Getting lost in the Romanian mountains
With turmoil looming over online poker in Germany due to the proposed new online gambling law and live poker on a hiatus in Europe, my live poker event reporting services in what I consider as the strongest asset of professional work are currently not required or requested. What better reason would there be to take some time off and relax for a while, perhaps explore another country that I had already visited previously?
With both shots of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine taken care of, the frantic search for a country kicked off late in April 2021. One particular destination quickly gained my main focus: Romania. I had visited this Eastern European country several times already, not just for work, and several friendships within my “family away from home” aka the world of poker came out of it. No PCR test or mandatory quarantine was needed upon arrival thanks to the vaccination proof and I was fortunate enough to have a friend I could “stay with as long as I wanted” in the capital Bucharest.
Seeing friends again and spending some time away from home was certainly needed, as the ceiling was about to drop on my head. For several years, the longest time I had spent at the same place was work-related but more than a year with the same chore all over again brought me on the ropes of going nuts. There were too many distractions with a nice and large flat TV, an Amazon Prime subscription, lots of foot in the fridge … the list could go on for a while.
Add to that a town in the middle of nowhere with nothing exciting happening and it was the perfect recipe for boredom, apathy, and lack of motivation to get things done. That eventually changed but the overall impression remained the same, I had to change something. Normally that would not have been an issue as work required being on the road for more than two-thirds of the year. Alas, a lot of things changed with the pandemic, and staring at the screen just wasn’t the same thing.
Technically, I am still staring at the screen while in Romania as my online writing duties have picked up. But with fewer distractions around, it has been by far easier to take care of appointments in a shorter time and actually meet submission deadlines on a regular basis. The far more enticing perk is the obvious fact to be around friends and not by myself.
Soon after I arrived in Romania, many of the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Restaurants opened, masks are no longer required in open spaces while they remain mandatory inside buildings and public transport. The malls are open at certain capacities and, unlike in Germany, supermarkets are open even on Sundays.
Vaccination efforts are also on the rise while case numbers are dropping, which isn’t necessarily the case in Germany. I had to entirely rely on luck to already get both shot of the vaccine and even be able to travel to a certain degree. Just like a bird storming out of the cage after gruesome winter months …
Speaking of winter, while May has come to an end just now there was still plenty of snow on the Bucegi Mountains, which has become a favorite hiking place of mine. Only two and a half hours away from Bucharest by train, cities such as Sinaia, Busteni and Brasov tend to attract many visitors from near and far. Almost one year ago, we headed up to nearly 2,500 meters and stayed with a tent for two nights.
This time, I went by myself and ventured away from a hiking trail I intended to take, instead going back up the same difficult path. And as the title of this blog entry says, I literally ended up getting lost in the Romanian mountains. The ski season had just closed but there was plenty of snow left up there on the plateau, I could barely see the signs of the hiking trails anymore.
After spending more than an hour trying to follow a street (which later turned out to be in the wrong direction), I frantically messaged my friend who had just finished work back in Bucharest. We were trying to figure out my location and perhaps find a way to get picked up from the rangers. However, I was outside of their territory and had two other backup plans to stay at cabanas overnight.
It slowly got darker and I kept sinking deep into the snow every other minute. By then, the whole idea seemed like a nightmare but the fortune was on my side. Two guys passed by on a snowmobile, my friend spoke with them in Romanian and they dropped me off near a location where the rangers could pick me up. I was clinging to the seat as we raced down- and uphill on the plateau en route to the ranger station atop the peak, one of the water bottles from my small bag flew away at high speed.
Subsequently, I stayed at the ranger station overnight and one of the two-seater lifts was running the next day to get back to the middle station. From there I hiked back down to Sinaia, which is home to a well-known and splendid sightseeing attraction. The sun was shining, no snow was in sight as of the middle station and it all seemed like a different world than just 24 hours prior.
Peleș Castle is actually rather a Neo-Renaissance palace and was the home of King Carol I of Romania. A visit to the ground floor costs 40 RON and the access to the top floor will cost as much on top. As a foreigner, make sure to change some money beforehand because there is only an ATM near the main entrance gate and that one has a pretty bad exchange rate.
While the first solo hiking trip almost ended in frozen misery, the visit to the castle kinda made up for it. We actually went back to the same region one week after that and climbed up to 1844 meters to overlook the plateau from far away. About one week later, I returned solo to take the path I should have used in the first place and found the way to the Stancile Franz Joseph. Upon glancing over the tiny cities at the bottom of the mountains, it’s certainly easy to get lost in thoughts.
After every hiking trip, my smartwatch keeps upping the daily steps goal to entice more punishment and activity. While that may not always include 20km or more of walking, I have been running again more frequently and aim to improve my time per 5km. It’s still a long way to go and I haven’t been buzzing with action just yet, a six-pack remains a mystery. But the overall sanity and balance have definitely improved, which was the main goal of this trip.
How long I am going to stay in Romania depends to be seen. Austria and Slovenia have apparently opened the doors to vaccinated people. For the current work duties, only my laptop and a stable internet connection are required and that’s the case almost everywhere.
It would be nice to meet more friends before the work chaos kicks in again sooner or later. Last but not least, there’s something I have to mention for sure:
There are a few things I have learned during this trip so far.
- I am lucky to have some close friends that care about me, even if they are in a different country.
- I would like to further improve my photography and writing skills.
- No matter how clever you think you are, the opposite is probably the case.
- Romania has excellent internet connectivity almost everywhere.
- Never underestimate how stupid you can be.
- It’s better to be lucky than good.
What I definitely remember now, thinking back of that time on the plateau is the following: While I was almost panicking for 15 minutes in the snow, grasping the phone in my hand and hoping the sensor would pick up the fingerprint, it certainly seemed one of the most stupid things I have done as of lately. But the eye of Horus was watching over me, hanging near my sternum on a bracelet that I acquired in Romania back in 2019.
La revedere.
