We took advantage of our Easter holiday and the extended weekend to take a great trip in Transilvania. Our main target Tara Hategului. The area is full of history and interesting places to visit. In our 3 day trip we didn't manage to see everything, but we saw I'd say the most relevant parts of it. Tara Hategului was a volcanic island in the Cretaceous Period, so it lasted in time as a bondage between the dinosaur period and human history.
We started from Bucharest to Sibiu as our "getting to" route. The plan was to go from Sibiu to Orastie where we could visit the old Dacian citadel of Sarmisegetuza Regia. A very long and tiering trip, but worth every second of it.
From Orastie to Sarmisegetuza Regie the road was a pain. It took us 2 hours to get there by car on a very bumpy countryside road. We were lucky that at least the area has all the visiting places marked, otherwise we would have never gotten there...you feel as if you are going nowhere. This was the capital and the most important military, religious and political centre of the Dacians. Erected on top of a 1,200 meter high mountain, the fortress was the core of the strategic defensive system in the Orastie Mountins, comprising six citadels. Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital of Dacia prior to the wars with the Roman Empire.
Sarmisegetuza Regia is from my point of view the best place we visited. The Dacian citadel stands tall. The area has very beautiful landscapes and if you have your eyes and mind open you realize that you are surrounded by history and beauty. Everything is build in circles, so it gives a feeling of union.
Around it there are two other important citadels, Blidaru and Costesti. We only visited Costesti as it was closer...to get to Blidaru you have to walk a bit though the forest and we were running a bit of of time and were a bit lazy and tired from the road.
Next stop - Hateg our sleeping hub, where we stayed a super beautiful motel - Art Motel (http://www.rohotels.ro/hoteluri-hateg/hotel-art-motel).
We ended the day with a beautiful rainbow.
Though we didn't have the best evening in the world, we woke up the next day ready for another trip.
The plan was simple - Hunedoara (Hunyad Castle) - Sanmaria Orlea (Dinosaur Park) - Sarmisegetuza (Ulpia Traiana Augusta) - Retezat National Park (Gura Apelor Dam).
Hunayd Castle - Castelul Corvinestilor - was finished in 1315 and in 1316 King was already established in the new castle, where he lived almost eight years. The castle is a beautiful piece of medieval architecture. It has been restored, but still you cannot visit all the rooms. Also, the castle just like many castles in Romania is empty - no furniture left. There are many legends related to this place as well as John the Hunyad and their house's symbol - a crow with a golden ring in its peak. A much better place to visit than Bran Castle - Dracula's Castle.
Unfortunately the Communist period destroyed the landscape completely. Ceusescu, who showed no respect to history what so ever, built a large industrial park just in front of the castle that even now stands tall like a sad monument of pain. Luckily the castle is so beautiful that once you turn around you forget about everything.
Curiosity pushed me to visit the dinosaur park. Since Hategului Country is such an old piece of land, in the area they discovered the remains of small dinosaurs. The area is promoted as being a park so I my passion for dinosaurs pushed me to go there. The park is on the way from Hateg to Sanmaria Orlea. What you should find here is the valley of the dinosaurs, the hill of the dinosaurs, the hills of granite and a traditional old village. Yes...ahm....there was nothing there, just a beautiful landscape. Still on our way we went through this really Irish area...green hills, road surrounded by trees...Also we saw a different type of castles - gypsy "houses"
And here is the Dinosaur Park, don't get me wrong I was not expecting Jurassic Park, especially since it is from the Cretaceous period...but I was kinnda the only dinosaur there. I'm really happy we went though, the landscape was spectacular.
Fairly disappointed we turned back with our minds to Ulpia Traiana Augusta. A lot of churches and holy places to visit on this way, but the only interesting ones I found where a medieval church and and evangelistic one.
Ulpia Traiana Augusta is a waste of time. I don't have anything against the Romans, but it's utterly boring. The place seams to be more popular though. It's really easy to get there, they also have a place to eat (bad food, bad bad bad music...) The citadel is bigger than Regia, but it has nothing to see except for a pile of stones in the form of buildings and temples.
Last stop - Gura Apelor Dam. This is the biggest mountain rock built (arocamente) dam in Europe. Retezat National Park is perfection....our road there was bumpy due to rocks fallen from the mountain in the middle of the road, but it was simply beautiful. I obviously found a stray dog even there...a beautiful wolf who ate all my biscuits.
The trip was a real success when it comes to the places we visited. I would do it 100 times again and wish we had better roads to get from one place to the other faster. Somehow I am grateful that tourism in Romania is poorly promoted. These places would have not been the same if we where not, almost, the only visitors there. The weather was on our side, it was always raining when we got into the car, but very warm and sunny when we got out.
My plan of visiting Romania more seams to be working out well. In the past years I've seen really beautiful places I did not know of and were so close to me.
We ended the trip with a return road through Jiului Valley. The strong river pierces through the mountains like a needle. It creates a spectacular view as it streams down. Too bad that from place to place you could see hundreds of plastic bottles floating around forming islands....too bad.
Our last stop was Targu Jiu, the town of the famous Brancusi. The park was very crowded so we barely managed to take a couple of photos.