Going from the southern side, we get to a gigantic, 160-metre high (sic!) dam on the Arges River (Romanian: Argeş). The construction of the dam lasted for four and a half years and it was finished in 1965. The consequence of the construction was the artificial Vidraru Lake, with an area of less than 9 km², 839 m above sea level. The road leads alongside the edge of the dam; it is worth pulling over here to glance down the precipice from one side, and to look at the beautiful lake from the other. I saw small ships on the lake, and not far from the dam something in the shape of a small marina, so probably one can treat themselves to a short cruise around the lake, too.

Near the dam there is the Poienari Stronghold, in which the gospodar Vlad the Impaler, renown for his cruelty – the prototype of Count Dracula – lived in the 15th century. Right behind the dam the famous Transfagarasan road begins.

The Transfagarasan (Romanian: Transfăgărăşan) is a road running across the highest mountain range of the Romanian Carpathians – the Fagaras Mountains. The road, breaking through onto the other side with the longest tunnel in Romania (884 m), is 151 km long and reaches a height of 2034 m above sea level. (Attention, the tunnel is closed more or less from October/November until April/ May because of the winter!)

The Transfagarasan road connects Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) in the north and Wallachia in the south, running between the highest peaks of the mountain range: Moldoveanu (2544 m) and Negoiu (2535 m). The views on the way are breathtaking, and the serpentines seem to twist endlessly. A must-see point.

Historically, Transylvania/Siebenbürgen is an area between the arch of the Carpathians in the east and in the south, the Bihor Mountains in the west, and the Rodna Mountains in the north.

Hungarians think that the name of Transylvania is derived from the Hungarian name Erdő-elve meaning „behind the forest”, translated into the Latin ultra silvam, which was finally changed into the modern form – Transylvania. The Polish name – Siedmiogród – comes from the German name - Siebenbürgen – which, according to the most popular interpretation, was to mean seven main cities established in this area by the German colonists: Kronstadt, Schäßburg, Mediasch, Hermannstadt, Mühlbach, Bistritz and Klausenburg.