After breaking Camp, we rode into and through Beograd, up to the castle overlooking this interesting city for coffee and the view.
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| Good morning Serbia |
After a bit of a walk around We headed out of Beograd, Further East along the Dunav (Danube) River Direction Romania. The road followed the river/border for quite a while and just before our border crossing we decided to stop for lunch, as we were starting to get tired. It was after 13:00 and we'd been riding for 5 hours.
The Restaurant was well above the road and had a great view of the river and Romania.
The drive was gravel, loose gravel and quite steep. It was ok ascending but as soon as I turned to park, my front wheel caught in a loose rut and over I went. No damage was done, only some scratches to the stickers, At least no-one from the restaurant saw anything.
We ordered Fish soup for lunch after discovering that they don't take cards and we didn't have any local currency, They did take Euros, probably at a stupid exchange rate.
After lunch it was straight to the border, over the Dunav, and into Romania.
Crossing the border we were asked to produce our bike papers (registration, insurance, licence etc) After a few questions: who were we, where were we going, who owned the bikes and where was he? We were allowed to enter.
Here we travelled North-East as we were heading for the TransAlpina. One of the most well known roads in Romania and today's goal. It was painfully slow going, felt like one continuous village, 50km/h on-off for about 50 kms until we turned onto the infamous Transalpina.
"The Transalpina or DN67C located in the Parâng Mountains group, in the Southern Carpathians of Romania, is one of the highest roads of the Carpathian Mountains. It connects Novaci, south of Parâng Mountains, to Sebeş in the north. It is said that the road was built under King Carol II and rebuilt during World War II by German troops."
It was around 19:00 (EET) as we began the Transalpina, just before dusk. I wasn't too keen to ride the road in the dark, but we really had no other option. We did the first half of the Transalpina in the dark, it was extremely windy, serpentine even, with a speed limit of 30 (although we averaged 60). about 60 kms in we reached a crossroads, a small village, restaurant/pub and we found a camp. Once again we had arrived just around closing time, but we managed to get ourselves checked in along with a couple of beers. The only accommodation on offer were huts, they slept two and had electricity, suits us. And to top things off, the owner informed us that we were the first Australians he had ever had stay there, and he'd been resident fro around 10 years. Hard to believe.
Once we paid the princely sum of €10 for accommodation and beers we headed off to our hut. Not wanting to leave the bikes on the road or car-park, I brought them through next to the hut, as did the other bike-riders.
It was a cool evening, bordering on cold. Scott and I sat out on the "Verandah", tucked into wurst and beers and reflected.
When I say hut, it was pretty small, maybe 3 square meters in total. The veranda would have been less than one.
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| That'll do us |
15 August
It had been a cold night, plenty of dew on our gear and bikes. Made me glad we hadn't camped in tents.
While we made breakie our neighbour came over and was extremely interested in our bikes. He didn't speak any english and we knew no local words but were able to communicate with hands and feet. Several times he offered us a drink to warm us up, the first few times we declined but eventually I gave in. It turned out to be what I can only assume was home-made vodka cooked with sugar and pepper, It did warm me up. After that I informed Scott that we should delay our departure by an hour or so, to let the alcohol wear off. Whilst packing up Scott and I discussed picking up some local fruit and veg from the nearby stalls, but we had no local currency. Our neighbour popped over just after that and gave us some pears, tomatoes and a tin of "meat". Extremely generous for someone who obviously had nothing to offer us all he had. All he wanted in return was a photo of his son on one of our bikes, we gladly obliged. From what I could work out, he lived in the hut with his wife and son and worked at one of the nearby stalls. Amazing people.
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| Our generous, friendly neighbour |
After saying goodbye, we continued the northern part of the Transalpina. It wasn't as exciting, the speed limit of the road increased to 90 km/h, but on the whole it was an awesome road and well worth the detour. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far.
Once we left the Transalpina we stopped at a fuel station to fuel up and grab a coffee & tea and of course, stickers. Then onto the motorway until it abruptly ended, I guess our maps were sent back from the future. After a bit of a mix-up with the road signs we eventually got back on the detour through many, many villages and eventually back onto the motorway.
We stopped on a bridge/dam wall for a bit of a photo session and Scott enquired about stickers for the bikes. Again we had no cash and they didn't take cards but the merchant "bought" the stickers for us. I can't say how generous these people were.
We continued on our way and along the motorway eventually reaching and crossing the Romanian - Hungarian border. Then onto Budapest where we found a biker camp. It was actually the backyard of a family home but had all the facilities we required, totally full but we were informed if we could find room for our tents then we could stay. We found room, we were becoming masters at this sort of thing. It was 12,000 HUF, as we had no idea what the exchange rate was, we agreed.
We set-up camp and headed off for provisions at the local supermarket (Penny).
That evening, over a few drinks we met another biker, Peter from Sweden.
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| Arrival at the biker camp Budapest |
An early start today, up at 06:30, showered, had breakie, made plans and then off to the Baths.
On our way, we stopped off at the local kebab shop and had turkish pizza and a beer.
Our goal that day was to visit the Beer baths at the famous Szechenyi Baths. We tried to book on-line but were unsuccessful. So off we went to try our luck. When we got there we discovered that they did indeed have room for us. Yay!
We got changed and then were introduced to the beer spa. What an experience. The tub was reminiscent of an old, wooden, beer barrel. Added to that were all the ingredients that go into making beer and warm waters. Plus, for the 45 minutes we had our own beer tap and all you can drink, also was a snack of duck's lard on bread, sprinkled with paprika powder. What an experience. All told it was about €48 per person but well worth it.
After the beer spa we headed into the Szechenyi baths proper. What a fantastic place.
Outdoor pool with thermal waters, spas and many saunas. While hanging out we met a Russian music journalist, Natalia, and an aussie bar-maid who lives in Birmingham. What a small world.
After a couple of hours it was time for us to make a move. We felt relaxed and replenished. On the way back to camp we stopped off at Campus Royal, an all you can eat and drink across from the university. We ate and drank all we could, not too shabby. Then it was back to camp.
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| We'd made it - The Beer Spa! |
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| Woo Hoo - Beers, food, spa! |
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| no more spa |
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| Heros square |
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| Unhappy bus wasn't going to get us home |
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| Creepy jewish monument |
17 August - 566km
We left the camp reasonably early and rode through Budapest then on to Memento Park.
Memento Park is a few kilometres outside of Budapest and one of the largest collections of Communist statues in one place. Collected since the end of the Communist era there is Lenin, Marx, Engels to name a few. My second time here and I just can't get enough of it. We spent a few hours and even managed to catch a film, "The life of an Agent" Secret police training films from the communist era.
After Momento Park we continued to Bratislava. We rode through the City and also visited the Castle above the city, as they all are. We had a bit of a look around and then quite by accident came across the Museum showing old Slovakian and Communist era motorcycles. What a find.
On to Praha. Here we missed out on catching up with a friend of mine from Saudi as she was out of town. But we found Prague central camp and it was good, not too full. Arrived relatively early, it was still light. Set-up camp then we ate and drank at the restaurant at the camp. Burger for Scott, Kransky for me. It was to be a quiet night for us.
Memento Park is a few kilometres outside of Budapest and one of the largest collections of Communist statues in one place. Collected since the end of the Communist era there is Lenin, Marx, Engels to name a few. My second time here and I just can't get enough of it. We spent a few hours and even managed to catch a film, "The life of an Agent" Secret police training films from the communist era.
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| The famous Lenin's boots |
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| I think this was my favourite |
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| Such symbolism |
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| Direction giving Lenin |
After Momento Park we continued to Bratislava. We rode through the City and also visited the Castle above the city, as they all are. We had a bit of a look around and then quite by accident came across the Museum showing old Slovakian and Communist era motorcycles. What a find.
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| Chopper |
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| Probably my favourite |
On to Praha. Here we missed out on catching up with a friend of mine from Saudi as she was out of town. But we found Prague central camp and it was good, not too full. Arrived relatively early, it was still light. Set-up camp then we ate and drank at the restaurant at the camp. Burger for Scott, Kransky for me. It was to be a quiet night for us.
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| Sometimes they give you room |
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| Sometimes, not so much |
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