László Varga

Although we visited the place I am going to write about right after our visit to “Baile 1 Mai”, I am only writing it now, because I have been a little busy (and yes, more articles will follow because of that 🙂 ). We basically wanted to spend our weekend relaxing in the sun, so the first spa that we visited fully satisfied our needs. But… this was only the warmup: our real target was Baile Felix which is the better known resort out of the two. Our second day was dedicated entirely to visiting this resort and I think it was a wise decision that we visited this after the first one, because… well, because upgrade is just better than downgrade 😉 …

Baile Felix has been entirely renovated and is by far in a much better shape than Baile 1 Mai. The two resorts are just a few kilometers away from each-other allowing even walking between the two. Since it was our last day in the area, we went there by car. This had it’s downside but also an upside. The downside was, that I had to pay a 10 RON parking fee (~€2,50), the upside, was that I can write this information down now 🙂 . The parking place is a fenced area with guards at the entrance, but apart from that I did not see any patrols/cameras, so I guess it is more of a money-making machine, than an actual service…

After parking the car safely one can have a short walk to the entrance of the actual resort, and pay the 25 RON entry fee (~€5,80) to actually access the pool area. Once in, the relatively high entry price immediately gets obvious: free deck-chairs (well, for the ones who get there in time). Most of the area is paved and only some areas are left covered with grass. There are also very few trees which could offer some shading, so prepare for a burning sun…

The resort is mostly equipped with shallow pools filled with warm water (~38ºC). People can just stay there enjoying the water and play with children in it. There are a few mini-waterfalls which can massage your back quite well. The problem with them is that they tend to get overcrowded. There is also cool-water pool (~25ºC) which generates waves every 1.5 hours (for 15 minutes). This too gets very crowded, with people looking like herrings in the moving water. It is not really a place for swimming around either: there are just too many people to go around 🙁 . Another special feature is the giant slide-structure with five slides. There is a timetable for the slides, so it this is also a limited service.

The entry ticket to this area is also for one use only, effectively blocking people inside for lunch. Luckily the many small shops at the edge of the area keep hunger and thirst satisfied for anyone: there are places which sell cookies, places which sell fruits and fruit salads, places selling more consistent foods with meat and places selling pizza slices and baked products. One thing that they don’t have is Lángos, which should be a “basic necessity” 😛 …

At the point when we could not take the heat of the burning sun anymore, we decided to head out to eat something. But first… we visited the nearby water lily park (really nice). It has a few small lakes filled with water lilies and turtles swimming around among them. A really relaxing and quiet place. After that we just went across the bridge to have dinner in one of the local restaurants: again great prices for great food 😉 .

Yes, I would go back again. Yes, I advise anyone who goes near the area to visit it. Yes, I can imagine a few things which could improve the services…

Photos can be seen here (Taken with my phone… ).

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The week was long and tiring, so it was a bless, that the weekend afterwards had three days instead of two: after Saturday and Sunday, Monday was a religious public holiday! It would have been a sin not to use the extended weekend for something more than just shopping and sleeping… But what to do? Well, the solution lies not that far from Cluj (actually 156km-s away). There are two thermal bath spa-s near Oradea: one of them is a modest spa, which is in fact so modest, that at the time of writing not even Wikipedia knew about it: it is called Baile 1 Mai (1st of May Spa).

(Photo from: http://www.turismland.ro/statiunea-baile-1-mai/)

We went to this modest spa the first day because of one important reason: it is easier to find accommodation in a place which is not so overwhelmed by tourists… or at least that is what we thought. We did not book in advance, we tried to rely on the fact that we’ll surely be able to find something on the spot. And oh so wrong we were… almost everything was full! It took us quite some time to find a single empty room, but eventually we did, and we were free to go have fun in the water!

The entry fee into the spa resort is 15RON(€3.50). For this you get… well I guess you simply get access to the water, nothing more. To say the truth it is not a bad price, the problem with it is, that once in, you are not able to go in and out anymore. This means, that if you get hungry or need a drink you need to buy stuff from within the spa-complex limits. Of course that is not cheap (in some cases even double than the normal price).

The surroundings themselves are not bad: you can lie down mostly on a grassy area and you have access to a few types of pools: small, warm water pools for children (and old people 😛 ), one single larger, cold-water pool and one deep circular pool for diving. There are two other pools: one large, circular and another one for straight-swimming with lanes, but those were empty. The water itself seemed quite clean, the problem is that because of the grassy surroundings it quickly gets filled up with mess.

After some swimming around and sunbathing (I am now suffering the consequences 😛 ) we decided to leave the complex and find a place to eat at. There are not so many restaurants in the area, so one needs to be quick and ahead of everyone else coming out of the spa-complex, to get an empty seat. The prices are good though and the food (one juicy pizza) was very tasty (or I was really hungry… I am not sure…)

In conclusion, the place is not a looker or too exciting, but it was just perfect for us to relax an do nothing after the long week. For people who wish for more: it has been bought by the same company who rehabilitated a bigger spa resort nearby (check out my next post). The plan is to upgrade also Baile 1 Mai to a better quality resort and to attract more tourists (not that there are so few these days…)

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Last weekend a training and a team-building weekend has been organized for our team from the company. The location was chosen to be something remote from our daily activities: the top of the nearby mountains, in a region dominated by village life, peace and relaxation. I must say, the chosen village, Marisel really did fit the profile. It has a disastrous road leading up to the place, but it is quiet, being situated on the mountain-top it provides an amazing view over the nearby valleys and it also offers a glimpse of the local Romanian village-life.

For accommodation, the Cabana Motilor Inn was chosen. The owner is really friendly and seems to know how to make “village-tourism” work at it’s best. The inn itself is in my opinion top-notch: it offers a really good insight of the village life through it’s decoration, food and overall atmosphere. It also offers modern accommodation possibilities from the nowadays basic fully equipped rooms to a home-cinema system in a lounge. If someone plans a visit in the area: don’t bother staying anywhere else (And I am not getting payed for writing this 😛 ). There is ample parking space and when we were there the garage could also be used by some colleagues arriving by motorbikes.

Some of the added values of such a team-event was the included special activities at the inn: polenta has been cooked in the outside, there was a campfire in the evening (although it was actually washed away by a torrential rain) and they offered all sorts of goodies like pine-syrup and some home-made cookies that we just couldn’t get enough of 🙂

Another great point of the “included-values” (well I think that has been payed for separately) was a “carriage-ride” in which two local people brought their horse-drawn carriages (well let’s say carts) and we went for a two hour ride in the village, visiting a sort of village museum and one of the clifftops overlooking a nearby valley (again, splendid view).

I never thought such a weekend can be so relaxing. Apart from the fact that in the end I did not get much sleep (it was a team-building event after all… ) it really helped to clear my mind and just get away from the daily problems that haunt all of our lives actually.

Some photos can be seen here… just as teasers 😉

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Apart from the obvious sign telling the visitor the name of the location, an old fortress is looking over the city of Deva from the top of the hill. The big grey building is actually the Fortress of Deva and has been an important position in the history of not only Transylvania but also of Medieval Hungary. Unfortunately since then the fortress (or sometimes even castle, depending on the time period) got greatly deteriorated and so not much is really visible of it.

In the last years, however, some important development has commenced on the fortress and the local authorities started an ample renovation program to restore the fortress to a more “visitable” state. For this reason, we gave a shot to go and visit the old ruin.

Actually getting to the hilltop to the castle is not easy-peasy (or at least we thought so). First of all, when entering the city from the direction of Hunedoara, it is not marked anywhere where to start the ascent from. If you ask the local people, first they will tell you to go round on the path to get to the top: that route however is not for everyone. Instead there is a nice new “vehicle” that can get you on top, you just have to know where it’s base-point is. The local’s told us, that if we go to the stadium, we can get up using a funicular… Wow, that is cool: but where’s the stadium? Well, look for a football-field (for the mentally challenged: soccer-field) and do not, by any means, look for a stadium. Then, maybe, you’ll get to the base point 🙂 . Getting up is actually quite fun: the funicular is modern and new (a bit shaky at some key-points), a two-way trip costs 10 RON (€2.40) (half price for students) and it gets you up to the top in a few seconds. Actually it seems to be quite unique, I have never seen such a funicular: it is kind-of a mix between a funicular and a cable-car…

Once up on the top, do not, by any chance, try the heroic approach, to first go around the fortress: the road towards the right leading a “just a bit” downwards will actually lead down to the bottom of the hill, so unless you are curious of the old gatehouses (which are in a really bad shape), that direction can be skipped. Instead follow the stairs into the heart of the fortress to get a glimpse of the interior. Although it is limited since construction has begun, much of the interior court is visible and if you have a good zoom on the camera, some details can also be admired. Hopefully when renovation works will finish, a better access will be allowed for tourists, to actually admire the cells and maybe even some of the intact rooms (sort of) of the fortress.

Apart from the actual fortress, a magnificent view opens up from the hilltop not only towards the city center but also towards the surrounding areas of the city of Deva. Now for this, the great zoom of the camera is really useful 😉 .

“All in all” it was a great half an hour visit and hopefully it will get better after renovations finish. Oh…. one more thing: there is a very important sign on the walls of the fortress: “Be careful Vipers”. They mean it: the hilltop is also a natural reserve for the horned viper. We did not encounter any, but I’m guessing they did not put up the sign just to scare off tourists…

Photos here

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