After a few months of lockdown and self-isolating myself from the world, it was finally time for a bit of travel. From the beginning, I took this virus very seriously. I tried to avoid social contact as much as possible and I canceled all my travel plans.
In no way was I going to put the lives of my loved ones in danger. Even now, I chose to travel inside Romania, my home country. I don’t feel comfortable traveling abroad yet.
Truth be told, I managed to travel quite a bit before the borders closed. In the first 3 months of this year I visited Portugal and Lapland in Finland. Even though I would have loved to travel more, especially now during summer, I got my dose of travel early this year.
July started with a short day trip to a beautiful lavender field near Bucharest. I loved going out to shoot again. It’s incredible how this lockdown made me appreciate the small things. After spending days inside the house, I was so happy to go out and create some content!
One thing is sure, after 2020 I will never take travel for granted ever again. I used to complain about packing my stuff before going on trips, about getting tired from walking too much or about researching for itineraries. Now I’d give anything to have a trip to plan for.
Going back to what happened in July, at the end of the month we finally did a road-trip through Transylvania, Romania. We thought long and hard about the safest way to do this road-trip and we decided to craft our itinerary in such a way that at the end of the day, we could sleep at Dan’s parents who live somewhere near Targu Mures in Transylvania.
On the first day, we woke up early in the morning, and headed to Transalpina, one of the most scenic roads in Romania. This winding road is carved into the tall Carpathian Mountains and the scenery is simply stunning.
For the first half of the drive, we were a bit unlucky because the weather was against us. The fog was so thick that we could barely see the car in front of us but after a few more kilometres, the fog lifted and we could see Transalpina in all its beauty.
We stopped a few times to take photos but the main attractions of Transalpina are the donkeys. They’re super-friendly and they come to people for snacks and scratches.
I don’t know if I ever told you but Dan is crazy about donkeys. He absolutely loves them and even wants us to buy one when we get a house. I like them too, they’re cute but I’m not sure about actually owning a donkey. Haha.
After Transalpina, we continued our journey and stopped at the Alba Iulia Fortress, one of the most historically important locations in Romania. Modern Romania was formed here, on December 1st 1918 when Transylvania was united with the Romanian Kingdom.
After Alba Iulia, we continued our journey to Targu Mures where we spent the night. The next day early in the morning we were on the road again, only this time heading to Sighisoara and Biertan.
Sighisoara is the only fortress in Europe which is still inhabited. Its colorful streets and fascinating museums attract tourists from all over the world. I visited Sighisoara before, a long time ago, and it was time to explore it again. Soon enough I’ll write a blog post about it with all the info you need when visiting it.
After Sighisoara, we went to Biertan which used to be one of the most important saxon villages in Transylvania. What makes this place unique is the stunning fortified church sitting right in the center of the village, on top of a small hill.
The entire village looks like a scene from a fairy-tale. I can’t believe I never visited this place before!
On the third and last day of our road-trip we stopped at the beautiful Clay Castle, we took some photos and then continued to Transfagarasan.
Transfagarasan road is a wonder of architecture. This winding road, high in the mountains was named by Top Gear as the Best Road in the World! The views are simply breathtaking and once we reached the top, we took a break to admire Balea Lake.
If you ever plan to visit Romania, make sure to add Transfagarasan to your itinerary!
Even though we only traveled for three days, it was a long road and we drove a little over 1000 kilometres. It felt good to travel again and I plan to explore more of Romania this year so stay tuned for more photos and stories.
We don’t have any specific travel plans for the next month but we’ll most probably do another short road-trip.
Blog updates
Nothing new besides the fact that I created a new Twitter account for Daily Travel Pill. Dan tried to convince me to create a Twitter account for the past few years but I always felt that I already have enough on my plate.
Now, with this lockdown, I decided to give it a try and I actually love it! So if you want to see more stories, make sure to follow me on Twitter.
Here are the blog posts I posted this last month:
- South Korea Travel Guide
- The Philippines Travel Guide
- Portugal Travel Guide
- How to spend 1 day in Salzburg
- Cheap traditional dishes in Southeast Asia under $5
- Best beaches in Romania
- 20 best cities in Romania
- Porto or Lisbon – which one to choose?
- How to spend 1 day in Porto
- Top destinations of 2020 – lockdown edition
Until next month, take care and thank you for reading my monthly updates!
May the travel bug bite you!
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Aurelia Teslaru is a professional travel blogger and the writer behind Daily Travel Pill. With a 4-year experience as a travel writer and photographer, Aurelia only shares travel guides about destinations that she visited.
She has been to more than 40 countries during the past 10 years and aims to explore 50 countries before turning 30 years old. Aurelia is a digital nomad who transformed her passion for travel into a lifestyle. Read more about her here.
To follow her adventures, check out her Instagram and Facebook pages!