I recently returned from travels in Europe. I left August 31st and returned September 27th.

pt. 1: Bled, Slovenia

Europe 2011 pt. 1 – Bled, Slovenia

After arriving in Munich, we were met by Ana’s parents and we proceeded immediately to drive to Bled, Slovenia. In a jetlagged haze among jagged Austrian alps, I remember an impossibly delicious cheese strudel being had at, of all places, a gas station.

We were in Bled for the 2011 Olympic Rowing Qualifiers, in which Ana’s brother Rareș was competing in Canada’s lightweight four category. Sadly, his boat did not qualify (but they still have an opportunity next spring to qualify among two remaining positions). We stayed nearby, by the lake near the village of Bohinj.

Bled, a small resort town in the Julian alps, is the home of Ana’s favourite dessert, remna rezina (“cream slice”) or kremšnita (aka Napoleon Cake), of which we indulged. Bled is famous for Bled Castle (at least 1000 years old), which overlooks the pristine Lake Bled, on which there is an island which an old church on it.

After two days, the races had concluded and we had chowed on some very fine grilled meat, we drove to România via Ljubljana and Budapest. Amazingly, there’s still a controlled border crossing from Hungary into România (Romanians joke that if this were removed, Hungarians would annex Transilvania overnight).

pt. 2: Transilvania

Europe 2011 pt. 2 – Transilvania

We stayed a week in Gilău, Ana’s hometown and a “suburb” of Cluj-Napoca, the fourth-largest city in Romania, located in the Northwest by the Hungarian border. Ana’s paternal grandparents still live here in the house Ana lived in for her first 4 years prior to moving to Canada in 1990. Many of Ana’s extended family on her dad’s side also still live in the area. In this neighbourhood you can hear roosters, church bells, horse-drawn carts, and dogs throughout the day.

The house had an incredible vegetable garden (tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, peppers, beans, etc.), several chickens, a rooster, and a lazy guard dog named Rex. Most of the dairy came from a neighbour’s cow. The pork we ate came from a pig they cut a week prior.  Very little food was bought at the supermarket, and all the tastes were amplified, like concentrated versions of equivalent North American food (as a result, all vegetables and fruit tasted amazing, but for the same reason I couldn’t stomach the dairy products). Every meal served featured at least two kinds of meat, and was accompanied with ţuică (homemade prune brandy, well over 50% alcohol), usually reinforced with beer. There wasn’t much distinction between what was served in the morning and what was served at night (perhaps the presence of potatoes in the evening and coffee in the morning?). Among the foods we ate in Transilvania included: kiftele (pork meatballs), smoked cascaval (provolone cheese), feta, pork and chicken schnitzel, salami, ham, tomatoes, bread with grilled eggplant spread, homemade sausage and head cheese, potatoes, beans, roast pork, soups (with tomato, beans, and various meats),  pasta with vegetables, saramale (small pork cabbage rolls), sour cream, papanași (cheese doughnut), deep-fried cauliflower, pork rinds, smoked bacon (served cold, not fried), ciurpa de burta (tripe soup), gogoși (another doughnut variant), apple cake, peppers stuffed with goat cheese, fish-egg spread (not unlike taramousalata), bean salad, hard-boiled eggs stuffed with liver pâté, mititei with mustard (small barbecued sausages of veal, pork, and lamb, splashed with beer as they grill), raisin brioche cake, barbecued pork chops, fried fish, balmos (corn bread boiled in sour cream) and a Viennese cheese strudel (not Romanian, Ana and I snuck this in at a cafe in Cluj – not as good as the aforementioned Austrian gas station strudel, but a worthy Romanian attempt). Not as much fibre as I’m used to, so after a few days I managed to get a hold of some muesli.

We spent time in Gilău (family and friends of the family often dropping in at all hours), and also made several day trips. We visited the old downtown of Cluj-Napoca, the mountain village of Marișel (where Ana’s dad spent his first 12 years), lake Fântânele, the town of Huedin (known for gaudy gypsy mansions in various states of construction), the village of Uzina (home of Ana’s great-uncle, who recently passed, and other relatives), Peștera Urșilor (“bear cave”, a mountain cavern discovered in the 1970s by a work crew, containing dazzling calcium rock formations and the remains of 140 bears, trapped by a cave-in which occurred some 10-20 thousand years ago.

During our day trips we made use of the Transilvanian Autostrada, the short 40km stretch of 4-lane highway bypassing Cluj. Apparently there are plans to connect Bucharest and the south of the country with Transilvania and the Hungarian border (about 400km), but it appears as though they have run out of money after 40. This is what happens when you contract the job out to Americans who in turn subcontract to Turks who in turn hire Romanian contractors to build it. For the time being, there stands 40km of pristine freeway with only two pairs of on/off-ramps. For the remainder of our time in Romania, we navigated on 2-lane roads, which  were occasionally treacherous and in various states of disrepair. We shared the roads with horse-drawn carts and sometimes had to wait swerve to avoid cattle.

After a week, we departed for the home of Ana’s maternal grandparents in the central part of the country. On route, we made stops in the old town of Sighișoara, famous for its intact (and still inhabited) medieval tower. The town is also known for being the refuge of Vlad Dracul (aka Vlad Tepeș / Vlad the impaler – “Dracul” signifies the holy order of the dragon), while he was in exile. Contrary to popular belief, Vlad ruled over Wallachia / Muntenia to the south, and only spent a few years living in exile in this Transilvanian town. The house he inhabited still stands today.

We also passed by the city of Brașov and stopped at Castelul Bran, a former Romanian royal residence and outpost at the historic mountain pass connecting Transilvania and Wallachia. The castle is also loosely connected to Vlad / Dracula, but there is little to no historic basis for this. His grandfather Mircea the Great once reigned over the region and may have occupied the castle for a time in the 14th century, and Vlad may have visited as a boy. It’s possible that Bram Stoker may have known nothing about this castle, as he was likely more inspired by Poenari castle at the southern foot of the Transfăgărășan mountain pass in Wallachia, which Vlad did inhabit at one point during his reign. Nowadays the castle tour highlights the recent 19th and 20th century occupatiohn by the Romanian royal family.

pt. 3: Wallachia

Europe 2011 pt. 3 – Wallachia

Modern Romania is comprised of 3 large regions. Northwest of the carpathians is Transilvania. East of the Carpathians is Moldavia (not to be confused with the adjacent country of Moldova). Wallachia  (aka Muntenia)  is the southernmost region of Romania (also regarded historically as true Romania).

Ana’s maternal grandparents and three uncles live in Wallachia, in the county of Argeș, at the foot of the Carpathians. Her grandparents’ home was in the community of Lerești, which is a “suburb” of Câmpulung, a small city nearby (two of her uncles live there). On her gradnparents’ property there is a cow (pregnant with a calf due in December), two pigs, about a dozen chickens, a cat (Mickey) and a dog (Blackie). The former is quite adept at catching mice and demanding scraps of food as payment, and the latter isn’t much of a guard dog (as most domesticated dogs in Romania serve in this role): he must believe he’s a human, as he snoozes by the dining table most of day, never barking. The property is also populated by a vegetable garden and fruit trees. A hill at the rear of the property backs on to a common grazing area for neighbourhood cattle.

Like in Transilvania, most of the food we ate here was off of the land (the rooster was cut on the day we arrived for the soup served to us that night). Ana’s grandmother makes some delicious smoked cașcaval (similar to gouda or provolone) and zacuscă (roasted eggplant spread). A different soup was served every evening. While the main courses were meaty and similar to those served to us in Transilvania, more vegetables and salads were consumed here. We also had some delicious homemade baked goods: cornbread, gogoși (doughnuts), cozonac (walnut brioche/stollen), and walnut puff pastry. I’ll admit I was less daring with the food here, as I fell ill twice during our week in Lerești.

We spent our time here hiking the hills behind the house, visiting the city of Câmpulung (an impressive amount of stray dogs), and relaxing on the recently-built sheltered back porch of the house, playing chess and reading.

We spent a day hiking the Piatra Craiului mountains, about an hour’s drive from Lerești. We were accompanied by a guide who’s worked for Argeș mountain rescue for 40 years, who casually recounted tales of hikers and climbers stranded, injured, and killed by the treacherous mountains as we hiked by them (“thanks, but I’d rather not know”). Beautiful mountains (swarming with flies, though, and the gravel slopes could be a bit slippery).

On another day we visited the resort town of Sinaia, which contains the late-19th century Peleş Castle, once home to the Romanian royal family, and one of the most “modern” castles in the world: central air, electricity, indoor plumbing, secret passages, etc. It was a visual feast, incredibly detailed woodwork, art, and interior décor in every corner of every room. Words cannot describe how detailed and ornate this castle is (and unfortunately they had a no photography policy, so you’ll have to take my word for it). On our way back to Lerești we stopped by the beautiful city of Brașov, which boasts a downtown pedestrian mall rivalling those found in many Western European cities.

After a week, we left Wallachia back for Transilvania via the Transfăgărășan highway. Built under the direction of  Nicolae Ceaușescu in the 1970s, it is a windy mountain road between the two regions, culminating at the 2100m Bâlea Lake. From the wikipedia article:

“In September 2009 the cast and crew of the British television show Top Gear were seen filming along the road. They were in the country on a grand tour with an Aston Martin DBS Volante, Ferrari California and a Lamborghini GallardoLP560-4 Spyder. Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear host, had said about Transfăgărășan that “this is the best road… in the world”.”.

Watch and be amazed by this video:

pt. 4: Budapest & Vienna

Europe 2011 pt. 4 – Budapest & Vienna

After another two nights and a day in Gilău, we left Romania in the direction in which we came.

We stopped for a night and half a day in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. Previously, I knew very little about either the city or the country, aside from Franz Liszt, Dennis Gabor, goulash, paprika, their language being a linguistic isolate with its nearest neighbour being Finnish or Estonian. I’ll need to stay longer next time to get a greater understanding of all things Hungarian. In my limited time there I did however enjoy a bowl of goulash soup. I could not make heads or tails of their language.

The next day, we stopped briefly in Vienna, Austria. Checked out St. Stephen’s cathedral and its creepy catacombs (black plague bonehouse crypts – spooky!). We explored downtown briefly and wandered about the palace grounds. It was a bit too cold and rainy (20 degrees cooler than the weather we experienced in Romania), so we didn’t stay long. We stayed the night in Salzburg, and enjoyed some delicious pizza at the Rangie pizzeria.

pt. 5: München (and Oktoberfest)

Europe 2011 pt. 5 – München (and Oktoberfest)

Ana’s parents left from München on the morning of Sept. 21st, so Ana and I accompanied them from Salzburg, giving us a day to explore the city. We had initially hoped to stay for several days in München,  but due to Oktoberfest, all accommodations were fully booked or ludicrously expensive (i.e. 200 EUR for a hostel bed per night). So we opted to stay in Salzburg, Austria, which is a 2-hour train ride away.

Our day was packed. Among the many things we saw and did in downtown München:

• Marienplatz & Glockenspiel
• Viktualiensmarkt, an open-air food market
• The München Synagogue
• Asamkirche – a gaudy rococo church
• St. Michael’s cathedral
• Frauenkircke and its tower, emperor Louis’ tomb
• Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, world’s most famous beer hall (where I had ein maß, of course)
• Odeonsplatz
• Maximilianstraße
• The National Theatre
• The Residenz
• The Hofgarten

We saw all this as part of a self-guided walking tour, as described in Rick Steves’ travel book covering Munich, Bavaria, and Salzburg (highly recommended!).

Finally, we made our way to the Oktoberfest grounds and took it all it. It’s hard to describe this experience. You really need to be there. Thousands upon thousands of people – young, old, men, women, most traditionally dressed. Imagine an amusement park but with massive beer halls, each of which seeing 6,000 people in and out of them every night. Rotisserie chickens, head-sized pretzels, sausage and kraut just about everywhere you looked. Oompah bands in the beerhalls (strangely, some of which playing North American songs). It was more difficult than anticipated to track down a server and order some beers (all tables are reserved). In the Pschorr beer garden we finally enjoyed a litre of beer each. Ana enjoyed some bratwurst. That was all the time we had until we had to make it to the hauptbahnhof to catch our train back to Salzburg.

pt. 6: Salzburg

Europe 2011 pt. 6 – Salzburg

Our travels concluded with four days in the Austrian city of Salzburg, located by the German border, in the Alps, and divided by the Salzach river. It is well known for being the birthplace of W.A. Mozart. Festungsburg mountain is situated along one side of the river, protecting the old city (a UNSECO world heritage site). On said mountain is Hohensalzburg castle, one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

During our stay we relaxed by the riverside, explored the old city and its shopping district, drank Austrian wine and beer, ate delicious local cuisine (cheese dumplings with bacon and onions, goulash with bread dumplings, Balkan-style grilled sausages with curry, etc.), rented bicycles and toured the surrounding countryside, marvelled at the interior of the Salzburg cathedral, and enjoyed dinner and a chamber concert at the castle (10-piece string ensemble Salzburg Mozart kammerorhester performing Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, and Dvorak).

For our final two days we were joined by my uncle, visiting from Essen, Germany for the weekend. With him we toured Hohensalzburg castle, had fancy drinks on the Stein terrace overlooking the old city, savoured a slice of sachertorte, and partook in a surprisingly jawdropping salt mine tour in nearby Berchtesgaden, Germany, where we also had traditional bavarian fare (wurst mit kraut, roast pork leg, minced meatloaf with pepper sauce).

Our last day concluded with our continued quest for delicious cheese strudel. We did find some, but somehow that magical dream strudel from the gas station, soaked in rum, could not be beat. The quest is far from over.

What followed was a full day of travel: a bus to the Salzburg hauptbahnhof, a train to München, a train to Frankfurt, a flight to Paris, and finally an 11-hour flight to Vancouver (during which we were dazzled by the Northern Lights over the Northwest territories).

We arrived home near midnight, concluding our 4-week adventure in 5 countries.