Every summer, I’m allowed to take my parents’ VW van and head somewhere in Europe for one to two months. My office is on the road. After visiting almost all of Europe, I had one big black spot left. In 2024, I did Scandinavia, in 2023, Italy and Slovenia, and in 2022, France and Belgium. I was missing Eastern Europe. So I wanted to explore this undiscovered ground.
Before heading East, I did a big detour to Berlin for a festival and ended in Vienna, where I left my friend, who had joined me on this trip for the past few days.
Starting from Vienna, it was finally time to head East. After I grabbed my new Starlink for reliable internet on the upcoming trip, I entered the highway and passed South of Bratislava on the Hungarian side. I found a nice parking spot next to a local football field where I stopped, continued with some work and rested for the night.
Crossing Hungary from West to East
The next day was uneventful. I had a lot of kilometres to cover because I wanted to arrive in Romania. I don’t like to drive for 6-8 hours a day. So I split the driving days into 3- to 5-hour drives. My first stop in Hungary was in a cute town called “Hatvan“. I arrived there not too late, so I had time to walk around the parks and enjoy some fresh air and sun. Then I cooked something in my camping kitchen and for sure had to do some work. My work setup is pretty comfortable in the van. I turn the co-driver seat 180° and face the back. So I have a proper and comfortable chair. Sometimes I take out the indoor or even the outdoor table and work like that. There are many options, and changing is great since the space isn’t that big.
The next day it was rainy, and I decided to cover a bit longer distance. I also didn’t know that Romania has quite bad roads and no proper highway, as in Hungary, so my progress was way slower. Even though there were speed limit signs between 30 and 50 km/h in villages, nobody seemed to care, and the average speed was 60-80 km/h. When it started to get dark, I just made it to a campsite, where a friend was about to arrive. He arrived from North Macedonia by plane, so we organised to meet in a city so he could join me on the trip through Romania. Two digital nomads on the road, working from some remote locations using Starlink in the camper van. That’s what people expect of nomads according to social media.
Laundry time and resting at a campsite
The temperatures were quite low for July, and it was rainy. So I was happy to be at a campsite with a shower. We stayed for 2 nights at the campsite to do laundry and have a drive-free day. That hasn’t happened since I left Berlin about a week ago. The campsite is located outside the city, in a quiet area. So perfect for resting and doing some focused work. Across the street was a local zoo and a small restaurant where we went to grab some food.
The weekend was approaching, and it was time to explore a bit. First, we headed into the centre of the nearby city, Cluj. It’s quite a nice city, a historical centre, and we got some food recommendations from a friend who lives there, but sadly couldn’t join. We took the recommendations anyway and grabbed some delicious Italian food. The weather was finally way better, so we could stroll around and enjoy.
Next, we headed a bit out to visit a salt mine. The Salina Turda, an inactive salt mine, has been converted into a tourist attraction. Despite visiting the historical part of the former mine, they also built a small amusement park 160 meters below ground. Table tennis or a ferris wheel. We went down and were quite impressed. The view was very nice, and there was an underground lake. They build wooden bridges, floating islands and walkways all over. We spent some time there, walking around the different accesses and exploring.
Alba Iulia, Romania
Then we continued our drive to another historical town, of which there are many. In Alba Iulia, we spent the next night in a public parking. The historical centre is a fortress in the shape of a star. Impressive, it’s huge, and the walls are very high. Inside, there’s a small village with restaurants, bars and a church. Inside the huge walls, they even have rooms which they repurposed. We, for example, went to such a place that later became a restaurant.
For the night, we stayed in a public parking lot just outside the big wall. To our bad luck, there was a bar just next door, and since it was the weekend, there were a lot of people. So in the parking lot, there was a lot of coming and going of drunk people, and also just around the corner, the smoking corner. So it was definitely not a quiet night, and we were wondering if we should move to a new place. But we had the roof open and no idea about another place in the dark. We were happy when it got quiet after 3 a.m., when the bar closed. So we could rest for at least a couple of hours before continuing.
Transfăgărășan mountain pass
Next off, more nature. We wanted to cross the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. There’s a famous 100 km-long road crossing the mountains from North to South. They call it “the World’s Most Scenic Road”. It’s definitely spectacular driving up there. Sadly, we were not the only ones who wanted to cross it, and at the top, there were many people trying to park, causing heavy traffic. So we got stuck for about an hour before reaching the peak, where we didn’t stop at around 2000m and continued downhill directly. We enjoyed the view on the way up and made some stops along the way. The vibe was good. We had much to talk about, some good music and could test Starlink while driving – no issues at all. So my friend took the chance to work a bit while we were stuck in traffic.
After the peak, it got a bit less busy, so we stopped at a roadside restaurant and grabbed some food. Then we continued through the forest. It was endless, but beautiful. We spotted many bears who stayed around the road because they found trash from the passing cars. I had never seen a bear in the wild, so this was definitely an experience. By the end of the day, we spotted around 10 bears. At some point, we passed by an artificial lake, where we stopped and walked along the dam. After 7 hours in the car, this was a welcome sight. Then we started looking for a place for the night. We both were super spontaneous and decided to go as far as we could. We found a campsite by a lake more down in the valley, which we just reached before it got dark. It was a family business, and they’re also running a local restaurant where I tried a nice local dish. It’s called “Sarmale”. They’re pickled cabbage rolls, stuffed with pork meat and rice. Very authentic and delicious. Great English by the whole family (father, mother, and the daughters). All were super happy to talk, and we got served “Palinca”, a traditional fruit spirit. So we had a great evening in a nice location away from cities and towns. The campsite was protected by some wolf-looking dogs who were super friendly towards humans, but were actually guarding against bears. So we felt safe.
Dracula castle
Romania is famous for its forests and castles. And exactly such a one we went to visit. The famous legend of Dracula at the castle in Bran. We couldn’t actually see much of Dracula. They provided more details on the general history and ownership up to the present. The rooms are interesting to see, and the castle overall is very nice with a beautiful view. Overall, a nice visit, but not for the legend.
Local “Farmstay” in Romania
Similar to our last stay, we found another one on our app that was very similar. Something called “farmstay”. A family or farmer with much land who allows campers to stay there. So we headed up a hill and found ourselves at a local farm with very gipsy vibes. I was happy my friend knew the local language, Romanian and could communicate with them. They opened up and offered us breakfast. So we decided to stay there for 2 nights. It was amazing again that I bought the Starlink. Up here, we had mobile data, but satellite internet was just way faster. Since we were at the top of the mountain, we had an uninterrupted signal and therefore full bandwidth. I’m impressed by how low the latency is. The speed is more than enough in both directions as well.
At a friend place in Brasov
After some lunch, we headed to the next bigger city, Brasov, where we surprised a friend’s friend. We just drove to his house without telling him and took over his place. Good, he was very spontaneous and took us to archery. I’ve never really done it properly, so it was interesting and fun. We just made it before sunset. Then we headed to the local outlet centre to grab some drinks. Later in the evening, we had some nerdy talks since all three of us were developers. He had a very cute cat that was afraid of us and hid in a package. Nevertheless, it was perfect for a photo subject. Then we focused on star photography since the sky was very clear. The fun part was seeing so many Starlink satellites pass by, and we depended on them a lot during this trip. We mounted my camera on the special astrophotography tripod. I have no idea, and it was very interesting to try it out with professional gear and with the instruction of my new friend. It got late, so we decided to spend the night on the sofa at his place instead of trying to park the van in his garden.
Peles Castle
Our last stretch until reaching the capital of Romania was approaching. On the way south, we stopped at another impressive castle. It’s around 150 years old, a Neo-Renaissance palace called Peles Castle. My friend was already there and didn’t go in, so I went in alone and took a tour. There were so many rooms for every activity you can think of.
Bucharest, Romania
A last meal before we reach Bucharest, which marks the end of my Moldovan friend joining us. In the capital, I parked the van in a street parking spot for 2 days and booked an Airbnb to rest for a couple of days outside the camper. I sometimes need that and also want to have a shower. The temperatures in the city were crazy, reaching 40° Celsius.
The same day we arrived in Bucharest, I went to the airport to pick up my friend arriving from Peru for a 2-week vacation. And this reminds me that I’m also about to have 2 weeks of vacation. The next day, I met with my Moldovan friend again at a coffee shop to co-work, where I finished up deadlines to properly start the vacation. In the evening, we went out for a nice dinner and cocktails to celebrate the start of the vacation. Bucharest is a vibrant city for food and nightlife.
The next day, we had to check out of the Airbnb already, but we still headed out to visit the Palace of the Parliament from the inside. It’s actually the heaviest building in the world. Sadly, we found out that only guided tours are allowed and must be booked in advance because there’s not much space. So we only saw the huge building from the outside. In the centre, there are many old, massive buildings to visit. In one of these is a huge bookstore, which we looked at. While it was nice, mainly, we just wanted to find an indoor space with AC because it was so hot outside.
Making it to the Black Sea
After a refreshing drink, it was time to say goodbye to my developer friend, and I headed off with my travel buddy for the vacation towards the coast of the black sea. Burning hot while driving, luckily, we had AC in the car. In the evening, we reached the coast just in time to see the sunset. Totally different vibes between the mountains, forest and now the coast. We made it to places called Neptun, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. A coastal resort area with a long promenade, a lake with many birds and swans. We parked there in the big parking lot, which was empty during the night.
