Sunday 17 June 2007

Romania: A difficult start


The first Romanian city we entered had the unwieldly name of Drobeta-Turnu-Severin. We bought a language guide and threw ourselves wholeheartedly into learning to communicate. Romanian is a latin language and shares a lot of grammar and words with Italian and Spanish, so is quite easy to learn. That night we were the only guests in a newly opened pension with a piano on every floor! The fabled Romanian architecture was very visible in a tower near the centre of town.

Turnu-Severin tower

We wanted to fast-track this part of Romania by taking a bus or train to Transylvania, but it took us 24 hours to find one that would fit our bikes. We also had to fight the constant "can't do" attitude of transport staff and laws against carrying bikes on trains, which is unimportant when the offer of a little incentive is made...

We made our way by train and bus to the "European Union's Cultural Capital of 2007", Sibiu, a charming town in western Transylvania. This town has a really upbeat feel with lots of new tasteful development and refurbishment. This year there is live music on most nights. We encountered some streets still under repair:


Roger encounters some roadwork

Sibiu town wall

The architecture in this region has a lot of characteristic features too. One of our favourites is the eyelid windows in the roofs of many buildings.


Eyelid windows

A mushroom tower


Orthodox Frescos

But the stress of our transport woes of the past few days wasn't over. After spending the night in a pension we awoke to discover that our bike helmets had been stolen from inside the front door of the pension! We attempted to make statements at two police stations but gave up after a couple of hours when the language difficulties became too great.


Near the pension where our helmets were stolen

A day was then spent scouring Sibiu for a couple of decent helmets to no avail. None of the helmets in the five bike shops in Sibiu fitted properly. Our plan was to cycle in the direction of Brasov but we didn't feel comfortable doing this without helmets, especially since there were some highways involved. So we caught a train to larger city of Brasov to look for better helmets. On this train we were more savvy and paid only a small bribe, while at the smae time managing to make friends with the conductor.

On the train we met Romiro, a young engineering student with a great sense of humour. He gave us tremendous insight into the way Romanians think and many tips on language and customs. We had dinner with Romiro and his flatmate that night at the Romanian equivalent of McDonalds; hearty student fare indeed!


The Transylvianian Tennis Club in Brasov

The next day we searched all the Brasov bike shops and found good helmets in the last one on our list. They are Trek ones and fit very well. Roger's fits better than his cheap Aussie one. With the stress of the last week over we were ready to hit the road again.

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