Off The Beaten Track: An Eco-Holiday in Fairytale Romania

The Maramures Mountains (Inner Eastern Carpathians)
in northern Romania (Photo by Joadl)

Here’s a suggestion for this summer’s vacation: a stay at an eco-friendly guest house set in the fairytale lands of Romania.

Fresh air, a friendly boarding house, hospitable people, meals cooked with vegetables from their hosts’ own gardens, and lots of hiking. That’s how a typical day looks for tourists who choose an eco-boarding house (guest house) hidden in the small mountain villages. The number of such destinations is growing each year, as more and more people turn to environmentally friendly lifestyles and want to enjoy them even on vacation.

Romania is a land of paradoxes. Although it has tremendous tourist potential, the number of tourists who come here falls each year. Many are discouraged by the lack of infrastructure, inadequate housing conditions, or high charges. In some cases, they’re right, but we compensate with breathtaking landscapes and welcoming people.

A shepherd in the Făgăraş Mountains (Photo by friend of Darwinek)

The mountain villages, for example, are a perfect getaway destination. In some boarding houses in the countryside, you can enjoy real farm life, surrounded by Carpathian Shepard dogs, rabbits, peacocks, and quails. And you can taste the goodies cooked from the freshest ingredients.

Rolling hill leading into Piatra Craiului National Park
(Photo by Horla Varlan)

In Piatra Craiului National Park, in the picturesque village of Magura (170 km from Bucharest), you can experience life in the countryside. During your stay, you are invited to assist in household, daily chores. You can milk the cow, collect the eggs from the nest, or dig around the vegetable garden. If you would like to see the harvest of this year, you will be invited into the pantry usually full of vegetables, zacusca (a Romanian vegetable spread), tomato sauce bottles, and jars filled with fruit jam.

If you haven’t yet visited the magical realms of Bucovina, you’re missing out. It’s 450 km from Bucharest to village Vama, in the Suceava County, roughly 5-8 hours on the road, depending on your means of transportation (car or train). But it’s worth the effort! 

A panoramic view of Campulung Moldovenesc in Suceava County

Here, you will find green meadows and cheerful boarding houses. Carriage rides give you a tour of the hills. When you return from the carriage ride, you can sit in the yard, shaded by old linden trees, and taste an exceptional menu cooked by the farm’s hosts, who use old and unique recipes, flavors you will not forget. If you would like to learn the secrets of Romanian traditional courses during your stay, you can take cooking lessons. Everything you will use in the kitchen is 100 percent natural, purchased from the most trusted sources: the local gardens.

 

If you’re a gourmand, and you would like a taste of the best Romania has to offer, you should visit Turda (30 km away from Cluj-Napoca, a popular hotspot in Transylvania, and 350 km away from Bucharest) and surroundings, in the heart of Transylvania.

Look for “Turda steak” on local menus. It’s a course that became popular in the 1930s. It is cooked from pork soaked in milk until it becomes tender, seasoned with coarse salt from the nearby salt mine, then roasted in lard. It’s typically served with a choice of pickled cucumbers or sauerkraut, and best enjoyed with a bottle of Chardonnay. All restaurants in Turda serve this steak, but the locals would recommend you try the best at the Printul Vanator Restaurant (The Hunter Prince Restaurant), where you can also enjoy your meal in a lovely, rustic setting. For dessert, try the honey and cinnamon gingerbread, a century-old recipe. Gingerbread in Turda is famous for its presentation, because it is cut in a bone shape. Among other regional goodies are the palinka (booze made from plums) and the red onions from Aries, which you can buy in long ropes from the locals.

Children choosing from a bounty of healthy choices.
(Photo by the Turda Slow Food Association)

Those interested in healthy food will find a heaven of organic food in the Turda region. The Turda Slow Food Association supports the promotion of these foods: delicious, organic, and locally grown ingredients for a healthy meal. The Association organizes activities to which both local producers and tourists are invited.

"You could go to Turda during the Children’s Cooking Festival, which will be held for the first time this year in August, and you will be able to admire the little chefs making fun cooking demonstrations," explains Marta Pozsonyi, the president of Slow Food Turda. You can even visit the school gardens where you will find organic products, grown and tended by pupils from schools in the region, who thus learn to choose natural foods.

Locals from Aries braiding ropes of onions after harvest

 (Photo by Turda Slow Food Association)

Those who want to sample local delicacies should visit Romanian villages and mountain roads. Slow Food Turda recommends a visit to the local cheese makers, who welcome tourists into their sheepfolds to see sheep-milking demonstrations and taste different types of cheese.

Kirchenburg in Viscri (Photo by Wissenskanon)

If none of these arguments have persuaded you so far, the next one might make you choose Transylvania as a holiday destination. Prince Charles fell in love with these lands, and he considers this area as the greatest treasure of Romania. He liked Transylvania so much, that after spending several vacations here, he bought two holiday homes. One is in Viscri, not far away from the medieval town of Sighisoara (280 km away from Bucharest). It is a small and ordinary house. In fact, Prince Charles invested large sums of money in renovating several houses in the village, homes open to tourists. Since his first visit in Romania, in 1993, the British royal heir visits at least once a year and enjoys life in the Romanian countryside. During his last visit, in May 2011, he learned to mow the lawn, and he wanted to take a scythe back home with him.

Off The Beaten Track: Searching for Dracula In Transylvania

Our guest this week is Alina Barbu, a radio journalist in Bucharest, Romania. She is a contributor to www.suite101.com and a reporter for Carpatair Airlines in-flight magazine. She’s also a passionate gourmand and traveler.

I've been thinking lately about the tremendous success of the Twilight Saga (novels and movies) around the world and how quickly vampires, legends, and stories about the immortals of the dark captured our attention. As far as I remember, the Breaking Dawn book mentions a Romanian vampire, and I was not surprised reading that  because Romania, especially Transylvania, has been the cradle of vampires in the imagination of many writers. Romania has an old lore about those who rise nightly from the grave to drink the blood of the living. This might be one of the reasons Bram Stoker chose the Carpathian Mountains as the setting for his famous Dracula novel.

Count Dracula was inspired by one well-known historical figure from Romania, Vlad Dracula, nicknamed Vlad the Impaler, who ruled Walachia (a province that later united with Moldovia to form the Romanian principalities) between 1456 and 1462. While the character in the book is based entirely on the author's imagination, the facts about Dracula, including how he meets his end, are based on popular beliefs about the existence of evil forces, widely accepted by locals. The fame of vampires attracts travelers from around the world, who come to Transylvania in search of Dracula myth, expecting perhaps to find the locals terrified by the bloody count. They might be disappointed because they will not find grim crypts, werewolves, or ghosts. Instead, they can discover where the legends started and who the real person was that stood behind the myth that inspired Bram Stoker.

One of my foreign friends, excited about legends, asked me while visiting Romania,“Where should I go if I want to feel Dracula’s spirit?” Well, my friend, it depends on what you want to discover: the legendary places behind a famous novel or the true stories linked to a historic ruler?

Bran Castle (Photo by E rulez)

If you are planning a journey to Romania to retrace the footsteps of Dracula, it should start at Bran Castle, dubbed Dracula’s Castle three decades ago by the American tourists who came in search of horror film atmosphere. Standing at the entrance gates of Transylvania, this castle resembles the one described by Stoker’s novel.

Visitors, though, do not make a distinction between the story behind the character of the novel and the legends about Vlad Tepes, also know as Vlad the Impaler. The legends show him as a ruthless ruler who required honesty and diligence from his subjects and harshly punished theft, laziness, and cunning by impaling them. Each year, crowds of tourists gather at Bran Castle and follow their guides in the spooky narrow stone staircases, the dark rooms, and the massive dungeon, as they listen to the old legends.

Bran Castle at night
(Photo by Julian Nitzsche)

The end of November is one of the better times of year to visit Transylvania. On the night of the 29th of November, the towns celebrates not just Saint Andrew, the Christian apostle, but also an ancient god whose name is lost to history but who was venerated by the people who lived in Dacia, a country under the Roman Empire. Those who live in the villages still keep alive the centuries-old traditions.  You’ll have the chance to see garlic ropes hanging on front doors and housewives turning cups and pots upside down to scare evil spirits away.

There is also a belief that, on this particular night, that one can discover a criminal or a thief in their midst. A magical ritual takes place in the cemetery at midnight, using candles, holy water, a jar, and some silver coins, which are placed over an old grave. Legend has it that after the practitioner utters certain prayers, he can see the mysterious events and their main characters in the candlelight.

Poenari Fortress (Photo by L.Kenzel)

If you follow Vlad the Impaler’s footsteps, you would reach Poenari Fortress, hidden in the Carpathian Mountains, about 200 km (124 miles) from Bucharest. Not many people know about these old ruins that stand high on a cliff overlooking the Arges River, but it’s worth the visit. Legend has it that when the army of the Ottoman Empire attacked and captured this castle in 1462, Vlad the Impaler escaped via a secret passageway leading north through the mountains.

Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler

In my opinion, you should begin your journey in the medieval town of Sighisoara, right in the heart of Transylvania, where Vlad Dracula was born in 1431. The home of his birth still stands there but now hosts an antique-style restaurant. It’s worth seeing. The building is unique and hosts some beautiful sixth-century frescoes. Tourists can have lunch or dinner here, tasting traditional Romanian dishes and the local booze, palinca. Sighisoara is a popular spot for tourists searching for Halloween fun, because local amateur actors reenact a witch trial.

The Bistrita region as seen from Borgo Pass

If you’re interested in Dracula, the character, you should keep the best for the last part of your tour: Bistrita and the Borgo Pass. Bram Stoker mentioned both places in his novel, but they have no direct connection to Vlad the Impaler. Bistrita was the first stop of Stoker’s protagonist, young Jonathan Harker, in Transylvania. Harker is an English  solicitor, traveling to Transylvania to provide legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction. He spends a night at the Golden Krone Hotel, and even though the place didn’t exist at the time Stoker wrote his novel, a hotel with the same name cropped up later for tourists visiting the town. Don’t expect much because Bistrita has a rural landscape and few medieval attractions to visit. It can be a good stop-over, though, on your way to the Borgo Pass (Tihuta Pass), which became famous worldwide after Dracula was first published in 1897. 

Borgo Pass, also known as Tihuta Pass
(Photo by Vberger)

The pass is 3,840 feet high and gives visitors a breathtaking view of the region. Many people say they find the most beautiful landscapes of the Carpathians here: on one side, valleys with green meadows, and on the other, dense pine forests. Even for those who aren’t passionate about the Dracula story, Tihuta Pass can be a delight. The villages around are an opportunity to discover local traditions, customs, and folklore.

Prepare yourself for a whole week of adventures if you wish to see all these sites and spend some time exploring the local treasures. However, don’t limit your trip to Transylvania to find Dracula. You should include a stop to Bucharest to see other places where Vlad the Impaler lived and ruled the country. In fact, his name is linked to the city’s official certification by an official act signed in 1459. In the Old City Center, tourists will find the ruins of the Old Princely Court, built by Vlad the Impaler. Legend has it that he held his prisoners in massive dungeons under the  city. You can visit the ruler’s own grave at Snagov Monastery, 25 miles north of Bucharest. The monastery is located on an island on the far side of Snagov Lake and can only be accessed by boat.