One of the most beautiful places in Romania

Our friend Gabi had told us about a place here in Romania that is very beautiful, but a bit of a hike to get to. It's called Fundătura Ponorului. 

From where we were parked, we mapped out a route that said it should be around 14 kms (8.7 miles). There are a lot of different trails in the area though, and it's difficult to know exactly which one to take. 

We haven't seen another motorhome or campervan in probably two weeks.

We said goodbye to Valentina and her mother and headed out at around 10:30am. Made a quick grocery stop in town, and then on to Gradistea Muncelului - Cioclovina Natural Park. It was only about 60 kms, but it took over an hour.

I had read about a great overnight spot that had room for only one vehicle, so we had our fingers crossed that there was nobody already there. 

Why do they make it so complicated...

One of the many reasons we want to get resident status in Europe is so that we aren't having to play "the Schengen shuffle". The Schengen visa area in Europe encompasses most European Union (EU) countries as well as some non EU countries. It means that we can only spend 90 days out of any rolling 180 day period in those Schengen countries.

So it takes some advance planning.

Well that turned into an adventure!

I think I've used that title before. We always seem to get into some kind of unplanned adventurous situation! 

This time, we went on a bike ride to a couple of waterfalls, and then parked the bikes and hiked in the rest of the way. It turned into quite the hike!

Out for lunch and a nice hike

They kept saying it was going to rain, and it looked like it was going to rain, but we got lucky and it never did. 

We took Valentina out for lunch and even sat outside on the patio. Afterwards, we went for a hike in the hills in behind Valentina's house. Some great photos!

Such a beautiful area

Valentina's place is located on the border of Retezat National Park and it's such a beautiful area. We could live here... except that they get winter! Lots of snow, and she said they were down to -25C (-13F) a couple of times this past winter. She goes to Egypt or Israel quite often to escape the cold!

Anyhow, yesterday morning she drove us in her car up into the park to have a look around.

Into the Carpathian mountains

We had a beautiful drive yesterday into the mountains. Our route took us through Defileul Jiului National Park and we stopped at the Lainici Monastery which is located inside the park. 

From there, we did a big grocery shop and had lunch in the town of Lupeni, and then drove to our friend Valentina's house where we are going to stay for a couple of days.

The interesting town of Targu Jiu, Romania

Sunday morning we drove to the town of Targu Jiu (pop 82,000). More of a city I guess, considering the population. But it has a large town feel to it.

Not much to see along the way. Southern Romania between Bucharest and the Serbia border is largely farmland. But Targu Jiu is located at the foot of the sub Carpathian mountain range so our scenery will be improving over the next few days as we are headed into the mountains next.

Big Roma houses

Saturday morning we puttered around and got Max ready to go. Did all the various chores like emptying and filling tanks, and cleaned the front windshield one more time. Max probably hadn't been this clean since the day we picked him up!

But that didn't last long.

April Expenses

Not a bad month. Considering we started the month in Turkiye near the Syria border, and ended up in Craiova, Romania I think we did okay. 

Plus, we splurged a couple of times!

Time to move on

We've been here three nights now, and although it's a nice spot and it would be easy to stay another night, we're thinking we'll move on today. We want to be up in the mountains to visit with friends on Monday, and it's still 350 kms (217 miles) or so away. 

Just one family's story

There is a refugee family from Ukraine staying in the guesthouse here where Max is parked. The guesthouse does meals as well, and we decided to have dinner yesterday. We were asked if we wanted to sit at the same table together, and we did.

So yesterday afternoon our host Gabriel grilled a whole bunch of meat over an open fire... sausage, chicken, and beef... and we had a feast!

Welcome to Romania!

Romania is not a new country for us. We were in Romania for the month of November, 2016. We liked it so much at the time, we knew we would return some day. It's unfortunate that we're only going to be here for about two weeks, but that's the way it goes.

We got on the road just before 10:00am and headed for the border crossing bridge. But as we got close to the traffic circle before the bridge, things slowed down and there were police blocking traffic. 

Can't ask for much better than that!

Just an all around nice day! Sunshine and blue sky with a high around 25C (77F). Can't ask for much better than that!

So we got the bikes off in the morning and went for a ride. For a small city, Ruse has some nice bike routes.

At the Danube River on the Romania border

Our quick trip through Bulgaria is almost over. We're on a deadline now to get to the northern tip of Denmark in time for our ferry booking to Norway on June 1st. So we're not doing many detours... we are sightseeing when appropriate along our chosen route.

But, there are quite a few things we want to see and do along the way. And, people to see!