North York Central Library Blog

As promised, this post is a visual journey of my family vacation to Transylvania, Romania. Here you can find my introductory post along with the recommended library materials. This trip really took me back to my roots. I stayed in my family home in my city, Odorheiu Secuiesc (Szekelyudvarhely in Hungarian, which is the main language spoken here) for nearly three weeks. After this trip, I realized that I really miss aspects of my culture and it was good to get re-educated in it. We saw old friends and family, took day trips to amazing places, which I will show you below, and enjoyed food and drinks that are so indulgent, that you felt like you had to walk the length of the entire city to make up for the extra calories!

The Transylvanian landscape is really rich in mountains and vast, deep, evergreen forests, where bears definitely lurk. We were always curious to see if we would catch any brown bears jumping out at us on the winding roads we took amongst the forests to get to our many sight-seeing destinations.

The people of Transylvania are quite warm and friendly and when you visit their home, you better not refuse the hospitality that comes your way! You will no doubt be offered a healthy shot of palinka, and various other drinks, no doubt some wine too. In terms of food, the dishes that really stood out to me were: csorba, basically a vegetable soup with a special sour herb plant called lovage; goulash (gulyás), which everyone knows as a soup or stew with meat and vegetables and seasoned with paprika, cumin, etc.; and chicken paprikash (csirke parikas), which at least the way I make it, is a chicken, paprika, sour cream sauce concoction, served with noodles.

Enough about main dishes, let's get to desserts! Kürtőskalács, or in English I think they call them chimney stacks or chimney cakes, are sold just about everywhere. They are made from a sweet dough and wrapped around a cone shape, rolled in sugar, roasted over charcoal and basted with butter, until the surface turns golden brown and the sugar crystalizes. It can'then be topped with additional goodies, such as shaved coconut, cinnamon, or my favourite, ground walnuts. See the photo of the roasting process below.

 Let's get into my photo diary:

This is the Salt Mine in Praid. Breathing the air for several hours at time inside here (salt therapy) is said to be therapeutic for respiratory conditions.

Gyilkos-to or Red Lake is the largest barrier lake in the Eastern Carpathians chain in Harghita County, Romania. Click on this link to read about the legend associated with this lake.

This place is called the Szejke, and showcases the Szekely gates at the grave of Orban Balazs, a Hungarian writer, historian and  politician.

Bran Castle in Brasov, Romania is a national monument and landmark, but in other terms is known as the 'Dracula' castle. It is the castle in Transylvania which fits Bram Stoker's description of Dracula's castle, but there is no evidence that he knew anything more about this castle. It is now a museum open to tourists and houses the art and furniture collected by Queen Marie. 

Korond is a village in Harghita County, Romania, famous for its pottery and ceramics. I definitely picked up a few pieces to take home from here, including hand-embroidered Transylvanian shirts.

This is the location of one the most popular ski resorts, called the Madaras Harghita. The views of the Harghita Mountains are absolutely incredible, and the food in the various chalets here is some of the best I had in Transylvania.

There are mineral water springs here in this Homorod resort and spa (Lobogo), which offers summer and winter sports, and a fantastic restaurant in the Lobogo Panzio that my family and I ate at least twice at on this trip. The locals (and I) come to collect the sparkling mineral water from the ground. There are many medicinal mineral water springs in Transylvania due to volcanic movements that the locals use for spa water and for drinking water.

This gulyas was from a restaurant called the Árcsó fogadó and was one of the best bowls of gulyas I have ever had.

 I can't believe I had the soup (from above) and this chicken (Csirke) paprikas in one sitting! It was that good.

This is goose or duck liver served over a bed of glazed veggies. I had to include this for the foodies out there.

And last, but not least, kürtőskalács in the making!

As you can'tell, this trip was truly something special, a great cultural experience. I can't wait to go back!

Fun pics: