Traveller in Romania: Day trip re-discovering Sinaia on foot in a freezing day, the ‘Mount Sinai’ of Bucegi - PART 1
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It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen one place, there is always a chance that on your next visit you find new things and you create new memories.
Isn’t this the purpose of travelling?
If holidaying in Romania, it might be a good idea to spare one day in Sinaia. One day is all you need to fall in love with the town. Sinaia is a mountain resort in the Bucegi Mountains and people go there for hiking and ski, and for peace and quiet and fresh air. The town was named after the Monastery Sinaia which in turn was named after Mount Sinai.
I have visited Sinaia many times before and already dug into its history and culture. I’ve seen the Sinaia Monastery, the Peles Castle, Pelisor Palace, and I’ve been with the cable car to Cota 1400 and Cota 2000. Cota means ‘altitude’, and yes, you get that high.
These are all a ‘must see’ in Sinaia. But if you don’t have too many days, a one-day visit is always welcome.
We were in Pietrosita, a village about 30 km from Sinaia, and we decided to take the bus for a one-day trip to Sinaia.
We arrived in Sinaia at 8 o’clock in the morning. With the distance we went to a higher altitude and the 9 degrees Celsius in Pietrosita turn to 3 degrees in Sinaia. As they say, 3 degrees which felt like minus 3. On the streets, the windows of parked cars were frozen.
We Googled things that we can see in Sinaia, determined to have a packed day. Our first stop - the Information Centre, which was closed, as everything else at that hour. We resigned ourselves with a walk in the cold mid-October.
At 8.30 when the Tucano Coffee opened, we were thoroughly frozen,
and we gladly thawed ourselves over a cappuccino and a quiche. The coffee place, lively with walls covered in images of South American scenes, is located in front of the Carpati Shopping Centre. More than the coffee and breakfast, they have…a small in-house library! You can pick up a book and read over your coffee. Plenty of classics there, Romanian and international authors – and, no, my book was not there. Maybe next time. The windows had a full view to the main street.
We watched the Dog Woman, a reminder of the Mary Poppins Bird Woman as she arrived with a small parcel and instantly was surrounded by a pack of stray dogs. She gingerly produced polony from the parcel – one slice at a time – and calmly fed the dogs for a long while, as they waited patiently for their turn.
Ready to start our tour and back on the street,
we realised that we were not prepared for the cold. When I felt my skull crushed in the freezing air, and my hands numb, it brought back memories of the cold winters of Romania.
We walked back to the Info Kiosk. Well after 9 and it was still closed. So, it might not be always open, but there was a map on the door, I took a photo of it, because we had a whole day ahead of us.
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