Morning again from sunny Romania. We really enjoyed our day trip into Transylvania yesterday, learning all about the real life Dracula – Vlad the Impaler, but we’re pretty tired when we finally made it to bed last night.
Today, we’re heading back into Transylvania, and driving ourselves over 250km North West of Bucharest towards Balea Lake, deep in the Carpathian Mountains. All this will amount to over 9 hours of driving time, but will be worth it for the views along the way.
Yesterday, we caught a beautiful sunrise leaving the house, but there’s no chance of that today – we only make it out of the house at 11am, having afforded ourselves a bit of a lie in.
We drive for around an hour and a half, before stopping for a picnic in a city called Pitești. There isn’t really much to the place, but it is famous for being home of the car manufacturer Dacia. Dacia (named after the historical name for the area now known as Romania) are described by BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ as “cheap and cheerful motoring at its best.” More on that programme later!
After a few missed turns, we find our way into the Parc Lunca Argeșului, right on the Argeș river. The park has vast picturesque picnic backdrop potential from the map – whether it delivers on that potential remains yet to be seen!
It’s certainly a lively park. There’s a lot of two wheeled traffic in form of scooters and bicycles navigating the wide open paths, and a few older gentlemen are using the outdoor gym space, which so often lies unused. For a brief minute, dad and I join them – dad using the bench press, and me having a go on the swingy step machine that just seems to oscillate faster and faster, the longer you’re on it.
After a stop at the (pretty decent) toilet block, a bandstand catches my line of sight, and we plop our posteriors on the two benches within it.
Today’s lunch is a cheese, ham and salami sandwich that I prepared myself in a hurry, earlier this morning. It’s a little dry, but it’ll do just fine! To drink, I’ve gone for a bottle of Fanta Grape, which imho just surpasses its much more popular citric amber variant.
(Reminder to self: start campaigning to bring Fanta Grape and Green Fanta Exotic to the UK!)
After lunch, we stumble across a pop-up Costa coffee booth, in the middle of the park, and refuel before continuing our journey towards deep Transylvania.
We’re journeying towards the DN7C road, better known as the Transfăgărășa Pass. It’s a 90km long twisty road, cutting through the Carpathians starting in the town of Bascov (near Pitesti), and ending just before the city of Sibiu. It was built in the 1970s at the behest of Romania’s communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The idea being, that the army could be mobilised much quicker, if there were a strategically placed road through the mountains.
The road was built by the Romanian military, and its construction came with a high cost: both human and monetary. Officially, 40 soldiers died in construction – but it’s believed that the death toll was much higher, as freezing temperatures at altitude, and inexperienced workers amplified the already dangerous construction techniques. 6 million kilograms of dynamite were used to clear land – that fact blows my mind!
Once it opened in 1974, it was massively over budget, and the harsh winter climate made the road completely impassible for several months in the year. For that reason, it was dubbed Ceaușescu’s folly.
However, when the weather does play ball, the sweeping mountain switchbacks are said to be an absolute pleasure to drive, and in 2009, Jeremy Clarkson proclaimed this road to be the best road in the world to drive on ‘Top Gear’. So with all that in mind, it’s safe to say that our excitement levels are absolutely palpable.
Here’s the link to the full video: https://youtu.be/mO3JBw4xHOY?is=M9reD5y3reGSfmiD
The DN7C cuts through the small town of Arefu, where we’re greeted by the sights of a donkey in the middle of the road, and a striking castle at one side of it.
The castle is topped by two square medieval turrets (not dissimilar to the internal architecture we saw yesterday at Bran Castle). The façade is topped with a stepped gable, with “Dracula” written in red. In front of the building stands a statue of Vlad the Impaler on horseback.
While keen to press on up the road before it gets dark, we get out momentarily to examine the building. Sadly, it’s immediately clear that this not an authentic castle – opened only in 2023 as a tourist attraction. The real Dracula’s castle lies a little further ahead.
In yesterday’s blog, I revealed how the building known as Dracula’s Castle (Bran Castle) had nothing to do with either the fictional story of Dracula, or the real life story of Dracula / Vlad the Impaler. Vlad’s real home was Poenari Citadel, and that’s very ominously sits on Mount Cetatea overlooking the main road. It’s 1,480 steps up to the top, and needless to say, we don’t have it in us today!
The Carpathian Mountains are home to 12,000 brown bears – the largest indigenous population of bears in Europe (outside of Russia). Sometimes they come pretty close to the cities in the area, and for that reason, it isn’t safe to let kids play alone in play parks.
The bears are often spotted on the roadside at the Transfăgărășan Pass. I’m hopeful we’ll see one or two today, but you just never know! If we do manage it, hopefully they’re not too hungry!
We don’t have to wait for long at all, as we spot our first grizzly, just chilling at the side of the road. He’s pretty small, so I’d say only a few years old. Baby Bear nods as we pass – and needless to say, windows are swiftly cranked (or pressed) up as far and fast as they’ll go. If I told you I wasn’t scared, that would be a ‘bear’ faced lie!
The main road just clings to the mountain side, and with an only a small stone wall protecting stray cars (and bears) from a sheer drop into the canyon below. To be honest, as tight mountain passes go, this actually feels much safer than some of the others we’ve been on before (eg the DN7 in South of France).
Unfortunately, poor bladder capacity runs in the family, so we look for an unsuspecting provider of facilities. We come to the Hotel Piscul Negru (black swimming pool?) hiding between the trees, and just off the main road.
The hotel’s distinguishing feature are the smattering of flower boxes perched on the balcony railings – the colour of the red foliage really popping amid the backdrop of dreary grey skies and green forestry. The toilets aren’t bad either – not much to go on aside from that, but yeh I’d probably knock them up to four stars.
There’s not really any sign of life about the place, and no one in the bar giving us any confident sign we’ll be able to grab a drink, so do the walk of shame straight back out to the car. Onwards – greatness awaits.
Soon after, the road just opens up to a glorious twisty black carpet, rolled out over the mountains. There are fast sweeping ‘S’ bends, more akin to the world’s greatest racetracks than a mountain road. Now I can totally see why this was such a hit with the Top Gear lads.
I catch sight of a couple of gazebos by the roadside and they’ve got cheese, so request that our driver (Dad) pulls in momentarily. It’s cash only, I’m afraid (and I don’t have any), so no cheese for Simon, but before I get back in the car hear the sound of two souped up BMWs tearing it down the mountain.
First of all, I am a strong advocate of following speed limits and the rules of the road, but there is something beautiful about watching sports cars attacking fast corners and listening to that sweet grunt of engines revving as the driver downshifts. I follow sight of the cars growing smaller and smaller as they follow the ribbon of the road sprawled beneath us.
In 2019, we visited Austria and drove on the Grossglockner High Alpine Pass. Then, we were amazed by the scenery on show, and how the changing sunlight transformed and highlighted the complexion of the rolling grassy hills. That was a hard experience to top, but I think we might just have done it. Every corner just seeming to bring a new angle or perspective of God’s majestical wonder. It certainly makes up for cheese ache!
There are 5 tunnels on the whole road – that’s more than any other road in Romania. It’s Hull family tradition to hold our breath and count the length going through tunnels but most of the ones we pass through only last a few seconds. As we come up to Balea Lake, we enter a mountain through a square cutout. It’s a lot longer than the others – so long in fact, that we gasp for air before we pass out.
Midway through the tunnel, it starts to fog up outside – so eerie. The fog grows more intense as we get closer to its end.
As we emerge through the other side, it is entirely white all of a sudden. It’s as if we’ve gone through a magic time portal, and instantaneously transported to the top of the Swiss Alps. And the temperature has plummeted as well, it’s absolutely freezing. Such a bizarre sensation – it didn’t feel like we’d climbed at all!
Straight after the end of the tunnel, we arrive at a car park. Our intention here is to get out, go for a bit of a walk and take the cable car down to Balea Lake, but visibility is now zero and there’s a lot of people around – heads just randomly spawning in thin air right beside us. We try and find the entrance to the car park, and somehow don’t manage to run-over anyone or drive into anything in the process!
It’s paid entry into the car park, but I doubt we will manage to find anything better, so park up. Lurking in the mist at the car park is a metallic bluey/purple Ferrari 488 Spider. Wearing just a t-shirt and shorts (guess who forgot to bring a hoodie / coat…) I’m a bit of a shivering wreck, but the sight of a Ferrari will always bring warmth to my heart!
There’s a real alpine feel about this place: wooden chalet / huts housing souvenir stalls, a smoky food smell, and I could swear I remember the sound of cowbells, but that might just be me imagining the sound!
Before we set off this morning, I tried to do a bit of research on the Balea Lake cable car, but I’m none-the-wiser. I have no idea where it goes from and to, in fact if it weren’t for the fact that Google Maps was telling me there is a cable car here, I wouldn’t even be sure there was one. I have reason to believe that it closes at 6pm (it’s 5:30pm), so better put a step on it! It’s uphill quite a bit to the terminal, and I am very short of breath when we arrive.
There’s not really much life about the place though. It looks closed, but the door doesn’t appear to be locked, and I boldly enter where no man may have gone before. Inside is just one man, and he looks pretty surprised to see us. He utters a few words in Romanian, and I haven’t a clue what he’s saying. “Sorry, do you speak English”? “Closed”. So much for that then!
It turns out that because of the weather, the cable car isn’t running. The guy there tells us that if any others joined, they could justify turning the whole thing on, but otherwise there’s no point. Besides it is totally white outside, we wouldn’t even see anything anyway. The man kindly brings me out to see the cable car parked up at its terminus – a sad sight, but I’m grateful to at least see what we’ve come this way to see…
The walk back to the car park takes us past a couple of food stalls, and Sophie stops for a mulled wine – her “first of the season”. I’m grateful that card payments are a bit more welcome here, and finally bag me some cheese to bring home.
With that, we return to our vehicle and set off for home. As before, we pass through the magic tunnel, and we’re transported back to Romania, and the sunny Transfăgărășan Pass. It’s an absolute honour to drive on this road, and take in the stunning mountain landscapes.
At the bottom, the open golden tinged grassy expanses make way for forest, and we even spot a cute couple having a picnic. What a great location to spend time eating dinner with the person you love (and very romantic too!)
In the forested section of the road, attention once again turns to spotting ursine creatures. We are incredibly lucky to pass four more on the way back – all just minding their own business. It’s amazing watching these creatures – so peaceful, but capable of so much powerful violence.
What do you do if you come across a bear in the wild? There’s a saying: “If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, goodnight.” Thankfully no white bears here, they’re all brown grizzlies, and the car offers enough safety.
In the past 20 years, 30 people have been killed by these creatures in Romania, and some 270 people injured. Attacks on this road aren’t very common, but in June this year, a Bulgarian tourist was injured when a bear smashed through their car window and tried to drag him out. Apparently he’d been throwing food out the window just before this. It seems most incidents come when food is involved, or if a mother bear sees cars getting too near her cubs.
Speaking of food, it’s about 7pm now and we’ve got a drive of about 3 hours back to Căciulați. Earlier on, just beside the fake Draculas castle, we spotted a nice looking restaurant, and as we’ll be retracing our steps the whole way home, decide in principle to stop there for dinner. Getting there though, means driving right over the top of the Vidraru Dam.
I’ll be perfectly honest – I didn’t even notice that we’d driven over one earlier (the steel barrier on both sides definitely masks the sheer drop on both sides). We stop for one last photo opportunity in this glorious setting.
The Vidraru Dam was completed in 1966, it towers over the Argeș River on one side, and bounds Lake Vidraru on the other. It’s 166 metres tall, and one side definitely looks deeper than the other! Dams are very impressive engineering feats – and this particular example is ‘dam’ good!
As I’m photographing the surroundings, I’m joined by four legged creatures. No, thankfully not the bears, but a whole flock of stray dogs just patrolling the road.
Up on the hillside at the other side of the dam from where we are parked, I can see a metal statue of a figure with arms raised and holding some kind of metal staff over their head.
The statue is of Prometheus, and the staff is actually shaped like a lightning bolt. A long flight of steps leads all the way up to the statue and a viewpoint, but we don’t have time to go and see it now. We hop quickly back to the car, and it’s only another 10 minutes before we arrive at the restaurant.
Known as Hanul Vrajit Restaurant, there’s a brick wall on the ground floor, and a grand wooden framed balcony on top, with a sizeable Romanian flag fluttering mildly in the wind. It’s amazing just how dark it has got in the ten minutes since we left the dam. For once, there’s no discussion or negotiation on where we’re eating – we dont really have the time or patience to go looking for somewhere else and this will have to do.
Walking inside, I immediately notice a big photo montage hanging on the wall beside the stairs up to the balcony. “Top Gear was here”, it proclaims! Indeed, when Top Gear filmed on the Transfăgărășan Road in 2009, this was where they ate. A ringing endorsement if ever there was one, but then again, like I said earlier, it’s not like there were that many other options! Also, what the heck is that on Jeremy’s head? Boy George called… he wants his hat back!
There are a few families eating downstairs, but the waiter leads us upstairs. At this point, I’m once again regretting my neglect to bring a coat / jumper / hoodie. We’re assigned to a nice table on the edge of the balcony, and near the flag. I’m a sucker for a gratuitous flag photo!
As we sit down and choose food (this doesn’t take long, the family has already decided to go for a sharing grill platter – I’m not so fussed!) I leaf through the menu, and read about the Legend of the Seven Witches.
“It is said that in the attic of this inn live seven witch sisters, who came from the deep forests of the mountain long ago. Each has a gift: one ignites the appetite, another soothes the longing, one brings sweet dreams, and another… calls for desert!
One frosty night, they stopped at the inn for a soup and never left. It was so good, that people said the inn was “cursed” because whoever tasted it always wanted to come back.
That’s how the Enchanted Inn was born. If you see them, smile at them and don’t leave your plate empty. Not out of fear, but out of respect for magic.”
Haha I’ve heard it all now. But gotta love a good bit of desperate marketing.
As we’re eating, we hear a clatter, clatter, clatter as a car limps down the road with a flat tyre. 15 minutes later, the same sound can be heard as he returns from whence he came.
Anyway, dinner is good, but a plate full of meat turns me a bit, so I only take a couple of sausages. Everything in moderation! We ask for leftovers to be boxed up at the end, you know, just to keep the witches happy, and head on our merry way.
It’s a long drive back after that, and finally make it back home sometime after 11pm. It’s been a very full day, but a rewarding one. Consensus is that this has been our favourite day of the holiday so far, but there’s still a long way to go, and who knows what the next week or so has in store!
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