Alba Iulia

When the Gogosanus were in Romania last summer, they went to Alba Iulia and recommended it to us. Despite it being only 40 minutes northwest of Sibiu, neither Mihai nor I had ever been, but Stephanie and Joe's visit seemed like the perfect opportunity, so one rainy Tuesday morning we gathered our jackets and umbrellas set out.
Regarding the city of Alba Iulia I can make no comment since we spent all of our time touring the fortress. This being Europe, nearly every city has some kind of ancient structure to look at, but the fortress in Alba Iulia is unique because of its size and shape (a seven-bastion baroque fortress if we want to be exact).
The citadel consists of two cathedrals—one Catholic and one Orthodox—a museum, a library, a university, a plaza with open air cafes, restaurants, and two palaces originally built for a prince and a bishop. One of my favorite fun fact takeaways was learning that the palace for the prince was later turned into an army barracks, and the army barracks was later turned into a national depot for potatoes and goats.
At various times Alba Iulia has been part of the Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Hapsburg, and Ottoman empires, so the architecture is wonderfully diverse. The whole place is really a very interactive cultural and history museum.
Unfortunately, my photos show very little of any of it.
At the time, I felt like I was capturing the full experience via pictures but alas, it was not so.
I'll share what I have, but be prepared to be underwhelmed.

When we first arrived, we crossed the parking lot and took the first dark and mysterious looking stairway we saw. This was exciting in the moment but meant we ended up wandering around the lower grounds in the rain, trying to figure out how to get to the main drawbridge above. You can see Mihai and Joe looking lost.

After some wandering, we finally made it to the entrance. Just beyond are the Catholic cathedral and the bishop's palace. I loved the gardens.

And that is the bulk of my photos.
After leaving this area, I apparently went into some kind of fugue state in which I assumed I was taking photos of the plazas, and cafes, the halls where soldiers dined, spies were tortured, and ammunition was stored.
Now here we are, an hour later, looking at a gallery of creepy, broken statues.

Then it was lunchtime and we headed to a place that not only had great reviews but also advertised itself as "probably the best restaurant in Alba Iulia". Maybe we just hit it on an off day, I don't know, but we thought it could be more accurately rebranded "probably the most mediocre restaurant in Alba Iulia".
However lackluster the food was, the building was interesting and made for a fun dining experience.

For the rest of the day I managed a grand total of three more photos. The first one is a portion of the defensive perimeter which is an impressive 12 km (we didn't walk the whole thing) and has gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.
About the next two, I can tell you almost nothing because I hardly remember being there. Either the fugue state resumed or I was just sleepy from lunch and the warm sun. They were statues with some significance to national unification is my best guess.

What I can say is that The Alba Carolina Fortress (which I think is the official name) is worthy of a visit if you have even a passing interest in either history or architecture. We spent 5 hours there and still didn't see everything they had to offer, such as the changing of the guards or the museum.
If you don't believe me, ask the Gogosanus because no doubt they have better photos.

And that officially wraps up Stephanie and Joe's visit except for these last two pictures that I'm including because they're sweet and I forgot to add them last week.

Is there a place near where you live that you've been thinking about visiting? With summer crowds thinning but the weather still generally bright and sunny, September can be an ideal month for a little travel. Why not plan a day trip one day soon?
Or, if you aren't able to leave town, or even your house, can you find a documentary and take a virtual trip to some place you've always longed to go? I hope you can make such a diversion and that it brings you joy this week.
Thank you for reading.
Be well