European Tour – Romania & Bulgeria (Written by Robbie, Chris & Gala)
Written by Robbie
Romania definitely gets my vote as the most beautiful country we’ve visited so far. The hills on either side of the Danube rising away from the river and the gorgeous inlets along the way were enough on their own, but the sinking sun over the bay at Hinova and the fishermen who I swear were there more to be than to fish clinched it firmly. Visually stunning.
The people, though, will take me another trip to figure out. Where the Croats and Serbs we encountered tended to be very outgoing and delighted to see us, most of the Romanians were much more reserved. The mix of cultures, generations and income levels was obvious, as we started to see many more horse-drawn carts (many driven by elderly people) sharing the road with cars (new and old), bicycles (notably ours) and herded animals. We also started to receive requests for money or food more than elsewhere. The kindly inn owner on our first night, the family who invited one pod in for apples and a history lesson on the second day, the bragger at the bar on the last night, the kids who gave us high fives on the way through one of the last towns before the ferry to Bulgaria and the many people who looked at us with sombre expressions were all part of a mosaic that I can’t label as easily in my head as some of the other countries we’ve visited. Skin colours among Romanians were also markedly varied, a trait we haven’t seen nearly so much of in most of Europe and one that adds an extra dimension to social hierarchies, like it or not.
Still, the hospitality of people is not in question in the slightest as we were warmly received for three nights, including two very small towns where we had no connections (Dubova and Gogosu). Actually, most of what we saw of Romania was road and very small towns because, apart from Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Calafat right at the end, that’s all there was on our route. On our third night, a Saturday, we were offered the lawn of the local bar to camp, where conversation with the crowd of younger regulars happened in a mix of French, Spanish and very broken English. Erin held her own in a rousing game of Rummikub (invented by a Romanian) and I beat Gene handily in two rounds of chess…only to be taken apart in to more by a guy who was clearly interested in our second game. I held strong for a while in the second game, but a good attack by him and one substantial mistake by me and it was over. He bought us each a drink, though, and the night went wonderfully…for those who wanted to be awake. The next day, though, saw the worst stretch of road we have seen thus far and was not at all fun for those who had indulged a little too much the previous night, not too mention those with poor knees or bad cases of butt rash (I haven’t been suffering at all from the latter, but by the end of that day I didn’t want to be on my bicycle anymore). Next year, I think we’ll send them by the main route from Turnu Severin to Calafat — nicely paved, 30 km shorter, had a decent shoulder and not too much traffic, but no small town bars with chess and Rummikub.
Already my head is into Bulgaria, where we’ve had two lovely days…experiences blur together so quickly. Bulgaria may end up challenging for quality of scenery, but right now Romania holds the title. I swear, if ever I move to Europe and have money to build a chalet (two big ifs), it’s going to be looking out at the Dubova Gulf of the Danube, three kilometres from where we spent our second night in Romania. There are a few views I’ve seen in my life that I’d be equally happy to look out at every morning, but not many.
Oh, and we have Phil back after his forced vacation (no car insurance in Serbia) and it’s wonderful. Warm food is so nice – and so is Phil.
Written by Chris
It’s hard to believe but we flew through Romania and are now into our second to last country, Bulgaria. Romania flew by so fast it seems like a blur, but it was far from forgettable. Romania may have been the most beautiful country we have visited so far. Our rides alongside the Danube were stunning and everyone moved a little slower as we all kept stopping to take pictures. I didn’t get quite as many as I wanted as I had an issue with some exploding cheese and my camera but I think everything is operational again.
Romania was also probably the most culture shock we have experienced on the trip thus. The instant we crossed from Serbia to Romania it felt like we had stepped back in time. Romania was much seemed much poorer than most of us had expected and everything just seemed more run down. We also have had many encounters with horse drawn buggies and cows on the road. One morning we even woke up to a heard of wandering horses standing outside of our tents!
It’s also been interesting to notice the group slide into a much more relaxed state about our travel. The first time we didn’t have accommodation in a town we all rushed ahead and had very specific meeting spots. The last time we didn’t have accommodation – we didn’t have it for four days in a row – we forget to even set a meeting place and didn’t leave our previous town until well into the afternoon. We have also become much more relaxed about things like showers. I think several group members – myself included – haven’t had a proper shower in over a week. I think it is fairly safe to say that whoever picks us all up from our respective airports may need to drive home with the windows open.
There have been many surreal experiences on this trip, but our entrance to Bulgaria may take the cake. After waiting an extra two hours for a 1pm ferry that didn’t leave until after 3pm we were greeted on the other side of the river by a police escort that took us right to our camping area which just happened to be a fortress from the 5 BCE. We then had 24 hour security by the local police who proceeded to tape off our camping area with caution tape. Once again I have nothing but wonderful things to say about all of our hosts who continue to blow away any expectations that we have about hospitality.
We now thankfully have a day off, and for once it isn’t in a capital city. As much fun as it is to get to explore a bustling city it never really feels like downtime. There are so many sights to see that we actually wind up sleeping less. Today we all can actually just take it easy and read.
Written by Gala
We are on top of the world. Belgradochik, bulgaria, to be precise. yesterdays ride consisted of one 2 never ending, granny gear, bugs-swarming-your-face uphill crawls sandwiched between one unforgettable endorphin erupting downhill, and brought us to this amazing town nestled in the mountains, real mountains, of bulgaria.
Crossing the border from as we rode from gogosu to calafat, romania and then into vidin, bulgaria was done in style with a police escort through the city and a special forces police night watch team surrounded our danube river parkside campsite with white caution tape as we slept. do we look that vulnerable, really? Because I’m pretty sure my thighs are like two giant tree trunks at this point… ya.
This trip is fabulous, and i can’t say it enough. even when I’m down, its good. even when you’ve eaten chocolate jam sandwiches for lunch every day, its good. when it rains, when you haven’t showered in 6 days, when your accommodation ends up being in the front yard of the local pub, its all good.
I don’t know when it happened, but suddenly whipping out 100k per day is no news at all, and even when we still have 30kms to go, and its 5pm, and the sun is going down, and you’re hungry and the food still needs to be cooked, we know that we have the ability to stop for a 1 hour stop with a local should they perhaps invite us to their backyard garden for a cup of coffee as we stand outside her house looking lost. Did that run on sentence make sense? Explanation. While riding a most epic day through Romanian countryside the other day, myself, Mark, Sabrina and Shawn found ourselves at the gate of a house on the side of the road after making a left turn and not knowing exactly whether or not it was the right turn to make. shawn doubles back to ask someone for directions, just as the most lovely young woman steps up to the gate and asks if she can help us.
“You speak english!” we exclaim with mild shock, as her pronunciation is perfect. “yes” she smiles humbly. “can i help you? would you like an apple from the tree?”
We can’t help but say yes to the apple. regardless of the fact that its been a long day and we still have k’s to go. an apple turns into coffee in the backyard, as Elena has just been sitting there reading a book being somewhat bored back at home for the summer from university. she finds 5 chairs and fills a bowl with cookies and another with chips. her mother lays out four tiny tea cups each of them floral and blue and with their own matching saucer. “these are the size of the cups we have, i hope its OK.” It’s OK. More than OK. Elena talks to us about her experience growing up in Romania. About her education and her country. She is extremely intelligent and realistic, and beautiful. she needs to come on next year’s bike tour. can you imagine how the dynamic of the trip would change completely?
“What is your favorite part of Romania?”
“My home, right here.”
She loves her dogs, and her family. her yard has a small grape vine which they use to make wine from, an apple tree, a lovely little home, and a barn with plywood falling every which way. her family doesn’t live there in the winter. No one does, not even the dogs, who move in with the neighbors. We don’t want to leave. But we must, because, similarly to the night previous, we have no pre-arranged accommodation, and someone has to figure out where we are staying. so far, this hasn’t caused any real problem.
an abandoned half built house on top of a mountain that crosses the narrowest point of the danube in Borova. this accommodation came with about 10 stray puppy friends 
and to our delight, as i have mentioned, we rode into gogosu and ended up camping on the lawn of the local pub. (p.s. gogosu’s population is about 100, so we were definitely at the town hot spot for our 3rd to last saturday night of the trip)
It’s hard to imagine this trip being over soon. its just getting going. we are finding a groove in the team and things are getting interesting terrain wise. Sabrina and i were talking the other day about how neat it would be to have a 6 month twenty person bike tour. roving community. insane dynamics. I’m growing attached to all these people, and i think september is going to come as a bit of a shock. (not to mention i’ll be in mo-frickin TurKeY!!!)
I could go on. i should go on, because I haven’t been writing down many of the thoughts ive had on the tour, and i haven’t really documented anything at all. especially now that my 8GB camera card is full and I’m actually too lazy to upload them. oops.
It’s crazy to see us getting so strong. It’s crazy how much you can experience in one day. I think everyone should do a long distance tour once in their life. We met a french man on the road the other day who is cycling from les rochelles, france, to india. solo. over 2 years… he expects to be in egypt for the winter. Thats at least 2 people so far who are on long distance trips in order to “take a break from life”. people who have never toured before and are just doing it. And then there’s kids like the two 20 year old boys from england who are taking 3 weeks this summer to ride the entire danube to the black sea. reaching sometimes 200kms per day. just for fun.
people are nuts.
I must go because I can’t stand this internet business sometimes. There are pastries and yogurt to be eaten. There is rain to be dodged. There are streets to walk.
Look up Belgradochik on a google map. it was in the nomination to be one of the next wonders of the world. and we are sleeping in the park in question.
