I started the new year with high hopes. Both on personal plans, but also hoping to enjoy the winter we all had as kids, for a couple of days. Global warming is no joke, as its effects can be quickly noticed no matter the season we have outside the window, and not for a couple of times I heard it's just a matter of time until winter will be forever gone, considering how little to no snow we have had in the last few years.
Obviously, snow is still a thing on the mountains or higher altitudes, but when it comes to cities, we barely get to see a bit of snow for a few days every year, which in most cases only lasts for a couple of hours anyway.
Happily, the year started good for me, including both an idea I had in plan for a while for a small handmade business which I am working on and hoping to turn out successful, but also for the snow that I first got to enjoy on the Christmas Eve when I was celebrating it with my family on a chalet nearby, being followed by a few more serious days of snow recently.
That's how, last Sunday, Romania was facing some serious snow, which is still lasting now, almost one week later. Not the kind of snow that makes people feel in danger, but the calm, beautiful snow, with large snowflakes that barely allow you to see further in front of you.
Normally, people would hide under the blanket when seeing this outside their windows, as it's a thing I used to do as a kid, as well. But being an occasion I haven't seen in a while, I decided to get ready with warm clothes and get out for a walk that turned out in no less than 21,000 steps / 15km.
The first stop of the walk that caught my attention in a different way than before, was a little basketball court, which you never see running out of people of all ages stopping by to play whatever the clock is, but which right now it was so empty that it made me want to get on it and take some shots right away.
The building you see behind is called Sala Transilvania and is well known for one of those places which holds all kinds of events, from cultural ones, to fashion, sports championships, festivals, matches and so on. However, what makes it even more popular are the tiny stalls that surround it every Saturday, with traditional food sold by locals from both Sibiu county, but also from the rest of the country.
Walking a bit further, I finally entered Sub Arini Park, which was my main destination for the day, that is not one of those common parks you usually see, but more like a large forest that kept its wild part while accepting the minimum human intervention.
The stadium you see in the first picture is where the park begins, the stadium being a quite recent investment, but which already hosts many large matches in town. The next picture is with a restaurant that is still under construction, for which I don't have much information, but I'm assuming it's going to be one of those ridiculously expensive places to hang in, but which still looks cool with its modern architecture admired just from the outside.
The last image from the top is what brought a big smile to my face, because, as I said, we didn't have proper snow lately, and I expected not to see too many people around at that time, but more like the next day when the snow was chilling down, and people got time to take note of everything.
However, the part of the park that is hunted during the spring for picnics and during the summer for open-air cinemas, represented last Sunday the best slope no one asked for in the winter. Hence why, laughter and screams of happiness could be heard from dozens of different voices at the same time, the scenery becoming a bit more animated with all the kids going down the slope with their sledges.
As my walk was far from coming to an end, I continued it by walking to a different side of the park, which was a bit more chill, but also ended up following a road that was soon going to be interrupted by another entrance to the woods, which is one of my favourites when I take my bike on a ride.
As a person who got her driving license on the 1st day of heavy snow 10 years back, I am not a fan of seeing these roads as they are barely visible until the machines take care of snow removal. However, back when I had my walk, there was something very satisfying in the scenery, with the snow still going and seeing all the traces left by the cars passing by.
While this forest is still the one that is recognised as being a park a few hundred meters back, what you see in these pictures is not linked directly to the Sub Arini Park because the owner only purchased a small section of the forest, being such a big one. However, there have been some investments done on this side also, arranging a few bridges and a path that quickly becomes loved by anyone having a walk here, or simply going for a ride on their bike or for jogging.
Two more points of interest linked to the same forest are the Zoo and the ASTRA Open Air Museum that are both landmarks for Sibiu. However, I've seen them countless times before, and I decided not to include them in my walk this time.
As soon as I made it back to civilisation, I was welcomed by the Jacob Grillhouse restaurant, which remains in my top 3 from all the places I got to taste a bit of food since I moved to Sibiu 6 years ago.
Still, next to the restaurant, there are a couple of stalls that usually are very popular with tourists and kids searching for their next favourite toy, or people simply following all the way down to one of the Zoo entrances, but also a hotel that is well known as being a luxurious one. However, just a couple of weeks back, this hotel, just across the street from Jacob Grillhouse restaurant, was involved in an accident where one of the ceilings randomly collapsed over the inside pool that was full of people. Happily, there were no victims and the ceiling was quickly renovated.
As the daylight was slowly fading, and I was still away from home, I decided to make it back to where everything started but following a different route, which took me on Calea Dumbravii that is very popular for representing the road to the Paltinis Mountain Resort, but also pass by the The Cemetery of Heroes and War Veterans which I visted previously.
That's how a quick walk in town turned into over 21,000 steps and 15 km walked, from daylight to night scenery, but where the snow never stopped accompanying me in a calm and peaceful way, keeping the smile on my face, although my body was slowly freezing. Nevertheless, this took longer than usual, and the efforts walking were also a bit bigger than the basic ones because of all the snow that was constantly covering the ground, with no snow-free paths to follow. But I can't complain, it was one of the best days I ever dared to ask for, and I still enjoyed it so early in 2026.
Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.
~ @GabrielaTravels ~