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This trip came about following a chance meeting on a campsite in Switzerland in 2006, (luckily for me), with Roger and lili Mead, who were so full of enthusiasm for Romania that I was convinced that it should become a ‘must do’ trip, and to do it as soon as possible before Romania is changed too much by it’s recent full entry into the E.U. Rodger is a Brit, originally from Essex and Lilli, his wife, is Romanian so they should know a bit about Romania. Both are dedicated Bikers and we met as they were on their way back to Romania on their TDM 850 after a trip to UK. As it turned out it was possibly the best trip I have ever done and I am now absolutely ‘sold’ on Romania. I did the trip with a good friend, Glyn Jones and we both thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Roger a nd Lili have recently built, (literally), their own beautiful ‘Biker Friendly’ B & B in Campulung at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, (see Visions of Romania link), and is absolutely in the ideal position to tour Transylvania, including the Faragas Pass and is in easy reach of Bran, (the site of the castle of Bram Stoker’s Dracula fame), and of Brasov, which has an extremely beautiful old town at it’s heart. I found Romania to be a country of extreme beauty, often rugged and unspoiled in a way which is not seen in the west. It often reminded me of Switzerland or Austria but without the ‘man made’ look. The people were possibly the friendliest I have ever met and the fact that we were riding motorbikes, which are rare in Romania, drew huge interest wherever we went, particularly with the kids. We reached Romania via Hungary and the Dn7 via Arad and the first thing noticed were the roads. They are not good, being mainly single carriage way and poorly surfaced and  with large numbers of HGV’s as Arad is the main point of entry for HGV’s. Roger had told us of this but to be honest it was not as bad as I thought it could be and I have seen roads just as bad in Belgium, the difference being in Romania it’s the norm. The good news is that the E.U. is currently investing huge amounts of money in Romania, especially in the roads and the Romanian government is also tackling the problem which is, I guess, a legacy from the communist era. Currently under construction is a brand new motor way which will link Budapest in Hungary with Bucharest and the Black Sea coast of Romania. The motor way is scheduled for completion in summer 2008 and from what I have seen it will be. When it is open you will be able to travel across Romania via the motor way and ‘drop off’ wherever you choose to. However we traveled all over Romania, particularly Transylvania, myself on a ST1300 Pan and Glyn on a BMW 850R and had no problems at all but I would strongly advise against using any sort of sports bike as the suspension will be too hard and with not enough travel to soak up the bumps but anything from a CB500 upwards should manage perfectly well if ridden with regard to the road. Another point to note, and again we had been warned by Rodger, is that Romanian drivers can verge on the ‘kamikaze’ particularly when it comes to overtaking, but as long as you keep a close check on your mirrors before you overtake you should be OK. Then again we had no problems. I suppose to be forewarned is to be forearmed as they say. We camped the first night in Romania at a campsite in the village of Aurel Vlaicu, on the DN7 between Deva  and Sebes. (It should have come as no surprise that the campsite was actually owned by a Dutch family as wherever I have traveled most of the campsites, particularly the Biker Only Moto Campsites seem to be owned by the Dutch - it seems to be every Dutch mans ambition to own their own campsite). We met a Polish biker named Kris on the site who was on his way home following a 10 day trip to Romania. We were told that there was a bar in the village so decided to call in for a drink. Although the bar was in a relatively poor farming village we received a tremendous welcome. Every one in the bar wanted to shake hands and it was hard to buy a beer as they seemed to just arrive on the table. At the end of the night I have to admit to being well p*ss*d and it was midday before I was able to safely ride the bike and carry on. The friendliness was by no means the exception, it fact it turned out to be the norm throughout Romania. Next day saw us reach Campulung where we stayed for a week with Rodger and Lili in what is best described as a 5 star B & B and it took a real effort of will to actually tear ourselves away and leave for home such was the welcome and hospitality. Rodger took some time out to ride out with us and showed us a Romania we we wouldn’t have believed existed. The town of Campulung itself has a lot to offer and we spent sometime simply wandering around soaking up the atmosphere. Perhaps the best thing about Campulung is it’s location. The town of Bran with it’s famous castle, is around 30mls away and if I lived in Campulung my Sunday morning ride would be the road to Bran, breakfast in Bran and then back again. The road is a bit rough in places but the scenery is stunning. If the road gets a resurface then for me it would be ‘biker heaven’. The Faragas Pass will, I am sure, become one of those ‘must do’ biker rides such as the Route de Napoleon in F rance or the Susten Pass in Switzerland, it is absolutely stunning. It is a 208 ml round trip from Campulung and although with an early start it can be done in a day it is much better to ride up and over and then stay in one of the reasonably cheap and clean hotels on the way back down to allow enough time to really enjoy it and have as many photo and coffee stops as you feel like. The road was built entirely by hand during the Ceausescu era, mainly using convict labour, and I am told that possibly up to 5000 prisoners died during it’s construction. The only reason it was built is that Ceausescu had a summer house built at the very top as he liked to leave the summer heat of Bucharest. The road up from the Faragas side is actually quite well surfaced but the road down, back towards Campulung, passes through forest and needs to be ridden with care. Whilst we were on it there was plenty of evidence that the government were taking steps to improve the road but even so it is well worth the ride. Brasov is approximately 40mls from Campulung and was a pleasure to go to, especially as it is also the road to Bran which became my favorite road. It is a very cosmopolitan city which reminded me very much of old Lucerne in Switzerland. The old town centre is very beautiful and is a favourite with tourists of every nationality and as such can be expensive compared to the rest of Romania. I loved everything about Romania from the numerous horse drawn carts, which can be seen literally everywhere, to the hundreds of kids who would wave excitedly as we went by, to the people who simply wanted to look at the bikes and ask about them. At times we felt like celebrities. Romania turned out to be a country of contrasts. From riding through absolutely stunning scenery on crap roads, passing dozens of horse drawn carts only to be passed in turn by the latest mega expensive German 4 x 4’s. Eating out in a really good restaurant only to find the bill was about the same as eating in McDonalds at home. We passed through a number of the new eastern European E.U. member states on the way to and from Romania, notably Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland but none of them had quite the old world charm of Romania. To see the old people sat on chairs outside their house watching the world go by, or someone leading the family cow down the road on a rope so that it could graze the grass verges was brilliant. If you are thinking of going to Romania, go as soon as you can before it becomes too ‘Westernised’.
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