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Romania Entries

No Bikes Allowed: A Train Story, Part Two

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

12:29 AM Four hours since our train left us behind, we're back on platform three, waiting. A train whistle sounds in the distance, and people start filing across the rails to join us. The station agent who promised to help us is nowhere in sigh...

Come and Gone: A Train Story, Part One

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

4:30 PM / Tara After a long, cold, wet, hilly day of cycling, we arrive in Sighişoara and head directly to the train station. Tyler goes in to ask about tickets to Munich, while I stay outside to guard the bikes. I am soaked and shivering, cupp...

Farewell, Rainy Romania

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

With cartoon clouds, pixels as raindrops, and yellow, zig-zag bolts of lightning featuring heavily on the internet's forecast all week, we were less than enthusiastic about visiting the UNESCO World Heritage city of Sighişoara, our destination for ...

Robbed

Monday, May 17th, 2010

The weather here in Romania has been terrible for the last week. We went out this afternoon with the hope of seeing some of Sibiu, but the depressing drizzle overhead soon sapped any desire we had to see the city. We halfheartedly snapped a few p...

Sounds of Sibiu

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

I was roused this morning around 7AM by a raucous, twittering racket just outside our tent. The early birds in the trees surrounding us were tweeting and chirping so loudly they may as well have been in our tent. I felt like my eight year old sel...

A Walk in Braşov

Friday, May 14th, 2010

We started the morning off with a delicious breakfast cooked by Lily, the woman who owns Casa Timar. Along with her husband and grown son, she runs their family's cozy pensiune. This morning we exchanged stories about Italian travel while we enjo...

Braşov in the Rain

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

It was an easy ride into Braşov this morning, only 25km! Once again, we made sure to appreciate having a very short day. Rolling into town just an hour after we'd left camp, it felt like we'd been out for a normal-person bike ride. We'd intended...

Bowling in Bran

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

We decided to take advantage of our cheap, electricity- and internet-providing accommodations this morning, opting to spend the day working rather than packing up for our next destination, the nearby town of Braşov. I had expected it wou...

Sheep

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

What a beautiful day in the Carpathian mountains! As if the sunny skies, verdant vistas, and homey horse-drawn carts galloping alongside us weren't enough, our route was almost entirely downhill. …which was good, because we left our hotel at...

Working in Buşteni

Monday, May 10th, 2010

The plan for today was to take a cable car from Buşteni up to a series of mountain-top rock sculptures "Sfinxul and Babele", formed slowly over years and years of heavy blowing winds. Upon learning that the ride would cost over $50 USD, we had sec...

Pedaling Upstream

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

With everything we needed to thrive at our hard-to-reach Romanian forest free-camp, we almost decided to stay another day. Instead, we packed up, said hello to some horses grazing in a nearby pasture, and set off on our 30 minute trek back to the ...

Draculas & Gypsies

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

We awaken to the sound of horse's hooves clip-clopping outside our tent. Smashed together in a furrow of a field, our sleeping mats in a comical V shape, we're genuinely surprised by the restful night of sleep it provided. I groggily poke my head...

Ridges & Troughs

Friday, May 7th, 2010

As he has every morning during our stay in Bucharest, Rob made us a delicious breakfast and gently rebuffed all offers of help. He even made us two extra breakfast sandwiches and packed them carefully in tinfoil so we could have them for lunch! W...

Russian Logistics

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

A few months ago, Tara's brother Lian jokingly mentioned we should drive across Russia. His idea was in response to a logistical problem we've known about for some time: we don't have the six months it would likely take us to cross Siberia on our ...

Instant Gratification

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Day two of Rob's guided tour Bucharest didn't go exactly as planned. We didn't go to the museum or the park we had intended to visit, but we did do something else: we got exactly what we wanted. Before we left, Tyler and Rob searched online ...

Exploring Bucharest

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

After sleeping in, and enjoying the morning with music playing the background (something of a revelation to us after so long on the road), Robert cooked us breakfast. He refused any help and told us the plan for the day while we ate. He had creat...

Bucharest Bound

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Like yesterday, today was restfully easy: a flat, uneventful ride towards Bucharest. The highlight of our morning was finally using one of the many wells we've seen dotting the roadsides over the last few weeks! Tyler lowered the ancient chai...

Lazy Saturday

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Let's just face facts. We never get on the road before 10:00 AM. Okay, not never, but rarely. Even in the sweltering hot summertime, when it is prudent to get moving early to save ourselves from the brutal afternoon sun, we still stay up late wo...

Precious Cargo

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

For the really important decisions in life I've found that no list of "pros and cons" will help. Logic doesn't really apply, nor does rationality. There's simply a knowing, a gut feeling that what we've chosen is the right thing to do, and it req...

A Chance Encounter

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

This morning, while I was securing our camera to the back of my bike, Tara announced, "here comes a flock of sheep!" A shepherd and his menagerie were approaching, complete with several barking dogs. The sheep didn't seem to mind us, they must've...

A Life Less Ordinary

Monday, April 26th, 2010

The first day back on the road after a brief interlude of buffet breakfasts and silky sheets can be a little difficult, especially when it looks like rain. As we wheeled out of the Hotel Anna parking lot Tara was more than a little wistful. I was...

A Walk in Târgu Jiu

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Considering that I have a degree in Sculpture, I should probably have heard of "the father of modern sculpture," Constantin Brancusi, but I had not. It took a trip around the world and a stop in Târgu Jiu, Romania, to discover him! Thanks to Silv...

Hotel Anna

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

The first hotel we tried when we arrived in Târgu Jiu was pretty blah: on the outside it looked tacky, on the inside it was overly fancy, and the prices were exorbitant. The reception area was also filled with a group of sharply-dressed business p...

Tismana Monastery

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Before leaving our riverside free-camp, we breakfasted on Valentina-Carmen's bread and very salty homemade cheese. While we dusted off our mud-splattered clothing, she was probably attending to the permanent appointment she holds with every sunris...

The Universe Provides

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

There are times on this trip when I question my abilities. Am I really capable of doing this? What are we even doing here? Why am I doing this? What is the value of this? These thoughts generally make a pronounced appearance when we are somewh...

Cave Hunting

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

A few weeks ago, we received a contact through our website from a Romanian who lives in Tara's hometown. He was excited to tell us all about the country he grew up in, and the things we shouldn't miss while we are here. Having no guidebook for Ro...

Ivana the Terrible

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

For the most part, the steely glares we've been warned to expect here in Romania have proven to be nonexistent. In fact, everywhere we've been, people have almost universally been friendly and welcoming, especially when given a smile or hello to w...

Typical

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Today was a typical day. We woke up, and hoped that when we unzipped our tent, it would reveal a nice day. It did, though by the time we were done with breakfast, dark clouds had rolled in, threatening a cold rain. We bundled up, grabbed ou...

Intruders on the Danube

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

It must be 2AM when we are awakened by the sound of voices chattering in cryptic Romanian outside our tent. In moments, we are both wide awake. We watch intently as a shaky flashlight passes over our home, casting ominous shadows on the paper thi...

To the Danube

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

As I unzip the vestibule of our tent this morning, I let out a small gasp of delight and rouse Tyler to take a peek with me. Our free-camp is enveloped in a thick, billowing white mist! A nearby church looms in the fog, and the atmosphere is so d...

Into Romania

Friday, April 16th, 2010

With a good attitude, relatively clean bikes, and the excitement that comes from approaching a new country, we breakfasted on our new staple of bread, butter, and honey, and set off towards a better day. Under sunny skies, over flat, blessedly ...