The beautiful and wild North… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We invite you to a wonderful trip, with natural, historical, rural and gastronomic destinations wonderful and big surprise for you

 

This journey is going to take us to one of the most unknown regions in
Transylvania, Sălaj County. It is a situated northern from Cluj and because of it being unexposed to mass tourism, it is one of the most authentic and traditional parts of the country.
Our first destination will be the small city of Jibou. Here we will see an interesting Botanical Garden.
The garden is organized by sector, each sector groups the plants, a collection of greenhouses, microproduction and research complexes, an aquarium complex, a zoo park and poultry farms, a Japanese garden and a rosemary. The most important objective of the Botanical Garden is to development a fundamental and applied scientific research in the field of vegetal biology, national and international cooperation as well as the implementation of the results in the economic and social life. Conservation of biodiversity by preserving endangered species in the botanical collections and increasing the number of taxa from the botanical garden collection are our objectives researchers. The other objectives proposed a research activities in the fields of ornamental plant culture, in vitro micropropagation and the conservation of plants of phytogeographical and  the endangered plants in different parts of the world. After the Botanical Garden we will go to another objective, a geologic formation, made out of a specific variety of sandstones, called The Dragons’ Garden. Each and every cliff has its own legend: from dragons who stole the sun and were defeated by brave knights, to princesses that were cursed and turned into stones. We will hike through this natural reserve and find out the stories of these natural formations. Our next destination will be Zimbor. It used to be a typical Transylvanian village before the Second World War, with Romanian, Hungarian and Jewish
communities living together.  From the main road, we will get the chance to see the Jewish cemetery, which is still been taken care of by members of the Romanian community, although most of the members of the
World War Two. In the center of the village, we will get a. The old castle which used to be owned by a rich nobleman picture of what this community used to look like, hundreds of years ago called Zsombori, survived the two world wars and is currently being restored. Legend has it that he lost all of his money playing cards and his castle has been deserted ever since… We will then go to the Romanian cemetery and visit the Orthodox wooden church, built in the 17th century. The only material used here was wood and the traditional technique is really amazing. The interior of the church still preserves some of the frescoes of the 17th century. Leaving the church behind, we will walk to a local household and get the chance to
witness the real Transylvanian countryside life. Almost all people here rely on agriculture as an important part of their income and each family owns a couple of pigs, sheep, chicken and maybe even cows. They all grow fruits and vegetables in their own garden and consume their own products. We will get the chance to enjoy a delicious lunch with mouthwatering products, everything homemade and prepared by the local community of Zimbor. Here a local family, who run a small brandy distillery, will invite us to their home and tell us more about this important and traditional occupation. We will visit the production site, as well as the basement where the many barrels are held. After this, we will taste all of these goodies…
In the evening we will return to Cluj.