holiday home: sunrain days (colibita/piatra fantanele)

wherein we kept being worried that it would rain, and then it did rain and it still didn´t matter.
we chose this one day to start on a daytrip in bistrita-nasaud county. our route goes toward the mountains without completely reaching them, and ends up in the Tihuta Pass (the actual Borgo Pass in the Dracula book), where there´s a hotel called Dracula Castle, because why not? otherwise, this trip had nothing to do with Dracula at all.
i don´t know the region too well, it´s a part of the county i haven´t been to often, though one passes by en route to moldova as a matter of necessity. anyway, it´s been long years. and it´s beautiful, this i remembered.
our first objective, in fact, was colibita lake, which is less than 1 hour´s drive away from the town and about 10 km off the main road. it´s just weird to be from bistrita and to never have been to colibita. i kept hearing about the resort there and wanted to see with my own eyes.

so we stopped in colibita, along the lake, and it looked like this

there´s the lake, the woods surrounding it, the roads...then some houses sprinkled around, there´s even a little island...but no resort proper, not in the standard sense of the word. not even a real village.

we were like, nevermind, let´s get close to the water. it should be easy, it´s right over there, look, there are some paths going down to it.

nope. not easy at all.
all of this land is owned by someone, people who were smart enough to snatch a piece of land that opens onto the lake. there are "do not pass" notices and gates and fences everywhere. even if some of them look like they could be easily ignored, ok. we hadn´t gone all that way to tresspass.

allright, so we´d seen at the entrance, where the road forks, that there are a number of villas that offer accomodation and meals etc. those are obvious places for the tourist to go. so finally we acquiesced

but, like, slowly and not like we needed anything. we just wanted to look at stuff up close.

this is the first we glimpsed of the "fisherman´s" mini-resort. the mini-pier is in front of some small, secluded bungalows that were built as close to the lake as posible. pretty cool.

and yes, finally, here´s the water. at fisherman´s

there are some trout too. seriously it´s like i can´t go anywhere without bumping into some trout.

making cute for the pic

push-pedalling on the lake. my parents refused to even consider it, because "there are people who die on this lake every year". truthfully, the lake is deep enough and has eaten some houses in its time (artificially built lake, forgot to mention)

trying to get a general view of fisherman´s . here´s the patio we had lunch on. it finally started raining while we ate and it lasted all of 20ish minutes.

and a fishing hut and some fields for whatever sports

then on the other side there´s a mini-beach. it looked pretty good in this weather

there must be better days ahead.

this is climbing down from the "beach"

and this from next to the bungalows

awkward love

best wooden cabin of the day! still at colibita, but already heading back to the main road

and, we stopped at piatra fantanele to see a monastery there, and the first thing i thought to take a pic of is this sour cherry tree FULL OF FRUIT, because we parked underneath it so there. oh, it was sort-of-raining again

three important things in this pic: the monastery to one side, the big cross to the other, and the top of the young fir tree. i´ve spent all day admiring how trees grow - it just seems so...green and thin and vulnerable 

the yard of this monastery is a very loose territory: it starts at a small gate down in the village, it encompasses this field of wildflowers,  with some sheds and veggie gardens, then a number of additional building foundations and things under construction, then the huge cross that was built...i´m not very sure why- to mark the border between bistrita and Suceava counties? indeed, this yard might include the county border, but i´m not sure 

anyway: flowers!!!

and here´s the "dracula castle" hotel. nice view from here, i don´t like it from closer up. it´s true i haven´t been in since i was in secondary school, but i don´t think they could´ve improved it much

it gets cold and windy up there

there are very many crosses around this place

and more wooden half-carvings

good setting for the bells of the monastery

climbing up to the big cross - a small clearing painted pink

 

this is the only aceptable picture i managed to take from the steps up to the cross-monument. facing the other side, toward moldova

and on our way back home, stopping in a parking lot, we noticed this cabin built on stilts. of course my dad and i had to go up there and see what it was about

this is the most flagrant case of breaking into private territory that day. we were like, if there was someone around, we´d ask if we can take a look! of course we would!!
and we did not go past the gate, ok?
but on my way back, i didn´t climb down through the woods, but through the person´s garden. it had a spring and an artificial rivulet with stone paving and stuff. not as interesting as the cabin itself

hoping this post has inspired some cabin design plans and fantasies...

<3 c