In 2016 I had the chance to visit this amazing place and now want to share with you my amazing trip. Make sure you get to the end of my story to see the best fish food I've ever had :)
Albota is the trout farm at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, in the Arpasel Valley, surrounded by the Natural Reserve and the Albota and Buteanu mountain peaks at 2507 m. It is situated at Arpasu de Sus nr 505, 557016, România.
As soon as you get out of your car (there's no other way to get there) you can see this magical view.
You just have to cross the creek and you are at the small guesthouses made of wood.
This is the porch of one of the wooden houses with wooden tables and chairs. I can see myself having coffee here.
This is the big lodging house, made of wood in rustic style.
If you want to know more about the history of the place and its transformation until today, every Sunday the owner is guiding tourist around Albota fishing farm telling the story of the place and answering questions. This is an 1 hour walk.
View from the balcony, full of beautiful flowers.
This is a place where the small trouts are kept.
Let's see who likes this gorgeous rustic wooden house!
A bunch of firewood for winter.
One of the ponds full of big and healthy fish close to the wooden cabins.
Another pond with a nice wooden deck with stairs that can get you closer to the big fish.
Don't even think about catching fish here with your bare hands :) Fish are smarter than you, besides, there is a place where you can fish.
There is a fee for fishing. You have to pay for one hour, which costs around $1.26 (this was in 2016), $6.06 for every kg of fish you caught, and another $0.51/kg in case you want your fish cleaned. You have to buy the fish you caught, throwing back the fish is forbidden.
This pond is full of fish, what do you think, can you catch some?
Look at that one, how big it is! If you're not lucky enough, at leas you can have some fun fishing and every evening before sunset you can watch the workers feeding the fish.
There were people fishing when we were there. Kids love it for about ten minutes, then they get bored, usually :) Don't worry, there is a swimming pool, it's that baby blue in the background and that's not all.
There is a small playground for the little ones.
This is me going up to the observation tower from where you can see the whole area.
Look at that view!!
This is one of the two greenhouses next to the big lodging house. Self-sufficiency is the keyword here. 80% of the products served are grown and prepared here. I can see beans and tomatoes but I bet there are other vegetables and fruits in the greenhouse and next to it, in the open garden.
Look at this tomato! This is the real deal! When you see this you can't leave without serving something. It's nice to see tomatoes growing, that can actually end up in your salad.
There is also a farm with cows, buffaloes, Angus cattle, goats, sheep, rabbits, horses, donkeys. There's a bakery, a smoker, a butcher shop, a milk/cheese processing workshop and a shop where you can buy things made here.
I found this gorgeous sunflower in the open garden. Isn't it perfect?
According to this poster, at Albota there are 13 ponds producing 50 tones of fish annually. A trout can weight 0.25 kg in two years. There are two types of trouts here. The trout Fântânel, which has white fins, red dots on the side and its back is dark. The other one is called Curcubeu which means Rainbow in English, it has dots on its back and a red line.
Now comes the fun part! Look at that food!!! It's the specialty of the place! It is trout fillet in corn flakes with parsley sauce and boiled potatoes! I knew the food is heavenly good so I went there hungry and so should you! (I had the intention to take a photo of the food but as soon as I saw the dish, totally forgot about it and started eating. So shame on me, now I have to post the menu :D)
What would you choose from here?
Thank you for reading my blog. It's an amazing place and I'm sure I would go back one day. If you are in Sibiu, don't miss it. The distance between Sibiu and Arpaşu de Sus is 51 km. You can also taste this amazing dish at Shopping City Sibiu.
This is my entry for the #beautifulsunday challenge, hosted by @ace108 and for #Sublimesunday by @c0ff33a.