It is once again summer and that means it’s time for vacation! Our recent summer vacation travels took us back to Eastern Europe- this time to Romania.
Day 1
After arriving the night before, we were able to sleep in a bit before heading out into Bucharest to check out the city. Just a few streets away from our apartment was the Church of Stavropoleos. It was an interesting looking, albeit small, church that was very dark inside. There was a little courtyard to the side of the church that was quite pretty.
We made our way around the corner to a small shop where we got a breakfast of Placinta cu urde (cheese pie), Alivenci (butter pie), a very strong-tasting pumpkin pastry and Poale n Brau (sweet pastry).
Then, we wandered inside a souvenir shop next door. We walked through an interesting passageway called the Macca-Vila Crosse which seemed like a fun area and then through another, Pasajul Victoria, with umbrellas hanging overhead.
After this, we continued on to the Memorial of Rebirth which honors the victims of the 1989 revolution in Bucharest. Next to this was an interesting looking Orthodox church.
We made a quick stop at the Athenaeum (concert hall). The doors were locked, but we could see a bit of the interior through the windows. Outside, there were a lot of people taking wedding photos.
We headed into Cismigiu Park which was a nice city park with a small lake and a circular river for boating. We stopped to have a local beer and some water while doing some people watching and enjoying the shade.
Our last stop in the city was the Palace of Parliament. We just wandered around the outside for some views of the large palace before deciding to get some lunch at a nearby restaurant.
The restaurant was a large open courtyard enclosed by hedges. There was a violinist playing and lots of tables with large family groups. We started the meal with Salate de vinete (an eggplant spread), Zacusca (eggplant and pepper spread) and a bean spread. We also tried the fried cheese (Cascaval pane). Everything was good but we decide our favorite was the Salate de vinete.
The main dishes consisted of Mamaliga (polenta with a fried egg, sour cream and cheese), mitti or mici sausage (skinless sausage), Plescoi (mutton) sausage, Sarmale (cabbage rolls) and Ciulama (mushroom chicken stew with polenta).
We finished the meal with Papanasi, a fried ball of dough covered in sour cream and a berry jam as well as Visinata (a really nice sour cherry liquor) and Tuica (plum brandy).
We played some cards in our apartment in the afternoon, and then in the evening, we walked about 15 minutes or so to get to dinner where we had veggie ciorba (soup), Tochitura (pork, polenta, egg and cheese dish) and a mushroom stew with polenta along with some local white wine. Strange choices honestly, considering the heat, but you’ve got to try the traditional dishes! We finished our meal with Clatitie chocolate, a Romanian crepe.
Day 2
We had a very early morning to get on the road to the Danube Delta which is about 4.5 hours east of Bucharest. Along the way, we drove through a lot of tiny villages where all the homes had a bench outside their front gate, and the residents were just sitting there chatting with friends or watching cars go by. As we drove along, we snacked on some Cozonac bread that we had bought the day before. It was okay but not our favorite. It was unusual though with pieces of Turkish delight in it.
Once we arrived at the Delta, we boarded a boat and began making our way on the Danube and through the canals, lakes and tiny passages of reeds and lily pads to Caraorman.
Once on the island, we took a safari through the ancient oak forest and saw some 600–700-year-old oaks. As we were driving, we got to see some bee eater birds which are such a pretty blue color.
They made a meal for us on the island of catfish soup with bread and garlic aioli, local wine, fried catfish and carp with polenta and some fried donuts for dessert. It was good.
Then, it was back to the boat to make our way back to our starting point. Throughout the day, we saw water snakes, frogs, grey herron, night herron, swans, coots running on lily pads which was funny, comorants, glossy ibis, bittern, great egret, little egret, gulls, terns and tons of pelicans. We also got to see a white tail eagle which was cool.
Another long drive back, but we got to see so many storks-some on the ground but most in nests on light poles. And, most of the nests had babies.
Day 3
Back in Bucharest, we started with a breakfast of Alivenci and a cherry bread before loading up the car and making our way to Brasov with a stop in Sinaia for lunch.
The town was very cute.
The lunch was on the mountainside and consisted of Jumari cu ceapa which was fatty bacon pieces that were only very lightly fried and then served cold along with onions (it was gross), Balmos (polenta with sausage, bacon, egg and cheese) and Ciorba Radauteana (chicken soup).
After finishing, we decided to do a hike in the mountain.
We only got about 20 minutes up the mountain before it started pouring and hailing. We took shelter under a tree which happened to be next to a muddy hole where two frogs were procreating, so we had an interesting science lesson.
Once there was a break in the rain, we started back down the mountain, and it promptly started pouring again. We got saturated. We made it back to the car and drove on to Brasov which was a nice area.
After checking into our apartment, we walked through the old town to dinner. It was a cute area that did seem to cater to tourists. We made it to the large main square where we found tons of people celebrating Romania’s soccer win with a big dance and music show.
We found a restaurant in the square and sat down to enjoy the festivities. It was hot, so we got some flavored lemonades-elderflower, blueberry and orange as well as some local beer.
We again tried the bean spread and Salate de vinete dip.
For our main course, we had Iahine (beans with ham hock in a bread bowl), Mici sausage, Bulz (polenta with sour cream and cheese) and mushroom placinte (pie).
We ended the meal with Galuste cu prune which was okay but not spectacular.
We walked down the shopping street after dinner past tons of shops and restaurants. There were lots of cute buildings. Our final stop of the evening was walking by Catherine’s Gate on our way back to the apartment.
Day 4
In a rare moment alone, my husband and I walked into the old town in the morning to have some coffee and pastries while the kids got ready.
Then, we picked them up and went to an Orthodox church and the site of the first school in Romania. It was small but nice. The interior was very dark.
We made our way onto a pathway running under a couple of old towers. The path led us out onto Council Square where we went into a church. The church had a façade on the street, but when you entered the doorway, you were in a courtyard where the church was actually located. It was a very small church.
The next stop was the Black Church which was pretty simple inside but had a lot of old tapestries on the walls and a large organ.
After site seeing, we went to lunch where we had Bulz, pork Tocana, and placinte but this time stuffed with potato and cheese. My husband also wanted to have another Visinata.
After eating, we walked further down the street to a bakery to try some Savarina cake which was a cake soaked in a syrup and topped with a very stiff and dense whipped cream.
We went back to our apartment and played cards for a few hours before going to dinner where we had some beer, eggplant salad, Cascaval pane, and Transylvania potato soup. At the end of the meal, we tried a hot peppered Visinata and Papanasi.
Day 5
After grabbing a pastry breakfast, we made our way to Bran Castle better known as Dracula’s castle.
In actuality, the castle has nothing to do with Dracula other than bearing some resemblance to the castle described in the book and being located near where the real-life inspiration for Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, lived. There wasn’t much to the castle, but there was some interesting information about how the Dracula legend is linked to Vlad the Impaler and the old legends of the undead (vampires) and werewolves in Romania.
After touring the castle, we went to lunch at a resort type place with tons of activities for kids. We ordered some local beer that was not great and also some polenta balls stuffed with cheese and seared. It was okay, but by this point, we were quite sick of polenta.
After lunch, we drove to Rasnov where we did a three-hour hike in the forest to some valley views. It was a nice, quiet hike but kind of hot.
After our hike, we drove through Rasnov which was pretty, and we saw a citadel on the mountain.
Back in Brasov, we went to dinner and had bean soup, bean spread, pickles, pickled green tomatoes and pickled mushrooms which were really good. We finished the meal with Papanasi and ice cream.
Day 6
We began the day early with a long drive to Corvin’s Castle which was pretty cool.
We enjoyed a bit of the castle’s history such as the well which some prisoners were forced to dig in exchange for freedom. Unfortunately, the prisoners were lied to and sealed in the well where they made an inscription in the stones which survives on the side of the castle today.
After the castle, we went to the torture museum which was pretty gross.
We drove a couple of hours to arrive at Sibiu-an old Germanic settlement form the Middle Ages. Here we saw several points of interest including the Great Square, the Little Square, Huet Square, the student stairs and the Bridge of Lies to the Lower Town as well as some churches.
The coolest thing about this town was the way that the openings in the roof of most houses gave the impression that there were eyes looking at you- kind of weird and creepy looking.
Our drives were once again characterized by many storks in nests and even some haystacks like you would see in a cartoon, even one with a pitchfork in it. We also saw a cool church on the drive.
Back in Brasov, we had some coltunasi (potato dough dumplings), beet salad and mushroom and potato placinte for dinner.
Day 7
Today, we drove through valleys and some forested mountains to Sighisoara which was the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler (the inspiration for Dracula).
The town looked pretty neat as we drove up, but there wasn’t really much to it. Our first stop was Holy Trinity Orthodox Church which had some really interesting paintings inside and was really cool.
We walked across the river to see the old clock tower which was a bit dilapidated and creepy looking.
We made our way through Citadel Square where we saw the house that Vlad the Impaler was born in.
We walked up the street with several historic homes to the covered stairs which was cool looking but really long.
Once we made it to the top, we went to the Church on the Hill where we saw some old frescoes that were interesting and the crypt which had a decomposing corpse that was slightly visible.
We came back down the hill to see one of the old towers, Tailors Tower. Without much else to do, we grabbed a cold snack and headed back to Brasov.
There was a cool old fortress on the drive back.
Dinner was not too special, but we did enjoy walking around a craft market in the main square.
Day 8
On our final day, we had a pastry breakfast in the town square before driving to Peles Castle. There was a long wait to get into the castle and it was crowded inside, but the interior was really pretty. There was a lot of heavy wood everywhere.
We had lunch near the castle. It was hot, so we had some local beer and polenta (again!), but this time it was topped with dry salty cheese and sour cream which I liked better than the other versions.
We also had fried cheese and bean soup. We finished with Papanasi for dessert.
As we made our way down the hill from where the castle was located, we got an alert on our phone that a bear was spotted a six-minute car drive away. That was not something that happens every day!
We drove to Bucharest to stay at an apartment close to the airport. We found a place that served vegan Iahine (beans), vegan Sarmale (cabbage rolls) and some Romanian wine.
We went into a nearby grocery store and wandered around which was kind of fun before closing out the trip.
Overall, we had a good time but didn’t think there was a lot to do. In addition, we were really surprised at the amount of smoking everywhere. But if you like old, quaint cities and nature, then Romania is definitely worth checking out.
My So Called Dutch Life 
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