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Romania 2013

June 21th – 25th

By Watracz Is Traveling

The top objective of our trip to Romania is visiting Dracula’s castle in the town of Bran, in the heart of Transylvania.

The plan is to leave on the longest day of the year, and ride our bikes from dawn till dusk. The day before I pack for the journey, and I try to fit every necessary thing into the trunks of my bike. We’re only going for 3 days, but anything can come in handy. This time, we figure out our budget, and get our foreign currency, beforehand. And we install sat nav with pre-programmed maps.

On my way to Rzeszów I visit the Bravados motorbike garage to adjust the bike’s chain before the trip. Unfortunately, the gentlemen tighten a screw too much and the entire swingarm breaks… making it impossible to ride any further. And that’s likely it for any trip I’ve planned. We anxiously try to salvage the situation, and luckily, we manage to find a used swingarm for sale not far from Krakow. The mechanics take it upon themselves to get it and replace the old one overnight, so I can begin the trip in the morning.

Day 1: Rzeszów, Barwinek, Miskolc

June 21th, 2013

View day 1 route on Google Maps

Around 10 I pick up my “fixed” bike and start off towards Rzeszów. On the highway, I notice that I strapped the tank bag wrong, and one of the straps got loose, so I turn to the Zakrzów rest area to fix it. I step on the rear brake, and it turns out the brake’s not working! I brake with the front brake to stop the bike. The rear brake pipe is damaged… The mechanic installed it wrong, and the pipe was rubbing against the tire, got worn through, and the liquid spilled out onto the tire. The brake liquid is very slippery, and this whole thing could have ended badly if I hadn’t stopped but rode on.

After a not-exactly-printable call with the repairman, the bike gets put on a trailer and we go back to the Bravados garage. The next few hours are taken up by attempts to replace the brake pipe. Paweł lost all hope of our going anywhere. Around 5:30 pm the bike is put back together and I leave for Rzeszów. This time, I hope I’ll be free of any unpleasant surprises.

When I reach Rzeszów it’s after dark, so Paweł and I are wondering if it makes sense to move out, or, since the circumstance is really unfavorable, if it’s better to let go and just have a beer and play some video games. In the end, I convince Paweł to go, regardless of the hiccups. After all, we’ve been waiting for this trip for a long time, and who knows when we’d be able to try it again. We set out around 10 pm. The moon’s full and it’s pretty warm. We go towards Bieszczady and the Barwinek border crossing.

Lake Veľká Domaša

On our way through Slovakia, we stop by a lake in the middle of the night. The closer the morning gets, the more tired we are. While we chew through pizza brought all the way from Poland, Pawel says he recognizes the area – he had visited it some time back, during a biker’s rally. Apparently, it was impossible to sleep without earplugs during the event, because every so often someone would start their bike and hit the gas.

We reach the Hungarian border, and our sat nav gets a bit lost, taking us through a winding and potholed forest road. We lose a ton of time before we get back to the main road. In the end, around dawn, we camp out somewhere near the city of Miskolc.

Day 2: Debrecen, Oradea, Turda

June 22th, 2013

View day 2 route on Google Maps

A weird sound wakes us up after just a few hours of sleep. A family of farmers has come to the field, and one of the kids is playing with a remote plane, flying it a couple meters above our tent. We pack up the tent, have our breakfast, and move out. There’s some sort of race going on on the main road, and for many kilometers we need to overtake groups of cyclists.

We get across Hungary in an amazingly short time. We mostly take the highways. At the border crossing, a Romanian customs officer asks us a lot of questions about where and why we’re going. He seems nosy and suspicious, but we do our best to answer the questions politely. We talk mixing in bits of English, Russian, and Polish.

Bucea

We ride through the city of Oradea and stop over by the village of Bucea. Paweł has had it, and after a couple days without a shower he takes advantage of a roadside spring. Brushing his teeth, showering, shaving, the whole nine yards. An old Romanian woman hides in the bushes on the other side of the road, watching the show.

We move through Gypsy towns and villages, looking at the palaces and buildings whose architectural style drips with chaos and lavishness. The structures are covered in patterns and tiles. The roofs are covered in columns and towers. The yards are full of sculptures and fountains.

As we ride towards Huedin, we get caught in a downpour. We put on our rainsuits, but the gloves and boots get wet quickly. The wind’s very strong. Strong enough to blow down roadside trees and fences onto the right lane of the road. We ride through what’s becoming a shallow pool of water in the left lane, moving around the obstacles. Eventually, we stop under the roof of an old gas station to wait it out. Paweł pours water out of his boots, I wring out my gloves.

After dark, we get to the town of Gilău, where we’re caught by another downpour right by the highway entry. This time, it’s a lightning storm. The visibility drops to nearly nothing, but we’re still riding, trying to follow the rear lights of trucks. From time to time, lightning flashes across the sky.

Turda

It’s almost midnight when we reach the Turda Gorge from the direction of Cheia. We set up our tent on the first clearing we can find, and hit the sack.

Day 3: Rimetea, Sibiu, Transfăgărășan, Bran

June 23th, 2013

View day 3 route on Google Maps

Having been showerless for two days, I can’t stand it any longer, and at 5 am I take my towel, shower gel, clean underwear and go out in search for a mountain stream where I could take a bath. After all, a gorge should have a river nearby. Two hours later, I find the river. The water is cold, but I’m still very relieved to finally get clean. Scrubbed and satisfied, I get back to the camp. In the meantime, Paweł has packed the tent, so we eat a quick breakfast and then move out.

The Rock of the Szeklers (Romanian: Piatra Secuiului)

We pass through the village of Rimetea, next to the Rock of the Szeklers (1,129 m.a.s.l.) and take some photos on the way. A huge grasshopper sits down on Paweł’s shoulder. The moment Paweł puts on his helmet, the grasshopper hops on it, and for the next dozen or so kilometers rides with us, walking along the helmet.

The Cheile Vălișoarei Nature Reserve

The route takes us through a picturesque nature reserve. We ride through a valley framed by huge rock walls. It reminds of riding around Krakow. Ojców has similar rock formations – they’re just a couple sizes smaller!

The Transfăgărășan route

On our way, we shop at a local store. We can’t speak the language, but somehow manage to communicate. A while later we fill up our bikes on what’s likely to be the last gas station before we hit the mountains. It’s over 30 °C, stifling hot. We buy some cold Nestea and try to use it to cool off from the inside. We ride in shorts and t-shirts, but my back is dripping with sweat anyway.

The road leads uphill, through the forest, through sharp curves. With each kilometer we get higher – and it gets cooler. There are tons of other bikes on the route. The traffic is pretty dense, especially compared to the other areas of the country we’ve been to so far. When we get out of the forest, we stop at a viewpoint, where you can take a look at a vista of the mountains and routes we’ll get to.

There are sheep grazing in the meadows around the route. Every time we stop and turn off our engines, we can hear the roar of other motorbikes in the area. Paweł is getting tired with the frequent stops and photo ops, so he’s reluctant to get off his bike and take off the helmet. He says we shouldn’t stop more often than every 15 minutes, but then again, this is one of the best places on our route, so it’s worth the time to take a lot of photos.

At the top of the route, there are parking lots on both sides of the road. The traffic’s unbelievable, and there’s a jam on the road. We decide to press on towards the tunnel rather than look for a parking spot. In the tunnel, we ride in a group of other bikers. A couple of them make use of the tunnel’s echo and hits the gas – hard. It’s very loud, but I enjoy it.

The Argeș river

The entire route has a lot of overlooks and spots where you can stop – but most of these are already crowded with other bikes and cars. We stop by the Argeș river. The snow hasn’t melted yet, and underneath, a mountain stream has carved something like a cave or a tunnel. The river begins its flow nearby, and runs for 350 km. It flows through nearly half of the country, and flows into the Danube in the South.

Lake Vidraru

As we descend from the mountains towards the lake, the road gets dramatically worse. The turns are very sharp, and there’s sand scattered on a lot of them. When you’re riding downhill, braking, and turning at the same time, it’s really easy for the bike to skid. I feel my front wheel skip a little a few times, but luckily, I manage to handle it without falling. Some fifty kilometers on, we reach a dam by the lake, and we take a longer break.

Another day of riding from dawn till dusk has really taken a toll on us. My arm and my shoulder blade hurt from squeezing the gas handle for over a dozen hours each day. I take two painkillers for the pain, to make it through until the evening. At the dam, I buy postcards and some popcorn. We rest for an hour, and then it’s back in the saddle.

Câmpulung

We take a couple of photos near the Hocim factory that processes cement, gravel, and sand. It’s almost 7 pm, the sun is slowly setting, and we still have about 60 km of Transylvanian curves to get through.

Dragoslavele

Packs of thin and hungry stray dogs walk all over the road. They tend to jump out of bushes, or from behind a fence at a curve, and run after our bikes, barking wildly.

It’s still pretty bright out, even though it’s 8 pm. After the sun sets, the sky takes on a purple hue, and the imagery is really stunning. We take in the sights instead of focusing on the winding road. We stop a number of times to take photos, and I start to wonder if we’re even going to make it to Dracula’s castle before it gets dark. On the other hand, it’s tough to just leave these views be.

Piatra Craiului (“the Prince’s Stone”)

On our left side, we pass a 20-kilometer-long mountain range, whose highest peak is at 2,238 m.a.s.l.

Bran

We reach the goal of our trip! Almost three days of exhausting travel, and nearly 1,300 kilometers on our bikes, we make it in one piece, with smiles on our faces.

Dracula’s Castle

The castle matches the description of the house of Dracula, the title character of Bram Stoker’s novel. We get there late, it’s 8:40 pm. I put up my tripod quickly, to take a photo before the sun sets completely. When we come back to the parking, we’re approached by a guy who’s having trouble with his car. We lend him the wrenches he needs, and we figure out where to stay for the night. We decide to move on towards Brașov, and find a place to put up a tent somewhere along the way – we know it can be hard to do that in the dark.

And it’s gotten completely dark. Paweł’s riding in the front. At one point, I fall in a pothole, and I hear a crack from somewhere by the back wheel. I stop to see what happened – maybe I got a flat tire? Paweł can’t see that I’ve stopped in his rear view mirror, so he keeps riding. I pull out my flashlight and check out the wheel. It looks OK, but I’ll need to be careful. A longer moment passes, but Paweł’s still not in sight. I take out my phone to call him, but then I remember that his phone doesn’t have roaming on, so I won’t be able to reach him anyway… I wait at the side of the road, and luckily, he’s back a couple minutes later. He says he didn’t even notice when I stopped following him. We almost got lost.

At a gas station we fill up, and then we turn into a side road in Tohanu Nou, a couple kilometers after we pass the city of Bran. Following a gravel road, we reach a clearing at the top of a hill. The clearing looks deserted, so we put up the tent and go to sleep. At night, we’re woken up by the engines of cars that came to the clearing and are shining their lights towards us. A couple of people get out of the cars, and we can hear them walking around the tents and the bikes. Paweł checks if I’m awake. I tell him to be quiet, and I grip his machete tighter. We’re terrified, and we don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe the Romanians want to jump us? Maybe they think that since we’re on a trip away from home, we have a lot of money or other valuables? We mentally prepare ourselves for the worst. Minutes pass, and our hearts are racing. Luckily, the Romanians get back in their cars and drive away. We can’t sleep for a long time, thinking about the situation. We wonder what self-defense gear we should pack the next time. Pepper spray? Tasers? An expandable baton? Or maybe an air gun? We get to sleep eventually.

Day 4, 5: Brașov, Rupea, Oradea, Debrecen, Nowy Sącz

June 24th - 25th, 2013

View day 4, 5 route on Google Maps

We wake up a couple minutes after 6 am. Now we can have a better look at the clearing. Turns out we’re surrounded by mountains on three sides, and that the view is amazing. The sun’s rays shoot through the thick cover of clouds. We notice a whole lot of empty beer cans and old cigarette packs in the clearing. The place is probably a party spot for the locals, and that’s why they came here at night. We chose our sleeping locale poorly, but it was hard to find something better in the dark. We pack for the return trip. We have 830 km to make before we get to Rzeszów, and only a small portion of that are highways. Paweł needs to get to work the next day, so we have to make it. For me, it’s around 950 km to Krakow. It looks like it’s going to be an interesting sprint.

Rupea

We go back through Brașov and ride towards Sighișoara, then to Cluj-Napoca. Several dozen kilometers past Brașov, not far from the town of Măieruș, we pass through a nice forest full of sharp turns. Then we make a stop in the town of Rupea. On the hill next to it sits a curious 14th c. citadel.

Somewhere further on, we pass through a town that marks a dramatic decrease in the quality of the roads. Instead of tarmac, the main streets are covered in uneven, protruding, and overlapping concrete blocks. We stop a couple of times to take short naps, just a few minutes long, on the grass by the road, to regain our strength at least a little.

In the afternoon we leave Romania through the border crossing by Oradea and exchange our last remaining lei at a local exchange office. We’re chatted up by a handful of people asking us where we’re coming from, and asking about our bikes: how much horsepower, how fast they go, how many cylinders they have, and how much they were.

We move through Hungary pretty quickly, even though it’s after dark. A large part of our route this time is on a highway, but then our sat nav gets lost, and we veer to a side road full of potholes that are hard to avoid in the dark. A couple of times I hit a hole and hear some suspicious knocking in my rear suspension. I just keep hoping that nothing breaks down in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, far from civilization.

We’re extremely sleepy when we get to Slovakia. Our eyes are literally closing while we’re riding. We open the visors to let the cool air wake us up a little. A few times I nod off on the bike, and lose my balance. That’s really dangerous, and we should really rest and sleep right away, instead of riding on, but we just want to get home as fast as possible.

We take a couple breaks at parking lots or bus stops, and close our eyes for 15 or 20 minutes to get back some strength.

We separate somewhere near Košice. I’m going towards Krakow, Paweł’s off to Rzeszów. The night is very bright, not a cloud in the sky. In the mountains, near Piwniczna Zdrój, I stop on a side road, lie down on my bike, and fall asleep. I sleep for about an hour, then ride on.

Nowy Sącz

When I get to Nowy Sącz, the sun is rising already. Just after 5 am, I’m driving through the city a bit too fast, I’m too tired to notice the speed limits, and I get caught by a speed camera.

Then I ride towards Brzesko, and enter the highway for Krakow. I get home and I’m half dead. It’s half past eight in the morning. The trip back took us more than 24 hours. Paweł texts me that he’s home too, and that he’s getting ready for work. Two hours later he texts that he fell asleep at his computer at work, and that they told him to go home and get some sleep.