A poor country but very rich in unique, rare and spectacular sightseeing attractions that won't be ever bought with any money... Romania!

After our daily meet with the bear both when hitting the road to our next destination and then when we returned to the place where we spent a few nights, we decided to give one more try to a place that we first wanted to visit with a day before that one but where the silence of the forest along with the thing that there was no other tourist and the rain was just starting, we decided to not risk our lives then, but in the next day, lol.
I know that perhaps this makes no sense but from what we noticed, it was literally impossible not to meet at least one bear either on the streets or in the forest after 4-5 PM when they were looking for food, and since we reached the place around 6 PM, we thought that it's better to risk a little bit less on the next day when we got there earlier.
As I said in my previous travel posts, it's impossible not to meet bears at least in this region of the country.
Therefore, we are quite used to see them during our trips, but either from the distance or from the car. However, we had only one confrontation with one while I and my father tried to reach some ruins with 2 days before this trip and it was scary as hell even though he was just running away from us and not try to attack us as people create this face of the animals of being some sort of monsters.

I'm not saying that they don't attack people because I'm sure some species do that while some don't, but it's also people's fault in most of the cases while they try to approach them more than they should, or throw them food which is the most stupid thing someone can do.

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Anyway, I won't try to turn this post into a guide of how people should act when they meet a bear because the internet is already full of that and not many care about these guides anyway, so here's how the path we had to follow on the way to The Apor Tower looked like.

The tower is located in Baile Tusnad which is a city in Harghita county that is mostly populated by Hungarians, so you shouldn't be surprised when you will notice that almost any road sign and informative panel is bilingual (written in both Romanian and Hungarian).
While the first thought many tourists have when they think about Baile Tusnad is that we are talking about one of the oldest balneary/spa resort from Romania, this being amongst the single things that make people still visit it, there is also one more thing.
Along with the countless options to pick from if you are looking for a resort where to relax and treat yourself, Băile Tușnad also represent the city with the smallest number of inhabitants, namely 1,641 people.
However, nor the small number of the population, neither the thing that it's a pretty abandoned resort that might look quite scary in some situations, didn't convince us not to visit it, because we knew that it has a lot more to offer than these, and that's how we found the tower that you'll see plenty of pictures with in this post.

Anyway, the whole adventure to The Apor Tower is by far amongst the easiest and quickest ones we had taking no more than 30 minutes to reach it even with a few breaks to take pictures of the surroundings, but the place from where you will get lots of adrenaline is that the forest is very dense with not much to see in the distance other than the path you follow and with very rare moments when you will meet other tourists following the same trail, so speaking loud and always looking around you will be the main activity until you reach the destination.

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Even though both its placement and architecture will make you think that we are talking about a defensive tower, Bastionul Apor was never used with this purpose but only as a panoramic point or place where to rest and have a beautiful view over Baile Tusnad resort but also a small part of Romania's mountains and forests.

The tower is placed on an altitude of 761 meters and it was first built in 1883 but which suffered more renovations along the time to maintain it in a decent form without changing its main design too much especially that it also represents the first marked trail of the city.

In 2017, it was even arranged a little exhibition inside of the tower with archive pictures that can be seen during the night too because there is also electricity and a few lights that will keep everything lighted during the night. However, the forest doesn't enjoy the same features so you will still need a flashlight if you intend to have a nocturnal journey out there.

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Even though the whole trip on the way to the tower is pretty short measuring only 1,5 km, the journey will be even quicker thinking that you might meet some bears. Though, as little time as it takes to reach The Apor Tower from Baile Tusnad, as much time you will want to spend once you are there, especially when you get in the tower and have a colourful and silent view over this part of the county which honestly I could never get enough of.

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Happily, there is also a wooden table with two benches that you can use to rest or even have a small picnic in one of the wildest parts of the county. However, for us it was enough to spend almost the whole time in the tower and take lots of pictures of everything we could capture with our eyes.

Despite the small sizes of both the city and its population, Baile Tusnad is still known as "Perla Transilvaniei" (EN: The Pearl of Transylvania) due to all the wild parts that are surrounding it, along with its natural therapeutic factors, bioclimate, numerous sources of mineral water, natural gas and thermal waters, where everything mixed together created a very complex resort with lots of natural and medical properties that help many people heal from all kind of diseases.

Along with the visible reasons why you should visit Bastionul Apor, there is also one more. Namely, that the whole trail is very easy and comfortable to be made by all tourists without any age limit, while for the more experienced ones it can be also considered a good route for some mountain biking.

It's both funny and sad how such a country with so many things to be seen and to love still occupies more and more tops, such as being amongst the poorest and most corrupted countries in Europe where people from abroad tell us that we are literally sitting on a big treasure but no one knows what to do with it.

Also, if you've been following me for a while, or the simple number in the title that indicates that this is the 233th travel post (with 10 exceptions that were written about places seen in Barcelona while the others are exclusively about Romania's gems), you will understand how much both I and my family love this country. But I really hope that one day I'll get to see it being treated as it deserves and be recognized in more outstanding tops than the shameful ones.

Anyway, in order to reach the bastion, you must get in the center of the city which you can easily recognize with its specific paved roads and then follow all the way to the end of the path where you will meet some markers, one of them leading to The Apor Tower. From there an unpaved trail will begin but which is very well marked with red cross or red dot that get on the same path until they both take on separate ways but where you will find another arrow indicating the way you should follow to reach your destination. The whole hike takes maximum 30 minutes and it's totally worth it.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾

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