May Day weekend in Timisoara and the Danube Delta

Happy May!

I hope you are well.  I could say that May has started rather well for me.

I was desperately thinking in class what to do for the long weekend coming up, I was feeling a bit exhausted, there has been a lot of travelling and work and other rushes, and I felt like maybe I should have a quiet weekend in but then that would be a waste of the extra day we get off. So I decided that I would travel somewhere if I could get cheap tickets and if it is promised to be sunny. To my surprise, the cheapest tickets were to Timisoara in Romania! I had never even heard of the city before, and to my shame, I must admit, that Romania had never really been on my bucket lists. But the flights were 45 euros return and all the hotels seemed super cheap. I selected a hostel right in the city centre for 35 euros for three nights!

I booked the tickets and the hotel and I was all set for the weekend. The flight from Milan takes less than two hours and went very smoothly. I was picked up from the tiny airport and driven to the centre by the walking area. The walking area surrounds the three main squares and as I got off the car by the opera house the famous umbrella street revealed itself. My hostel was actually right on that street!

Knowing nothing about this city before, it was funny how lucky I got; I actually found out that I have a friend who plays rugby there and that I managed to visit at the time for the annual flower festival.

The city centre is very easy to navigate around and has some small parks for you to stop by. A river runs across Timisoara and the banks are lush with green. I spent the first day getting to know the city centre and ordered a chef’s special by the main square. Proved to be a very yummy stroganoff with mashed potatoes and homemade bread.

In the evening, I went out for dinner with my friend and tasted the local delight; palinka. Palinka is homemade ‘wine’ which I would call vodka, it is very strong and usually made of plums but can be made of other fruits as well. Hmm.. cannot say that I truly enjoyed the taste!

I signed up to go for a day trip on the next day to visit the Danube Gorge and Delta. It is only 200 km south from Timisoara but (according to my tour guide) the corruption of the country sadly keeps the price of highways too expensive and therefore most of the journey must be travelled on smaller roads. Once we made it there, three hours later, we visited the monastery on top of the hill in Orsova. From there we had our first proper glance of Serbia and the waterways.

We bought some snacks by the harbour at the local barbeque area and found a boat that we rented for an hour to take us around the delta.

The ride was beautiful and windy. On the way, we visited a 2000-year-old Serbian shrine which was located on the river. Our destination was to see the third biggest stone statue in the world; a man representing the ancestors of the Romanian people. The statue seems old but was actually finished only a decade ago.

Decebalus Dacian King.

Once we had finished our boat ride, we decided to go buy some lunch and climb up on top of the hills by the delta and have a picnic. We drove past the statue and further down the delta. Even the views on the ride are rather magnificent. The climb on top of the hill takes about 15 minutes from the parking lot. Sadly, I didn’t have any internet so I am unable to pinpoint this secret location the locals pointed out for us. It does seem like there are more than one climbing spots so driving down the main road, I am sure you will find one! I would say we drove around 15 to 20 minutes past the statue.

It was unreal to sit there on top of this hill on right on the borderline. We were checking out people having a similar picnic on the Serbian side which is directly opposite to me in this photo. We enjoyed our lunch and the views, took many photos and inhaled the fresh air. Unfortunately, we had a long drive ahead of us and the sky started looking a bit gloomy so we had to depart.

It was my name’s day on Sunday,  oddly name’s days are much celebrated in Romania so my new friends from the trip pressured me to go out for some drinks with them. We finished the night short, after testing the beer you can get with your fries from McDonald’s.

The official May Day itself was beautiful and sunny in Timisoara so I strolled through the city parks and headed for the river. I dined there with my rugby friend, fully surrounded by the pleasant dance of the spring snow (pollen). There were paddle boats on the river bank so we figured that it was the perfect day for some time onboard. We picked the biggest boat, shaped like a huge swan and started exercising.

The river is colourful with its walls filled with graffitis. There were many other boats out there and the sides filled with people enjoying beers and ice creams. The city had seemed very quiet to me at first but it was revealed that the gloomy weekend just didn’t attract the citizens to come out.

I was on a hunt to find some langos (local puffy pastry) and to maybe buy something local so we took a taxi to the Julius Mall (2 euros). We did find langos but it didn’t satisfy my need as the pastry had the yummy filling inside and wasn’t one of those hot pastries with melting cheese on top. We found our way to the rooftop to see the sunset and headed back to the city centre for dinner. The main squares were filled with flowers for the festival and it seemed like all the locals were out taking selfies and sniffing the evening air filled with flower scent.

I departed Timisoara on Tuesday morning and flew back to Milan. All in all, I must say that Timisoara and Romania both were a very pleasant surprise and hopefully, one day I can sail the full length of the Danube.

Happy day,

Mira

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