Travel Stories - Romania

I slept in a hostel near the cave last night and enjoyed my breakfast served on the veranda. Just before ten o'clock I leave my big bag in the hostel and walk towards the parking lot - unfortunately I have seen a tour bus full of Romanians coming along and I probably end up in a tour with this group. Suddenly a sloping road begins here past many souvenir stands with wooden bears, plastic bears and a lot of own brewed bottles of alcohol and ofcourse "Palinka" - I see handwritten labels with "prune-", "apple-" and pear taste scrawled on it. I walk past all the stalls until I reach a big ugly building where I can buy my entrance ticket. Here is also the big group waiting and like expected we go up the stairs at the same time, through a door into the cave. It’s pretty cold inside but fortunately, I brought something warms with me. As expected, the tour is totally given in Romanian and I walk in the back of the group to take pictures. There was just a piece of paper at the entrance that you have to pay extra for taking it but as often no one asks for it and I think it's all fine.

The caves are about a kilometer long and it seems they consist of two floors. Both are connected with each other by iron stairs. Large construction lamps ensure that you get a view of the magnificent stalagmites and stalactites that are mysteriously illuminated in this way. They look like big candles whose fat has run over the edge. On the ceiling, strange ribbons of this fat are waiting to fall down. In my guide I read that these "stalactites" grow about a centimeter per year and some of them are 22 to 50,000 years old. The cave was discovered in 1974 near a marble quarry in this area. In addition to the strange "ribbons", an impressive number of spores and fossils were found, from a chamois, an ibex, a lion and a hyena. We arrive in a large space (a gallery) where it seems as if James Bond can enter every moment. It is a pity that I can not understand the guide but the cave itself is enough to make the visit worthwhile. At the very end of the cave we stop at a round iron fence in which the perfectly preserved skeleton of the bear lies. The beast has died in a perfect place and you can still see his teeth and the rest of his bones - it seems like he first took a bite from another animal (there is not a group of bones far away from his remains) before he put his head down forever. We walk back via a different route and about 45 minutes to an hour later we walk out through a door again where a group of hungry salesman are waiting for us.

For the sake of certainty, I ask for a moment, when I pick up my big bag, where I can best stand for a bus and otherwise a lift. The woman laughs, makes it clear that I do not have to expect a bus (it is Sunday, but I think there will never be a bus here) and points at the end of the parking lot. The first car that picks me up is the grandfather and grandchild with whom I was in the tour through the cave. The little girl, which already looked different - also because she was making pictures with her tablet - what no one has here (yet), appears to come from Ireland. She speaks Romanian and English and is here visiting with her parents. After a chat I ask if it is possible to drive to "Beius" where hopefully a bus station is and I can travel further towards "Oradea". There I step out at the end of the town because there are probably no buses to my final destination for today "Oradea". At a bend I try to hitchike further. A guy with a big cowboy hat asks where I come from. In English he explains that it is best to walk a little further, to a gas station - that seems to be the permanent lift spot of the city. When I arrive there, I am immediately asked where I want to go. It is just a chat, but after a few minutes I understand that "we" already have three people and that we are still waiting for someone after me and then drive an "illegal" "shared" taxi to "Oradea". After fifteen minutes we find the last victim and I stuff my big bag in the back of the Volkswagen. Ofcourse they try to get more money from me, as a tourist, but I give the same amount as the others and thank them when I get out in my next destination.