>>1162967For me it was pretty easy since I know Hungarian decently well. My Romanian is crappy but turned out to be good enough to talk to people who didn't know any other language. I did ask people who tried talking to me in Hungarian/Romanian if they knew English, which I am way more comfortable in, but no dice. Not even the policemen who stopped me at the border knew English. As a rule of thumb, don't expect anyone to speak English well enough to hold a conversation outside of big cities and tourist centers.
>>1163107How many days do you have in total? Sounds like your time is quite limited, and the Apuseni aren't particularly close to Piatra Craiului.
The Piatra Craiului is fairly small; if you want to spend some time there I recommend doing the trail that traverses the entire mountain range from North to South along the main ridge. There's a tourist center in Zarnesti, the largest town in the area, where you can get maps. The mountain range relatively well developed toruistically by Romanian standards. Trails are warked and there are several shelters and huts. Depending on when you're there not all of them may be open though. The Piatra Craiului is alpine; in April snow is a very real possibility and in March it's a given.
The Apuseni are more suited for some comfy hiking in early spring imo, and big enough to spend a whole week there. Arieseni is the local hub for expeditions in the area. I recommend hikes to the Cetatile Ponorului, Padis, Poiana Horea (super-comfy remote village) and several gorges and ravines in the area: Cheila Albacului, Cheile Galbenei etc.
>Any phrases in Romanian that would be particularly useful to know?Just learn the usual courtesies: hello, goodbye, thank you, please, sorry etc. Romanians are known to work things out even with the language barrier.
