Hiking in Transylvania, Romania

Saying goodbye to the yet green early autumn landscape of Slovenia, we headed for Romania. The trip took us through Budapest where we boarded a night train that let us off in Sibiu, an old medieval town in southern Transylvania in the heart of Romania. This city, we used as our base from where we caught busses that could take us into the mountains.

Walking the streets of Sibiu looking for a place to get our morning coffee

Our first hike was a short one. A Sibiu native we had met at an outdoor store told us about this watchtower from WWII on the edge of the city where we could watch the sunset and get a good view of Sibiu. So we ventured from the old city center across the train tracks through residential areas, some without sidewalks and some with tall gates protecting the houses, into the hills that surrounds the northeastern part of the city and what a view! 

Looking over Sibiu

The next day, we had bought two seats in a van that took us to Bâlea Lake on top of the Transfagarasan Highway and coming from the sunny Julian Alps in Slovenia, we were both wearing shorts.  This was a mistake. As we got out of the car, wind swept through our clothes and through our bones. As we reached a nearby lookout point to get a panoramic view of the road, hail began shooting down. People looked at us either laughing or expressing sympathy and pity or both. 

As you can see, I'm enjoying the wonderful weather

After searching for shelter at a restaurant for about an hour playing cards, we figured that we needed to get out there. If we felt cold we would just have to move faster. So we started climbing up the side of the ridge that surrounded the lake. We had promised ourselves that after Triglav, we would take it easy but the spikey ridge just looked too mysterious to miss so we kept moving upwards by a steep rocky trail that took us around the ridge into a wide valley that led deeper into the Fagaras Mountains. The wind was insane to put it mildly. Going up and down, we were both carried forward and put to a complete stop. Our lunch of hummus and bread was eaten quickly behind a chunk of rock that merely shaped the direction of the wind rather than blocking it. 

Bâlea Lake

Looking into the Fagaras Mountains

From there, we went halfway down the ridge and then instead of making a right to Bâlea Lake, we turned left down a grassy mountainside that let us to a small, lonely lake. Here, we lay against a warm rock facing the bright afternoon sun listening to a trickling stream that ran beneath the ground and best of all: the wind down there was nowhere to be found. 

Actually feeling warm for the first time that day

Back at our starting point waiting to be picked up again after seven hours we initially did not know how we would get through, we finally got a good view of the impressive road. 

Erika all cute and excited in front of the Transfagarasan Highway

On our last day, we took a local bus to Pâltinis, the oldest ski resort in Romania located in the Cindrel Mountains. Here, we followed a couple of different trails exploring the area walking in conifer forest and through wide meadows. 

Before catching the bus back to Sibiu, we got a couple of radlers at an this over-the-top, Breakfast at Tiffany's-themed bar that did have a great view and some comfy chairs. 

And no, we did not meet Dracula. 

Catching the final sunset of our journey on our last night in Sibiu