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CORUND, PRAID AND
SOVATA |
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CORUND (Korond), 25km north of Odorheiu, is famed for its green and
brown pottery , as well as the cobalt blue introduced by the Germans in
the eighteenth century. Corund pottery is for sale at every fair,
tourist site and event across Transylvania, but for the best choice you
should poke around in the town's backstreet workshops (you might also
find some of the carved Székely beamgates painted the traditional red
and green) or visit the colourful market held every year on the weekend
closest to August 10.
For a complete change of atmosphere, push on to PRAID (Parajd), 12km to
the north and served by local buses from both Odorheiu and Sovata and by
the rail branch from Blaj. The salt mine at the northern end of the
village is still active, with daily tours in mine vehicles and an
underground sanatorium used for treating chest complaints. There's also
a hydrothermal pool nearby (10am-7pm daily). Praid is a small but
popular holiday centre, with a helpful tourist office at Str. Principala
211 (daily: mid-May to mid-Sept 8am-6pm; rest of year 8am-3pm; tel
066/240 272, fax 570 484, www.netsoft.ro/transtur ), which can arrange
accommodation in private rooms (under $6). There's also a fairly
standard motel just north of the tourist office at Str. Principala 221 (tel
066/240 272; $6-10), which offers cheaper beds to youth hostellers, as
well as the basic Hotel Omega (tel 066/240 088; under $6) on the same
road at no. 141. The fine Casa Telegdy restaurant is just north of the
centre, and serves up mid-priced Székely-influenced food. Praid hosts
the recently established Töltöttkáposzta (stuffed cabbage) festival over
the second weekend of September in even-numbered years, and a folk
festival in the last week of July.
Seven kilometres further north by road and rail is SOVATA (Szováta),
with SOVATA BAI 1km to the east. Sovata Bai is a bathing resort ,
surrounded by beautiful forests, on the shore of Lacul Ursu (Bear Lake),
where a surface layer of fresh water, a metre deep, acts as an insulator
keeping the lower, saltwater at a constant temperature of 30-40°C all
year round. Its mineral waters are supposedly particularly effective for
infertility. The resort's most distinctive feature is the array of
wooden buildings that line the main street, Strada Trandafirilor: huge,
extravagantly balconied villas, many of which now operate as private
hotels, and twee Hansel and Gretel churches.
Sovata Bai's bus station is on Strada Trandafirilor. Of the hotels , the
best value is the private Piroska , at Str. Trandafirilor 12 (tel
065/577 399, fax 570 798; $6-10). Continuing east along the same road, a
left turning just beyond a strikingly modernist Catholic chapel, takes
you onto Strada Tivoli and brings you in about ten minutes to the
excellent Tivoli hotel (tel 065/578 493, fax 570 493; $20-25 half board),
surrounded by woods with deer foraging outside the windows. Strada
Tivoli continues to Lacul Tineretului (Lake of Youth), a five-minute
walk, where you can rent pedalos from the kiosks serving snacks. Another
700m along Strada Trandafirilor you'll come to the Stâna de Vale
campsite and, a couple of kilometres further, the excellent Dutch-owned
Edelweiss hotel (tel 065/577 758, fax 577 835; $35-45); prices double
from mid-June until September.
In Sovata, the Ursul Negru hotel is at Str. Principala 152 (tel 065/570
987, fax 570 828; under $6), with hot water between 5pm and 8pm only,
and there's also a new campsite at Str. Principala 129, which,
unusually, has no cabins but plenty of tent space.
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