Romania - 2025 – Bucharest, Brasov, Sighișoara & Cluj-Napoc
We go to sleep at 6pm and wake up at midnight, catch the bus back to Thessaloniki airport, wait for 6 hours and then catch our 45 minute Ryanair flight to Bucharest in Romania, then take the train to the Gara de Nord train Station (1 euro). As we arrive too early to check in and it’s a gorgeous day, we leave our backpacks at the station’s left luggage, grab a cup of coffee along the way and go sightseeing, yes, that’s our level of stamina, and then head to the Old Town. Nothing is as magical as walking your way through a new, unknown city, we grab a pastry at the very traditional Luca Bakery (a chain scattered all over the country) and wander around the Old Town admiring the majestic architecture, a mix of Orthodox Byzantine churches and Ottoman era remnants, Art Nouveau Palazzos and communist megalomaniac buildings. The old Soviet trams are still circulating giving Bucharest a certain old world charm. We see some gorgeous, massive Soviet era buildings, Orthodox churches & monasteries, and of course there’s a very lively cafe scene, lots of young people and more tourists than we expected for this time of the year. We go back to the train station, pick up our bags and check in to our room, it’s so basic I wont even plug it. The internet is so bad it reminds us of travelling in South East Asia in the early 90s, we almost have to go to an internet cafe but, well, at least we're near the train and metro stations and we can get everywhere from here. We go for some local food and it’s quite disappointing, one of the best shawarmas in Europe? We think NOT, but we're tenacious and shall try again tomorrow. Next morning we catch the Metro (1 euro, fixed price) and make our way to the Michelin Guide Terasa Obor restaurant to try their world famous Mici (grilled skinless sausages like cevaps served with fresh bread rolls & mustard), nice! The line is huge but the mici are delicious, specially with a nice, icy cold beer, we got 6 for 6 euros plus 1 each for the beer. Then it’s time to go back and wander around the lovely old town a bit more.
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Next morning we get up and take the metro again to the Old Town to catch our tour bus. Our next stop is Brasov, so we’ve decided to take a tour to Brasov and the 2 famous castles of Peles & Bran (17 euros for the all day tour) and not return to Bucharest after Brasov. It works out almost the same as just taking the direct train to Brasov but we also get to see the castles along the way, what a great idea. We sent the company a message asking if we could leave our backpacks on the bus and they said OK. The tour bus leaves at 7am sharp, so, don’t be late as they really wont wait for anybody. Keep in mind that the tours of the Castle from Brasov are much more expensive, we paid 17 euros each . The bus is comfortable and the group is not big, mostly Italians and Greeks. The guide is nice and narrates everything in English and Italian. The weather is threatening but we can’t really complain as it’s the first bit of rain we’ve had in our whole trip. The first stop is Peles Castle. Peles Castle is recognized as a masterpiece of German neo-Renaissance architecture and it served as a former home of the Royal Family of Romania. To find out more about the Peles Caslte, just click on the link below. We decide not to pay to visit this one based on what we read but if you want to, it will cost you 20 euros. We go back to the bus to escape the rain and suddenly our phone vibrates violently as we get a flashing “danger warning” from the government, of course in Romanian. We were wondering what it’s about and getting a bit worried. When we eventually meet up with our tour guide she tells us there’s a big mama bear roaming around with cubs (we’re in Carpathian Bear Region) and they can get very aggressive. There’s some police and ambulance action for a while and then things settle down, they should charge you more for these types of adventures but money can’t buy crazy travel moments like these, scary.
https://romaniatourism.com/castles-fortresses-romania-peles-castle-sinaia.html
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Then we jump back on the bus for the second stop, the famous Bran Castle, of the infamous Vlad Tepes the Impaler. The castle was built by Saxons in 1377 and it is a national monument and landmark in Transylvania. Best known for it’s association with Vlad the Impaler in the 15th century. Legend has it that Vlad was kidnapped by the Ottoman Empire soldiers when he was a child but then escaped and came back to Romania to organize an army to fight the Ottomans. It’s said he drank some of the blood of the soldiers he killed in battle to make himself stronger and, inspired by this tale, Bram Stroker wrote the Dracula story. Of course we want to see this one, ticket price is 14 euros and it’s well worth it, it’s not as grand but it’s very atmospheric and it has a lot of history & mystery surrounding it, very well interpreted, one hour is enough and at least at this time of the year we don’t need to elbow that many tourists, however the senior selfie fever is electric. Click on this link if you want to read more about the castle’s history.
https://www.romaniatourism.com/castles-fortresses-romania-bran-castle.html
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Then it’s back on the bus, they kindly drop us off near our accommodation and after a quick walk and totally soaked to the bone by the relentless rain, we check in at Hannas House (31 euros), the rooms are nice and bright and it has a well equipped shared kitchen and we fold for the day. Next day the rain persists and the temperature is between 3 to 8 degrees. Not to worry, we go for a wander to see the gorgeous medieval city of Brasov just to realise we’re not the only crazy tourists out & about. Brasov is a gorgeous, colourful city. The Old Town Hall Square (Piața Sfatului) is lined by colorfully painted and richly ornate baroque structures. Just south of the Square, the Black Church (Biserica Neagra) - the largest gothic structure in Romanian got it’s name from the appearance of its exterior walls, darkened by the flames and smoke of the 'Great Fire' of 1689. Brasov is also home to one of the narrowest streets in Europe, the Rope Street. This long passageway connects the two sides of the old town and it served as an access route for firefighters. On the way home we grab yet another very forgettable meal and head back to the room. We’ve been here for 4 days and for some reason good food keeps eluding us, especially as Greece has just cruelly spoiled us for eating out the same way that Thailand, Vietnam, India & Spain have done. Well, there’s always another day! It’s now day 5 and we decide instead to try some self-catering. We select some cheese and cold cuts from the lovely deli counter lady at the Kaufland Supermarket where we get an assortment of meats, cheese, peppers stuffed with feta cheese, Greek tomatoes, olives, crusty bread and the like. We’ve read about Romanian food being eaten mostly at home and restaurants being bad and just for tourists, but this is ridiculous! If you’re a foodie like us, lower your expectations, a lot.
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Anyway, another morning and we go back sightseeing in the Old Town, walk around and retake some photos as the sun is finally out, then we grab our bags and walk to the train station and catch a 4 hour train (4.5 euros) to Sighișoara. The owner of our accommodation Venesis House is very nice and picks us up from the train station (30 euros for a great room with an amazingly well equipped shared kitchen featuring free coffee, tea etc, a coffee machine and anything else you could want). We check in and the room is great, then go out for, finally, some decent food at Concordia Restaurant in the heart of the Old Town, woodfired oven pizza & pasta washed down with a carafe of house red. Sighișoara is meant to be one of the most beautiful and better preserved medieval cities in Europe and it definitely doesn’t disappoint, it’s absolutely stunning and we immediately fall in love with this place, it’s medieval architecture, the colourful houses and the TLC that the people of this place devote to its maintenance. It’s definitely a fairy-tale town you don’t want to miss if you’re ever in this region. We wake up next morning and go back to the gorgeous Old town and retake some photos in the sunshine and get some supplies from a nearby supermarket.
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It´s time to jump back on another train, this time to Cluj-Napoca, a 4 hour ride costing 15 euros. The train is one hour late and it’s raining and freezing cold again. In Cluj we check in at Casa Rezidentiala Aria (32 euros) and fold for the day. The next morning we go to the Old Town and once again it’s another fabulous surprise, what a lovely town founded by the Roman Empire.
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We take a bus to the local airport then take a 2 hour Ryanair flight to Bergamo, Milan, wait for 6 hours as our flight was an hour late, then catch another Ryanair 1.5 hour flight to Krakow, Poland. It´s been our first time in Romania and our impressions were very positive, a lot of young people, a mostly trilingual population (most people also speak Italian and English), people are nice but smiles are hard to come by, I can assume due to the harsh history of the country. Public transport works very well in the cities but intercity trains are always late, you can bet on it. The currency is the Leu and it’s 5 to the euro ATM and thanks to the EU, there’s already free roaming in Romania and we can travel without our passports just using our ID card. It’s a very safe country with a very low crime rate and you don’t feel threatened walking on the street or even using an ATM. The cities and towns are absolutely worth the visit and tourism seems not to be a predatory stage yet, at least in mid May, and I promise I won’t mention the food again, thanks for reading and till the next chapter.
This featured blog entry was written by Pauluiza from the blog Paul and Luiza's World Adventures.
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