Romania 2014: A Tour of Two Cities: Alba Juila (part 7)

Missed a blog? Catch up here:

Romania 2014: Layover in Amsterdam (part 1)

Romania 2014: Moreni and Codlea (part 2)

Romania 2014: Who Let the Dogs Out? (part 3)

Romania 2014: Cabana Lui Gheorghe (part 4)

Romania 2014: Sibiu: The European Cultural Capital (part 5)

Romania 2014: A Tour of Two Cities: Sibiu (part 6)

Wednesday July 2, 2014

Alina’s friend and previous Romanian roommate, Maria, and visited us in California in 2012, and invited us to visit her close to her Grandmother’s hometown, Alba Julia.  So, Andi, Delia, Thomas, Alina, and I, drove an hour North West and met Maria at Fortress called, “Alba Carolina Fortress”.  "The Alba Carolina fortress was built between 1714 and 1738 and it is considered to be the most representative baroque, Vauban-type star fortress in Romania and one of the largest of this kind in Eastern Europe.” (Blog) A bird’s eye shows the fortress with a star-like barricade surrounding the fortress.  

We approached the huge structure surrounded by walls and huge moat like trenches.  We entered through a bridge, which was overlooked by a enormous church.  We walked through the fortress itself, which contains many old buildings and some carts with items for purchase.  At the other side of the fort, we exited one of 3 gates with a bridge and walked along the upper side of the moat, which now had paths for walking and biking.  Further down the side of the wall, another bridge serve a passage to a restaurant with seating right in the bridge itself.  

The place was called, “Restaurant Medieval” and it was recommended for authentic Romanian cuisine by Maria.  The inside portion had tables and chairs set in a medieval round dining hall, like something from the Game of Thrones.  The walls had arms and armor with emblems of past generations.  Alina order soap and salad, while Maria, Andi, Delia, and I ordered the “King’s Platter” to share.  It was enormous!  The dish had chicken, ribs, sausage, wings, pig fat, wedges, potatoes, tomatoes, pickles, apples, and onions.  We finished with a tradition Romanian dessert called, “papanasi”.  It’s like a donut with sugar, jam, and it was delicious.  Food blog to come…

We walked off our meal by circling back around the outside of the fortress within the wide moat-like trench.  There was a tall wall of the fort on our right and another wall on our left.  After our walk, we said goodbye to Maria and hit the road back to Andi and Delia’s in Sibiu.