Archive for August, 2010

Dervent Monastery

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags , , , , , , on 30 August 2010 by Watcher Romano

The grand finale of my electrifying summer seaside holiday was the road back home, on the south side of the Danube. I chose this road because I really wanted to take pictures in two places I had visited before but did not have the camera with me. The Dervent Monastery is one of those two places. Why I find this monastery so special is it’s landscape. It is nothing like any other monastery in Romania. See for yourself:

I strongly suggest you visit this place, because everything about it is out of the ordinary: the landscape, the compound, the actual setting of the monastery is in one of the deserted places in Romania, although one would not imagine.

These pictures were taken in the very last part of an electrifying summer holiday I had this year. Here are more posts from this holiday. If you like colorful photos of  beautiful places, you’ve come to the right blog. Stick around, get a free notice every time new photos are posted (via RSS or email ).

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Agnita Free Spirits 2010

Posted in Travel with tags , , , , , , on 23 August 2010 by Watcher Romano

Agnita is a small town close to the very center of Romania, which for the past years has become more and more famous for the “Free Spirits Ride” off-road event held here every summer. This year, there were around 60 teams that took part. The event is however not that much about the off-road part (although we did have a road-book, a trial and a special stage) as it is about the people, friendship, collaboration and fun. I will only post very few pictures with actual  off-road action, just because that very reason:

This was my first time sleeping in a tent ! As you could observe yourself this blog has a high frequency of showing off offroading activities, so do come back (via RSS or email ).

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Leaota Peak via Stoenesti

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags , , , , , , on 23 August 2010 by Watcher Romano

It’s the fourth time I’ve tried to summon Leaota Peak and the second time I managed to do it. This time on the ‘easy’ road starting in  the Stoenesti village of Arges (on DN7).

There are some 25 kilometers from the national road up to the peak, and the road is pretty bad for small cars. It’s not exactly easy for 4x4s either, because the recent floods have taken considerable chunks of the road, and in som eplaces one needs to climb the wall in order to fit on the road.

It is however a very worthwhile trip:

The last photo is a path that haunts my dreams since the first time we managed to get there: it’s from the actual peak, going into the ‘opposite direction’. i think it could be done (especially downwards :-) ) with some care, and a wee bit more difficult on the ascent. But I would really really like to have some prepared cars and make an expedition to see where we could get to…

If you stumbled upon this post by accident, check back frequently (via RSS or email ) because there are a lot of pictures showing how beautiful our country is, and another lot of pictures showing offroad adventures.

If you are interested in going there, just take DN7 from Targoviste to Campulung and take a right hand turn in Stoenesti (first village after the infamous Radu Voda rupestrian church), following the “Valea Badenilor”  indicator. You will then find a “Vf Leaota 22 km” indicator and then you’re lost :-) . You have to cross the SECOND bridge after you find aforementioned indicator and just keep that road. some 15 kilometers later you will find the first serious junction, where you will follow the original road, that is, you will keep left.

That’s it! When the road finishes, you need to turn 195 degrees to the right and climb on the peak. Good Luck!

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Gura Portitei

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags , , , , , , , , on 16 August 2010 by Watcher Romano

A number of people had told me about the place where the Danube spills into the Black Sea, Gura Portitei. When the a close friend actually went there we found out that Gura Portitei is the place where the Razelm and Golovita lakes spill into the Black Sea :-)

I had to check for myself so I took the car up to Jurilovca and the speed boat from there, for the last 12 km. What I found was a very very beautiful and quiet place, where one would go if in need for peace while still keeping some confort:

Gura Portitei

Gura Portitei

The beach looks just like in the infamous Hawaii postcards:

Gura Portitei

Gura Portitei

Gura Portitei

Gura Portitei

What’s interesting about Gura Portitei is that is is located on a sand bank between the Black Sea and the Golovita, Razelm and Sinoie lakes. It is impossible to reach it by car. There seems to be at least one road for motorcycles, but that’s as wide as you can go (at least that’s what I saw on Google Earth). However, going there motorized requires one to go through one of the strictly forbidden areas like Chituc, Wolves or Perisorul Sand Banks. In places, you feel you could touch the sea with one hand and the lakes with the other. I think that could be frightful on a stormy day :-)

Sand bank between Golovita Lake and the Black Sea

Sand bank between Golovita Lake and the Black Sea

If you want to go there, I have to warn you about the boat trip from Jurilovca: if  you have enough time, the regular ship takes something like 75 minutes to cross the Golovita lake and costs RON 50 for the return trip. If however you do not feel like wasting 3-4 hours (included in the calculation is the time spent waiting for the ship), a speed boat costs RON 400 for the return trip.

In my opinion, the place is worth at least one trip:

Gura Portitei Panorama

Gura Portitei Panorama

This trip was part of my electrifying seaside holiday. I have seen some very picturesque places in this trip, so stay tuned for more (via RSS or email ).

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Constanta Landmarks – The Lion House

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags , , , , , on 13 August 2010 by Watcher Romano

Close to the Casino, in the old city center of Constanta, I found this beautiful more-than-one-hundred-year-old genovese-style house, said to have hosted a Masonic Lounge in the 1930′s. Unfortunately,  the house currently looks like it has an uncertain legal status, with it’s former beauty shining from underneath the deserted look. The house’s placement amidst a very ugly populated neighborhood also does not help. It is a pity to have such a beautiful landmark and leave it like this:

Casa cu Lei, Constanta

Casa cu Lei, Constanta

Casa cu Lei, Constanta

Casa cu Lei, Constanta

These pictures were taken during my electrifying summer seaside holiday. There are a lot more coming, so stay tuned (via RSS or email ).

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Constanta Landmarks – the Casino

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags , , , , , , , on 11 August 2010 by Watcher Romano

I have just returned from an electrifying seaside holiday. I chose the Romanian seaside and our friend Dima was the person to help with this. Thank you again!  It’s gonna be impossible to forget this holiday ;-)

Romanians generally go to the seaside for the beach and night life. I did enjoy that also (and got some tan along with it) BUT I thought that if in a foregin country, I would have visited a lot. So I decided to also go and visit Constanta and it’s surroundings. I did reach Histria, Gura Portitei, Traian’s Tropy at Adamclisi, St. Andrew Monastery and the very special Dervent Monastery, so stay tuned for the following posts (via RSS or email ).

Until then however, let’s focus on today’s post: one of the most famous landmarks of Constanta is the seafront Casino. It was built in 1909 and still looks great. Here is some more info about it, but if you search Google for pictures, you will find that they are not doing it justice, so I felt I needed to have a take at this:

Constanta Casino, side view

Constanta Casino, side view

Constanta Casino, full frontal view

Constanta Casino, full frontal view

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