We had a family day almost two weeks ago, on Sunday. I never got to post about it as time is never enough, there's always so much to do. Today I was trying to remember why we had that family day and couldn't. Shame on me as it's barely been 2 weeks, but this shows the reason doesn't matter, or matters less, what really matters is spending time together. Memories stay with you forever. After a few minutes I was able to remember the reason we had this event and I'm telling you this to not think I have Alzheimer :)
It was an extremely hot day and even though the cars obviously had air conditioner, once you stepped out of the car, you met the scorching heat and no matter how well you tolerate it, it takes away a lot of your energy.
We decided to have lunch at a place I've never been to before, called "Vándor Fogadó", which in English would translate to "Wanderer Inn", situated in Vármező (Câmpu Cetăţii).
It is easily accessible, no matter which direction you come from and I'm pinning it to the map in case someone is going to need it in the future. We have a plan with gabrielatravels, to map Transylvania and I'm working on adding new locations to it every time I visit a place.
It's not a big venue, but it has a covered terrace, two actually and the interior is also not so small.
What I love the most is the rustic design. It's not a 7 star luxury restaurant, the name says clearly it's for wanderers and the majority of the guests are from other places as the village is small.
When I said rustic, I meant it. Tables, chairs, doors, windows are made of wood, beams on the ceiling and the cherry on top of the cake is the furnace, which most likely is not in use anymore, but makes the place more authentic.
What drives people here? One thing. Fish! There's a fish culture, a fish pond nearby and two restaurants (this is one) that serve fish and whoever comes here, eats fish.
I have a love-hate relationship with fish, or tolerate-hate relationship would be more accurate, due to my health problems (my gallbladder). This means I can eat it, but I'm not cooking it. If someone cooking fish for me, I say "thank you" and I'm more than happy to eat it, but you won't see fish in my kitchen. This is why I prefer to ear fish when I'm at the restaurant.
This is the fish soup, which was on my list, but had no courage to taste it. This dish is usually made wit hot pepper, or chilly and I'm not a fan of hot dishes. I'd like to try it out, but most likely I'll need more courage first. I was told it was really good, so maybe next time I'll give it a try.
This was my main dish, fish fillets with French fries. After I took the photo, I also added some garlic sauce on the fish, which I love, and although it's not recommended for me, once in a while I like to have it. It was really good.
This was another option on the menu, fish in corn flower, with French fries. Next time if we go there again, I'm going to try it out.
This was the pork stew with noodles, a very well known dish in this region. The person who had this had the fish soup, so they said one fish dish is enough.
Same here, this is pork knuckles with French fries, because the person had the fish soup prior to this. I was told it was good.
My plan was to have some dessert as well as they had the papanasi, wish I love, but there was no room for anything in my stomach unfortunately. The portions are decent, so you don't leave hungry, that's for sure.
After that, our next stop was Szováta (Sovata), which is a well known tourist destination, just a few km away from out initial destination. Unfortunately the tourist season this year is far from what it should be as the government cut the vacation vouchers this year and many can't afford to travel.
This is the main street that takes you to the salt lake called Medvetó (Lacu Ursu), which used to be packed all day that you could barely make some progress. Now it was basically empty. I've never seen this road this empty.
After meeting some friends for a drink and chat, we made a stop at the ice cream shop. This was a bit of a bitter sweet moment as I wanted to take photos of the ice cream we bought, but due to the heat, the ice creams were melting fast and the photo would have been ugly, so I gave up and focused on eating it, before melting. Maybe next time.
Here comes the particularity of the place. Everything for the tourists, right? And for the profit of course. You can take part of a tour of the place on this chariot. The funny thing is the price of the ride.
A friend of mine had some foreign guests and wanted to offer them an experience they never forget and thought a ride with this chariot would fit in nicely. He asked the owner what it would cost to rent the chariot for an hour and when he was told the price, he said, "I want to rent it, not buy it" 😆 You can read between the lines I hope. But even if it's not cheap, every time I go there see people riding in the chariot.
If you prefer a ride updated to modern standards, you can ride Thomas, the train, which takes you on a tour for much less.
This train is always full, kids love it and it's a really fun thing to do for them.
I took this photo at around 8pm and I'm still shocked how empty those streets were (still are I bet). Regardless, it was a fun day.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
