Neamt Citadel

Getting to Targu Neamt

Today I leave Suceava for the town of Targu Neamt, over an hour away by road.  But there weren’t many buses available when I looked.  I booked one leaving from the station at 0830.

In my enquiries, it was possible to have a pickup from the carpark of a hotel near to mine, but it needed special arrangement.  I was afraid of things going wrong and declined that option, opting to board at the station.

That meant that I had to take a Bolt car around 0730 for the station to wait there.

The bus departed on-time at 0830 nearly empty and called near my hotel to pick up some cargo of paintings but no passengers.  I certainly could have boarded here quite safely.  Damn!

I knew that this bus would drop me off at Cristesti, about 20 mins from Targu Neamt centre but I had no other choice back then.  But yesterday, when I looked again, there was a bus that went straight to Targu Neamt at a similar time.  Double damn!

At Cristesti, I got off at a petrol station on a junction with the road to Targu Neamt.  I tried to order a car on Bolt but to no avail.  The petrol station staff said that buses and taxis do run to Targu Neamt but there were none in my 20 min wait.

Fortunately, I was able to share a ride (on a paid basis) in someone’s car along with a few locals.

In Targu Neamt around 1100, it was a short walk to the Cassandra Pension where it was still too early to get my room.  I walked to the supermarket to get stuff for my two-night stay before settling into the restaurant next to the pension for lunch.

At this point, the heavens opened up and torrential rain bucketed down.  Two civil defence alerts came up during the time of my lunch and waiting for the rain to ease.  I was so glad I hadn’t been caught in the rain.  I couldn’t even make a run for the short distance back to the pension for quite a while.

Neamt Citadel

Around 1600 the weather appeared settled enough for me to go to Neamt Citadel.  Google Maps suggested that it was a 50 min walk.  I found a taxi from the town centre to take me there, only to realise that I had to walk about 20 mins uphill to the citadel.

The 5 min taxi ride probably saved me 25 mins walking, so it was worthwhile in iffy weather.

It was a lovely walk through the woods to get up to the citadel.  Once clear of the woods, I appreciated the unusual nature of the citadel with an elevated walkway.  It was certainly more impressive than what I had expected.

Once inside the walls, it was more typical with rooms around a central courtyard with some towers.  There was some historical information provided about this 14^th Century fortress which was expanded in the 15^th Century.

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I finished the day with a pizza slice from the Luca lunch bar again before settling in on my computer to plan my return to Malaysia.  I had planned on flying standby from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur but flights appeared overbooked.