Gordon: It took us two days to cycle from Vratsa to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. We came via a beautiful secondary road up the Ishkar gorge. At times it was reminiscent of cycling in B.C.: excellent road surfacing, light traffic, and a mountainous, treed landscape. There was the odd 14th century monastery, however, to remind us that we were not in North America.Sofia is ...
Looking out of our hotel window in Vratsa before the thunderstorms. Ruth: September 19, 2016Yesterday we cycled down to the Danube to a ferry to cross over to Bulgaria. Our final morning in Romania was hot, dry and rural. It was great to see the Danube again, but we were both glad that we made the decision to explore more of Northern Romania rather than stick ...
Gordon: Last night we were ambling about the town of Caracal when we chanced upon an Orthodox Church that was open. The churches are generally locked, but this one was being straightened up following a wedding. The priest came out and gave us a tour in French and English, and then invited us to join he and his family for dinner. Following our rule of ...
Gordon: It turns out that we and the housekeeper were not the only residents of the Swiss style chalet a couple of nights ago. We were once again sharing our bed with a few bedbugs. It takes a day or two for the bites to swell and become itchy, so unless you actually see the bugs it is often not immediately apparent that you have ...
Gordon: Today we had a ride through the Hobbit Shire that was probably the best outing of our journey (so far). We started the day at our pension at the 1000 metre level in the foothills of the Carpathians. Other than the caretaker and her husband, we were the only residents of the gorgeous three-storey Swiss style house. The tourist season, and summer, are winding ...
Ruth: For a moment I was dazzled by all those glowing faces carrying flowers to their teachers on the first day of school, after all, who doesn't like flowers? Well many in Romania apparently. As our Romanian guide in Brasov explained, the practice is very controversial. Graft is a huge problem in Romania and the health care and education systems are still crippled by corruption. ...
Ruth: It's the first day back to school in Brasov and this Romanian city marks the day with certain traditions. Imagine a time back in the forties or fifties when school children donned their uniforms and went to purchase flowers to take to their teachers. Yes, you heard right, to their teachers. Romania has gone through some massive changes since then, but in Brasov they still ...
After seeing virtually no tourists since Budapest things have changed dramatically in the last three days in Transylvania. We are relieved that it is September and the bus tour groups have diminished somewhat, because the triangle between Sibiu, Sighisoara and Brasov is tourism central. We first spotted the bus tours at the Unesco listed fortified Saxon church at Biertan. Earlier in the day we had ...
Gordon: Stray dogs are one of the dangers and annoyances described by the Lonely Planet guide for Romania. As recently as 2011, there were allegedly 100,000 stray dogs in the capital alone. More than 16,000 people reported a dog bite in Bucharest in 2012. These numbers have declined sharply since 2014, when euthanasia was legally authorized, but stray dogs remain a concern for cyclists and ...
Ruth: Our days of cycling in Romania have been full of contrasts. Perhaps the most striking is the gulf between urban and rural areas. Yesterday and today Gord and I abandoned the big highways and their semi-trailer traffic for the hilly backroads. Here the infrequent cars were old rusty Dacias and utility vans. Rush hour was the flock of sheep that filled the street in one town. ...