Romania:  Oradea

🌿 Romania in January, a winter delight

We flew from Catania with Ryanair, direct to Budapest, starting out in a pleasant 16 degrees — with carry‑on bags only for a three‑night escape. And then, just a few hours later, stepping off the plane in Hungary felt like arriving in a completely different world.

Snow falling.  ❄️
A sharp, cold wind.
Extra layers, scarf, gloves.
The temperature sinking to –8 and –10 — the kind of cold that wakes you up from the inside out.

After crossing the border into Romania, we reached Oradea around 7pm, greeted by a city that looked as if December had decided to stay a little longer.

Oradea in winter feels like stepping into a Christmas movie 🎄that forgot to end.
The decorations were still up, so every corner shimmered — warm golds, soft whites, little pockets of magic. At night, the whole city felt enchanted.
By day, the sky opened into a clear blue, and snow drifted gently through the air. Everything looked freshly dusted, softened, quieted.

Four layers of clothing became the uniform — enough to stay warm, enough to wander slowly through the centre. There’s something grounding about that kind of cold. It makes you present. It makes you notice new things.
And then, just as quickly as we arrived, we were back on the road — a three‑hour drive to Budapest for our flight home to Catania.

It was only three nights away, but Oradea was a reminder that beauty shows up in unexpected places.
And that sometimes, a change in temperature — and a short trip away — is exactly the recode you didn’t know you needed.