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THE TRANSFĂGĂRĂŞAN ROAD HAS BEEN DESCRIBED BY SOME AS THE BEST OF EVERY RACETRACK IN THE WORLD ALL ROLLED INTO THIS ROAD. THIS SHOWS ONLY A VERY SMALL PORTION OF THE TRANSFĂGĂRĂŞAN.

GLENN RACING A HORSE-DRAWN A LITTLE RUN DOWN, A TYPICAL CITY STREET IN CART. HORSE AND CART ARE A COMMON SIGHT IN TRANSYLVANIA.

Transylvania is a province that fills probably be sweating ten minutes after welcome shade of trees before returning the bulk of central Romania in Eastern taking a shower anyway, so we may as to the hotel to talk excitedly about the Europe. Its amazing physical diversity well smell. state of the roads. It’s a subject that comes includes sun-baked plains and wide, It was time to meet the other guests up when Romania is mentioned to anyone fertile river valleys, rolling hills and pine on the tour and choose our bike for the who’s been there, and having gone for our forests that give way to sparsely vegetated week. We were to be part of a truly first ride, we now understood why. I’ll tundra above the 1800-metre snow line. international affair, with Glenn and I elaborate later. Like so much of Europe, it has an ancient representing Canada and Ireland, but if chequered history, and has witnessed there were also Germans, Americans and DAY 2 – 190 KM more than its fair share of political and a Brit. Let’s just say that the motorcycles Day two dawned as bright and hot as military upheaval through the centuries, were appropriate to their surroundings. the previous one, and with the luggage but it still maintains a wealth of medieval I’ll admit that Glenn looked a little safely stowed in the 4×4 (ominous) that architecture, and some of the towns and concerned at the state of his tires, but I was to follow us, we started the day with villages appear to be caught in an could only laugh at the chain on my bike. a visit to the livestock market in . I unbelievably beautiful time warp where There are times when it’s good to relax can’t say I was delighted to see how the the horse and cart is still king. just a little and go with the flow. We were animals were treated, but I was a stranger Glenn and I were to spend six days going to get a truly authentic Romanian in a strange land and I was intrigued by exploring the region on BMW F650GSs experience, and that, after all, was what the number of pigs that could fit into the in the company of Transylvania Live (TL) we were here for. back seat of a Dacia (da-chia), the on their Best of Transylvania Motorcycle We set off for an introductory ride up Romanian national car, which is based on Tour. TL provides complete, turnkey, to the , where the river Aries a 1970 Renault design. adventure motorcycle touring packages to has sliced its way through the rock to We rode in convoy out of town, and anyone arriving at Cluj-Napoca airport. create a huge gash in an otherwise Coco, our guide, led us to something that Many people say that adventure travel uniform agricultural landscape. On the I may never have found if I was travelling isn’t something that can be experienced way we passed the ruins of a castle built solo. A small glass and steel building in a on an organized tour, but I beg to differ, by the Macedonia League in 168 AD. No, small valley devoid of vegetation was because everything is relative. there isn’t a digit missing; like I said, this our gateway to the most amazing We arrived that first afternoon to country has a long human history. The subterranean world. It was a salt mine, check in to our luxurious accommodation gorge itself is stunning, and we walked first started by the Romans two millennia at the Sun Garden Hotel in the for an hour along its base beneath the ago, and which was worked continuously unfortunately named town of Turda, and were informed that there was no water, Transylvania. Just the word conjures images of gothic but that there should be some later in the evening. You see, everything is relative. castles perched on rocky outcrops, vampires, and old Romania may now be a member of the THE MOTORCYCLES story by PADDY TYSON peasant women wrapped in shawls, the scene somehow European Union (EU), but about half the Transylvania Live uses the BMW F650GS, which is marginally different photos by PADDY TYSON devoid of colour. Or have I watched too many old black population have no access to a piped from the more famous Dakar model. It’s the same 50 hp Austrian Rotax engine, and GLENN ROBERTS water supply, so it’s not surprising that but the front wheel is the smaller 19-inch version, so with its long travel and white movies? Like me, you may question whether there are occasional issues with the suspension, the bike is perfect for Romania’s roads and terrain, and it is supplies that do exist. certainly fast enough. The seat height suits all but those with the shortest Transylvania exists other than in the minds of We looked at each other and inseam, and the well-balanced weight is perfect for pot-holed slow going in Hollywood directors, but believe me, it does. shrugged. It was 37°C and we would towns and villages, as well as mountain switchbacks.

26 | MOTORCYCLE MOJO OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010 MOTORCYCLE MOJO | 27 MAP DATA © 2010 GOOGLE, TELE ATLAS, TRANSNAVICOM TRAVE L FEATU R E TRANSYLVANIA THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED CARPATHEAN MOUNTAINS,ĂGĂRĂŞAN GPS LOGGED USING QSTARZ BT-Q1000X, GPX FILES HOME OF THE THE FAMOUS TRANSF AVAILABLE AT MOTORCYCLEMOJO.COM ROAD, IN THE DISTANCE

‘EGYPTIAN EYES’ IN THE ROOFTOPS WERE A COMMON SIGHT IN SOME OF THE MEDIEVAL CITIES. interplanetary rockets, and the artist/sculptor Emil Mureşan, who THE BOATING LAKE AT THE VERY HOT PAVEMENT AND STEEL HORSESHOES insisted we all have a small schnapps thirds of the survivors suffering mental BOTTOM OF THE SALT MINE MAKE FOR A SLIPPERY AND DANGEROUS before we rode away. Emil sculpts in illness. Everything was permanently DOWNHILL DECENT FOR THIS FULLY LOADED CART wood and metals, but is perhaps most black. White snow was seen for the first (and manually) until 1932, when it began briny contents. It’s not a place I would famous for his pipe smoking and his time during the winter of 1995. to be used as a cheese storage facility have wanted to graze my knuckles. cobweb painting, which is exactly what it The second town was Sibiu, a still- because of the constant 12°C temperature. The ride south to Mediaş (medi-ash) sounds like. He hunts for cobwebs in being-restored medieval city that was One of the main caverns now hosts, gave the group our first experience of which he can see images, which he then named European City of Culture in 2007. among other things, a Ferris wheel, a main Romanian highways. Single transposes to canvas, teasing out the webs So much culture, in fact, that it even basketball court, an amphitheatre and a carriageway, but with a reasonable into shapes that are quite remarkable. hosted a large exhibition of Inuit art of bowling alley. That may help you get an surface compared to the minor roads of Back on the road, we were to witness Canada. Its pedestrianized centre focuses idea of the size of this underworld, but the the night before, the space was shared two incredibly different towns barely 30 on three interlocking squares with 14th- way the lighting is arranged convinced with filthy trucks belching diesel smoke km apart. The first was Copşa Mică, a and 15th-century churches, artisan and me that James Bond would burst in at any and maniacal car drivers who felt that small industrial town that was the guild houses and old market halls. The moment in his search for tyrants intent on their masculinity was somehow affronted recipient of all the worst elements of houses inside the heavily fortified city global annihilation. if they had to follow another vehicle. It is industrial communism. It is known as walls were the finest of their time, and Seeing the mines today, with happy perhaps no wonder that the road casualty Romania’s ugliest town, and contains the many are distinguished by the “Egyptian families enjoying the small amusement figures are so high, when you add rotting, blackened shells of factories that eye” roof venting that creates the park–like setting and the boating lake at wandering livestock and slow-moving polluted it so heavily that the atmospheric impression that the building is not only the bottom of the deepest cavern, it is hard horses pulling carts and hauling lead levels were 1,000 times the alive, but watching your every move. to comprehend what it must have been incredible loads. It seems as though the permissible level, and infant mortality Interestingly, these same houses managed like digging through this 1.2 km thick salt horses are the only road users with any was the highest in Europe, with two- to hold many a secret, like the two-storey (slightly drunk) life when I realized seam in the damp darkness. When we respect for village speed limits. Christian statue that the townsfolk moved that the two-handed battle-sword I returned to the surface, my watch had Mediaş has an attractive from a central courtyard on the night that was now holding was very real and become completely encrusted with salt medieval Saxon centre, but is they heard the communists were coming very heavy. I’m not sure how that particles and our clothes were white just otherwise unremarkable save for a to remove Christian iconography. Like all equates with Canadian health and from the atmosphere or where a water couple of things: it’s the home of the eastern countries, there was resistance, safety rules, but I got into it and began Glenn was overcome with a desire to droplet may have settled, depositing its Hermann Oberth, the man behind and there is a plaque in the centre of the striking my poor opponent as violently as be let loose with a lethal weapon also, but largest square remembering those who fell I could, getting his defensive sword to he is still gripped with remorse for here during the 1989 Revolution. create sparks as our weapons met. managing to cut the face of his instructor. An incredible first full day on the THE REVOLUTION road culminated in a great multi-course The 1989 Revolution was one of the quickest and bloodiest of the Eastern traditional meal in our farmhouse European revolts. It started on December 16, when the police tried to arrest a accommodation, washed down by THE GUIDES dissident priest in Timişoara. His supporters resisted and the military arrived. The copious quantities of local beer and plum Politics is never far from top of mind in a country that has seen such social ensuing clashes may have killed up to 4,000, depending on report. The uprising brandy. We thought it a relaxing end to upheaval, and I was intrigued to hear that Florian’s grandfather had been spread to all the other cities, where the killing continued even though there was the day, until the dining room was executed when the authorities decided they no longer wanted political prisoners. no internal press coverage. By December 21 it had spread to the capital city of stormed by a medieval sheriff and his Bogdan had been a member of the feared Securitatae. It all added to the Bucharest, where Ceauşescu spoke publicly and was booed by the crowd. The chainmail-wearing swordsmen, who experience of this still recovering nation and meant that we got real insight from police opened fire in response and at least 1,033 were killed. The military sided challenged us to a fight. I succumbed to these two. Bogdan is now a human rights lawyer, demonstrating that choices with the people, and by Christmas Day the dictator had been captured and shot. the universal demand that I be the willing made in difficult times and places are rarely those of free will, something we On January 1, the Securitatae (hated special police) was abolished. volunteer and got the shock of my should remember when passing judgment.

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THE TELECOM BUILDING BESIDE OUR HOTEL SHOWS THE 20-YEAR-OLD POCK MARKS FROM MACHINE GUN FIRE

LANES OF THE THE TRANSF Day 4 – 125 km THE VIEW FROM THE TOP OF AN ANCIENT ROAD STILL CLOSED IN MID-JUNEĂGĂRĂŞAN The morning was wet, but it mattered SAXON CHURCH BUILT IN 1185 THE WHOLE TRIP PROVIDED ROLLING little, as Bogdan was to guide us on a LANDSCAPES AND MOUNTAINS FAR OFF would want to visit Romania for, it must walking tour of his hometown. Local consistent, and in many ways easier to ride IN THE DISTANCE surely be this road (without traffic), open knowledge and enthusiasm is what brings than the broken, pot-holed, gravel-strewn only from June to early October. a place alive, and Bogdan had plenty of asphalt that we were getting used to. extra smiles and giggly footrest-scraping But there were more great roads to both. I could write thousands of words on We made our way to Viscri, a small moments. I may be well travelled, but I come during the afternoon as we wound what I learned, but our esteemed editor Saxon (German) village with a fortified THE EVENING IN BRAŞOV, A CULTURAL don’t pretend for a moment that I am a our way to Braşov (brash-hov), the largest won’t let me have the space, so instead church built in 1185 AD at its heart. It is EXPERIENCE THAT BEGAN IN THIS HUGE mature adult. city so far, but another with an ancient here’s the bare minimum. a UNESCO World Heritage site, but is in WINE CELLAR The mountains have a rugged heart. Compared to the previous day, I Much of the original, two-metre- desperate need of funding for majesty, denuded as they are of don’t think there was a dull mile travelled, thick outer city wall is still in place, as are maintenance. We were charged a couple vegetation at this altitude and decorated as both our riding and our senses were many of the gateways and fortifications, of dollars’ entrance fee and were guided DAY 3 – 305 KM instead with tumbling waterfalls from the challenged. The villages were intriguing like the White and Black Towers. The by one of the 24 remaining German While Alex, the mechanic, traced an deep melting snow, some of which forced glimpses into another century, and the latter is so called because of a lightning parishioners, a woman in her late 70s. electrical fault on Glenn’s machine and the road into a single lane. We watched a hills and forests were spectacular. This is strike that burned it in 1559. The northern We were then free to explore, which did a couple of minor jobs on the other huge flock of sheep being driven up an home to the European bear, but we didn’t wall now acts as a defence against the included climbing the part-stone, part- YOUR LEGS FELT LIKE RUBBER AFTER BMWs, we were briefed on the day ahead almost vertical valley wall in search of see any. Instead, we went to the original black and brown bears that come into wooden staircase to the top of the bell CLIMBING THESE 172 STEPS. IT’S A LONG by the guides who joined us for the next pasture and ate a lunch that we couldn’t castle that Bram Stoker “probably” based other areas of the town, scavenging in the tower, avoiding the couple of floors that WAY TO THE BOTTOM. leg of the tour: Bogdan and Florian. establish the price of, while Alex tried to his Dracula castle on. It’s got all the trash. The town is full of theatres, had fallen through to the ground! The It was bright and hot as the previous get my rear brake to work. This is the qualities – plenty of spooky towers, churches of every denomination, and views of the valley were worth every little German riders, Helmutt, who was having days had been, reaching 38°C, but this ultimate play place for any rider, with turrets and hidden passages – built in museums. The County History Museum prayer uttered under my breath as I took difficulty getting through, before getting was the day that we had been waiting for. switchback after switchback, every one of 1382 on a rocky outcrop to defend the was showing a temporary exhibition on each step on ancient rotten timbers. The his video camera out to capture what he We were to climb into the jagged, snow- them technically different, so it was area against the advancing Turks. the 1980s Solidarity Movement in sense of history was palpable, but the hoped would be me making a fool of capped Carpathian Mountains using the particularly upsetting that the tour had The royal family lived there until Poland, and that’s what’s most striking remaining Lutheran Germans are literally myself. So sorry to disappoint you, Glenn! famous Transfăgărăşan road, surely one chosen to take us there on a Sunday, when 1947, when the communists decided it about a place like Braşov: just how dying off, so I wonder what the future of the world’s most exciting motorcycling the locals were out in force, swimming in should be shared with the people, but they modern the history can be. holds for the building as it enters another Day 5 – 247 km roads. I can’t honestly tell you what the the glacial lakes, snow-skiing in bikinis at got it back in 2006 and now parts of it Even though the town is almost a chapter in Romania’s fascinating history. Another day that started with a stroll day’s mileage should have been, because the roadside and picnicking by the are a museum, so it’s still being shared, thousand years old, and we marveled at Dogs chased us as we left, and at the bend through the town, and another morning I crossed the 2034-metre-high pass many awesome vistas. I know I shouldn’t for a fee. the stout medieval and ornate Hapsburg we had to go around a horse that had that had me wondering how I could times and clocked up a huge number of grumble, but if there’s one thing a rider The hotel chosen for us in Braşov architecture, the old telecom building next stopped broadside in the middle of the arrange to live in a place like this. Before couldn’t have been in a better location. door to our hotel still bears very clear road to watch us approach. you ask, it wasn’t just because it was Opposite the “new” City Hall (1898) and evidence of the social upheaval from Another perfectly located hotel saw populated by the most beautiful women in the main pedestrian zone, we arrived as 1989/90. It is full of bullet holes, as are us billeted within the ancient citadel of in the world. The cobbled squares and THE ROAD a hailstorm thundered all around us and many of the buildings in town. I made a Sighişoara (siggy-shwara), the actual little cafés were just so appealing, as was The Transfăgărăşan road crossing the Carpathian Mountains may be a went for a programme of wine tasting and lame joke about how amazing it is that the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, on whom the covered staircase, all 172 steps of it, heavenly experience for bikers, but 38 workers died building this homage to dictator cultural experiences that we were all too windows are intact, but it didn’t go down Dracula is modelled. Vlad was certainly built in 1642 to protect the congregation Nicolae Ceauşescu’s megalomania. He was a communist who feared Russian exhausted to enjoy, even if the premises too well. History is still being made bloodthirsty, but in the more common, from inclement weather on their way up invasion and demanded that the road be built, for defence, in four short summers, were a 16th-century merchant’s house in Romania, the newest country to join tyrannical sense, as opposed to the to the church on the hilltop. opening September 1974 just before it was closed by snow. The northern side is a and enormous wine cellar. After a long the EU. nocturnal snack sense. The road to our A leisurely start saw us ride barely 70 37 km switchback climb to 2034 metres, where almost a kilometre of unlit tunnel day on amazing roads like that, we all just We spent the afternoon getting off the hotel had once been cobbled, but was km before stopping for lunch in the goes through the final rocky ridge to begin the southern descent. Six million kilos of wanted to relax with a beer and say main highways again, where the road now just deep boulders, and Glenn lakeside resort town of Sovata. Like resort dynamite were used to blow rock on the northern side alone. intelligent things, like “wow.” surface was dirt, but this was at least heroically rushed to help one of the towns everywhere, it has a plethora of

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MULES, HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP. BIG ANIMALS ARE EVERYWHERE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ MUD DEFLECTOR, SO CARE MUST BE TAKEN TO AVOID FREE RANGE LIVESTOCK AND AND THE CHAIN CAN BE FIXED ONE OF THE THE VERY SLIPPERY FERTILIZER THEY LEAVE BEHIND. ROUGHER ROADS WOOD-CARVER GRIGORE TULEAN AND HIS FATHER. OF IN MARAMUREŞ. COURSE THE EVER-PRESENT BOTTLE OF HOMEMADE GRIGORE’S MOTHER SHOWS SPINNING hotels making dramatic architectural looking down into the valley and is a great the one thing above all else that annoyed BRANDY IS ALWAYS HANDY. YARN BY HAND statements, not least the massive and place to base yourself if you’d like to do a every single one of us. Roadside cafés imposing Soviet sixties-style building with little biking, but spooky and vampire-like and places frequented by locals don’t to cross through cool mountain air, the was a whole lot brighter than I’d Day 7 – 341 km huge wide steps guiding you to the now it is not. usually use this pricing method, so be twisting contorted tarmac really broken expected. The mother superior was Sighetu Marmaţiei (no idea how to defunct and gently crumbling reception But I’ll remember Dracula’s, er, aware in the tourist haunts, or just order up and rutted. The gravel and pot-holes something of an entrepreneur, having also pronounce it) is a border town with a low- area. I’m sure the comrades enjoyed their Hotel as the place where we finally the soup. led to an excellent riding challenge, but opened a restaurant in the village, a bank rise, regimented centre laid out around well-earned vacations, but I can think of worked out why we felt we were being bike-breaker Roberts managed to get and a realty! Like all good religious some tree-lined boulevards and squares. few things as uninviting as a 15-storey ripped off at mealtimes. It turns out that Day 6 – 202 km himself into two adjacent pot-holes at orders, the convent did a fine line in It is not unattractive, but like many concrete tower rising from the surrounding the prices on many menus presented to Apart from the thunderstorm back in once, pulling the rear wheel of his GS brandy, and we slept soundly. Romanian towns, it is forest and perched incongruously next to a tourists are per 100 grams, or 150 grams Braşov, we had been really fortunate with sideways in the swinging arm and surrounded by Soviet concrete beautiful thermal lake. of uncooked meat. So you ask for the the weather, but this morning we seemed throwing off the chain, smashing crimes against architecture – After lunch, I swapped bikes with chicken at $3 and are prepared to buy the destined for a soaking. It came at the chainguard and mud deflector hideous crumbling apartment Nick from the U.K. and spent the rest of seemingly expensive vegetable as a side lunchtime, but the riding all day was in the process. blocks that must surely be the the day luxuriating in the comfort of the order for another $3 and expect a bill for really fantastic, so nobody cared. We had Alex had it fixed in no time, reason for the high alcohol use only R1200GS in the fleet. That meant $6, but you get a bill for a much higher been riding a large circle and were now and as we pulled in for lunch the in these former Soviet states. that when we had to climb the 1200 metre amount because you don’t know how big in the north of the country near the heavens opened, immediately Seeing them in the summer is Borgo Pass, I had ample power to enjoy a meat portion you will receive, or the Ukrainian border, in one of the poorer turning the road into a thundering one thing, but in the harsh what must be the best road surface in the weight of it before cooking. I think this is Romanian provinces, Maramureş, where brown river as the neighbouring winter they must look really country. This road is new, built the pace of life is even slower and where hillside was washed down. Our dreadful. with a lot of European Union every house has a small seat outside timing was perfect, except that the Perhaps that’s why the money, and is just perfect, QUALITY TRANSPORT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY on the road so that conversations can rain lasted longer than all the coffee locals have a particularly weird sweeping sublimely from left be had. The men and women always we could drink, so we had to sense of humour when it comes to right as it climbs, but in true sit separately regardless of age, but venture out in our waterproofs. to remembering the dead. In Romanian fashion, it has an everyone was prepared to smile and In one village, a wood-carver the neighbouring village of added ingredient to keep you wave unless they were overcome by called Grigore Tulean and his Săpânţa (sepintsa), there is an awake – in this case, free- the shock of seeing so many huge delightful parents explained some amazing explosion of colour in range horses and cattle and the (650 cc) motorcycles. of their life to us, his mother a graveyard called the Merry organic deposits they liberally It was a day that we spent riding demonstrating how she made the Cemetery, where everyone is spread on the road. That didn’t alone for the most part, everyone family clothes from the shearing of remembered with gaily-painted stop me managing a little aware of the destination, and it was the sheep/goat through to the oak crosses. The crosses have cylinder-head scraping though, possibly more enjoyable because of finished article. The quality was humorous poems about the life on about the third time up the it. We wound through villages that stunning. and death of the individual as climb, after I’d learned where are delightful to look at and we Barely six kilometres from the well as a little picture, quite the fertilizer was. could stop for photos at will, but the border, we stayed the night in a often of the death scene. I Our destination for the poverty means that very few houses beautiful guesthouse that was wholly didn’t need a translation of the night was at the very top of the have water, sanitation or power, and owned by the convent next door, but poems that accompanied the pass in “Dracula’s Castle” (our the restrictions on border crossings wasn’t quite finished, as I discovered pictures of crashed cars, or hotel). This rather disappointing, into the Ukraine mean that traffic is when I tried to turn the light on in the THE MERRY CEMETERY. A PICTURE TELLS children being hit by them. Road 53-room pastiche built in the late light and road maintenance absent. bathroom and put my hand on all the A THOUSAND WORDS. THIS 3-YEAR-OLD deaths are prevalent, and it 1980s is in a wonderful setting There was another high pass live wires, getting a flash of light that GIRL WAS OBVIOUSLY HIT BY A CAR. reminded me to keep an eye out on

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PADDY’S FINGERS WERE CROSSED HE DIDN’T END UP IN THE RIVER ON THIS RICKETY OLD BRIDGE

then take a picture as I dipped my toe in a few pints at the whole experience. PADDY SETS FOOT IN COMMUNIST another country. It was going well until So can you have an adventure in UKRAINE BEFORE RUNNING BACK TO a couple of incredibly large Ukrainian Europe? Oh yes, I think you can, and ROMANIA secret policemen saw what was Transylvania Live can provide it, but happening, and we ran back to Romania! don’t expect Edelweiss standards – just the ride to Cluj and the journey’s end. Apart from being a border-crossing relax and go with the flow. Romania is Before we could get there, though, point, Sighetu also houses a museum doing its absolute best to drag itself our guides permitted me the indulgence dedicated to those who died in the into the 21st century, having been held of riding to the Ukrainian border to Romanian gulags. I didn’t realize there in the past by a particularly irksome see if I could take a photo. Now, I know were gulags outside Siberia, but the dictator. Go there before it manages to only too well that borders, especially museum is in the building (originally a achieve this, and experience something Communist borders, are not places you prison) in which Florian’s grandfather really unique. can generally swing a camera around was murdered, so I really appreciated his While there are various motorcycle with carefree abandon, but if you don’t taking us there. tours available, the Best of Transylvania ask…as they say. I managed to get a Then we set off at speed to cover the tour cost CA$1,533 per person based on Romanian border guard to lead me 300 km to Cluj, and the fun began. A bit double occupancy of a room. Price halfway across the bridge over the river of a miscalculation left us in the wrong includes six nights’ accommodation, Tisza that divides the two nations, and place, well off the beaten track and six breakfasts and motorcycle. Plane without any fuel, but the best things fare, remaining meals, and fuel for happen in the midst of misjudgment. Still the motorcycle, among other items, not far from the border and in a town that are not included. Considering the clearly hadn’t seen any passing traffic for accommodations are in very nice THE DICTATOR many years, we found someone who hotels and guesthouses and that the From 1965 to 1989 Romania was agreed to take us to a fuel smuggler. And motorcycle is included, the week is very controlled by Europe’s most brutal so it was that we did business with some reasonably priced. communist dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu. suspect gentlemen in the basement of a Transylvania Live offers many types As someone who resisted Russia’s tower block for some green fuel in cola of Romanian tours, from walking, control, he was given vast amounts of bottles. We were surrounded by other cycling, and bus to, of course, motorcycle western aid, and he and his wife, Elena, tower blocks which seemed to contain the tours, including enduro tours. They even spent all of it on themselves and their whole town’s populace on their balconies, rent motorcycles for self-guided tours. palaces while the Romanian people enraptured by the sight of foreigners in For more information, go to www.visit- literally starved. His favoured form of their midst. transylvania.us, call (866) 376-6183, political torture was the use of radiation, We made it back to the city of Cluj or email them at contact@visit- so that opponents died of cancers. in darkness and all laughed heartily over transylvania.us. MMM

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