We discovered Romania – a great place for modern nomads. This blog post follows our travel in Romania – we thought to spend there a month tops and stayed for 3 months :).
June – July, 2021
Sinaia
a beautiful ski village with an impressive king castle.
Piatra Neamt
Road 12C winding through Bikaz crevices. Stunning in its beauty and quite busy this weekend that started with lots of sun, heavy rain in the middle and a pleasant coolness at the end.
Neamt County
Yet again, churches and monasteries, but their beauty cannot be ignored. Yesterday we traveled in the Neamt region known for its many painted monasteries … We continue our ‘pilgrimage’ journeys 
Deleni, Conac Polizu
Yesterday we arrived at an ancient mansion and it seems that we were among the few guests there… a wonderful and romantic place overlooking an endless sequence of hills and vineyards … Then we asked to eat in the garden of the mansion and it turned out they set one table just for us, it looked like a wedding with no guests …
Iasi
For two days we walked around the city of Iasi – some things to take care of with the car the car … Tomorrow we will go for another week wandering in Romania, in the direction of Transylvania and Fagaras.
Sighisoara
a medieval, well-preserved and romantic city… We stayed in the guardhouse in the old city wall.
Sibiu
a beautiful ancient city, the starting point for the Fagaras Mountains. If you look closely, you can see that the roofs of the houses have eyes .
PEOPLE…
Beyond the amazing landscapes of green hills, mountains and ancient cities, there are lovely people in Romania! Until now we have been thrilled time and time again by their hospitality and kindness… always ready and willing to help even if we have no common language except for a strange mix of Romanian, Spanish and Russian – from helping us to buy groceries for a delicious pasta meal, find eggs at the local farmer (because there is none in the grocery store), to explaining where and how it is worthwhile to travel.
Transfagarasan road
one of the most attractive landmarks in Romania, is indeed an amazing beauty. On the way we met bears! (by the way we received about five alerts on the cellular network here that a bear was observed in the area and care must be taken), and interesting people.
Bunesti – Viscri Fortified Church
Tour of authentic medieval towns, small and picturesque villages. As we have seen many times already, in the end people make the difference… In the Lutheran Church from the 13th century we met a woman with a bright face and a gleam in her eyes who was very moved by the fact that we are from Israel. She told us about the history of the place and the German community and sang with us the “Havah Nagilah’ and ‘Heene ma tov u’ma naim’ that the pastor of the community taught them…
Rupea
Touring the forts in Transylvania… We arrived in an area that mostly speaks Hungarian, everything is much neater and tastier but a little less nice .
Apuseni Natural Park
We returned to Romania, to the sun, heat and plenty of fruits … We found a park with lots of 4×4 roads, hiking trails and picturesque churches, tried some local dishes that do not skimp on dough and butter, and visited some tourist sites that reminded us why we do not like them 
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Timisoara
Yesterday we were in Timisoara and today we are already in Hungary. Good food … that’s it … We think which way to go, the Corona is confusing and it is not clear what countries would allow entry and under what conditions, can we return to the places we left, can we leave the places we returned to … confused? So are we …
Siria
Listen to this … at first it looks like a newly restored museum, or a church, and then you realize it’s just a house for regular people … and there are a lot of those along the main road in a pretty remote village. They are all new and all built in the best tradition of Disneyland .
So, we asked Stefan what this is about, and his answer was very short: “Gypsies …”
Transfagaras
The Transfagaras road does not disappoint, no matter how many times you drive on it … including the bears that roam near the road! It is also the favorite road for bikers and it says a lot about its beauty and curves .
Vanatori-Neamt
A tour of the painted monasteries in which Romania so excels. The bright colors on the one hand and the soft and quiet intimacy on the other create the charm.
Romania – Summary
June-July-August, 2021
We started our trip in Romania (we bought the car here). We thought we would stay in Romania for about a week and then go to much more exotic destinations, the Alps, the Black Forest, Normandy and the shores of the Atlantic Ocean of Spain. At the end we stayed for almost three months (and we’ll be back). From time to time we would wake up in the morning and ask ourselves “Shall we cross to Hungary today?” , but there was always something: “I read about some reserve / town / road worth seeing…” and so we stayed until we ran out of ideas and “had to” move on.
Romania – A large country (10 times more than Israel) with population of about 20 million (only 2 times more than Israel) which leaves a lot of space for nature. It has everything, from the Black Sea and the Danube Delta to the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania. It still has carts and horses and bushes but also luxurious hotels and modern bathrooms.
In addition, it is cheap here… so very cheap. On top all, what attracted us the most were the people, every person we met really tried to be helpful and accommodating (as if we were cousins who came to visit), always smiling, even those who do not speak English at all found ways to communicate by other means. Not to mention Stefan and Elena, dear friends who really went out of their way to ease the bureaucracy and help with everything from vehicles to SIMs.
We haven’t yet mentioned churches – we love churches (Ira for reasons of good energy and beauty, I am from the anthropological perspective) and there many here – insanely rich in color and ornaments (every 3 people village desperately needs a huge church and if there are 6 residents, they are building another one ).
And finally, the Romanians like to hang out and everywhere they go there are performances, fairs, festivals and a fun atmosphere (remember we come from Tel Aviv ) … an interesting detail, in our youth during Independence Day we would go out to the main square to dance ‘hora’. To our surprise, when we were at a rock band show, we saw many hundreds of young people dancing ‘hora’ in circles. It seemed to us that they even called it a ‘hora’ dance. Indeed, a quick Google search revealed to us that ‘hora’ originated in Romania and is very common (among young people) to this day. And we thought that was the essence of Zionism….
So next time you are looking for an interesting and not crowded destination – there is one, only two and a half hours flight from Israel and is really great.
HE