My summer is not over, but the best part of it just ended - the summer holiday. If I could only have my share of the three months of "nothing to do in summer" that I used to have when in school.
2012 Summer Holiday:
Bucharest - Transalpina - Sibiu - Apuseni Mountains - Alba Iulia - Doftana - Bucharest
2012 Summer Holiday:
Bucharest - Transalpina - Sibiu - Apuseni Mountains - Alba Iulia - Doftana - Bucharest
To get to Sibiu we took a special route - Transalpina known as "The Road of Kings". This is the highest and most beautiful road in Romania. The road is around 2000 years old and has been used both by the Romans to pass the Carpathians and the Germans in WW2. Its maximum hight reaches 2145 m and the view from there is spectacular.
We started with a well known festival in Sibiu - ArtMania. The festival is already an August tradition for the city, and the city is an island of non-romanian stuff in Romania. Sibiu still looks like the European Capital of Culture. Die Toten Hosen brought a lot of Germans to Sibiu, so for at least a couple of days we were surrounded by Deutsch blondes. I was also really happy to see Alternosfera (a small Moldavian band I've known since highschool).
The real adventure only started when we reached the mountains. Our plan was to visit Apuseni National Park, known for the glaciers that it hides and the wonderful karst fragments. We made as many routes as we could in the three days we had. We arrived on Sunday evening and had two nights of sleep in a mountain house (it was pretty modern so not the typical chalet) and were planning to sleep outside in our tents for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately in August, 40 degrees Celsius in Bucharest turn into 10 degrees Celsius in the mountains, with really low temperatures at night. So we spent one night in the tent and the other night in a trailer.
1st day
Cetatile Ponorului
(caves and top of the mountain views)
We ended our beautiful mountain trip with a long drive to Alba Iulia. This was my second time in the city and for the same good reason - Dark Bombasting Evening (DBE 4) - an underground music festival where you feel like home. While last year I focused more on the citadel - DBE 2011 this year I focused more on the festival.
A lot more people joined the festival, mostly foreigners, which was a really pleasant surprise. We all cracked on Friday, the first night of the festival, and then had to relax and recharge our batteries on Saturday. Great atmosphere, great music, great food and great people. It was a really nice way to end our holiday before heading for the city.
We got home more tired than we left, but much more relaxed. Unfortunately siting at the office is not as wonderful as climbing mountains...and it's even much more tiering.
My Summer of George has one more thing on the list...splash around the Black Sea...then it will be officially over :)
The real adventure only started when we reached the mountains. Our plan was to visit Apuseni National Park, known for the glaciers that it hides and the wonderful karst fragments. We made as many routes as we could in the three days we had. We arrived on Sunday evening and had two nights of sleep in a mountain house (it was pretty modern so not the typical chalet) and were planning to sleep outside in our tents for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately in August, 40 degrees Celsius in Bucharest turn into 10 degrees Celsius in the mountains, with really low temperatures at night. So we spent one night in the tent and the other night in a trailer.
1st day
Cetatile Ponorului
(caves and top of the mountain views)
2nd day
Barsa Pit
(glaciers, caves and lakes inside mountains)
The 2nd day gave us a story to tell forever. When we arrived at Barsa pit we heard a child crying inside the cave where the glacier is. A family was trapped...they entered the pit with no equipment what so ever to take photos, and the mother slipped on the glacier's ice and had a foot stuck in a crack. She was lucky she got stuck because otherwise the ice would have swallowed her into the mountains deep. It was really difficult for the boys to get them out of there, because she was freezing, almost hypothermic, and extremely scared.
3rd day
The Yellow Gorges
(rocks, water coming out of the mountain's heart and top of the mountain views)
We ended our beautiful mountain trip with a long drive to Alba Iulia. This was my second time in the city and for the same good reason - Dark Bombasting Evening (DBE 4) - an underground music festival where you feel like home. While last year I focused more on the citadel - DBE 2011 this year I focused more on the festival.
A lot more people joined the festival, mostly foreigners, which was a really pleasant surprise. We all cracked on Friday, the first night of the festival, and then had to relax and recharge our batteries on Saturday. Great atmosphere, great music, great food and great people. It was a really nice way to end our holiday before heading for the city.
We got home more tired than we left, but much more relaxed. Unfortunately siting at the office is not as wonderful as climbing mountains...and it's even much more tiering.
My Summer of George has one more thing on the list...splash around the Black Sea...then it will be officially over :)