• I spent a year living in Cimpulung Muscel, half-way up the Carpathian mountins - it was fantastic! From there I travelled a lot; Iasi in Moldova is particularly beautiful and the people are very friendly. We spent a few nights at a holiday camp just outside of Iasi - deserted except for us and a few other families. It was obviously used during communist rule by families for holidays - small cabanas (huts) surrounded a huge lake, with socialist-style statues and slogans dotted around. We fished with home-made fishing rods and cooked our catch on a home-made barbecue. We washed and drank water from a well and slept to the sound of crickets and dogs - it was magical.
Suceava is also worth a visit - not for the town itself which is full of concrete, but for the painted churches. From Suceava you can organise a tour of all the churches using a travel agency, or use the town as a base for walking between the churches.
Sinaia is also very pretty - you can visit Castelul Peles (Peles Castle) which is stunning. We also walked across the Bucegi Mountain, starting from Sinaia - you can get a cable car to the top and walking across towards Bucegi and then down a roughly-hewn path dotted with plaques dedicated to deceased walkers who got caught there in bad weather. We went in June, when the ground was hard and dry, but it is steep in places and if wet could be really dangerous - wear walking boots! The views from the top are stunning and there are plenty of cowherds around if you get lost!
Sigisoara is beautiful - I could happily live there in one of the rainbow-coloured houses decorated with geraniums - they are so pretty. I believe it is one of the last inhabited citadels in Europe and is really amazing. The view from the top of the clock tower is lovely and the clock tower itself is now a museum which is full of interesting information about Romania.
Sibiu is also pretty, but almost German in style - it is much more cosmopolitan and the hotels are more expensive - a good place to stock up on goodies!
The journey between Neamt and Brasov is lovely - we spent a day in Neamt, visiting the citadel there - we arrived at the top just in time for a spectacular thunder storm. We stopped off at Lacul Rosu (the Red Lake) - there isn't much to see there except for the Lake - a landslide caused a forest to drown, and you can see the tops of trees coming out of the lake, the water is coloured reddish because of the earth, apparently. Very pretty. I was the only westerner there - too far from Bucharest for most visitors to get to. You pass through the gorges on the way to Brasov - carved into the mountains - one that really captures the imagination is Gutul Iadului "Neck of Hell"! Stunning.
Brasov itself is very pretty, and Poiana Brasov, a popular ski resort, is very pretty in summer. We watched the eclipse there, which was unbelievable - very spooky. Brasov itself is very cosmopolitan compared to smaller towns - the Black Church is lovely.
Around Cimpulung we had a few favourite destinations - Voina is one of them, further up in the mountains. It is basically a stream, carved into the mountains - lots of people go there for day trips or camping holidays; it is very much back to nature, but is very pretty, and the journey is lovely (about an hour).
I spent a good part of my time there behaving like a local - helping with the hay cutting, digging potatoes, picking corn, helping to "cut" the pig - it was a real education! You can arrange to stay in agro-tourism centres, where you may be able to join in.
Regarding hotels, cabanas, homestays - I never pre-booked a thing. Carry a guide, ask at the station and you will be fine. In some places (eg Sinaia and Brasov) old ladies lay in wait offering you rooms at a good rate. Cabanas are very basic (often simply two beds) and facilities can be good or non-existent, but they are very, very cheap - so in warm weather are perfect. Have good time - Drum Bun!
Regards,
Helen Paulet
• My husband and I travelled to Romania from Hungary in 1998. It is definitely a unique place - on the train you frequently saw people working in the fields with scythes as well as travelling with a horse and a cart. We stopped off at Sighisoara and stayed with a family there. Its very beautiful - especially the old town which also has Vlad the Impaler's (ie. Dracula) birthplace (now a pub/restaurant). Make sure you wander up the hill to the covered passageway and go to the cemetery - spooky, but also beautiful.
We also went to Brasov and did a tour from there to Bran Castle - thought to be Dracula's Castle, though he probably didn't go there at all! The upshot is that the surrounding area is beautiful and Bran Castle, whilst not fulfilling the requirements of Dracula's castle (gloomy, dark), is exactly what you would expect from a castle - high on a hill surrounded by a forest.
It's a lovely country and when we went was incredibly cheap!
Have a great time,
Victoria Edmonds
