Impressions of Romania

Vlad Tepes

When we moved to Berlin we made a list of places we wanted to visit.  The list was quite long despite the fact that we left off places we've already been to while we independently studied abroad in college.  Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian helped to put Romania on the list.  The Historian is the best Dracula book ever, weaving a chilling tale of Dracula through the story of a family over different time periods and across Europe.  As Vlad Tepes (also called Vlad the Impaler, the person Dracula is based on) is from Wallachia and Transylvania, two areas in Romania, it went on the list.

Easter being early this year we were looking for a vacation spot that is a good place to visit in late March/early April.  Travel guides say that Romania is a good vacation spot anytime of the year, so it seemed like a good target.  Romania is further south than Berlin, so in theory should be warmer, but also it is a place where the main attraction is just to wander and get a feel for the area, so if you don't mind walking in the cold it is just as good.

As the holiday came closer discussions at work started about where people would go for the break.  Usually when I mention a place you get one of two reactions:  "What a great place! You'll love it." or "Wow, that's awesome. I've always wanted to go there!"  Sometimes this is mixed in with, you're going off-season, it would be better in the summer.  But I don't like crowds and stifling hot temperatures, so I usually do not think it would be better in the summer. 

When I mentioned Romania, however, I got very different reactions:  "Really? Okay."  or "That should be... different."  Romania is in the European Union, actually it is the last country to have been let in (2007). They do not use the Euro and are known for being a very poor country.  Despite the very nice looking hotels and seemingly cool things to see based on the travel books, I started to second guess our choice.  I had also been excited about the food, until I read that it is mostly pork and cabbage.  While I like these, coming from Germany they don't sounds as exciting.  Our last trip had been to Morocco and the food there had been so interesting so it was a bit of a let down to think about.  Also, that people knew we had been to Morocco, which is also a relatively poor country, and were still concerned about Romania was worrying.

All I can say is, the worrying was for nothing (as usual).  Romania is amazing!  (And so is the food.)

We went for 10 days and traveled to see 4 cities beginning with the capital, Bucharest.  The tour books say that most people fly in and leave to see other parts of the country, but that it is worth a visit.  So we stayed for a 1/2 day before heading out and then returned for a weekend before flying home.  It has the most varied buildings right next to each other that I've ever seen in a city.  Many European cities have been built through many years and styles, but often block by block (like in Berlin which had whole sections that needed to be rebuilt after WWII), or neighborhood by neighborhood. In Bucharest, many of the buildings have been rebuilt or restored since their earlier days, but some of the styles seem older--like centuries old.  These are next to communist style buildings next to modern buildings.  All jammed together in no specific order. 

We took trains to stay for a few days each in Brasov, Sibiu, and Sighisoara.  All three are medieval towns (with some roots even earlier) and all have ties to Germany as they were Saxon towns.  There was not a long list of things to do in each place, but they kept us busy and entertained while we were there.

Sighisoara

Brasov

Sibiu

While I could really write a blog on each of these four places, instead I will try to give you some important overall things from Romania.

You must like to walk.  Much of what there is to do is to wander and see the towns' architecture and get a feel for the place.  There are museums and churches to visit, but none will take a terribly long time (and really you are just walking in museums too).

View from train

Taking the trains is great.  The Inter-city and Regional trains are some of the faster and more expensive options, but they're still pretty cheap (maybe 14 euros or so per person between cities 2- 3 hours apart).  They are comfortable, have bathrooms, and you get to pay attention to the scenery of the countryside and the small towns and villages you pass through without having to worry about going in the right direction.

Romanian wine is good.  If you are in in Sighisoara try Teo's Cellar and if you are in Brasov try the Winery on Str. Diaconu Coresi.  Most restaurants serve at least one or two good local wines, and even the cheap house wines are usually pretty nice.  The beers are worth trying too.  I liked the Bergenbier best.

If you are looking for a friendly four-legged friend on vacation, Romania has plenty of them.  Many dogs roam free.  Be careful or you will want to bring them all home.  (Also watch where you walk.)


There is a lot of Turkish and Hungarian influence here (as Romania was part of each at points in history).  Therefore the pork and cabbage have more spice than in Germany.  I completely approve.  Do not eat at the many Irish pubs (I am not sure why there are so many) but try (and retry the ones you like) the Romanian dishes like cabbage stuffed with meat and chicken and pork in a tomato-y sauce over polenta with a fried egg.  Also the desserts are good, including amazing chocolate cake that they must soak in run because it tastes a bit like a rum ball.

Bran Castle

Don't go looking for Dracula at Bran castle.  They call it "Dracula's Castle," but the odds are good he was never there.  But it may be the castle that Bram Stoker used for his book.  And as a castle goes, it's pretty cool.  And you learn about the Romanian monarchy who last lived here.  So do go see it.  Also they say that there will be lots of Dracula stuff everywhere, but I didn't find that it was too much.  (Even though I liked the book about Dracula, I really don't care for scary things.)

From Rasnov Fortress

Go to Rasnov and walk up the front of the hill to get to the fortress (or go around back and take a tractor pulled wagon).  The fortress is in ruins, and the signs don't tell you that much, but it has amazing views!  I liked it even more than the castle.

If you have more than 10 days, rent a car.  There were a lot of day trips we didn't get to that would have been much easier with a car.  But we were able to do what we wanted while we were there with train, bus, maxi-taxi, and taxi.

Breite

The Romanians don't all seem sure why people are coming there to visit.  We had several people (all about our age) express wonder at this.  They don't seem to think that their wilderness that you can go walking in (like Breite outside of Sighisoara that has 800 year old oak trees) or the beautiful and historical towns are really worth seeing.  They know that if they lived in other places in Europe they could make a lot more money (average wage in Romania we were told by two separate people is 150 euros a month) and do more things and are not sure why we would choose to go there.  On the other hand, several older Romanians told us excitedly how Romania is great and expressed love of being able to earn money and choose to do with it what you want (although that did seem to include traveling outside of Romania).

But even off-season we were not the only tourists.  Tourists there must be mostly German or British because that was always what people asked.  Although most of the English-speaking tourists we heard were American.

Eastern Europe definitely has a different feel than Western Europe.  In Berlin, you don't quite get the full sense of it because half the city was in each and they have very much merged.  Romania has a long history and much of it still exists as buildings and places to be seen and explored.  While it seems like they were often ruled by others they seemed to have retained a sense of who they are as their own nation and that shows too in the food and the traditional clothes, music, and dance.  It is worth adding it to your list.


Rereading The Historian before and during the trip, I remembered how many other eastern European places the book travels through.  While some of the cities they do not tell the names of (some of which you can tell anyway), many they do.  So while we checked off one place from our list, it ended up longer than it was before we left.

American Food in Berlin

Last year everything in Berlin was so new I didn't often miss the food I ate before I moved here that I couldn't get here.  Sure, when I went back to the US there were things I would need to get (bagels with egg and pork roll, pizza, and Mexican food) but I was able to cook enough things that we were normal to us that it didn't matter that much while we were here.

During these dark days of winter we can go for a week with grey clouds and no real sun (rather reminiscent of South Bend, Indiana) and the sun rises when I am almost at work and sets before I leave, so I have been feeling the pull of old comfort foods more.  Luckily we've found some things to help, but we've also seen some sad misses.

This past week has been a real example of what I mean.  Last Saturday I wanted pancakes for breakfast.  This is actually something I eat rather rarely in general and even more so since we've lived here.  Usually if we want pancakes we plan ahead when we go grocery shopping to buy buttermilk and then we make them (no box pancake mix here unless you want to spend a near fortune on it).  This time I remembered that Atlantic on Bergmannstrasse has an American breakfast that consists of pancakes, maple syrup, and fruit.  I had not tried it before because it seemed silly to order an American breakfast when we're eating out.  I was quite excited as I waited for my pancakes to arrive.  When they came what I saw was something like a very thick crepe with powdered sugar sprinkled on top and the thinnest syrup ever.  It tasted a bit like funnel cake or like 5 crepes stacked on top of one another maybe. So don't get me wrong; they were good.  But they were not pancakes.

On the other hand we had recently found that the Colombian restaurant near Gneisenaustrasse sells canned tomatillos and poblanos, along with a variety of other packaged South American/Mexican food items, and their homemade hot pepper salsa.  So when I was looking at what to do with a pork tenderloin we had and came across a recipe for Tequila Pork with Tomatillo Guacamole I decided that was the winner.  We haven't been able to find tomatillos really before this so I had been ruling out all such recipes.  Since it is a giant can, I decided to also make tomatillo salsa.  And the grocery store helped out by actually having cilantro, which is by no means a sure thing.  So we planned 3 Mexican dishes for the week to use up the salsa and pork and while it wasn't authentic Mexican, it was pretty good Tex/Mex for Berlin.  Of course, there are two places in Berlin where you can get decent Mexican, Santa Maria and Ta Cabron, but the options are limited, and it was good to cook it at home like we used to.

This week I also had Cherry Coke.  I had not been able to find it at the grocery store, and it definitely isn't served at any of the good burger places where I would want it to be, but then I found it at the grocery store in the train station on our way back from some trip or other.  I didn't care that I had to carry the bottle across town, I needed it.  Then I saved it until this week when I decided it was time.  I know that Cherry Coke doesn't really pair well with Mexican food, but they both remind me of home and I didn't really care.  I also found last week that they now sell Cherry Coke at our grocery store so I can buy another bottle to save for the next time I need it.

This weekend I picked up bread and made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  So I guess I am still in need of some American comfort foods.

While I don't often need an American food fix, it is nice to know that it is possible.  There is a NY style bagel place Barcomi's (where the bagels are decent, but not really like those from NY), a new place that sells pulled pork or brisket sandwiches (which are good despite being American/German fusion), and a new American diner that I have yet to try.  Cooking at home also helps as long as you are careful to pick dishes where you can get the ingredients you need. 

Now that the sun has started to rise earlier and set later every day and we have begun to see it shine more often from behind the clouds and we even had a week of false-hope spring, I imagine the need for comfort foods will decrease, but it was nice to have them while I wanted them.