Hungary to Romania… Transylvania
By admin. Filed in accidents, London to Sydney, motorcycle touring, Romania, Transylvania, Wild Camping |
After the mosquito infested campsite we decided that we would make a quick exit from Hungary and head into Romania. Hopefully to warmer and mosquito free weather.. It was a good plan.. We got to the boarder with Romania with ease… It was rather amusing to see how long the queue space for the boarder crossing was.. It must have been 5-10km long.. eventually we arrived at the crossing and had our passports stamped and made a quick exit from the boarder crossing.. After crossing into romania you see immediately that there are all these people trying to attract you to their “booth”. However the Romanian Vignette (road tax) is not required for Motorcycles so we sped past. Don’t listen to any of the scammers who are waiting for you at the boarder to 1) change your currency, 2) get you to buy a vignette.. Its cheaper to buy the fuel, currency and vignette (if your driving a car or truck) away from the boarder.. You can get them about 5km up the road at a service station for a better price with less hassle..
As you travel further into Romania the price for fuel drops significantly.. I think they expect everyone to think wow this is cheap and then buy.. The price difference can be around 20cents/litre away from the boarder.
The road from the boarder into “greater Romania” was pretty boring across a huge flood delta where there was nothing at all worth seeing.. There are ATM’s to take cash out about 5km from the boarder too so you can get the money for your stuff there without paying the crazy exchange rates.. often 25% less in your favour.
After hearing that the roads in Romania are really really bad we found that the main route in from Hungary to Romania was actually just recently fixed, with freshly painted lines. It was really nice riding despite being boring and flat across the flood delta. We headed further into Romania and found that there is a real shortage of camp sites.. Or at least there are no camp site signs. We eventually found one really nice camp site which is run by a Romanian man and his Dutch wife. The money from the camp site goes to a local orphanage (childrens home) which is a great cause, the kids also help run the site. Everyone was really friendly and I would highly recommend it to anyone that is travelling through Romania and wanting quality affordable accommodation. Their web address is www.routeroemenie.nl. Fundatia TDS, Cornel en Anna Tarniceri, Minis 298, 317137 Minis – Romania. Telephone 004 0742768111. Email : Camping.route.Roemenie@gmail.com. There is a huge list of things to do in the surrounding area so you can stay for several days and really enjoy the area. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for more than one night as we needed to get to Istanbul for the 6th of July. While camped we met a dutch couple that had spent the last few months (may and June) travelling around Turkey in their VW camper. They gave us some awesome tips and places to stay while travelling through Turkey. Its one thing that has been really good. Friendly campers at many of the sites giving us tips and tricks to avoid being scammed or show us where to go or not to go.
Another break on the side of the road in Romania
At the campsite we also spoke to a Belgian guy who had been spending his summers travelling around Romania for the last few years. He was telling us about the wolves, bears etc and how its not wise to camp in the forest in Romania. We also read more in the news about people being mauled by Romanian bears.. not something that we wanted to really experience so we have decided its going to be only proper campsites for us.. at least until we get to the coast.. We have never heard of bears swimming in the black sea.. although maybe they do! who will know until we actually get there…
After heading out of that campsite we headed to Deva and onwards to Sibiu in the heart of Transylvania. We found a wonderful campsite just outside of the main city where we have decided to rent a cabin and stay there for a few days to take in the area and explore (read meat drakula.. aka DrakHeather). Unfortunately its not a full moon.. dammit maybe next time.
In the previous post we made comments about the Hungarian Drivers.. Well that is nothing.. since getting to Romania they must seriously have a death wish their driving is horrendous. We have seen so many completly wrecked cars and several accidents where cards have swiped eachother.. Everyone tries to drive in the centre of the road which is horrid as they just try and push motorcycles off the road.. not by intention I hope but its crazy. And the over takes are shocking.. We just have to give them space and let them past so we don’t get caught up in their shit driving skills. At least we are staying carefuil and hopefully it will improve as we head towards the coast and Bulgaria and Turkey..
Romanian Scenery near Sibui
Michelsberg Burg Tour
The Romanian Countryside has been very beautiful. With many people waving as we ride past and everyone has been super friendly so far.
Michelsberg Burg view
I think the Romanians are very proud people and their history is very rich. So far Romania takes the cake as being our top country so far on this trip. While staying we visited the Roman Basilica Michelsberg Burg.
Thursday, July 2nd 2009 at 10:41 pm |
Sho hey guys, it really does sound awesome! Meeting all those people, it must be so interesting! As for the cary driving, it sounds like they’ve got a lot of South African taxi drivers living there, hehe!