Sinaia Gondola

On Christmas day I traveled to Brasov, but on the way I stopped at a small mountain town called Sinaia. I had read online that there was a gondola there and I determined to find it, take it up the mountain and see how high I can go. I couldn't find much information online about what hiking paths were there and what would be open in winter, but I figured if nothing else I could at least ride the gondola to the top and enjoy the scenery.

My main goal was to see the mountains, and hopefully a bit of snow. As my train journeyed higher I was ecstatic to see the snow even at the village level. This was a picture I took just after I disembarked from the train.

This was my first time exploring a place in Romania other than Bucharest. I had spotted these mountain towns from the train window when I had traveled (by train) from Vienna to Bucharest. That was actually what gave me the idea to research this village and that's how I found out about the gondola at Sinaia.

I was so excited to have made for myself a white Christmas! My plan was always to take the day slow. I didn't want to rush anything on Christmas and so I could take my time in Sinaia. The town still had all its Christmas decorations up and it all looked awesome with a fresh coating of snow.

A panorama of the main street of Sinaia. When I first arrived, at around 10:00 am, the town was quiet and still. I walked the main street, both looking for a cafe but also just absorbing in the atmosphere of this town. I eventually did find a coffee shop that was open and enjoyed a coffee with a chocolate mouse. For a while I was the only patron but after around 11:00 am the town was getting busy with activity.

I often find that I am going from one activity to the next fairly quickly. Usually getting to a place is a reasonably direct journey and I can time when I leave with the time I need to be at my destination. Rarely do I have the time to leave early for something with the intention of taking breaks on the way, knowing there is no rush to get to my destination. That's what I tried to do today. I only needed to be in Brasov by the evening but I intentionally left Bucharest in the morning so that I could have time to stop in Sinaia along the way.

This house looked pretty cool, it seems like the sort of place that has been here forever and all the newer modern buildings grew up around it. I tried to frame the house with the gate, the neighboring buildings and the trees, not sure how well it worked but I think its ok.

I had to walk for about 40 minutes, up hill, to get to the gondola. I later learnt that there was a cable car that started lower down the mountain, but oh well. Here I learnt that the gondola was only open to 1,400 meters and the gondola to 2,000 meters was closed due to strong winds at the top. I was a little sad I couldn't make it to the top but I figured I could go half way and then see if I could hike somewhere further.

Riding up the gondola.

From the gondola I walked to a nearby lookout point, and the views did not disappoint. The town you can see in this picture is Sinaia, where I was for my morning coffee.

Also taken near the lookout. No one else had walked on the fresh snow here except for what I'm guessing was a dog. I liked how the prints were right at the edge of a steep drop and I wanted to capture them in the foreground with the valley and mountains in the background.

I returned to the gondola station and there found a wide path leading up the mountain. I took the above picture not long after starting on that path. In the photograph you can see the gondola terminus where I arrived. There was also a chair lift here. Sinaia hosts a ski resort and the gondola and chairlift connect to the wider ski area on the other side of the mountain. Although today both were not operating.

This was the path I followed up the mountain. The entire day it was almost always covered in snow; it also was almost consistently going up hill. This meant that every step I took upward the view was getting better. I would take so many pictures and once again, I am extremely challenged to try and pick the best ones to upload.

In this picture I just love how the blond grass breaks up and pokes through the perfect layer of snow.

I decided to make the treeline my goal. I wanted to climb high enough up the mountain that I could definitely say I was above the tree line. Where I took this photo was still very much within the tree line, there were still trees continuing above me.

I took this picture looking back on the way I had come. You can get a sense of the scenery I was able to enjoy as I hiked up the mountain. The path was difficult at times as it was steep and the snow was slippery in places, but I didn't mind, I was just so excited to be here in this beautiful nature.

I often had a view looking down into the valleys where the villages were. I was fascinated how all along this valley, that cuts through the mountain range, was nestled pockets of civilisation. I found it pretty cool how the road and railway followed the valley floor, and the townships settled along that very route.

I was getting close to my goal. The trees were beginning to thin.

The path continued up the mountain. Here I could see the end goal in sight, while I wouldn't be able to make it to the top of the mountain I hoped to get just a little bit higher.

I really like this mountain peak, especially how the shape of the mountain is almost like it is covering and sheltering the trees growing on its leeward side; or like it is a giant dune, frozen in time. Since I had come to Europe, this trip was the first time I had properly gone out into nature. The first time I was spending time outside of a major city. I think this was something I needed. Being out here on this mountain I remembered how much I love nature and how important it is to go out and spend time in the wilderness.

Another picture looking at the same mountain peak but from higher up. I took this about fifty meters or so before I stopped for lunch.

Here is the highest point that I would hike to. Looking over my recording stats I made it to about 1880 meters, and I thought that this was a good achievement. From here there were no trees above me so I definitely made it above the tree line. In the picture you can see my bag where I rested it and then found a nice rock to sit on. I ate lunch and looked out over the scenery, thanking God for such a wonderful world.

And here are some of the pictures I took from my highest point.

The path did continue forward and would have eventually taken me all the way to the 2000 meter gondola terminus, but I was running out of time and stamina. I was happy with where I made it to and decided the higher peaks can be left for another time.

I really like this picture which I hadn't included in my initial write up of this post. Looking over my photographs, I realised I had missed it and inserted it in here. I took this on the way down and I like the composition of the snow, trees, and mountains.

This was one of my favourite pictures I took going back down. I love how from the road, looking straight ahead, is such an amazing view of the mountains, with such a clear and obvious tree line surrounding the peaks.

I returned back to the gondola on the same path I took going up, and this was a blessing, because going down I was able to enjoy a different perspective of the scenery. Sometimes going the same way backwards can help you see things that you didn't notice the first time around. I certainly felt this way walking down.

This was another really cool picture I missed on the way up. I wanted to capture the small pine tree on the slop framed by the two in the foreground. The cables in the sky are for the chair lifts, and its also nice that they line up with the angle of the slope.

I made good time going down the mountain. It took me half the time to go down than it did to go up, this would turn out to be very fortunate as I shall explain a little later.

This picture was taken as I was nearly back to the 1400 meter gondola station. The sun had been shining all day and the snow was melting. The picture doesn't show it super well but by this stage the path was far wetter, the snow becoming a sort of sloppy sludge. I was amazed that two and a half hours ago I had walked up the very same path on much firmer snow than it was now. This was probably good as the snow would have been much more slippery if I were to walk up the hill in that state, rather than down.

My Flight Across Sinaia

Here is the brief story of how I almost missed my train.

I had booked the tickets from Bucharest to Sinaia and from Sinaia to Brasov separately as I had wanted to guarantee a stop over in Sinaia without needing to worry about buying tickets on the day. There was a bit of guess work on figuring out how long I would want to stay in Sinaia.

Now for all my talk of not needing to rush, there was a deadline for when I had to leave Sinaia. So throughout the day I was careful to make sure I knew at what time I had to be at various places to be able to make it back to the train station in time. I would work backwards, adding up how long it would take me to walk back, take the gondola, and the estimation on how long the hike would be. From all that I figured out what time I needed to turn around.

So when I arrived back at top of the gondola ahead of schedule, at 3:30, I figured I had plenty of time to catch my train that would leave at 5:00 pm. Everything was going to plan and I was thinking of buying a snack when I quickly checked my train ticket. To my horror I saw that the train left at 4:00 pm, not 5:00 pm. I still don't know how I managed to get the departure time mixed up in my head. My most likely explanation is that when I read the tickets I mistook the arrival time (of 5:00 pm) for the departure time.

I double checked that I hadn't made another mistake and then hopped onto the first gondola down that I could. I knew the walk back would be at least half an hour and I was trying to figure out if I could take a bus to get me there in time. At the bottom I looked up the route on Google and it was saying the bus would arrive at 4:06 pm at the station, my train left at exactly 4:06 pm as well. I didn't want to risk it, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to run from the bus station to the train platform in time, especially as I would need to look up the platform number. So I booked it. I ran the full 3 kilometers or so back to the train station. Thankfully it was all down hill and I made it to the station with 3 minutes to spare.

I didn't miss my train, and I know that if I had there would have been other trains to Brasov that day and I would have been able to buy a ticket on one of them. But I was still thankful that I didn't need to resort to that and I somehow was able to make it onto the train.

Christmas Night in Brasov

When I arrived in Brasov I was able to check in to my hotel, which was a short walk from the train station. Even though I was tired, I figured I should go check out the town centre, as there could still be markets up for Christmas.

The town centre of Brasov did have a large Christmas tree and quite an extensive market. I bought some dinner there and a little 3d printed dragon.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 22nd of January 2024

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