We head out early to get to the Transfagaras road. It’s a long way. We drive the freeway, the established one to Pitesti. That was quick and smooth. Pitesti has a very depressing but interesting history. There is a prison there where they did a “student re-education” experiment on psychological abuse of political prisoners from 1949-1952 during communism. One of the prisoners implemented this under the orders of the Securitate. The prisoners became torturers of other prisoners. The victims became torturers. If they refused they would be locked in a coffin-like box standing up for weeks. The torture methods were insane and awful. In 1958 the implementer and 21 other prisoners were secretly tried and sentenced to death for the murders of 30 prisoners and abuse of 780. The Securitate denied involvement in the experiment. Former political prisoner Dimitru Bacu writes about this in his book, The Anti-Humans.
We leave Pitesti and get to the Transfagaras road. This is a pass through Romania’s highest mountain, the Fagaras mountains into Transylvania. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was hot at the base and when we reached the top it was snowy. We hopped on a gondola to the top. Camping is permitted just about everywhere in Romania so there were a lot of tents in random but beautiful places in the mountains. I would have loved to have camped here. It was green with rocks, conifers and waterfalls. Pristine. We saw sheep being herded and stopped for a few crossing as we headed down the long windy road.
Before we went all the way up we stopped in Poienari, where the real Prince Vlad Tepes castle ruins are. We walked up 1480!! Steps to the castle ruins. Liam played leader and made it all the way up with energy to spare. The views were astonishing. Byron liked this one more even though it wasn’t decorated or even formed as it was 700 years old.
The drive home was smooth. We laughed at how people set up camp on the side of the road. The drive down was much like the road to the coast at home except with families playing badmitten and having a barbecue on the turnouts!
We stopped at Metro in the city to get groceries. It is like Costco but with so much food we can eat! Tofu, tvp, soymilk, veggie burgers, etc. There are different chains of stores like this. They call them hypermarkets.
We arrive home at 2 am gladly falling into a warm soft bed! It was also our nieces 3rd birthday so we tried to call as soon as we got home where our cell phone worked.
Happy Birthday Sloane!!!!!! We love you!
(Snow at the top of the Fagaras mountains, sheep and shepherd, fagaras mountains, Transfagaras Road)
We leave Pitesti and get to the Transfagaras road. This is a pass through Romania’s highest mountain, the Fagaras mountains into Transylvania. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was hot at the base and when we reached the top it was snowy. We hopped on a gondola to the top. Camping is permitted just about everywhere in Romania so there were a lot of tents in random but beautiful places in the mountains. I would have loved to have camped here. It was green with rocks, conifers and waterfalls. Pristine. We saw sheep being herded and stopped for a few crossing as we headed down the long windy road.
Before we went all the way up we stopped in Poienari, where the real Prince Vlad Tepes castle ruins are. We walked up 1480!! Steps to the castle ruins. Liam played leader and made it all the way up with energy to spare. The views were astonishing. Byron liked this one more even though it wasn’t decorated or even formed as it was 700 years old.
The drive home was smooth. We laughed at how people set up camp on the side of the road. The drive down was much like the road to the coast at home except with families playing badmitten and having a barbecue on the turnouts!
We stopped at Metro in the city to get groceries. It is like Costco but with so much food we can eat! Tofu, tvp, soymilk, veggie burgers, etc. There are different chains of stores like this. They call them hypermarkets.
We arrive home at 2 am gladly falling into a warm soft bed! It was also our nieces 3rd birthday so we tried to call as soon as we got home where our cell phone worked.
Happy Birthday Sloane!!!!!! We love you!
(Snow at the top of the Fagaras mountains, sheep and shepherd, fagaras mountains, Transfagaras Road)
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