A pension, a pleasant surprise in Târgu-Mureș

Because it's Saturday I'm going to tell you a story, I say, beautiful. Although I have just returned from a visit around the country to people who love wood and what they do, the story is not about them (that will come soon enough). It's about a hostel and some young people who made an overnight stay a fond memory you want to share.

For some time now, when we go on visits around the country, we don't book in advance. The schedule often changes along the way, there is a lot to see and talk about and we don't want to be constrained by a set itinerary. We prefer to stay in hostels that we choose when we figure out where we'll be staying. Plus, when you stay at a hostel, your chances of a great story are much higher.

That's what happened this week. On Tuesday evening we arrived in Târgu Mureș, where we planned to stay because the next day we had some meetings scheduled. It was almost 7pm when we started looking for accommodation. We chose Villa Helvetia because we liked the photos and references we quickly read on our phones in a parking lot at the entrance to the city. The villa was in the centre, which was an advantage and well priced. So we quickly decided and headed there.

Seen from the outside it didn't tell us much. It's an old house, the kind with visible vertical wooden beams, similar to those in Germany or France, but it looked a bit cramped. We figured the good references weren't for nothing, though. We were greeted by Elly, a very friendly young woman, who showed us a room and convinced us.

Inside you don't feel cramped at all. Everything is carefully done with attention to detail, it's pleasant and welcoming, and natural plants hang everywhere on the interior staircase leading up to the rooms. Elly told us everything we needed to know, gave us her business card with her personal phone, saying we could call her anytime there was a problem, including if we were in town and didn't know how to get back. I don't think 5 minutes had passed and we already felt like friends.

As it was already late I immediately went down to the table. In the villa there is also a small restaurant, 2 rooms communicating that reminded me of a family restaurant in Italy. Between the rooms there are also two windows that are only framed and look like mirrors in which you see the reflection of the room you are sitting in. You realize though that the ceiling in the room you're sitting in is white, and the one you see is rustic walnut and you get clear 🙂 .

We sat down at the table and immediately the chef appeared. He told us what he had in store for the evening, but that it was no problem to cook whatever we wanted. It was late and we decided to eat one course. He recommended we have a light appetizer though and said it would go very well with a certain white wine. From that point on we decided to go with him. I told him so and we became friends. He told us that he and Elly were friends. He left the 5-star restaurant where he worked and came to her side to help her. She was taking care of everything by herself and she'd gotten sick. They took care of a lot on their own, including painting the tables and wooden ceilings in the restaurant. She chose the wineries to work with by the quality of their wines, not by reputation or size. And I want to tell you that I tasted 3 wines that evening, on his recommendation, and all were excellent and very well matched with the dish. He told us a lot about the cupaje, about the wineries, about the people who run them.

I want to tell you that everything I ate was very good, with good quality ingredients. Speaking of quality. I originally thought about getting a cream soup. He apologized that he didn't have any because he wanted to make seasonal soup that was pumpkin and hadn't found a quality pumpkin yet. And the way he arranged each dish on his plate was Masterchef worthy.

At the end he surprised us - a complimentary dessert accompanied by a glass of rosé sparkling wine also made at a small winery in the country. Of course, he also told us about this winery and how he knows how to "open" champagne by cutting the neck of the bottle with a sword, as officers used to do in the old days.

It was such a pleasant evening that we were not giving up. The whole time we felt welcome, well treated, with nice people who are passionate about what they do, and the price of the meal was more than decent. Ever since that evening I told myself I would write about them because people like that deserve to be known. I was sorry the time was short and engrossed in stories, I simply forgot the photos and other details I would have liked to know about them. But we'll definitely be back to this place again.