I went to Peles Castle in the same area a few years ago.
It is quite beautiful, unfortunately I was too busy admiring the castle (and walking along the road, I took a minibus and had to walk several miles because they stopped at the foot of the mountain) to really take in the surrounding area.
Although I remember going thru a town... they had a few shops and old men with dogs... haha. also this strange food, maybe it was "Fast food". Some kind of dough served with a heavy cream... they said it was Hungarian in origin? I could never remember what it was!
Ahhh, but back to your pictures. Just look at all that mist! I wonder if ancient people had superstitions about monsters hiding in there!
Oh, and was there ever oil in the Carpathians? My grandfather grew up in a town near Lviv/Lvov far to the north near the northern foothills, and in his memoirs he wrote about how HIS father worked on an oil rig or pipeline substation something... I assume you would know more about the economy of that region than me :)
Cheers!
-CryptoTrucker