Transylvania part 2 and reunions in Budapest

Spring has arrived! 🌸 The sun is out, temperatures are rising, and nature is slowly but surely waking up—to our greatest delight 🌞.

It actually inspired us to do a bit of decorating in the van. 

Jérôme named her Rosalie. He talks to her every day and, so far, she’s proving to be a very good travel companion 😊.

So it was in this springtime atmosphere that we continued our exploration of Transylvania, stopping in charming towns and villages, going on a few hikes, and visiting several sites—including one that’s quite out of the ordinary: the Turda Salt Mine (Salina Turda). It’s a former salt mine that was exploited from the Middle Ages until 1932. There are several salt deposits in the region, believed to have formed 13.5 million years ago when the area was covered by a shallow sea in a tropical climate. In Turda, the salt layer can reach a thickness of up to 1,200 meters 😲. Over the centuries, people kept digging and digging to extract this precious resource, creating an impressive network of galleries and shafts—until there was no longer enough salt left to make the operation profitable. After it closed, the mine served as a shelter for locals during World War II and later as a cheese-aging cellar, before being transformed in the 1990s into a leisure and wellness center. With a constant temperature year-round of 10 to 12°C and humidity levels of 75–80%, breathing this salty air is said to have therapeutic benefits. People come here—sometimes with a doctor’s prescription—to undergo treatments for respiratory issues and other minor health problems. 

Since visitors can spend long hours there, they’ve made sure there’s plenty to do. To pass the time an entire day underground, you can play billiards, mini-golf, table tennis, ride a Ferris wheel…

 or even take a boat ride on the lake at the bottom of the Maria Tereza mine… quite original!

But what impressed us most were the salt formations embedded in the walls, forming waves in fifty shades of gray—a magnificent work by the great artist known as Mother Nature 😍.

 

We didn’t stay a full day—just a couple of hours, enough to explore the place. But we did try the saltwater baths at the spa in Cluj-Napoca, located a few kilometers away. Like the mud baths in Turkey, it didn’t exactly change our lives, but it was still an interesting experience.

In Cluj, a lively student city—home to a medical school where courses are taught in French (which explains the large number of French students in the area)—we made another interesting visit: the Transylvanian Village Open-Air Museum. Essentially, it’s a reconstructed village, created by dismantling and reassembling old houses found in the region, and sometimes building exact replicas. The visit was very interesting, even if we found the information a bit light. There are lovely thatched-roof houses and wooden churches that are truly beautiful.

It was also in Cluj-Napoca that I left Jérôme for a few days to go to Italy for the annual pre-season meeting of Experience Plus, the tour operator I work with for cycling trips. A little break from each other couldn’t hurt after spending 8 months together 24/7 😉. Before leaving, I found him a friend to keep him company. He’s not very chatty, but he understands French quite well 😂. 

So while I was doing some bike mechanics (yes, really—here’s proof 😅),

Jérôme kept traveling, crossed into Hungary, and it was in Budapest that we reunited four days later. The reunion went well—he seemed happy to see me again, especially since I brought back some goodies from France thanks to my colleague Stéphane, from whom we had placed a small order.

As much as we enjoy discovering local specialties, we have to admit we miss our cheeses… So why not take the opportunity to ask for a tin of duck confit while we’re at it? We’ve already eaten half of the Comté and Reblochon 😋.

In Budapest, we also reunited with the Danube! And guess what? Still not blue 😏.

It was my first time back in Budapest in nearly 20 years—a city where I spent quite a bit of time in 2006–2007 while working for six months on a project about an hour away. I loved the city back then, and it was a real joy to return. I still feel just as good there 💓.

Our final reunion in Budapest was with Joe and Gina, a Hungarian couple I met during the grape harvest in the Beaujolais. That was in 2020—the COVID year—when a strong need to get out of the house, combined with a canceled cycling tour season, led me to spend hours breaking my back picking grapes. Harvesting is hard work—anyone who’s done it will tell you—but through the effort and the pain, strong bonds inevitably form. It’s a very social experience where you meet people from all walks of life. We had more or less stayed in touch with Gina and Joe, and this was the first time we’d seen each other again since the 2020 vintage. Joe treated us to his homemade goulash, accompanied by a glass (or two) of Brouilly… a very lovely evening.

A huge thank you to them for their warm welcome and generosity. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again soon—this time in Voiron 👍. We know we have a few bottles in stock to give them a proper welcome… 🍷 

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To see all the photos and the map: it's here

Jérôme and Sophie