I visited the Câpâlna fortress by taking a local morning bus from Sebeş towards Şugag which dropped me off at the start of the track. It is a well signposted 2 kilometer steep walk through orchards and forest. Hardly anything remains of the fortress, but the views over the valley are pretty and it was nice to imagine the Dacians guarding the valley below. I had intended to walk to the fortified church of Calnic but the walk seemed rather daunting now I was here. So, I decided to hitchhike back to Sebeş which worked very well (as usually in Romania).

A few days later I was staying in Oraştie and faced the challenge to visit Sarmizegetusa Regia. After reading Tsunami's review, and as it was end of November, I decided to go on a Saturday, guessing there may be more tourists to hitchhike. I intended to take the 11.00h bus to Costeşti but when I arrived at the bus station that had served me so well in the past days, I found it had morphed into a busy market. I asked around and it seemed on Saturday the busses start from another location. But when I arrived at that location, there was no sign of a bus either. I was about to give up but when I went to ask if I may visit the bathroom at a local cafe, I was reminded of how friendly Romanians are. And I started to hitchhike. It went really well and after few rides I found myself in the company of four girls on their way to Sarmizegetusa Regia. We enjoyed the site with the temples and the remoteness of it and spent around 1.5 hours there. There were several other tourists too. The four girls drove me back to Costeşti where I had just 45 minutes to march up the hill to visit the Costeşti fortress. I found this site also a rather nice addition as this is more of a fortress and it does have some remains. Then I quickly walked back in the dusk towards Costeşti where to my relief I was able to find the last bus back to Oraştie. It had worked out!