Free Learning Festival, Orastie and Corvin’s Castle

We spent a week attending the Free Learning Festival. We stayed in the town of Orastie and took a day trip to Corvin’s castle and Sarmizegetusa.

Free Learning Festival

I learned about this festival while we were in Budapest. Luckily for us, 2 families that we met at the Sibiu popup hub were also attending the festival. The festival’s duration was 3 weeks, but we attended 10 days. Most of the other families attending were camping at the premises, but some were also staying at a nearby lodge. The lodge was fully booked when we registered for the festival, so we stayed in an Airbnb in the nearby town of Orastie.

It was very hot the week we were there. Temperatures around 35-37C (95-98F). So, on most days, we stayed in our airconditioned apartment until the late afternoon when we ventured out the festival and then stayed late into the night. Fortunately there was also a cold river nearby to cool off in.

The festival had around 100 people or so most of which were Romanian. There were also 4 other Dutch families which all (bar 1) had an association with Romania. Each day, there were several workshops run by different families (e.g. cooking, sewing, pottery, etc). They also offered horse rides as the camping location was on ranch. On one day, they had a historian visit the camp who told us all about the Dacian empire and its association to the area. They also did a re-enactment of a tussle between some Romans and Dacian villagers.

The kids also did an Olympic games and a talent show.

Orastie

We stayed in the town of Orastie (oh-RASH-tee-ay), in a Communist-era styled building. Once you got past the look of the building, the apartment itself was newly renovated and nice. The town was very small but had a cute old town – comprising of two squares, a small pedestrian street, and the old, fortified churches. Like all the towns in the area, the town is proud of its Dacian history and has a sculpture of a Dacian King and the Dacian flag (a wolf head and snake body).

Corvin’s Castle

I was really excited to visit this castle after I read an article saying that it was the best castle in Europe. Now that I’ve visited it, I’m not sure that I’d agree with that assessment… However, it was still nice. The castle was also a bit of a maze and it was difficult to follow the room numbering in the audio guide.

Sarmizegetusa

We visited these ancient ruins which was once the capital of the Dacian Empire and then taken over by the Romans where they added their own Roman twist (including adding a colosseum which unfortunately was under reconstruction when we visited). The town was fairly large and spread out which I was surprised by. (I loved the translations on the signs).

Up next, we’re off to the Carpathian mountains to visit Bran, Brasov, Zarnesti and Rastov.