The "B R A S O V" experience: What does that even mean?

You have never truly been to Brasov without going to the "sign"

Living in the city of Brasov there's a huge sign just like Hollywood on top of a small nearby mountain spelling "B R A S O V". Since I was to live in this magnificent city, I felt like I first would truly be integrated when I hiked to that sign. So I told my girlfriend one morning that we should go there.. NOW. She looked at me for a few seconds and responded with a quick "Alright, let's go!" (She is always up for both big and small adventures, that's why I love her). It was weekend anyways and the mountain is one of the smaller one with only 950m peak hight. So we knew it would be an easy road to the top! We packed a small backpack with a pair of sandwich, some nuts, water and of course let us not forget some painting for artistic needs when we reached the top.

You can see the B R A S O V sign from our apartment

The first section of this adventure takes you right through the beautiful old town

There's a reason for why Brasov is probably one of the most touristic cities in Romania(still relatively low compared to other countries). This comes partly from the charming buildings of the old part of the city but also because of its supreme location when it comes to outdoor adventures. Since the city is pretty much located in the heart of Transylvania the opportunities for people who love the outdoors will feel right at home here and it works great as a base to explore the surroundings. This is the exact reason for why I chose to move from Denmark to Romania in the first place. I doubt that I will ever get tired of walking these streets of Brasov or exploring the nature.

Kind of charming, don't you think?

After the old town, we started to reach the hill itself and quickly got on the trail.

It shouldn't be a surprise that this "hike" is a very easy one. The trail is well maintained and people go this path daily, especially during summer. However, It was still surprising how few people we met on the way up. Probably because most people would take the "transport wagons" that would let them reach it much quicker. But we wanted the real B R A S O V experience, so we took the longer way.

Although the trail was clean without much trash laying around, we still find quite a bit from time to time while going up. So we decided to make our little adventure a bit more challenging by trying to gather all the trash we found on the way up. It almost became a little game of our.

On the way to the top we managed to fill the whole bag that you see on my girlfriend's shoulder

It took us 45 minutes to reach the 950m peak where you could see the whole city from above

It did get our pulse going a little but quite an easy walk if you are somewhat fit. Nonetheless, we were now up and could truly get to see how our city is looking from above. I gotta admit the city looks much bigger from up here than when you walk around in it. I guess it is because a lot of the "outer" parts where I rarely go, people live in houses and apartments.

This is the old town part of the city where we went through in the beginning of the article. It's also here probably most people who visit the city will stay, for good reasons.

It was also possible to see on the other side of the hill, where you could truly see how Transylvania mountains started to take shape

It was such a nice bonus to have a panorama view of more than just the city. Giving me all kind of inspiration on where to hike and bike. Of course, they also made you wonder how many bears might wander around these mountains. I think everytime I have been in the mountains of Romania I always managed to find either footprints or other signs up bears enjoying the same paths as me.

In the end we found a little green spot to eat, read some book and find our inner artist to create some paintings

We probably spend an hour or so just relaxing and eating. My girlfriend also made me do some painting, she told me it is relaxing for your mind. I have to admit though I never tried to do any kind of painting before, so don't judge me too hard on the results, please. However, it was true what she said about it being very relaxing and a great way to just shut off the brain and let it focus on the painting.

The last picture is mine and I have no idea what it is. We tried to figure it out and came to the conclusion either something with the stars and the sun.. or maybe just a horrible ice cream.

Finishing our B R A S O V experience

This hike was so easy and took less than half a day in total. (including our long break at the top and walking the old town). If you followed my blog before you would see I usually take on a bit bigger challenges such as long cycling tours across Europe right through the alps. But it was truly a pleasure to do this casual hike to see my new home from above. Finally, I can say I have felt the "B R A S O V experience", (by the way this term is something I completely made up myself)

I hoped you enjoyed the read!

-holm