Northern Romania 2017

Running for the lake!

From Piatra Neamț we continued towards northern Romania and the town of Borșa. The roads in northern Romania are infamously bad and slow. We had to cross a mountain pass in the middle of the night to finally get to Borșa and it sure felt like the road would never end!

After reaching Borșa we spent the next day hiking in the mountains. The first part of the hike wasn't very pleasant as we had to walk up a steep tractor road leading up to a meteorological research station for a couple of hours before reaching a beautiful mountain lake. The rest of the group decided to relax at the lake as I continued uphill to conquer Vârful Pietrosul Rodnei, the highest peak of the Rodnei Mountains. The view from the top was as good as it gets and I would have wanted to continue hiking along the gentle ridge for days. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards this time and I had to get back down to the lake and have one of the most enjoyable and refreshing swims I've ever had! On the way down Inna's brother gave me a hard time by running down the really crappy tractor road. I was barely able to keep up with him with my tired legs.

The next day we woke up early to catch a ride on an old steam train in Mocavita. What we didn't realize was that other people had the exact same plan and we should have reserved tickets beforehand. Well, at least we got to see the steam trains if nothing else! The original plan ruined we quickly came up with a plan B and went to see the so-called Merry Cemetery really close to the Ukrainian border. The Merry Cemetery is a colorful cemetery with wooden "tombstones" (can you call them stones when they're made of wood?) describing the life of the deceased in writing and mostly uplifting pictures. We saw many interesting and unique places during our week of traveling but this was definitely one of the highlights for me. A huge positive surprise!

We ended the day by visiting Cluj-Napoca. This was our second time in the city and this time it was packed with people because of a big electronic music festival. The city still feels very charming and reminds me of Lviv in a way with its cultural atmosphere. Definitely worth a visit!