Another Region and Whole Different Vibe

This was to be our longest day of travel on the bus, but we knew, too, that we were now essentially going off the proverbial tourist map.  Gate1 offers two other tours that include Romania, but neither of them goes as far north as we would be traveling this day.  In fact, very few Western tour companies travel beyond Sighisoara.  We had yet to encounter any real pockets of other tourists at any point in our tour so far.  There had been a group of Polish tourists at Calnic, some Thai tourists in Sighisoara, and several Romanian school groups in Alba Iulia, but nothing more than that.  This would change on the last two days of our trip, but we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

At breakfast, most of our fellow travelers were jealous to hear that we'd taken advantage of the massages, which made my guilt stronger.  Don't worry.  I got over it.  The morning was gray and rain threatened (and arrived).  Ironically, true to their track record, the forecast had been for sun, so they were wrong in both directions.  The morning was to be a city tour of Margu Tures proper, which is the principal city in the Hungarian area of Romania.  It has historically been majority Hungarian, and all the street signs are in Romanian and Hungarian.  In all the other areas of Transylvania we'd visited so far, the signs had been in Romanian and German.  Our guide joked how Hungarian has no relation to Romanian, or any other language for that matter, minus Finnish.  She'd spoken with us earlier about the Romanian language, and the misperception by many that it was a Slavic language.  We were corrected and reminded -- repeatedly -- that Romanian is a Romance language.  Evidently it is closest to Italian, and she claimed that Romanians can understand 75-85% of both spoken and written Italian.  Next closest are French and Spanish, but to a lesser degree.  I was interested to learn, too, that under communism, they did not have to learn Russian.  In fact, it was not offered as a matter of course.  Rather, French was the primary foreign language offered, followed by German.  English was also not offered.  In Margu Tures -- as well as several other cities -- we saw Romulus and Remus statues, which were intended to emphasize the cultural link to ancient Rome.  Most of the statues were gifts from the city of Rome, and in hindsight I wonder if some of those were sent during World War II, when Romania was aligned with the Axis powers -- at least until the very end of the war.  That's purely speculation on my part, though.

Town Hall, and Romulus-Remus Statue

By the time we started our short walking tour of the city, a light rain had started.  The multicultural and pan-religious nature of the city was clear from the outset, as we visited an Orthodox Church, across the street from a Roman Catholic Church, with a Lutheran church on the neighboring corner.  The Orthodox Church was beautiful, but we learned that it was built after the fall of communism.  We were to hear much more about religion in the country over the coming days.  In addition to the interesting history of how the churches and monasteries survived during the communist era, we heard about the boom in church building in the subsequent 30+ years, as well as general public attitudes toward the church.  As I wrote earlier, the percentage of self-professed believers in Romania is the highest in Europe.  There was a national census in 2022, and our guide said she was looking forward to the new percentages that would be reported before year's end.  She shared that while the vast majority of Romanians love their church, they have great disdain for their church leadership.  She commented that since 1990, more than 6,500 churches have been built in the country, whereas NO new hospitals and only two schools have been constructed.  There is quite a public debate about the tax-exempt status of the church and clergy.  There largest orthodox church in Europe is currently under construction in Bucharest, right next to the Palace of the Republic.  It will be massive and funding was partially provided by the state.  Our guide joked that during the groundbreaking, all of the church leadership attended, and she recalled video on the news of the parking lot.  It was full of Mercedes, Maybachs, Jaguars, and the like.  The clergy are clearly not living lives of depravation.  Interesting, too, but the orthodox clergy is not celibate.  To be a priest, in fact, you MUST be married, whereas monks have the option to get married; most of them are.  Same applies to nuns in the orthodox faith.  

Inside an Orthodox Cathedral in Targu Mures

Orthodox on left, Catholic on the Right, and Lutheran in the Middle

Targu Mures

The city is distinctly Hungarian, and the architecture is heavily influenced by the Jugendstil, or Art Deco, movement.  It was also a favorite destination of Emperor Franz Josef.  The old city was a mishmash of 19th century architecture, side-by-side Jugendstil buildings and -- unfortunately -- communist monstrosities.  Our guide pointed out where some historic buildings had been knocked down to make room for ugly concrete public buildings.  That said, there were countless beautiful 19th century buildings that were in sore need of renovation.  Many of them sat empty, with prominent "for sale" signage.  To the local government's credit, they haven't torn them down, but I'm not sure how many people are willing to buy and then invest the money needed to renovate them.  

For Sale, and In Need of Some TLC

Jugendstil Next to Classical, Mixed with Communist Schlock

We arrived at the Palace of Culture exactly when it opened at 9:00am.  It was an absolutely beautiful Art Deco building, with original furnishings and decorations from the early 20th century.  There was a ballroom with a huge wall of simply stunning stained glass windows.  The outside of the building, however, was being restored and unfortunately had been wrapped with a plastic overlay, meaning that there was little outside light coming in (coupled with the rain), so we were not able to see them in their glory.  The centerpiece of the building was the concert hall.  They were preparing for an international competition of conductors, and we got to hear part of their rehearsal.

Inside the Palace of Culture

Emperor Franz Josef at His Coronation

The Main Concert Hall

The rain was much heavier now, as we reboarded the bus and headed to the Teleki-Bloyai Library, founded in 1802.  It was the first library to be opened with the stated intent of being open to the public, with the collection coming from its founder, Count Teleki.  It has been open to the public now for 220 years, with more than 200,000 books.  We visited the main hall, where they had many of their most valuable items on display, including a Latin bible from the 1300's, the oldest known book in Hungarian, and one of three copies of the original Declaration of Independence in Europe.  We were told the Declaration was hidden away under Ceausescu, just to be safe.  Also housed within the main library is the private library of Lady Teleki, who had the first known library owned and curated by a woman.

Teleki-Bloyai Library

Main Library Hall

The weather had worsened and cooled as we hurried back to the bus.  We were not too disappointed that we would be riding for the next few hours.  We were heading north, back into the Carpathian Mountains, and eventually exiting Transylvania and entering the region of Moldova.  We were told we would be driving through the Bicaz Canyon, and that this was the be the "most spectacular" part of our drive.  Given that we were driving through fog and heavy rain at the time, many of us lamented our luck, assuming that we'd miss the views.

By the time we started climbing the mountains, the rain had let up, and we even had some hints of blue showing through the low clouds.  It was definitely a challenging day for our bus driver, as we had countless hairpin turns as we snaked up and down the mountains, twice.  We had lunch at a hotel located along the so-called Red Lake, which was formed during an earthquake in the 1700's.  There is a large concentration of iron-ore in the mountain which collapsed, and it continues to give the lake a red hue to this day.  

Our Hearty Lunch

From Our Quick Post-Lunch Hike

After lunch, the sun had come out, which was fortuitous, as we were about to enter the actual canyon portion.  This final leg of the mountain pass had been completed in the 1980's, at great expense and loss of human life.  While a natural river had carved a path down and through, they had to blast and chisel away at the mountain to make it wide enough for the road, and I'm still not sure it is wide enough.  Laughably enough, you could see that they made it wider at road level, but didn't always clear the rock at the same level going upwards.  In other words, small cars can pass each other, but tall cars, trucks and buses, have to essentially drive in the middle of the two-lane road, to avoid scraping rock.  This was the day in which K and I had the front seats of the bus assigned to us, and it was a mixed blessing.

Entering the Bicaz Canyon

Bicaz Canyon

Rugs for Sale at a Photo Stop

As if on queue, the weather closed in again as we exited the canyon and formally entered Moldova, but that was okay, as our next stop was our hotel for the next two nights, in the city of Piatra Neamt.  We heard the history of Moldova this day, and into the next.  Essentially the region remained autonomous for centuries, outside of empirical control, but in a convoluted series of geopolitical trades, it ended up being split into three or more pieces.   A large portion was absorbed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, whereas another piece became the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova in the USSR, and it is now an independent republic.  So-called "southern Moldova" is now the northeastern-most portion of Romania.  It is the least-populated region, with a high concentration of mines.  They do not traditional get a lot of tourists, and we'd already been told to expect even cheaper prices than elsewhere in the country.  Our hotel was the best in town, and was a self-proclaimed 5-star establishment.  To their credit, Gate1 rated them at the 3-star level.  The hotel was clean but dated, and even though it was built after the communist era, it had an extremely retro feel to it. Ironically, close to our hotel was another hotel, which looked completely abandoned.  It was prominently labeled with the logo of communist Romania's old central travel agency, which catered for foreigners -- Tranzitour.  We would hear the next day how they would bring hard-currency paying foreigners to the area -- to visit the painted monasteries -- and this now decrepit hotel was likely the best they had to offer.  I theorize that once Tranzitour collapsed, they just abandoned the place and foreign investors built our hotel next door.  

Our Hotel in Piatra Neamt

The Old Abandoned Tranzitour Hotel Next to Ours

Dinner was on our own, and we had several recommendations from Iulia.  There is a cable car in the middle of the city, which brings people to the top of the central mountain.  There is also a separate chair lift, only operating in the winter, for skiing right down to the city center.  As we didn't think we'd have time the next day, we elected to at least try the cable car, theorizing that that me might emerge above the clouds.  The cable-car line passed directly outside our hotel window.  It was nearly 6:00pm when we reached the cable car station, and we were clearly the only tourists around.  It was raining and the ticket booth was empty.  We walked around the terminal for a while before we found one man who was watching the incoming cars.  He spoke no English, but we figured out he was telling us the person working the ticket booth had gone on a toilet break.  Sure enough, a woman came rushing out of the door, clearly embarrassed.  

We rode up through rain and very low clouds.  At the top we encountered an eerie scene, as we were the only people walking around.  There was a small row of souvenir shops open, and you have thought our arrival would rouse them to life, but they could have cared less as we ducked into each shop, primarily to escape the rain.  We cautiously eyed a patch of blue sky that appeared to be coming our way, but it was chilly and the wind was picking up, so we hopped on a car back down.  Sure enough, almost as soon as we started the trip down, the rain stopped and the sky cleared partially.  

Boarding the Cable Car

Eerie Scene Atop the Mountain

Waiting for the Clouds To Clear

Clearing on Our Way Down

Piatra Neamt

Small Catholic Church at Cable Car Terminus

We debated riding back up, but instead headed to the brewery recommended to us, across from the hotel.  It was clearly a popular place, as we appear to have gotten the last table.  The menu could have come from an Austrian or German restaurant, and luckily they had one in English.  We saw other members of our tour scattered at tables in the various rooms of the brewery, too.  A single man on our trip from the UK -- the one who used to work for Gate1 -- arrived and was told no tables were open.  We invited him to join us, which worked out well for all.  We had been wanting to pick his brain on his tour guide experiences, as well as his work with Gate1.  It was a marvelous meal, with great conversation.  The total of the bill was almost an embarrassment.  For the first time ever, I tipped at 100%. 

Schnitzel and Fries!