Drobeta Tunru Severin and the road to Belgrade

This was an epic tour of sorts for us. We'd never travelled to any of the countries we were going before, we'd never been on a road trip this long and we certainly hadn't crossed these many borders in a single trip before. So, our itinerary was to cover part of the Balkans on a round trip from Bucharest and back.
Before we get to the actual trip, a bit about the packing. Each of us carried just enough to fit into a had luggage. Apart from that, there was a document bag and spares bag (the spares for the car, not for us). Food was to be made/ bought/ eaten/ cooked along the away- which might not seem like a big deal for most people, but considering we eat a vegetarian diet, and the Mum in law doesn't have any garlic - and we refused to listen to her suggestion that she turn Fruitarian during the course of the trip, we had our work cut out for us.
We left Bucharest early in the morning, to avoid the afternoon- evening traffic on the highways. Come weekend, no on seems to want to stay back in Bucharest anymore. The highways are packed with motorist either heading for the hills or the sea. We'd intended to stop at Pitesti and Cryova for a coffee and lunch break respectively before we hit out final destination for the night - Drobeta- Turnu Severin.
Lunch in Cryova was at this lovely joint called Trevi - lovely because they custom made our pizzas and Pastas (although the décor was a tad OTT, with everything from the Leaning tower of Pisa to the Fontana being featured in the restaurant), and the full flavours and the genuinely nice service staff made for a great lunch.
We made it to Drobeta by evening, and were in no condition to do anything apart from collapse in a heap in the air conditioned comfort of our room. The mercury had touched a blistering 40 on our ride over.  But dinner needed having. and a town, albeit small, needed seeing.

So, Drobeta TS, a small-ish town with a vibrant city centre. It has a series of lit fountains along the main city buildings. There were, of course, remnants of the communist era, like a residential/ commercial block with a worryingly massive crack running along the entire length of the building. But I seemed to be the only one losing any sleep over it. The townsfolk seemed completely oblivious to it, so clearly, I was overreacting. For a border town I've never heard of, It was pretty active with a surprising number of children running about.

The next morning we headed out to the border after an early breakfast (in an attempt to once again beat the weekend queues. Little did I know that would become our mantra for the rest of the trip)

The Route from Drobeta TS to Belgrage

The Iron gates bridge- the border from Romania into Serbia

We were greeted by perfectly pleasant Border Security Ladies who seemed slightly confused about the Indian Passport travelling with rest of the family, but otherwise waived us through. The road from the border of Serbia to Belgrade follows the Danube upstream and is one of remarkable beauty. You have the vast Danube flowing to your right, and you're flanked by mountains to your left.

The lovely Danube

 You make your way through a number of tunnels and nowhere on the road, despite constant signs warning you of potential landslides and a steady stream of traffic, do you feel unsafe - or maybe that was just my confidence in the baa-lamb's driving (okay, all of you who know the baa-lamb first hand can stop laughing now).

We would have gotten to Belgrade sooner, but the journey was so picturesque, we decided to stop at several places just to drink in the beauty. 

Winter Wonderland

WE INTERRUPT THIS TRAVEL POST TO BRING YOU... well, another travel post, but hang on, this one is SO exciting! Not that the India trip wasn't exciting...  but this, this one as Pickwick would put it was EPIC!

Right, so where were we? In Romania, of course - We're kind of running low on the Baa-Lamb's holidays to be anywhere else. And of course, the kids, being kids, had decided that they were going to spend the entire half terms being horribly sick and laid up in bed. Which means:

1. The house was full of cranky, sick people itching to get out

2. Until our car actually left the driveway, we weren't actually sure the kids wold be well enough to make the trip.

So, if you've read the previous blogs, You'll know that the Baa-lamb is a meticulous planner. We don't do unplanned trips. well, I do, but not him. So, come Friday, we we headed up to Râmnicu Vâlcea. What we thought would be a quaint little town turned out to be quite a nice stopover. The next morning, for the first time ever in Romania, we actually got a meat-free breakfast that didn't involve just toast and cereal. Beautiful.  I think I actually saw a tiny tear escape from the baa-lambs eye. I also saw him furiously updating something and giving it two thumbs up on tripadvisor - The husband's friend, philosopher and guide. 

The drive to Ramnicu Valcea

Ramnicu Valcea- our stopver

Now that we were here, we thought it only fair to visit the salt mines at Ocnele Mari, just about half an hour away. Quite frankly I didn't know what to make of it. It was all rather cool when we were taken underground by bus and deposited in the massive underground caves, but the place, oddly had:

Museum exhibits that had nothing to do with the mines

Mannequins wearing ancient mining equipment

Vendors selling orange tea

Salt beds for renting

A children's play area with salt instead of sand (which I though was rather cool)

Christmas exhibits

An ancient village scene setting

A hut made of bales of straw

Seating and Swings scattered about

More children's areas where they could drive tiny trucks or jump on trampolines (for a small sum of money)

A restaurant which was closed when we arrived (with no one having any idea when it opened)

A Chapel

Now I understand that these mines are supposed to have medicinal properties and spending time with children underground for any length of time is tough, but I'm not sure this is the way to go about it. Still, I quite enjoyed the experience - especially when the kids were playing in the salt-sand, I could actually taste the salt in the air. Quite fun. Like smelling a beach, only underground.

The wooden panel outside the Chapel

mining equipment of unknown age and origin

The cool striations visible on the walls. The floor looked like it was made of marble. 

 After that, while I was in favour of heading straight to our destination, The kids (the big one included) were pretty insistent on visiting a nearby zoo. I suppose the lectures on watching cages animals will have to wait another day. I simply couldn't take the joy away from their faces while the watched a Siberian Tiger charging towards them or a Llama sticking her tongue out while posing for pictures.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

A very hungry Siberian. Thank God for plexiglass.

Finally, after waving goodbye to all the animals, and leaving me to wallow in my guilt, we set off towards Balea Cascada. We needed to go to Balea Lac, but Roads beyond the Cascada were closed, so we'd have to go by cable car from there. If you're thinking that the names sound vaguely familiar, you're right - It has been mentioned in a previous post. And if you're wondering why we'd visit the same place again, its because Balea Lac is home to the Hotel of Ice! But wait, before we head there, let me show you some of the landscape during our drive. And just to compare how the place looked a few months ago, go here and here and here.

Having parked the car in a safe spot and geared up suitably for the cold - which in my case was about 3 layers of clothes followed by a snow jacket and pants, snow gloves, snow boots and hat, and the case of the husband was a jacket and jeans (and a pair of gloves, safely stowed away in the jacket, never to be worn)

we set off in the cable care towards Balea Lac.

The solitary snowman visible from the cable car

 And wow. We were blown away by the beauty. And the wind. We we blown about just a little bit by the winds. Ahana was practically parasailing. Still, it was a sunny day, and we were standing on six meters of solid ice - or so we were told. 

The Ice Hotel itself was a collection of a couple of large igloos, a Chapel (yes, one HAS to have a Chapel), and a vault-like structure - which was the main restaurant and bar, leading off into smaller vaults, which served as rooms. The rooms themselves, were based this year on the star signs (I have no clue if this changes yearly, but it was fun running off to click pictures of yourself in 'your' room.) Pickwick, whose first introduction it was to star signs, after confirming his sign was last seen clambering all over the Ram sculpture before running off to play in the snow. The bossy baby, after perfecting the art of photobombing toddled off to join her brother and promptly lost her glove in the snow. The Baa-lamb, after gently prying the camera away from my face led me to the top of the mountain and we sat for a while absorbing the beauty and serenity. But only for a while. After which our faces were starting to get numb and the bossy baby started protesting about the loss of her glove. It was time to head indoors to the warm chalet until the evening, when we'd return for a couple of drinks at the ice-bar and bed.

Inside the Chapel of ice. complete with a donation box near the door. 

The Restaurant/ Bar

Pickwick and his Ram

Disclaimer: I have not Photoshopped these colours. These are the actual colours.

The outside views weren't too shabby either...

The ice hotel complex

Twilight at Balea Lac

Neither was the walk in the morning when we had the place all to ourselves (us being the early risers who wanted to beat the rush to the bathroom at the Chalet :)) How was the night, you ask me? Well, having being happily warmed by some vin fiert and a shot of Bailley's, you begin to enjoy the bar, with its love for 60's rock and roll music. You even get used to the curtains, instead of a door at the entrance of your room. But sleeping in a sleeping bag zipped up to your chin and under 3 additional layers of blankets takes a bit of getting used to, especially if, like me, you are a mover and shaker in your dreams. you end up moving and shaking those layers off. Not a good idea in a room of ice.

Would I do this again? In a heartbeat! This was one trip I'm not going to forget in a hurry...although I'm in no rush to relive our drive back to Bucharest battling bumper-to-bumper traffic.

A trip to the Carpathians

The husband is a meticulous planner. Especially when it comes to holidays. No, really, we're talking months, even years in advance. But, just occasionally he will decide to break the pattern and do an impulsive one. Thats was this was. Very spur-of-the moment (that is planned just about 5 days in advance).
Sibiu. A good 5 hour drive away. Luck - and traffic was on our side and we made it in four. Our apartment, just a few minutes walk form the main square was very comfortable. and I wasn't quite the eager beaver to go exploring. Still, there was a full moon. And We did travel four hours to be here. Sibiu was beautiful in the evening light. positively aglow, the main square - or the Piata Mare, as it is called.

But, driving, kids demanding ice cream and last-minute packing took its toll on us. We were asleep before our head hit the pillow. 

Breakfast and a early start saw us hitting to read again, this time, out to Balea Falls, The sky was have a conversation with the mountains. And when nature speaks, you listen.

We reached Balea Falls and the lady at the only shop that was open there informed us that the falls were just a kilometre away on foot. That's not too bad, we thought. The kids were certainly gung-ho about it all. Until we were some way up the trail. Well, calling it trail would be a mild exaggeration. 

Yup. That's the 'trail' . Pretty sheer drop on the right. Strewn with logs and boulders along the way. The kids, of course LOVED it.

The trail had my heart hammering pretty hard, half the time praying the kids make it through in one piece, the other half, thanks to a lack of fitness that would make a couch potato proud. 

The falls weren't gushing to their full extent. They do that only in the spring when the Balea Glacier melts. But it was a pretty decent waterfall anyways. mainly because it remains so unspoilt. The water was crystal clear and ice cold. One wished one had the foresight to get a couple of wine coolers along. But on the other hand, the trek down wasn't really meant to be undertaken in a wine-induced haze.   

After we made our way back down. we feasted on Gogoși, from the shop we spotted going up. Nice. much like chocolate or cheese-filled bhatura, if I were to describe it. We also gathered from the chap that the Transfăgărășan road was actually open upto Balea lake. (It is usually closed in the winter), and we wasted no time in tightening our seatbelts and setting forth to the lake.

This trip, strangely was as much abut the journey as the destination, and what a good thing that was, considering the amount of time we spent in the car. But we weren't complaining. Here's why:

The world-famous Transfagarasan road. One more tick off the bucket list

The Autumn colours in all their glory. 

Balea Lake was beautiful and serene. The kids wasted no time in trying out various gross noises so it would echo across the lake. Me, I didn't want to leave the place. Despite it being pretty freezing. 

If you look carefully, you can see half the lake (towards the mountains) with a thin covering of ice

 We eventually made it back to earth, Eventually,

Sunday. The day we needed to head back home. *sigh*. So, the morning was spent walking around the pretty little town of Sibiu. Where a fellow Indian spotted us (Actually heard us, before he spotted us, with the kids screaming and me yelling at them to quit screaming.) and asked us about the sites. He was slightly disappointed to know that we were as new to all this as him, and that Google was a better bet than us. We did tell him to try the Gogoși though. 

So, here's what the morning looked like.

How can any city tour be complete unless we chase Pigeons?

Piata Mare

The bridge of lies. No clue why we have locks here as well. 

We were sipping on coffee, watching the kids chase pigeons when Arun suddenly has this idea. He wanted to head back via a short detour. Via Vidradu to be exact. Which wouldn't exactly be a short detour. It would be positively the other way. I blame the coffee and the husband's sunny smile for rashly agreeing to this adventure. 

En route we came across:

Andrei and his flock of sheep

A dusty dirt track that was supposedly a major arterial road, people waving to us (and looking at us strangely for being foolish enough to traverse those roads on any vehicle that wasn't and SUV), cows, hens, ducks, turkeys, dogs, cats and pigs, all wanting to throw themselves under our wheels.

A road that was closed for this event:

The policeman informed us that it was a sort of rememberance day for the village ancestors - who I'm guessing is the Gentleman posing with sword resplendent in silver

Very picturesque valleys

Very impressive roads

  And I must say I was sorely tempted to ask Arun to turn back several times during this journey. But I'm so glad we didn't. Because here's the view that greeted us at Vidradu Dam (Which the sat- nav insisted was still a good 25 minutes away)

 We drove back to Bucharest in absolute silence. Both of us still savouring the sights of the weekend, reluctant to get back to the daily grind (the kids were probably dreaming of video games and cartoons, and none of this natural beauty nonsense).  

So much beauty, so many places to see...and yet, people as me why I love living here.