Romania Part 2

Warning! Lots of pictures in this one (well more than normal anyway.. )

Romania is sooo beautiful.  Wasn't sure what to expect, but glad to find it to be a great place to ride a motorcycle..

First a few views from the road:  Farming gets done by hand around here!  Fields, sheep herding.. not many fences, not many borders.. I like it..

I know it's hard work, but I admire Romania for a more natural way of life.. not that I could do it myself!  But I admire it..

Might be worth pointing out the stop sign in English.. as with most countries.  Rarely do you see this particular sign with local language.  AND always the same shape and color.  Often makes me think, off all things you don't want to confuse local drivers with a sign in English language if they don't speak dag gone English! Now that I have actually looked into it, I understand why.. click the "stop sign" link if you want details.

In this case, the horse and buggy might also be a reason to stop before the intersection ;-)

I make my way to Sibiu, for my next night's stay.. found a little bikers place right in town.  While unpacking I get a message from a really nice guy who has been following the blog saying that if I happen to come near Sibiu, he'd be happy to show me some fun roads.  Well heck!! I'm in Sibiu right now, how good is that!

Sibiu

Once I actually spoke to him, we made a plan to meet in the morning to ride.  I had a general idea of the direction and route I wanted to take next day, but the greatest part of meeting the locals is they always have even better routes and I go with the flow ;-)

Tiberiu Brad, aka Tibi, has been following my blog since Russia.  A long way back, so for this it is also fun to meet with somebody I've exchanged messages with along the way.

Tibi shows up at 9 am with his very cool daughter Ruxi, I finish packing the bike and we're off!

The ride starts off through a few villages and then we head for the mountains.

Let the dirt riding begin!

Nice riding a freshly carved out mountain road!  And before we knew it, we find Jesus! He is also known for taking the road less traveled, hey?

 

We come out of this easy mountain pass and jig through another village to change roads..where they were having a celebration. Not sure what it's about, but looking very traditional indeed.

See.. I'm not the only one who wants to hear the Romanian singing lady...

Out of town we take on the dirt road #2..

Road works!  Some day this nice dirt track might be all paved.

They're clearly working on it..!

At this point we are traveling near the Transalpina Pass.  It is still not open due to snow, even at these lower levels there is lingering snow..

Ahhhh, yes... lunch time!!  My favorite part of the day..again!!  Tibi works in the mountains and travels here often, so he knew the best place to stop for fresh river trout. ;-)))))

We heard it start raining from inside the restaurant. Being high in the mountains it's expected and we are hoping once we start going down it will ease off.. hopefully!  I think Ruxi is a little motoadventure girl in the making.. 6th grade!

From here on the track starts to get a bit thin..

Those leaves are the worst.. so slippery.  If I was ever going to drop the bike today, it was in them..

The road ended up getting super thin.. and not traveled at all.. For the remainder of this track, it was raining so full and we were on slippery little paths that hadn't seen cars for a long while as I was constantly getting slapped in the face with a wet leafy branches!  Battery flat and rain, meant I put the camera away..  However Tibi and young Ruxi were champs and we finished off on to the paved roads eventually.  They will now get to ride an easy yet long highway home, and I will continue on alone.

 

Thank you Tibi and Ruxi for a very special day.. bummer about the rain, but I know I got to ride some of the prettiest roads through Romania regardless!