May 7th, 2007 
Sheila Simkin This weekend was an excursion to an area with Daco-Roman Ruins and a mineral springs town, Georgiu Bai. Georgiu Bai is frequented by Romanian families who come for the weekend and spent their time around this large, indoor swimming pool filled with odoriferous, mineral water. According to Georgiu Bai’s literature, some of the ailments this mineral water is reputed to cure are:
- Degenerative, inflammatory, abarticular rheumatic affections, posttraumatic affections;
– Gynecoloic diseases; and
– Professional diseases (whatever that means)
Our hotel was a dingy, Russian-style hotel with threadbare sheets, walls that have never been painted, and a little 4′x5′ bathroom. The bathroom was one of those all-inclusives with a showerhead sticking out the wall, toilet and sink, all on top of each other, but we never used the shower because only tepid water dripped out of it. And every time you flushed the toilet OR used the sink, water dripped out of the pipes all over the floor. The sad thing about this is we’ve stayed in worse hotels traveling around the world! At least the toilet flushed. We didn’t pay very much for our weekend tours and, believe me, there are nicer places to stay in if you visit here.
Then we discovered Georgiu Bai had multiple discos that blared until 4:00am, and if you closed your windows, you’d risk death by suffocation. But there were some excellent restaurants.
The only good part of this weekend, actually two good things, was a chance to hike uphill to some sort of Daco-Roman ruin and a drive to Hundedoura Castle which is where Vlad the Impaler was imprisoned. Hunedoara Castle looks exactly the way a spooky, gothic castle is supposed to look. Nothing fairy-tale about this place.
Vlad reputedly amused himself during imprisonment by beheading mice and impaling them (probably just to keep his hand in). This 14th century Gothic Castle was built on old Roman fortifications. It has three huge pointed towers, a drawbridge and the Castle wall was hewn out of 90-feet of solid rock by Turkish prisoners. On this sunny, hot day, many visitors were busy cooling off in the moat and river below Hunedoara. In 1974, the Castle became a museum.
On the drive back to Mosna, we stopped at this little very tiny church to see some ancient icons. There was a religious service taking place inside the church, crowded with local villagers. Three separate families in this village were commemorating the year anniversary since the death of their loved ones. These families had set up separate tables outside the church with bread and juices to serve everyone in the village. They refused to let us leave until each one of us had three loaves of bread in our arms (one from each family) and drank some juice from each table. We hated to take their bread and drink recognizing what hardships they face just trying to feed themselves, but it was impossible to refuse their hospitality without hurting their feelings. It was very good bread…
Sarmizegetusa was an important Dacian military center. Erected on top of a crag over 3,600 feet from the valley floor, this Fortress was the core of the Dacian defensive system in the Orastie Mountains. It was constructed on five terraces, and civilians lived around the fortress, down the mountain on man-made terraces. The nobility had a high standard of living with running water, brought through ceramic pipes, in their residences.
This was our last Romanian tour but here was still so much left to see. The painted monasteried of Bucovina, many UNESCO World Heritage sites; the Black Sea resorts; and The Danube Delta. The Delta wetlands preserve covers over 1,500,000 acres, loaded with migratory and permanent birds species, fish, plants, reed islands, lakes, marshes, and traditional fishermen villages. These are all on my wish list when we have a chance to return to Romania…
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Well i’ve been looking up Vlad for about 2 years now, my family and i have looked into our family history and believe it or not i think he is pretty interesting. He has my attention 100% of the way.
Thanks for your comment. I think he’s pretty interesting too.
Sheila
I am sorry you were not more impressed on your trip. I must admit I did love visiting that castle and the food in the bar next to it was second to none!
At the moment, I am trying to build up a photo library of great pictures of Romania, and I would be thrilled if you would consider adding one of stunning your pictures onto my site (http://www.Pictures-of-Romania.com ), along with a comment about why you liked Romania or that particular place so much.
There is no such a thing
as “Draco-Roman’, is Daco-roman, which is the whole romanian history and roots
and it shouldnt be dissmissed with a sbobbish, erronious ‘Draco’, which actually means devil in romanian! It seems that, aside from the poor accomodations and ‘toillet’(you get what you pay for), you really appreciated the beauty, history and hospitality of Romania!! Trust me, you havent even touched the surface of it, try to spend a little more money next time and you will live like a king! And you should really try the trtaditional romanian foods and the local plum brandy, ‘Rachiu’ or “tzuica’ that makes whiskey taste like..bathwatter!!! Good start, now you have the other 99% of Romania left!!! lol
Find out why over 2 million foreigners live in Romania, why most of them beg the goverment to give them citizenship, why a lot of Brits, dutch, germans, etc are moving to Romania for good and last, but not least, why Steven Seagal became Romanian citizen!! Theres is a lot more about this wonderful country than a broken toillet!
my family is related to vlad and countess elizabeth bathory
very scary ancestors im not proud of it
Dear Amber: Like they always say, “you can pick your friends, but not your relatives”…but what an interesting family background. Certainly gives more to talk about then “my grandmother sits around and watches Oprah all day.” Thanks for taking the time to comment and visit Travels With Sheila. Best regards, Sheila
I have been to Romania in last week August 2011 until 3rd of September. It was really fascinating for me. We stayed 5-6 days in Hunedoara near Lake Cincis. First being the Hunedoara Castle, I saw Citadel of Rasnov, Castelul Peles, Catelul Bran and many forest sides. Foods were very good!
I loved the country, as being from Turkey -considered a Balkan country- I liked the Romanians. Many were helpful, humble and nice people. The history is quite interesting if one reads something about it. In Bucuresti the Museum of Military of History, includes remains from prehistoric ages (circa 5000-6000 B.C.). This tells a lot about how Romania is rich in nature and natural resources, how it is an attractive region for nations in the past.
Thank you for your website.
Thank you for visiting Travels With Sheila and your nice comments.