Mel & Trinity

Before this trip all I knew about either country was that they are in Europe, Dracula was from Transylvania, the Transfăgărășan is in Romania, Romanians are fantastic gymnasts, I was warned to be careful of pickpockets in Romania and a lot of cleaners in London are from both countries. So, not a lot really!

What I have discovered are countries steeped in history that are incredibly beautiful and are full of wonderful, warm people. I’m glad my eyes have been opened!

I left Greece on Sunday, 29 July and arrived in Sofia in the late afternoon. It was raining again, which was definitely starting to impact my mood. I managed to see a few sights before finding a hotel for the night.

You had to pay extra for parking. This was 7 Euro for a motorcycle, it would have been 15 Euro for a car. I’m normally not chuffed about paying for parking but I’d far rather do that in a city than have Trinity standing in the street. It turned out that the parking was accessed by a car lift. Woohoo…our first car lift. It was very exciting! 

Below is a short video including some photos of Sofia.

After having a shower and my complementary welcome drink, I headed out to find a local restaurant. Hmmm…this was not as easy as you would think in a major city, so I ended up going back to the hotel restaurant to have dinner. 

It had been raining a lot the last week and the forecast was for rain the next three days. I was considering whether to cut my trip short but I realised that I would regret my decision later, so I decided to soldier on. I’m glad I did.

From Sofia I went to Plovdiv, which was voted as the European city of culture in 2019. The city has a great vibe to it and I quickly realised that I preferred it to Sofia. That and also that my mood was improving.

A few photos of the city are provided below. 

I spent a few hours walking around the city before hitting the road for Veliko Turnovo. My spirit hit new heights when I saw Trinity was approaching 33,333 miles on her clock. 

Out of curiosity I starting counting the number of countries that we had been through. We were on 22 before we left the UK, so I counted the new ones that we had visited on this trip. We had now covered 33,333 miles across 33 counties in 3 years and 3 months. How bloody brilliant! Clearly good things do come in threes.

Now I was ready to take on the world!

Veliko Turnovo is a city with a 5,000 year history. The small, picturesque city is home to one of Europe’s grandest medieval monuments, the Tsaravets Fortress, which was visible from the hotel that I was staying at. 

The old city is fantastic! It is like stepping back in time. I almost felt like I was on a movie set. I walked around the old town for about 1.5 hours before heading to the hotel for a night cap. I like to try a new local beer in every county. Tonight is was Britos. It was good (I still prefer the Alpha in Greece though).

Below are some photos of Veliko Turnovo.

The next couple of days would be my opportunity to see Romania. The Transfăgărășan (National Road 7C), which has been voted as one of the best roads in the world to ride and Bran Castle (Dracula’s Castle) were the top of my list of things to see. I really didn’t know what else to expect. 

I was now starting to get really excited about being on the road again; regardless of the weather. Having something to look forward to definitely helps but taking stock of what Trinity and I had already achieved was the extra bit of encouragement that I had needed. 

From Veliko Turnovo I headed straight to Pitesti, where I had lunch before continuing north on route 7C; the Transfăgărășan Highway. The road doesn’t get windy until you hit Vidraru Dam, which itself is quite spectacular.

From there the road starts to meander through the mountains until it finally reaches a clearing near Balea Waterfall. The road either side of that is what you see in the photos of the road. It is pretty spectacular! It was raining and the road condition isn’t the best so I took the ride pretty slowly. 

I stopped a few times along the way to enjoy the view and take some photos. I also bought some cheese and two types of dried sausage at Balea Waterfall, which came in very handy that night. 

It was approaching 6pm and the weather was starting to turn so I decided to find  somewhere to sleep that night. I took a chance at a place along the way, which was showing as having rooms on Bookings.com, but they told me they were full. I went online and managed to find a place 15 miles away, so off I went.

The ride to Ucea du Sus, a little village, was certainly interesting. The little villages along the way are adorable but the roads are pretty poor and you need to look out for horses, cows and dogs.

Below is a video of what I mean. 

The place I was staying was on a blueberry farmers property. It’s not quite what I was expecting but it was absolutely fine and he and his family were incredibly friendly. He offered me a beer, he drinks Becks, and a big bowl of blueberries. There was a kitchen that I could use but I didn’t. Of course it was now that the cheese and sausages that I had bought earlier came in handy (haha…everything happens for a reason). There was no WiFi access so I didn’t post any photos (now you know why dad). So that night I had a picnic in my room and watched some TV.

Yesterday was a full day. I was hoping to have some coffee and the roll I had bought the night before but there were no filters. Bugger! After eating my roll and having another chat with the farmer, he really was quite lovely, I hit the road. I was running low on petrol so that was my current priority. 

There was a petrol station on National Road 1 about 10 miles away. I ended up stopping there for about an hour. I had  two cups of coffee, a chat to a lovely German biker and also tried to help out another BMW rider who didn’t have the right tool for his bike. He was on a 1200 GS. We discovered that the two bikes do not use the same tools so sadly I couldn’t help him. Hopefully he came right.

My first stop for the day was Bran Castle, which is in the town of Bran. It was packed with tourists but fantastic to see. I was full of historical artifacts which were wonderful to see.

From Ban Castle I drove past Rasnov Citadel before heading to Braşov, which is incredibly colourful and beautiful. It’s also the first time that I’ve seen a Starbucks in Eastern Europe. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen a McDonalds either until I hit Bulgaria. Interesting!

I walked around Braşov, had an ice cream and a coffee and then hit the road again. I generally don’t like to be on the road after 7pm so I wanted to see how far I could get. That turned out to be Sighisoara. 

Below are some photos of the day.

Sighisoara is fantastic! The hotel I stayed at gave me a free bottle of wine so I broke with my normal ‘have a new beer’ tradition and had the wine instead. It was great, although there was no way I could finish the bottle.

I walked around the area near my hotel this morning and I was completely blown away by the beauty and history of the town. I’m aware that I only have 4 days left of my trip and I just want time to stop. It’s been absolutely incredible and I’m now so grateful that I decided to dtick to my original plan.

Below are are some photos of this morning’s walk.

Today I will be heading to Hungry and I’m looking forward to seeing what the country has to offer. I will think back fondly of my time in Bulgaria and Romania! It’s not only taught me a lot about these countries but also a lot about myself and the fact that you should never give up. You never know what’s just around the corner.

Let’s go find out!