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Three Nights On A Train - Into The Wild Romanian Mountains

Three Nights On A Train - Into The Wild Romanian Mountains

Old Sep 16, 2017, 10:55 am
  #16  
 
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Those are some amazing photos you are taking. They are making me want to take a trip to Romania! Thanks for the report!

Eric
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 3:11 am
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Thanks for sharing
i have a very good souvenir of overnight train Bucarest to Sofia. Nice to see they keep the tradition
wonderful pictures
indeed Romania is one of the most underrated country for tourism in Europe
Dirt cheap, plenty to see, cities and countryside, and nice people
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 4:14 am
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Thank you for revealing secrets of this less reported destination. I read it with great interest! The more wood in the train cabins, the better IMO.
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 4:33 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by oneworld82
I read that Mircea Eliade book in college while studying Anthropology. Good read. Oh, great trip report, btw!!
Thanks oneworld82.

Good to hear that Eliade's scholarly work is widely read in the US!

This is the first book on religion from him which I read (interesting topic indeed) so far. In Romania he is mostly known for his literature, although I did not have the chance to read much yet as I'm not fluent in Romanian yet and I only managed to find two books in English.

Originally Posted by kathykathy
I am blown away by the fabulous photos! As my ancestors are from this general area of Europe, I am especially interested in your trip report. While the accommodations on the train are a bit foreign to me (Hee), I would enjoy the trip after flying Business Class from Atlanta!
Thanks kathykathy!

I can imagine that for an American citizen not living in the NE Amtrak corridor the quirks of train travel might not be part of everyday life.

And as train travel might not be everyone's cup of tea (I have friends who just can't get any sleep on a moving train), there are dozens of other ways to discover Romania. As I have written in one of the first installments, I would normally actually recommend getting a rental car for those wishing to visit the countryside.


Originally Posted by ZFW-ATC
Those are some amazing photos you are taking. They are making me want to take a trip to Romania! Thanks for the report!

Eric
Thanks Eric! You should definitely visit if you have the opportunity. The country has something for everyone's taste (old cities, food, nature, history, nightlife etc.).
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 4:50 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by bebert
Thanks for sharing
i have a very good souvenir of overnight train Bucarest to Sofia. Nice to see they keep the tradition
wonderful pictures
indeed Romania is one of the most underrated country for tourism in Europe
Dirt cheap, plenty to see, cities and countryside, and nice people
Exacty bebert!

While some of the older people in cities might still have this bit of grim "communist" mentality, the great majority of young people are wonderful, as well as older people in the countryside and in Transylvania.

(there is IMHO a regional difference in the mentality of people, with Transylvanian people being more friendly/relaxed, and people in the South more fast-paced/at times an arrogant "mind your own business" mentality).

But it's indeed an easy country to travel in as English is widely spoken in the cities and everything is extremely affordable.

Even in Bucharest as the most pricey city in the country, lunch or dinner with a bottle of wine won't set you back more than 40 EUR for two in a more upmarket restaurant. In the average restaurant a meal + drinks can easily be had for less than 10 EUR.

Needless to say, this is even much cheaper in the countryside. There aren't many other places in Europe where a carafe of wine, a main and dessert can be had for a fiver.

Originally Posted by tsastor
Thank you for revealing secrets of this less reported destination. I read it with great interest! The more wood in the train cabins, the better IMO.
Welcome tastor!

I agree with the wood - the same as in antique cars, it adds some charm to it all.

I have recently been on a Turkish train in a private sleeper, which was all modern and plastic.



While the hard product was amazingly comfortable in sleeping mode with its superb mattress, and it had a fridge with some complimentary drinks and snacks, it was lacking a certain charm and felt more soulless. If it wouldn't have been for the blanket, all the white colours would have felt more like a hospital bed!

It is also weird how many newer trains seem to be so uncomfortable - eg. this train while having a great bed, had rock hard seats when the bed is folded up in daytime mode.

The same counts for some of the more modern Romanian trains - seats which are fine for 1-2 hours, but certainly not when travelling longer distances with it. I guess what is happening in the airline industry with those horrible slimline seats can also be seen in the railway industry not all progress is good!

Last edited by Romanianflyer; Sep 17, 2017 at 5:02 am
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 6:11 am
  #21  
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Part IV: Viseu de Sus, the Mocăniţa steam train and the overnight stay at a special “Train Hotel”

After a lovely day in the mountains it was time to head back to Viseu de Sus for the 2nd part of my trip. The 32 kilometres hitchhiking went by easily. Within 5 minutes waiting alongside the road at Borșa Complex I had a ride to Borșa proper.

For the 2nd ride I teamed up with a young student from Cluj whom the driver of the first ride also picked up. We were dropped off by the first driver on the Western outskirts of Borșa as he had reached his own house.

We waited for ten minutes until an empty bus stopped by to pick us up. The bus driver had to drive the bus back empty to Cluj and was in a very chatty mood – and lucky enough for the student it meant a free ride all the way back home. I had a good laugh driving along for some ten kilometres until a junction at a petrol station where the road out of Borșa diverged into one road going to Viseu de Sus and another South to Cluj. Luckily, after five minutes more waiting another car picked me up for the final stretch into Viseu de Sus. I didn't mind at all that this driver wanted a bit of money for it (10 RON, 2.17 EUR).

I had long doubted what accommodation to book in Viseu de Sus – which is to Romanians most famous because of a historic steam train that operates from the town, more on that later.

Maramureș is as far from SPG or Hilton territory as one probably can get in Europe. Hotels here are mostly family-run pensions, with a handful of bigger independent three or four stars hotels scattered around the region.

A quick search online turned up two options worth considering: La Cassa pension, which seemed to be a lovely pension more akin to a small boutique hotel (47 EUR/night), and the Mirage Resort just outside the town at 36 EUR/night.

In the end, I decided however on a third option when I read about a few old railway carriages at the local railway yards of the steam train which were converted into a hotel on wheels.

While obviously not as luxurious/comfy as a proper hotel room, it was the most unique option by a mile and I thought it was somewhat fun as this way it would mean I would sleep three nights in a row in a train! The price was great too, just 17 EUR for a private compartment including breakfast. A package including accommodation, breakfast and a ride on the steam train costs 40 EUR, but since I already took a ride on the same train two years ago I opted out for that as I had made other plans already.





The streets of Viseu de Sus – the town centre looks like a typical town you would find in Maramures/Transylvania, which has some Austrian-Hungarian influences in its architecture due to this part of Romania belonging to the Habsburg Empire for a long time.



The train hotel from the outside. It is located in the middle of the railway yards of the steam train. But as that train is narrow gauge, and this is normal European broad gauge – they needed to lay a few feet of rails especially for this train hotel.

The train carriages were built in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s/1960s (I forgot the exact year) and it is being run by a lovely Swiss woman who decided to start the hotel with her husband. She has amazing stories about the train, Romania and Switzerland, as well as about life in the local community and the at times difficult and plain weird laws which restaurant/hotel business in the country have to adhere to.




My private compartment. While it was a bit hot during the day, it was OK with the window open when fresh air can run through it (no aircon unfortunately). Toilets are at the end of each carriages, as well as in a separate unit built next to the train, where you can also find showers. Basically, it feels a bit like being at a camp ground!

The bed was perfectly comfortable and I had a good night of sleep.


As I wrote before, the train stands at a railway yard for the Mocăniţa steam train. This narrow gauge railway runs up in the valley of the River Vaser, which flows into the Viseu River at Viseu de Sus. It was built in the 1930s, primarily for the forestry industry in transporting workers up the valley to cut down trees, and to transport the trees back to the sawmill at Viseu.

The word Mocăniţa is derived from the Romanian word mocan, which means shepherd or one who lives in the mountains. It is suffixed as feminine and diminutive in keeping as part of a naming tradition and to indicate the small size of the locomotives.

As I wrote before, I did not go on a ride this time as I did it already two years ago. It is however highly recommended to do so, and I would love to come back for it once in winter or autumn as the scenery is completely different - as can be seen in the gorgeous video below (not mine!).


Some pictures from two years ago:















Back to the current trip: I had a little siesta for an hour in my compartment and afterwards went out in the town for dinner. As the Pension La Cassa which I named before had glowing reviews for its on-site restaurant, I went there.

While it is located in the middle of some 5-floor apartment blocks, it is a lovely old pension which is gorgeously decorated. Outside, it had a small patio as well as some tables scattered around the garden. Unfortunately, this evening they were all occupied or reserved (hotel guests have priority to reserve these), so I took a spot indoors.



The garden of La Cassa – note how few tables there are, privacy is just great! If I would return with a girl – this would be the obvious place to stay overnight/have dinner.

Service was very attentive and friendly. I was surprised that they gave every guest some on the house canaps – which is uncommon in Romania to do so as opposed to eg. a country like Greece, where on the house desserts and some “raki” or “tsikoudia” are a common feature. The canapes were some traditional bread, cheeses, onions and a shot of “tuica”, the traditional Romanian plum brandy which is more often called “palinka” here due to Hungarian influences. Strong stuff at 50 percent alcohol, but goes great with the onions and cheese.



For my main, I had some veal cut. Which came in a huuuuuuge portion (there can't be enough u's in huuuuge to describe it) as there were some 3 or 4 cuts buried underneath tons of thin-cut fries, grilled bread, bacon and some vegetables/salad. It was a great and hearty meal, but I couldn't finish it all. I washed it away with a pint of not-so-Romanian Holsten Weizen.



No matter how full your stomach is, there is always place for a dessert. The chocolate brownie with an iced coffee hit the spot.

And the nice thing? A half litre of lemonade (which I drank before I ordered any food), the on-the-house canaps, a beer, a main, a dessert and an ice coffee did not cost me more than 10 EUR. Given the lovely service I would certainly come back the next day for lunch to try out one of the outdoor spots!

Happily I went back to the train hotel, where I ordered a beer and read a bit more from my book. The train hotel also has a restaurant – but as I would already have breakfast here, I did not test it out for lunch or dinner. The sunset views were gorgeous from the compound.









The lovely Swiss hostess informed me that when she would close the dining car, she would lit up the two fire baskets in the grass next to the train. These were great seating areas surrounded by bean bags perfect for lounging.

I ordered another beer and moved into one of the bean bags. Other guests did too, and it made for a nice evening socializing with some French tourists, who were making a trip across Romania after attending a French-Romanian wedding of one of their friends in Cluj. Great people to have a talk with, as they were not the kind of “I'm a French snob and I refuse to speak English” kind of persons but very worldly lovely types of people.



After a couple of more beers, it was time to call it a night and retreat to my compartment.


Next up, Part V: A day relaxing at the swimming pool and some more food in Viseu de Sus
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 9:53 am
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This is such an unusual TR, many thanks for sharing. It actually makes me want to get there and experience it for myself.
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 1:15 pm
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Beautiful. Makes me want to return. I've only been to Bucharest and Brasov / Sinaiia. I had read that the trains were in bad condition but they look OK.
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 5:50 pm
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Looks like a great trip so far with some amazing pictures. Well done, and I look forward to Part V.
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Old Sep 17, 2017, 11:23 pm
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it's delightful, the sleeper train. shame we don't have it here. I've just realized Romanian scenery's quite amazing too.

thanks for sharing.
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 7:45 am
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Beautiful photos.

Is it hard to get by if you only speak English?
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 2:56 pm
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Originally Posted by roadwarrier
This is such an unusual TR, many thanks for sharing. It actually makes me want to get there and experience it for myself.
Thanks for the kind words, roadwarrier. The country has a lot more spots like the one I cover here that are unusual and worth exploring!

Originally Posted by Bretteee
Beautiful. Makes me want to return. I've only been to Bucharest and Brasov / Sinaiia. I had read that the trains were in bad condition but they look OK.
While there are exceptions, the bulk of the trains are very comfortable. A first class ticket wouldn't break the bank in Romania like it would in Germany buying a ticket last minute!

That said, even second class is as comfortable as trains in any other European country.

Originally Posted by Jaysonb22
Looks like a great trip so far with some amazing pictures. Well done, and I look forward to Part V.
Thanks Jaysonb22! I hope to have the new installment up in a few minutes and the final part by tomorrow (as I have a new trip upcoming next weekend which warrants a trip report too )
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 3:06 pm
  #28  
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Originally Posted by blueferrari
it's delightful, the sleeper train. shame we don't have it here. I've just realized Romanian scenery's quite amazing too.

thanks for sharing.
Welcome, blueferrari! That said that there are no sleeper trains in your country (Indonesia), I recently seen a few stories about Indonesian trains on www.seat61.com and it looked very comfortable and civilised!


Originally Posted by VH-RMD
Beautiful photos.

Is it hard to get by if you only speak English?
Thanks VH-RMD

While I don't think travelling in Romania is that easy as it might be in the UK, Scandinavia or the Netherlands, it is not bad either.

Having visited almost every European country (and not being fluent in Romanian myself being a foreigner here!) I would rank the country somewhere in the middle when it comes to ease of visiting (when looking at in general).

When purely looking at the use of English - I think it would actually definitely be in the top half of European countries. In major urban areas (Cluj, Timisoara, Arad, Sibiu, Brasov, Bucharest, Iasi, the entire coast, Tirgu Mures etc.) you can expect most people to speak English. This counts for virtually all young people you would meet.

Outside, it really depends on. In an area like Maramures, don't expect any of the locals to speak it, although those working in hotels/pensions/restaurants mostly have very decent English skills even in such faraway areas.

It's definitely miles ahead of France, Italy and Spain when it comes to people speaking English.

For those who are lucky to speak a Latin language (especially Italian and Spanish) - you have an added bonus even as Romanian has some similarities being a Latin language as well.

While there are some other travel challenges in which the country lags behind other European countries (eg. public transport/roads - mostly the speed of travelling, and lack of tourist infrastructure in many places), a possible language barrier certainly isn't one of them!
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 4:11 pm
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Part V: A day relaxing at the swimming pool and some more food in Viseu de Sus

I woke up after a good night of sleep to another gorgeous day. I had a shower and stroll around the railway yards before I went to the restaurant carriage for breakfast. At the time when I was walking around (9.30am on a Sunday), hundreds of day trippers were already arriving to hop on one of the many steam train rides up the valley.



There are two such great lounge areas around fire baskets at the hotel train.



The railway yards are very much still working, and you can clearly see that besides the big tourist steam train operation, there is also a thriving wood/sawmill industry. Of course, for transporting cut trees back down the valley, they use mostly diesel locomotives as the steam locomotives are mostly left for the tourists.

When I arrived at the dining car, most of the breakfast spread had already been devoured by other hungry guests or was taken away, even though they said breakfast would run until 10am.

It turned out however that they were not expecting me, as all guests besides me were hopping on one of the steam trains included in the package. I did not opt for such a package as two years ago I already went on the same train.

When the lovely Swiss lady who runs the hotel train turned up, she quickly apologised and asked if I would like an omelet and how I would want to have it cooked. She also offered me a coffee, and asked if I would want anything else as she would then put it back for me. I can't really fault her for the minor mistake, the staff during the entire stay were great. She quickly went back into the galley to prepare my eggs. Coupled with some homemade buns it was a good start of the day. Eating inside a dining wagon always has a certain charm.



I thanked the hosts for their great care during the nights' stay and we spend some 20 minutes more talking about the great history of the train and the differences in culture between Switzerland and Romania. Being myself someone from Western Europe who made the unusual step to move Eastwards, these are always entertaining discussions with lots of recognisable soundbites (both the reasons why we love our adopted country so much, and the things we would like to see improved!).

No steam train for me today, no mountain hiking for me today. The last weeks of work were killing and besides one day in the mountains I could also use one day doing absolutely nothing. Luckily, I knew the perfect place for it.

I walked about half an hour out of the town to the grounds of the Mirage Resort which I already mentioned earlier. Next to it, there is a lovely swimming pool with gorgeous views over the green Maramures hills.



Walking though the town to the swimming pool. If you look clearly, you can see some disused railway tracks here (parallel to the Viseu de Sus-Borsa provincial road on which I was walking).



How a typical Maramures village looks like

As I was one of the first to arrive when the pool opened, I managed to secure a chair and umbrella directly overlooking the pool and hills.

The next hours were a perfect combination of reading, swimming, sunbathing and getting a few beers from the on-site bar/restaurant (very decently priced at around 1.20 EUR for 0.4L).





I guess these legs are mine...

After a couple of hours at the pool (and a beer or two) it was time for lunch. And what better place to go to than yesterday's garden at La Cassa?



Complimentary starter, some bread, countryside style cheese (they could have left out the salad leave..) and some raw onion. Which might seem odd to some, but it goes great with the shot of potent plum brandy (50-60 percent alcohol) being served with it.



A decent German Weizen, paired with what are perhaps the most traditional Romanian dishes. Pictures is sarmale – cabbage rolls filled with minced meat. In Turkey or Serbia they would call it sarma, in Georgia or Armenia tolma, in Greece dolmades. You kinda get to the point I want to make here: lots of shared culinary influences in this part of Europe!

Although where eg. in Armenia or Greece you find them more often made with vine leaves (and quite often stuffed with rice only), in Romania it's cabbage leaves and meat.

On the side is some mamaliga (the Italians and the world know it as polenta – what potatoes are for the Dutch and Germans, mamaliga is the staple for Romanians!) and some sour cream which is a must to accompany both mamaliga and sarmale.

A very nicely executed Romanian classic.




A cheesecake with fresh berries and a coffee to finish the meal.

Again I thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant at La Cassa. If you don't stay here overnight (I very much liked the hotel train, but if going as a couple I would for sure prefer La Cassa judging by the ratings/pictures) – then at least go here once for lunch or dinner. The portions are huge, the location is beautiful (both indoors and in the garden), the service is great, the food is as good as traditional Romanian cuisine can get, and the prices are great (I paid less than 10 EUR for all of it combined).

I stayed on for another beer in the garden and finished a bit of work on my laptop (fast internet and plugs) – and afterwards decided to walk back the 4 miles from Viseu de Sus to Viseu de Jos to catch the evening train back to Bucharest.



A typical Maramures style wooden church somewhere halfway between the two Viseus



Crossing another abandoned railway track.. I just love pictures such as this one of places where it was perhaps 20 years ago when a train passed by the last time..



After saying good day (buna ziua) to some men standing next to a fence alongside the provincial road in a village, one of them invited me into his garden to see his woodcutting skills and to make some pictures of it. Which is what I did! Good old village life, where locals are just genuinely friendly and proud.



Passing by the local cemetery..



And in time for my train back, which departed right at the moment as the sun was about to set. It would make for some fantastic pics of the train crossing the small mountain pass between Maramures and Transylvania proper. More on that tomorrow!

Next up, Part VI: The train(s) back to Bucharest and perhaps the best scenery from the window to date
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Old Sep 19, 2017, 12:22 pm
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Originally Posted by Romanianflyer
After a couple of hours at the pool (and a beer or two) it was time for lunch. And what better place to go to than yesterday's garden at La Cassa?



[I]A decent German Weizen, paired with what are perhaps the most traditional Romanian dishes. Pictures is sarmale – cabbage rolls filled with minced meat. In Turkey or Serbia they would call it sarma, in Georgia or Armenia tolma, in Greece dolmades. You kinda get to the point I want to make here: lots of shared culinary influences in this part of Europe!

Although where eg. in Armenia or Greece you find them more often made with vine leaves (and quite often stuffed with rice only), in Romania it's cabbage leaves and meat.
Wow! In Swedish we call it kldolmar - and they are made of cabbage, minced meat and rice. (No wine leaves in Sweden, of course, but the Swedish king may have brought the recipe with him when with his troops in Turkey). This left me very curious if the sarmales taste the same as kldolmar!



These are also known in Finland as kaalikryle and often eaten together with lingonberry jam.
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