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COVASNA |
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The rail line east from Sfântu Gheorghe to Bretcu runs close to
COVASNA (Kovászna), 30km away, although the DN11 passes well to the
north. Known as the "spa of the thousand springs", the Fairies' Valley (Valea
Zânelor), to the east of town, is always busy with track-suited
strollers from the sanatorium, hotel and campsite along its length; from
the valley there is easy access to the Vrancea and Penteleu mountains.
From the train station , buses take you the 3km to the modern centre of
town, and then continue 5km to the Voinesti hospital in the Valea
Zânelor. The bus station is behind the market at Str. Stefan cel Mare
48, just east of the road to the station. There's an ATM at Banca
Agricola, by the river west of the centre.
For access to the mountains, the best place to stay is the Hotel Bradul
(tel 067/340 081, fax 340 030; $15-20), an excellent modern hotel
opposite the hospital. A little further up the valley is the campsite (tel
067/340 401), which has cabins (under $6), tent space, and proper
toilets as long as the restaurant is open. The best value place in the
town centre is the Turist (tel 067/340 573, fax 340 632; under $6) at
Str. Garii 2, a small, friendly place with limited facilities, which is
close to a group of communist-era tourist hotels (all tel 067/340 401;
$10-25).
Covasna's main attraction, a kilometre up the valley from the hospital,
is an amazing inclined plane, built in 1886 as part of Romania's first
narrow-gauge forestry rail line . Wagons of timber from the nearby
logging settlement of Comandau were lowered down the 1232-metre slope,
before continuing behind a steam engine to the main-line transfer
sidings in Covasna. Little is now left of the complex 760mm rail system,
interconnected by funiculars, which used to serve forestry operations in
the mountains of the Carpathian Bend, from the Oituz pass southwards to
the Ciucas mountains, and this last section of line closed in 1999. The
inclined plane is now listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Monument, but
it's uncertain how well it will be preserved.
Covasna's only other claim to fame is as the birthplace of Sándor Körösi
Csomas (1784-1842), who walked to Central Asia in 1820, visited Tibet
from 1827 to 1831, and compiled the first Tibetan-English dictionary; he
became the librarian to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta and is buried in
Darjeeling.
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