What can you find here?

Let’s start with something interesting. Look at the picture above, more exactly to area where the cliffs end on the right side, above the bike. Can you spot the sleeping giant? (link to the picture) This is the Secuiului Stone mountain, situated in the Rimetea village. Locals legends say that this sleeping giant protected a lot of times the people who live here.

Those who have already travelled here know that Romania is not all about Dracula, it’s much more than that.

The people you can meet, the traditions you can discover and the sights that you visit here will show you a totally different world. And while travelling on the motorcycle or bicycle you will have the opportunity to try them all.We didn’t use that list randomly because those are the main topics that we want to cover.

Old wooden gate from Maramureș


Roșia Montană village

The people

This is a delicate subject when viewed from the perspective of western countries. On the other hand travellers of this country are amassed by the people they meet around here. Let’s get something strait, we are not talking of big cities or important touristic places. We are talking about simple people from the countryside, small cities or less known touristic places. If you are in a village from Transylvania or the Apuseni Mountains and you ask a local for water refill it will be a great experience, even if you don’t speak the same language. Don’t forget to say “Mulțumesc!” (en. Thank you!)..

Some of the Romanians we have met in our travels are people just like you and me. They know all the benefits that modern society provides us but they still chose to enjoy the simple life. Some of them even start businesses involving tourism or traditional products. One of the best stories we have in the spotlight is, Ana Maria and Andrei Alexandru, from Roșia Montana. They have the La Gruber Hostel in this village and they are on the front line of the battle with a big corporation that wants to  dig up the village and the mountains nearby, to extract gold.

Does it sound interesting? A longer story about them will be published here soon.

 

Another important fact is that we will not try to present only the sunshine of Romania. Like everywhere in the world people can be mean. Be aware of those who seem suspicious and if you find yourself in trouble contact the Police or another law enforcement agency. Don’t hesitate to contact local motorcyclists because they are less likely to leave you on the side of the road.

Routes

This is the best topic so we will keep it short and give you the link to the Routes page.  You can find some of our recommended routes from our guidebooks (Apuseni Mountains and Touring Romania) and also ride reports from our occasional writers on the Ride Reports page.

The sights

All the photos and videos from this blog have the sole purpose to show travellers what they can expect here. For some of the sights there will be more details, in the form of descriptions or just stories that involved them. We fill focus mostly on natural tourist attractions or those which are outside the big cities because motorcycle routes are more interesting.

We have said it before and we’ll repeat it: we need to protect our wilderness, in every way we can. This will be a major topic for us and we hope that we can convince you to do the same

Soft-Enduro route No. 14 – details here

 

Old gold mine entrance in Ruda-Brad village

Romanian Traditions and Legends

This is the part where things get really interesting in Romania. The contrast between modern society in the big cities and the countryside lifestyle is really big. In some places like Brașov, Cluj-Napoca or Timișoara old city centres will make you feel right like in any old city from western Europe. Many architectural details are the same, because of the influences they had along the ages. Other places like villages, smaller cities or wild places will make you feel like you are in Russia, the plains of Mongolia or the wilderness of Africa.

 

The legend of the mine’s vâlva is very known in a specific region: The Metaliferi (eng. Metal) Mountains. Here are a lot of gold mines, some being over 2000 years old and in such a long period it is bound for legends to rise. One version of this legend claims that Vâlva is the protective spirit of the mine which ensures its prosperity. It is seen as a patroness of mines, distributing and watching over the gold, helping miners to find it and sometimes asking for tribute. When gold is nowhere to be found, the miners say that Vâlva has left the place and it’s useless to dig any longer because, without the spirit’s guidance, they will never find it. Vâlva appears to the miners under various looks such as a black cat, a beautiful girl, an old lady, a child, an old man, a soldier, a dwarf or alerts by means of various sounds.

If you ride nearby Brad and you have the chance to talk to older people, ask them about this legend. They will love to tell you some of their stories.

 

Source: Blog