t ask us for money. 

Guy no. 1 was Moldovan working in Iasi and that’s where he took us. I’ve already been to Iasi and I had nice impressions about it, what’s good because if this was my first visit I would hate it to unbelievable extend! Why? Mostly because people in Iasi have no idea where they live and because we were walking for 2 or 3 hours around, looking for the places that don’t exist or don’t work. Example? We had to get to the main train station – “go to this station and take bus no. …” – bus with this number wasn’t even there! We ask another person about train station – “bus? You don’t need the bus, it’s just here, maybe 500 m”. Well, exactly that’s how it was, only that the station was some kind of old station that wasn’t even working. After, we just took a taxi to the center, ate and checked on the internet where we should go to catch the car. Plenty of buses, all depart from Piata Eminescu, the biggest or second biggest square in the city. You’d think it would be easy to find it? NO WAY! Out of 6-7 people we asked, only one (sic!) knew where it is, despite that we were very close to it, in the center! Oooo, Iasi people, you need to revise some knowledge about the city! 

 

Then it was quite easy, after couple of minutes a very nice guy stopped and took us all the way to Bacau, next big city on our way. He even left us on the way to the next city in our plan, only that it was already quite late and we decided to look for the bus to Brasov. But how? We noticed this older guy going around and asked him for the direction to the bus station, but he said it’s pretty far. Then he started asking questions and we explained him (in my “perfect” Romanian – yeah, I speak this language when there’s no other way to survive :P) what is our situation. And he turned out to be such a great guy! He called few of his friends, working on bus stations and on train station (he seemed to have friends everywhere) to check if there is anything going to Brasov now. It wasn’t. So he called his another friend, a taxi driver who took us to the hotel, as it was the only solution now. 

 

Of course I was so pissed off (mostly on hitchhiking) because the hotel wasn’t cheap and we still had a reservation at the hostel in Brasov. I called there begging to not cancel our reservation, promising that we’ll pay 3 nights anyway, but the owner was totally cool. She said that there’s no worries about our places and that we will pay only for 2 nights anyway. Very nice hostel by the way – Liberty Villa on strada Democratiei – cheapest option in Brasov and very decent place. 

 

So we stayed for a night in Bacau but we were too far from the center to visit anything. Instead, we made a manele party at our hotel with the bottle of beer and manele channel on TV (one song worse than other, exceptional experience). 

Brasov

 

 Next day we left quite early and caught a car to Onesti, next bigger city on our way, so it went quite smooth so far. Then it changed a bit, it was visible that most of the cars are local and they didn’t seem to go in a longer journey. Finally one car stopped, it was this 30 years old (at least) Dacia with a pair of gypsies inside. For a second I had this thought that maybe it’s not good idea, but then I thought “why not” and we got in. And it was such a great experience, in this car, with gypsy music and this woman dressed exactly like Roma women from the movies, passing all these hills, forests and gypsy villages on the way.

At some moment we got to the point that was kind of neighborhood of the driver, he was cherishing many people on the way and I had this thought in my mind “wow, if they wanted to rob us now it would be like nothing easier”. Maybe it wasn’t too nice and politically correct from me, but then it got even worse, as the driver started watching us in the mirror in very obvious, creepy way and had a phone conversation with someone and what I understood from is was “din Polonia” and “cinci sute de euro” (from Poland and 500 euro). Well, maybe I’m a paranoid, but in this moment my heart started beating really fast and I just wanted to get out. Finally nothing happened, they left us in the city they were supposed to and it seemed we just had too big imagination. 

 

One more car (that we also had to pay, so in total cost exactly as much as the bus from Bacau) and we arrived to Brasov – lovely city surrounded by mountains. We spent 2,5 days there, already on the first day taking the free tour that starts at 6 pm on the main square next to fountain. Good way to hear some interesting stories about the city. 

The narrow street in Brasov

Brasov is so beautiful and a bit touristic too; there are many nice bars and cafes, mostly in the area of Piata Sfatului and strada Republicii. It’s also close to other famous attractions like Bran castle or Sinaia with Peles castle. On the second day we went to Bran and my friend took the tour in the castle, as I’ve already been there, but she didn’t seem too impressed. I agree it’s not too impressive, but it’s a nice experience and I recommend going there. 

 

Evenings in Brasov we sent on watching football games, as it was the end of World Championship and just wandering around different bars. Very relaxing time. Don’t miss coming to Brasov, you’ll love that!

The second part – about festival in the next post ;) This one seems already too long :)  

Once again Brasov :)

 

The entertaining pearl of the Black Sea

And finally I made it to Odessa, one of the most important destinations on my list while being in Moldova. And the timing was perfect – beginning of July, beautiful sun, hot water, interesting places full of people (and taxi drivers trying to rip us off all the time – successfully, unfortunately :/ ). 

 

But despite these little disadvantages the trip was as awesome as it could be from the very first moment – drinking some Moldovan wine in almost empty marshrutka from Chisinau to Odessa. There are few mini buses that go every day, we took the one at 8 pm and arrived before 1 am. They all depart from Gara de Nord and the ticket cost 150 lei. There is also a train to Odessa, but as far as I know it’s only once a day. 

Situation in Ukraine is difficult but Odessa was super calm and - like the picture says - Ukrainian :)

 

As we arrived to the Odessa Bus Station (already in good mood ;) we to

ok a taxi (70 hryvnas – who knows if it’s a lot or not?) to our hostel - Centro Hostel on Gogolya street that we have booked earlier on hostelworld.com. It was strange because it had no reviews on the website but we decided to risk as it was the cheapest available option. And the risk was totally worth it, it was so far the best hostel I stayed in in my life. Very good location, all brand new facilities and what’s the most important – every detail was completely thought through – a hangers in a perfect places, enough space for your staff, small lamp next to the bed, the curtains at the bed for more privacy….etc… Generally speaking, if you ever have felt in any hostel like it misses something, here it was almost not possible to have this feeling, everything is designed just right! Very recommended. 

Despite some decorations people at Centro hostel are very fiendly ;)

  Unfortunately we could stay in the hostel only for 1 night, there was some problem with our reservation so they moved us to another one – Krovat Hostel near Deribasovskaya street, which was quite nice too and the owner of the first one (very cool guy who used to travel the world as a cruise ship’s crew member) took us there and payed a private room for us. So quite a good deal after all :)

 

The city is so much fun itself, many nice bars and cafes, for example Shkaf (Шкаф) where we spent one very nice evening eating good food and drinking plenty of shots with discount ;)

But the most important thing of all was of course going to the beach and trying out some Black Sea for the first time! And it was awesome of course! Just perfect temperature of water, no stones, only sand and cheap beer with some shrimps when we got bored of swimming ;) And it all in the place called Arkadia! 

  

The place is pretty touristic, with some boutiques and many fancy pubs, but it’s worth to go there, it’s the best beach in the city even if it’s pretty far from the center. We spent really nice time there and on the evening we came back to have another party night. It turned out even better than the previous one: liters of champagne, fancy bar on the balcony with the view on the sea and the most handsome Ukrainian guy ever as bartender, and it all ending up with a naked swim in the sea with cherishing us people sitting on the beach because it was almost getting light ;D Unforgettable moments ;) 

The view on the port

Yeah, Odessa is definitely a party city and that’s where you should go for some fun!

The way it looks? Well, it looks nice, has some sightseeing places with the most important – Potemkin stairs, but it’s all not that impressive or important. It’s rather all about the atmosphere of the city and who never goes there – loses a lot!