Romania, part XI - Alba Iulia (iii): Cetatea Alba Carolina during the day, Catedrala Sfântul Mihail (Gyulafehérvári Szent Mihály érseki székesegyház) and the grave of John Hunyadi, part II

I think I covered most of the ground in Part I, so this is mostly going to be a picture entry, and a brief wrapup on Alba Iulia, because there's not really much more to say that hasn't already been said. There are a lot more photos of St. Michael's Cathedral here, along with more photos of John Hunyadi's tomb, draped with the colours of Hungary. You know you've spent too much time in eastern Europe when you see the distinctive flag of green, white and red, and instinctively think of Hungary, instead of Italy. Green, white and red will always be Magyar for me, never Italy, much as I liked my visit to the latter this time round.

Alba Iulia looks passably nice in pictures now, and I'm not sorry for one second that we went there, but I'm glad we were just there for one night, and I don't think we'll be going back there again. There's not really much to see or do there apart from Alba Carolina, which can easily be covered within half a day, and the food is nothing to write home about. Why on earth would I want to waste my precious days of youth in Alba Iulia when I could be in Sarajevo, or Zadar, or Rome, or Sighisoara. I wouldn't particularly recommend this city to anyone - it's dusty and hard and unfriendly, and there are heaps of far nicer places in Romania to go to. Bad vibes. There was something rather unauthentic about the Alba Carolina citadel, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it seemed too..perfect and pristine. Hardly like a citadel that was more than 300 years old. Same goes for the St. Michael's Cathedral. It's supposed to be older than Peterhouse in Cambridge, but it was just too new, for lack of a better word, and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't buy it. None of the buildings here look a day over 50 years - possibly even less.

The main train station is about 5 mins walk from the central bus station, and both of them are located about half an hour's walk from Alba Carolina. The road is straight and fairly easy to navigate, with a proper pavement, although I imagine you'd still need a taxi if you had a lot of luggage on wheels. I don't have much luggage (anyone who's seen me in action can testify to that), so I don't have any trouble moving between places, and I found the walk rather refreshing.

It's raining, it always rains here. Rain is my favourite sort of weather, except when there's snow to be had, and also if I'm not on holiday there.

Panorama of the city from Alba Carolina

And as it always is, food, glorious food.

Next up, Oradea.