Motorcycling around Sibiu

For the softer tourists Sibiu has an International Theater Festival but for those who like a bit of action the Red Bull Romaniacs motorcycle rally is a must. It's considered one of the toughest races in the world and it has quite a reputation in the circles of enduro fans. Besides that we constantly have groups of moto enthusiasts who pay good money to ride their bikes on our steep hills and mountains. 

Romaniacs: prologue in the city

You can do this wandering on your own, self-managed, or in a more organized manner, with support helicopter and medical personnel. If you're doing it on your own you may want to know a few facts, I'm not a rider but they will still come handy:

• ask the experts, you can easily find somebody with great knowledge in our city, there are a few bike groups that know their business, I've heard countless stories of broken bones;
• don't take shortcuts through farmers' crops. You may find an angry peasant that has seen one too many bikers crossing his land and the scythe is still a popular tool around here;
• on the other hand if you're friendly and polite a farmer will help you when in need. If you get lost in the mountains you can find shelter in the cottage of a shepherd, they don't see many people and will like the company. You can get something to eat and a stinky sheepskin to cover. Also, don't have too much tuica with the sheperd, Brokeback Mountain might not be inspired from real facts but it isn't purely fictional either. If you're a woman you better sleep in the woods with the wolfs - kidding;
• if you see a sheperd's dog and you're on the motorbike: accelerate, they are dangerous. If you're on foot: stand still, pray and yell for the sheperd - you might want to do them simultaneously. Don't try to pet or scare the dog, it's used to fighting bears, you're no match. If you're wondering: it doesn't have a brandy barrel around his neck, more likely spikes;
• bears are quite friendly if you don't disturb the cubs, just give them some food and they will stay for a photoshooting, or so I've heard from the ones that survived the encounter;
• werewolf, Dracula - just myths, you have bigger things to be scared of, but let's not take all the fun out of it and divulge everything, shall we?
• last but not least: read some proper material, this was supposed to be funny.

Romanics: let's not forget about why you became a
biker, we also have cheap beer

Transalpina

The lofty guest post from tonight comes from Mari:

Copyright: Wikipedia

She is blonde, she is sexy and she gets along with the president of Romania (even better than his wife does, malicious tongues would say). And she invites everybody to "Explore the Carpathian garden", the official Romanian tourism slogan which was launched last year. If you're a guest in our country and came across this blog by chance (or not), you probably don't have a clue whom I'm talking about. Well, folks, there is a name you all should keep in mind: Elena Udrea, Romania's controversial minister of tourism (I'm kidding, ok?? I'm not a fan of her, I don't even know for sure what her role in the ministry and the well-being of our country is). Actually, this is all I know about her. Oh, I also know that she is married to a wealthy man and that she is fond of brand name handbags and high-heeled shoes which she wears irrespective of the weather conditions, place or occasion. 

Copyright: Wikipedia

I wouldn't have mentioned her if I hadn't had this trip in the Parang Mountains last Sunday, which reminded me of the famous slogan. Because I'm sure there are plenty of places in Romania which are worth exploring but are not promoted enough. Such is the case with Transalpina, located in the Parang Mountains, which is considered one of the best and most spectacular roads of Romania, crossing the mountains from Oltenia to Transylvania. It is 148 km long and its maximum heights are reached at Urdele Pass, 2.145 m above sea level. The view is magnificent, you just have to go and see it! And, if you're a lazy bum or a cold hater, you don't even have to stop and get out of the car to take pictures; you can do this out of the side window of your moving car, provided that you sit in the right seat and your camera has an image stabilization function. 

If you ask me, I haven't seen a better road in Romania and seriously doubt it that a better one will be built here in the next 10 years. Allow me to play the pessimistic role! :)

The Cuc that Tweets

Every year on the first September weekend the potters' fair is held in the center of Sibiu. Do we like it? Sure. Well, correction, actually it depends. If you're a hausfrau and you need a new pot to make sarmale* or chicken in the oven you might go and find something useful. If you have a guest house and you want to decorate it traditionally then you're also bound to find something suitable. If you're a redneck then it's probably the closest to heaven you'll ever gonna get. If you're into "paisanesque" stuff then you can find an authentic carpet or a cuc** that tweets. If you're a pick pocket then it's like the Medieval Festival reloaded - a crowd of people not paying attention to their mobile phones and wallets. 

Speaking of the Medieval Festival, that's something else I don't quite get - only because we have an ancient city and town walls well preserved we should dress with capes, look at silly sword fights and listen to medieval music? Same music every year, they don't compose songs for mandolin like they used to...

For me, the movie Ghost was the only time pottery made sense - and I was quite young back then. Now, when I see all those pots aligned on the ground I wish I had a bowling ball and a pile of cash without a cause. 

____________
*sarmale = sarmale :)
**cuc = cuckoo

Biertan

Today's guest post comes from Cristina and it makes you wonder... 

Copyright: Cristina Voicu

No doubt about it, Biertan has one of my favorite fortified churches in Transylvania. It was the Evangelic Episcopal Seat for 300 years (1572 – 1867), and the religious center for the Saxons in Transylvania. In 1993 it was included in the UNESCO world patrimony.

I first saw it while being in the university, maybe in 1996, to show it to some French friends that visited me. The first comparison that came to mind when seen from the distance was that it looked like Mont Saint Michel. I absolutely loved it and the stories discovered there with the help of the local guide. Especially the one of the Prison Tower, where they locked the couples that wanted to divorce, with one spoon, one plate, one chair, one of everything, till the subjects became "one" again. If I understood right, the solution was very efficient, they didn't succeed in putting back together but one couple in 300 years. Then, they have this absolutely ingenious locking system for the door of the vestry, which has 19 bolts and was awarded at the World Exhibition of Paris in 1900.

Copyright: Cristina Voicu

My story today will be about my second visit to Biertan, an epic one. You take one car (relatively small one - Mitsubishi Colt) with two adults in front (my husband and Gianfranco, our italian friend), in the back seats, two adults (me and my mother) one child and an infant, plus the upper part of the baby's pram. I guess you can picture us stuffed in there. Plus a hot summer day, plus a car without air conditioning. And, the most important: plus... a stubborn-thought to be geographically orientated person aka myself! Instead of taking the main road to Sighişoara and then turn right from Saroş pe Târnave, I was so sure that I knew a shortcut... through Buia. So, I convinced the rest of the expedition to take that road... I don't remember if we had a map or not, the truth is we kind of got lost after Buia. The roads became more and more impracticable, the indications we got from the locals were confusing, the last kilometers were on an earth-carriage-road, boiling in the afternoon sun, baby included! Guess, after all, he was the most fortunate one since he had food and drink supplies at hand... or should I say, mouth? I was still breastfeeding him at that time so, at least he was lucky! The trip took us three long hours, from 12:00 to 15:00, the best hours to enjoy the heat! The good part of this "discover your county" journey was that I still had the power to appreciate the rough beauty of the small, almost deserted villages in the region. I don't know if I am crazy or not but I loved the image of the poverty, it has its poetry that speaks to me!

Eight years later, I look back and think it was the right thing to take the wrong way and I encourage you to take the time and discover the small roads, I guess they must be better by now!

Copyright: Cristina Voicu

Danube Delta

(Source: Wikipedia)

I've never been to Danube Delta. It's supposed to be magnificent. And full of mosquitos, especially at sunset. Until somebody with actual knowledge of the place writes here, I'll share some hearsay. 

Danube Delta is a giant natural reservation where many foreigner come for bird watching or fishing. We don't actually care much for those birds as we do our bird watching in clubs. Needles to say, the inventive locals and Romanian tourists use the miracle place they were gifted with for other purposes: illegal fishing of endangered species with electrical power, sport boat races on channels to see how quick the damn pelicans take off or ripping water lilies for souvenirs. All these really happened in the past and we can only hope that stricter rules will enforce some good behavior. 

If you go there on a trip you must know that the most effective currency is "rachiul" - a local brandy - and everything will taste like fish (including fish itself, of course). Even pork tastes like fish, because that's what it's fed with. Try the fish soup, it's... fishy!

Oltenia

Today we have a guest post by Gabriela. She forgot to tell you about two important words from her region: zaibar and praz. Maybe next time.

Oltenia. Olteni and oltence! So if I come from Olt County which is part of Oltenia region, then I’m what they call “olteanca”. And by “they” I mean Calin and the rest of the country. Oh wait! Even we call ourselves “olteni”. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, Oltenia is located in the south of Romania, bordering Bulgaria. I just want to make sure that you have a clear picture of it… and also to show off a little: the village where the Americans received permission to set up their missiles defense shield is in Oltenia. And since then the other regions bear a grudge against us because everyone has been waiting for the Americans since WW2!

Brief historical info about Oltenia: it all starts with the “dacs that came from the tracs”. Then it continues with the Romans. I guess they didn’t like us much coz we ended up with the Ottomans. I do hope you know who the Ottomans were! Tough luck! They lost us in favor of the Habsburg Monarchy which we thought it was great back then but then we realized that the administration imposed by the Austrians was too rigid for our free spirits. Later, for some reason, the region became the promoter of some revolutions (check out Tudor Vladimirescu’s revolution! How cool is that??). And, finally, the “olteni” crossed the mountains in Transylvania and saved the Transylvanian people. Otherwise, nowadays the Transylvanian people would have had their capital in Vienna or even Budapest. And that would have made a lot of citizens, including Calin, so (un)happy.

The oltenians…oh my God…this is not even a word! Microsoft Word corrected me and made me choose from a bunch of other words including ‘ottomans’. I’ll be darn!! I guess even Word knows our story!!! But anyway, the oltenians are very fine people. Just look at me and you’ll see!

To be continued.

Sibiu

Also called Hermannstadt, my hometown Sibiu is located in the heart of Transylvania and it's a an old saxon city. You may wonder what were the saxons doing in Romania. The accepted theory is that they settled here around year 1500 because of the land but I think they came for the indigenous women, at least that's the only logical conclusion I can draw based on what I see daily in the tourist areas. 500 years later almost all saxons are gone, understandable since there is so much crappy communist beer a German can drink. Oh, I forgot to mention that between Second World War and the end of 1989 the country was under communist rule. No biggie, it's not like it left any huge scars or brought us to the brink of poverty. 

Sibiu is fashionably hip and covered in the newspapers around the globe. We were European Capital of Culture in 2007, a year that will be remembered dearly for centuries to come since nothing big will happen soon. If you come here you will hear stories about 2007 from the moment you step in your first taxi until you reach your destination and you are surprised by how big the fare was. Small town but not cheap, at least if you take a "pirate" taxi.

We were featured in the famous Michelin guide and got 3 stars. We also got 5 stars on the website of Michelin tires. Speaking of stars, we have very nice hotels: Ibis, Golden Tulip, Ramada, Hilton, there is something for each budget and you will find accommodation during the whole year, especially if there is no religious convention, rally, enduro race, hard rock festival, theater festival, jazz festival, medieval festival, porn convention (we wish) in town.

Being so fond of our germanic origin we elected in year 2000 a mayor of saxonic descent to make the city run like clockwork and we kept him since.  Some say that he transformed Sibiu in the nicest place in Romania, others like to remember the old tender Romanian saying that saxons are of four types: with glasses, with backpack, with bicycle or plain stupid. I just know that I've never seen him with glasses or backpacking, but on occasion he rides a bike.