“you’ll have your gear stolen from underneath you”

“expect nothing more than peas and potatoes for dinner”

Well. We went to Romania with a whole heap of preconceptions. I really believed that we would be taking the train back to the Netherlands after hitting the black sea coast. Things have been bad in Romania in the past (Ceausescu: I say no more), but things are looking up for the country. Unfortunately, it will become a tourist trap soon, with large, ugly, 2000 story high, cheap, package tourist hotels already littering the beautiful beaches.

Wait!! That sounds like we didn't enjoy Romania, and nothing could be further from the truth. Romania and Turkey were the best countries we visited. But, alas, as more people discover this, more people will go there, and it will lose all it's charm. Sigh.

Our travels through Romania were quite extensive: we stayed in the country for almost a month. Our first stop was the danube delta. This is an extensive wetland area which many migratory birds visit. It is also a place on the edge of europe where roads don't go, and nothing happens quickly. Just the sort of place we were after.
From there, we headed to Brasov, a beautiful city on the at the bottom of the mountains, on the edge of transylvania. We found a great place to stay there, so after going walking in the mountains for a few days, we went back there and enjoyed the company. We met some great people there.
Our next destination (of course, we were still biking, so it did take a few days, and a few minor adventures to get there) was the Apuseni mountains. These aren't mountains like the carpathians are, but they were spectacular no the less. The beautiful thing about this area was the isolation. Not now so much, but 10-15 years ago, so the ruthless dictator, Ceausescu, didn't bulldoze the villages there, like he did in other areas. The farms were quaint, the farmers used horses a lot (I don't remember even seeing a tractor), and the hospitality was fantastic. We met a fantastic couple, half from Texas, half from Quebec, who we went walking with for a couple of days. Just thinking about that, I'll tell you about the greatest thing about travelling in places like Romania. The best thing is the people you met. Since there isn't an easy, fast way to get to these places, a lot of people don't go there. More to the point, all the annoying, I-embarrassed-to-be-a-tourist-like-they-are sort of tourists don't go to these places. Absolutely every non-romanian we met in Romania were really nice people. I wish I could say the same about the tourists we met in western european countries.
Anyway, I was writing about Romania. It was in the Apuseni mountains that we went into the icecave (see the photo above). This was pretty special, since we both love mountains and snow and glaciers, and we have tried a bit of caving (and enjoyed that too). I never imagined you could really combine the two, but you can.
After the icecave, we left the Apuseni mountains, we left Romania. The way we left Romania was spectacular, and really, really stupid. Never take the overnight buses...... I won't go into it, but you will get an idea with the following list (all of which happened): screaming, ripped off, smuggling, suspected fake passport, people disappearing, mosquitoes, bad music, overcrowded, late, dropped off in the middle of nowhere. The bus ride from hell!!!!

If you like the look of the photos, have a look at the rest of our photos from Romania. To do that, you might just have to come around and visit us. We'll even give you a cup of coffee.

Oh, OK. Here are a few more. But just this once!

Vital Statistics:
Local language; Romanian
Days spent here; 26
Kilometres biked; 930
Days with no biking; 8
km/day: 51.7
Cost (euro/day); 23.16

On to Hungary!

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