Biking in Romania
fifth report of Dave, 08.19.2007-08.22.2007
Dave's biking in Romania adventure has a gap. It looks like Dave completely forgot what happened between Alba Iulia and Cetea (3 days).
I received two other updates from Dave along the way, but the messages were empty. I can only suppose he tried to send me voice messages again and they failed. Well, we'll fill all the gaps together when we meet again. So, here's Dave's account.
After the wonderful stay near Cetea (3 nights camping) I left there yesterday and spun to Intregalde, then Abrud. The road was really fun and varied from new asphalt to dirt/stone but never any problem.
The area Cetea - Intregalde is a very scenic spot. Lots of little gorges and lakes, mountain rivers, falls and caves. In fact it's the southern part of the Apuseni Mountains where all these types of formations are common.
On his road between Intregalde and Abrud, at only one hour walking from Bucium, Dave passed in the nearby of a beautiful natural phenomenon called Detunatele. The Detunata is one of the most famous basaltic rocks from Romania. And, as I heard, you can find something similar in Europe, only at Giant's Causeway in Ireland.
The volcanic rocks occur in two separate bodies: the Detunata Goala, with polygonal columns of rock partly covered by forest, and the Detunata Flocoasa - fully covered by forest.
Got into Abrud just before dark (65km/40miles). There is a very nice small new hotel just east of town but they were full. Spun into town. Started thinking I was not going to find a room. Really needed to after 3 nights camping.
I think he's talking about Detunata Guesthouse (Will open a new window). It's really small (only eight places) but very nice. About the other one, where he slept, I never heartd in my life.
biking in Romania trip
After some effort I found an old hotel (that looked like a regular apartment building) with no sign or anything indicating it is a functioning hotel. Got a room, only 50 lei. It's old and gloomy but clean and acceptable. They let me keep the bike in the room.
Today I spun north to Rose Montana (Rosia Montana). Found their yearly celebration (3 days) starts tomorrow. Found some young guys (2 speak English). They REALLY took care of me. There are no hotels but not a problem.
This celebration has nothing to do with local traditions. It's called FanFest and it's an ecological festival that pleads for keeping the little town the way it is.
For those who know nothing about it, Rosia Montana is a very disputed place in Romania. Here there is a gold mine from ancient times. Prehistoric people extracted the gold for their jewels. And, for 3000 years the gold has continued to be extracted from these mines. The environmental damages are huge. When the mine was closed last year, the local people were left without their day-by-day bread.
Now Gabriel, a Canadian Company, wants to take control of the mine. But "green people" (environmentalists) oppose them for the environmental damage they'd produce. However, this website isn't here for political or ecological discussions so, for those interested in this subject here are two links that will help you understand both sides of the issue.
UNGs opinion and Gabriel Company opinion (will open new windows)
They found me a room for three nights (30 lei a night) with an older widow. Room is great. Then the 4 boys (17-20) took me to a beautiful little mountain lake where we swam, drank beer, and they taught me how to say dirty words in Romanian, and laughed uproariously the whole time!
I'm sure you laughed a lot, Dave. This is the first thing teenagers teach a foreigner. Hmmm! Dirty words. I have to admit I wasn't an exception at the same age. Simply because foreigner's pronunciation is sooo funny. Beside the fact that they can't pronounce it correctly is that they do it with such innocence in their eyes that only a child who discover a new world has. Dave, I'll test your new knowledge when you're back in Bucharest.
At the hotel in Abrud, I plugged my cell phone adapter into the wall and it blew up! Charger is OK but 220 adapter is shot. These boys found a guy here who had some old electrical appliances and he happily cut a cord off one so I can jury rig a fix.
Their celebration here starts tomorrow and lasts for 3 day. The "boys" have planned some fun things for me during my stay. So here I am on another Romanian Adventure!
I have some really great photos. Wish I could send some now but will have to wait.
I can't wait to see and share them.
And here's a P.S. from another email:
I don't remember if I updated you re the bicycle repairs, but I purchased some 2-part epoxy, applied it to the problem area of the bicycle under-carriage and it has held up fine so far - so for now I am going to consider it a "non-problem".
More about Dave's biking in Romania trip after his next update.
Read the previous report.
Back to Biking in Romania page.
