I’ve heard many pro and cons opinions … Transfagarasan is a piece of cake when compared to Transalpina or Transfagarasan is the most beautiful road in the world…no wait Transalpina road is the most beautiful one… …. so I decided to convince myself.
A month later after my trip on Transfagarasan, we packed up and headed to Transalpina! On Friday at 6 pm, we went out of Bucharest to Horezu where I booked the accommodation that evening. The next morning, we could not hit the road without a shopping session in Horezu “mall”. But it was not any kind of shopping … The first stop was at Casa Pietraru – a special fairy tale house in a form of a pot which I immediately recognized from the pictures.
I was quickly blown away by the vases I saw there. While I was trying to decide which one to buy, a helpful man approached me and explained me the difference between Horezu ceramics, the Bulgarian one and other Chinese things which were presented in the nearby stores. I found out that Horezu ceramics is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, whose main symbol is Horezu rooster.
It was a real lesson of history and tradition … In the end I found out that I was lucky to have this lesson by Mr. Pietraru himself, the owner of the shop that strives to keep the Romanian pottery tradition alive. In the end, I bought alovely Romanian vase for my living room. If you arrive in the area, stop and buy some of these pieces of art that will cherish your eyes and soul or that you can use as souvenirs back home.
From Horezu we headed to Ranca, eager to discover Transalpina road – the highest one in Romania (2145m), also known as King road. We often felt like touching the clouds so high in the sky the road took us. It was wow!
On top, if I compare it with Transfagarasan, where rocks predominate most of the time, on Transalpina the landscape changes from the rocky mountain to the bright green of the forest as you descend. By mid Transalpina, I came across to a spectacular lake, Oasa Lake. I’ve rarely saw a more beautiful blue lake like this one. Stop for a while and indulge yourself a moment of happiness.
We headed afterwatds to Orlat, where we booked a stylish accommodation in a guesthouse placed on the top of a hill and surrounded by vineyards all arround. We ate something and went to Sibiel where we visited an interesting museum of icons painted by ordinary people.
We were lucky to also see a traditional Romanian welcome for a German tourists group. The villagers dressed in traditional costumes on horses also dressed up welcomed the tourists and led them to the guesthouse they were about to be accommodated.
We turned back on the Orlat hill and enjoyed an excellent Romanian local wine – (made from the vineyards nearby) in a very relaxed atmosphere. The next day, Alex ia had her first lesson on horseback.
We said goodbye and we moved to the Bacon tower of Cristian. Yes, you read it well.. The Bacon Tower.
People are very warm and welcoming and I highly recommend you to visit it and taste a little a piece of bacon. You can admire the church, bees’ house and many other surprises …
Here we had a real adventure when the guide, after he saw us so curious about the tower, invited us to stay for lunch … And we stay for a very special lunch with the Saxons that are still living in the village, with the Saxons returned from Germany and two Germans tourists wandering through Cristian….. but that’s another story about which I will write about soon.
