Carpathian Mountains

I made some Romanian friends on my Camino de Santiago Walk and we agreed to meet up in Romania for a hike.

When that opportunity arose, I was in the capital of Moldova, Chişinau. These friends told me to take a bus to a border town named Iaşi. It was a four-hour international bus ride that went through open farmlands.

Almost three hours into the ride, the police stopped the bus and asked me for my passport. The other passengers were Moldovan. After a quick check, they allowed the bus to proceed.

Shortly thereafter, the bus went through a customs office and all passengers had to give their passport to the official and walk to the other side on foot. After stamping, each passenger's passport was handed to the driver.

To pay the fare of 300 leu, approximately €15, I had no local currency and payment had to be made in cash. I had a 100-euro bill for which the driver had no change. At the customs office, he gave my money to a mini-bank and handed me the change.

Another half hour of drive continued, and the scenery was pretty, the sky was blue.

As we approached Iaşi, there was a statue of Mihai Viteazul, Michael the Brave.

I was dropped off at the bus stop. I waited for my friends to pick me up.

The bus stop was next to the Iasi train station. It looked very ornate and was built in the 1800s.

While waiting, I went to an ATM and got some cash, the bills were very clean, made of plastic paper and colorful.

The city was pretty modern, had an electric tram system and wide roads.

I had come from Chişinau to Iasi, my friends were coming from Vislui. We were going to drive to Braşov for about 7 hours and the following day we were going to hike.

Listening to music, talking, stopping for snacks and food, we covered the seven-hour distance and had a good meal at a traditional Romanian Restaurant.

The views were great along the way, many mountain views, cities, farmlands. The sky looked pretty. The roads were very good too, although my friends weren't too psyched about them since many sections were single lane highways.

We went to a very big grocery store at Braşov, the Auchan and loaded up on snacks for the hike.

We had about an hour-long drive from the Airbnb to the start of the hike and we were on the trail at 8:30AM.

The new country, new mountain and new terrain was exciting, and we walked enthusiastically.

Our goal was the Piatra Mare peak, which was 1,844 meters high, just over 6,000 feet. The elevation of Braşov is about 2,000 feet, so the hike gained about 4,000 feet.

A stream accompanied us at the start of the hike.

I was enjoying the alpine tress. Our hike was the 7 ladders canyon, the Sapte Scari canionul.

There are brown bears in this area and my friend had a bear spray, he kept using his whistle periodically to warn bears of our presence.

The forest was mesmerizing.

It was quite steep and my friend, who had just bought new shoes last night was walking like he was on fire. I was trailing and struggling, as usual.

I was trying to catch up to them and they waited for me sometimes. It was a bit scary because I had no clue what I would do when faced with a bear encounter.

The fall colors were pretty, and a stream was flowing downhill along the route.

There was a spot which was the start of the zipline adventure.

We continued walking and tried to follow the signs on tree trunks. There were some steep steps on the way.

We came to a canyon where we needed to climb a steep staircase but it was closed. There was a sign indicating we needed to find a red spot on the other side of the hill and continue the hike from that point forward.

We continued to look for the point and found it, we were committed, there was no turning back with the excuse of the trail closure.

The trail was beautiful and the steepness challenging.

A few more times on the way, we encountered the red dot.

On the dirt, I could see bear tracks.

The trail flattened a bit and became a bit easier.

At this point, it was not much different from any California trail in appearance.

There were some very steep sections ahead.

From the viewpoints, the Braşov city was visible.

It was quite a sprawling city.

There was a meadow with a house and some workers logging timber.

The Carpathians all around us were beautiful.

We saw a fox that was very cute and in a short while we guessed that it was domesticated. It came close to us when we offered it some food.

More rocky paths ahead led us through a small hilly area.

The rocks and the hay looked interesting in the background of the blue sky.

There were vast views of the city from another vantage point.

Some more highly rocky paths were ahead.

We were reaching the summit by now.

The views got more open and grander.

The path was quite narrow but easy now.

Many rows of the eastern Carpathian Mountain ranges were in front of us.

Some sides of the mountains had dense forests with fall colors sprinkled.

Other nearby cities were visible from a different angle.

The summit was in front of us.

We took pictures from different sides.

We had some snacks.

We just sat peacefully for a half hour after taking many pictures.

Going back was relatively easy and fast. We stopped at the meadow where we met the fox again. It was a logger's house and they had a small cafe.

We ordered beer and coffee and admired the various Knick knacks on the wood paneled walls.

The climb up had taken us three and a half hours. Afterr the coffee break, we started walking down at a fast clip.

The trail was a bit different on the way down, so we had a variety of views.

Two hours later, we were at the last bend and the hike was over.

We had allotted more time for the adventure and were done sooner.

We were back at the entrance which had a cafe. We got into the car and drove an hour and soon we were in the town of Braşov which had many restaurants and entertainment.

The hike was fantastic, and I got a chance to enjoy it with new hiking friends. It was a day well-spent.