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Easter trip
Easter holidays started the seventh of April for all the volunteers so to take advantage of the free time we had, we decided to go on a trip through the southwest of Romania.
Our trip began in Sibiu, we took a walk around the old center of the city visiting the different churches and enjoying the main square. One of the best sensations was to be back in a big city, it may sound weird but when you expend too much time in a small area with the same people reaching a place that’s full of stores, restaurants, malls, people from different places with different styles, it is a really refreshing feeling specially for young people like us, some of us even took the opportunity to watch a film in English in one of the cinemas.
The next day we rented 2 cars in Sibiu’s airport and started the proper road trip around the southwest of Romania. The first destination was Hunedoara with the intention of visiting Corvins’ Castle. The fortification was amazing, especially from outside. The inside was full of panels explaining the history of the castle which many of them were focused in torture and the different methods that the owners used in the past.
After this castle tour we went on the road all the way to Deva to take a short view of the city before going to the second accomodation in Lugos (it was one hour in car ahead), we couldn’t see to much because we were running out of time but we were able to take a look from outside to some churches, the main square and a big park.
The third day we took a short walk through the center of Lugos and then we headed to Timisoara where we arrived just on time to eat lunch. Since we couldn’t agree where to eat we decided to split in different groups so 3 of us went to a fancy restaurant called Vinto in the center of Timisoara and it was probably the best decision we could had taken so far because the food was delicious, the presentation of the meal, the wines, the desserts, the treat… Everything was good, of course this wasn’t a cheap restaurant but I would say that the price is accorded to what they offer.
After that nice meal we saw one of the most beautiful city centers we have seen so far in Romania, it is filled of tall buildings with really thick and colorful walls but with space for really big squares and parks between them. Timisoara had probably the most amazing sightseeings places from the trip.
One more day and this time our objective was to reach the Danube, it took a few hours of driving and we made different stops either for visiting a small place in a village or to have a break and buy some food in supermarkets. The first sight of the Danube was at the same time incredible and sad, this is because the river is enormous and you can even just look to the other side and you are facing Serbia but most of the part that we visited from it were polluted by human and it was really depressing seeing some animals living between all that rubbish.
A few more hours in the road and a short break (that some of us took advantage of to go on a little hiking route) and we reached Orsova where we could see from a bridge the famous Decebal stone face sculpted in the mountain that faces the river.
After that we had a calming walk in the Ion Dragalina park and took the car for one more hour to reach the place where we were going to spend the fourth night, Drobeta-Turnu Severin.
Next morning we went to have a tour around the Romanic ruins of Drobeta, they are really interesting but the most curious part is the fact that romans were able to build a
gigantic bridge that crossed the hole Danube, basically the ruins were a military camp which its main purpose was to protect the entrance to the bridge.
After this historic tour set course to Craiova, the last city we were going to visit and also where our last accomodation was located. Craiova is also really beautiful, probably the best parts were the giant botanica garden and the Mihai Viteazul square. We also had a really great night in Craiova when we find a small beer pub that was close to our accommodation and where we had some beers before going to bed.
Finally, in our last day we had to wake up super soon because we had to be back in Sibiu before 12 in order to return the cars on time, so we had to drive almost 4 hours in a row which was exhausting especially for us drivers. Anyway, we manage to return the cars on time so we could have a little walk around Sibiu again before taking our last train back to home ending this adventure.
