czech, slovkia, hungry, romania ?

spasm · Post by **spasm** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 5:12 am

wots it like riding through these countries, nice, rough, dangerous, beautiful,
just asking as im looking at next years tour, cheers,

or maybe morocco, is this a bad idea on a 1200 tenere, is it more 660 teritory

pete

Paul-S · Post by **Paul-S** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 5:21 am

Hi Pete

There are some fantastic views off the beaten track on the Easern Bloc run. I was amazed at the rural borders. We have a little road sign here when going from one county to the next. Over there in Romania especially they still have big concrete painted up border crossings with guards in some

The Long Way Round touched on some of these

There are main roads in reasonable condition but the rural roads are not in the best of conditions, many gravel and potholed

We went over to Transylvania and stayed there for 2 nights

The roads over the mountains are excellent especially the Transfargaren highway used on Top Gear when they had the sports cars - as they stated "it's like all the best corners on all the best race tracks in the world all stuck together"

Food was a bit sparse off the beaten track and in Romania unless you kept to the main routes running water and electricity were luxuries - we went past 7 derelict power stations and the villages had wells for water

It was a great ride and also a humbling one - in this day and age what we take for granted living here in the UK

You'll need local currencies, especially when rural

Enjoy and ride safe - the drivers leave a lot to be desired as they drive on any side of the road at times

Forgot to add - the 660 will be a perfect bike to ride it on - the 1200 would be OK too but you need to ride a bit slower or stick to busier tarmac routes to avoid punctures and possible wheel damage and you might miss out on the nicer more remote parts of the counties

We had 8 days and overnighted in Prague, Szencendre and Transylvania, stayed for 2 nights and headed north to Satu Mare, then back to Szencendre and Prague and then a long blast home again. Fuel was a bit sparse in Romania - I found there was more fuel in Morocco!

AustinW · Post by **AustinW** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:37 am

We were in Hungary and NW Romania earlier this year. Hungary is a very modern well developed country. Mostly you wouldn't know it was ex Eastern bloc. Travelling around was easy on mostly good to very good roads (better than uk mostly). The Germanic influence shows through.

Romania is a huge contrast and full of contrasts. The rural areas are remote, undeveloped, poor, beautiful with not much infrastructure. Think horse and carts, hand-tended fields, and small isolated villages. Not many hotels campsites or places to stay. Lots of evidence of statist industry though, nearly all of it abandoned now though.

The bigger Towns are the contrast though. There's money about - Audi/BMW/ merc dealers, good range of hotels, places to eat and plenty of shops and most places we went through had a nice atmosphere. It's a real contrast although I suspect there's still areas of neglect and poverty.

Nearly all roads were poor to very very poor and the driving standards were on the whole pretty poor - crazy overtakes, speeding, and poorly maintained cars and lorries - which there were loads of.

Go, before joining the EU ruins it.

Sent from my iPhone with a smile

stanbloke · Post by **stanbloke** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:05 am

I think that this would be an interesting holiday. Try this report Spazm it may give you some ideas.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=858799

Cheers.

CBSTD · Post by **CBSTD** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:40 am

Romainia is a fantastic country I been several times riding off road in the Carpathian mountains.The main roads are poor and it just gets proggresively worse,the drive on the the best bit of tar there is regardless driving gets worse after lunchtime and I would'nt recomend driving after dark.The people are very open and willing to help,the language is latin based so you can get by with a bit lateral thinking.European mono-culture is creaping in so go soon.The rural areas are littered with carootza trails (horse and cart)go up from the villages to pastures an fields sometimes marked by painted stones or symbol on trees you really can get to some out of the way places quite easily following these trails if thats you bag.You can ride to the top of Tarcu theres a maned weather station at the top

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MarkR · Post by **MarkR** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:42 am

spasm wrote:wots it like riding through these countries, nice, rough, dangerous, beautiful,
just asking as im looking at next years tour, cheers,

or maybe morocco, is this a bad idea on a 1200 tenere, is it more 660 teritory

pete

We did Hungary and Romania this summer.

My blog (well mostly Pats really..)

http://beastmeister.blogspot.co.uk/2013 ... -back.html

dogman · Post by **dogman** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 1:01 pm

4 of us are riding over from the green sod on the 7th sept coming back 22nd sept,,, this tread is super .......thank you......Dublin to Brasov 2013

spasm wrote:wots it like riding through these countries, nice, rough, dangerous, beautiful,
just asking as im looking at next years tour, cheers,

or maybe morocco, is this a bad idea on a 1200 tenere, is it more 660 teritory

pete

Simon_100 · Post by **Simon_100** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 4:32 am

stanbloke wrote:I think that this would be an interesting holiday. Try this report Spazm it may give you some ideas.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=858799

Cheers.

Hi Stan,

Thaks for this amazing lnk - I spent half yesteray afteroon reading thuygj it and I'm hooked!

If I can go to the Bulgaria meet next year what better way to get there

Regs

Simon

spasm · Post by **spasm** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 5:54 am

wow some good stuff here, cheers B) oh to be inspired

Willandkate · Post by **Willandkate** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 6:19 am

That's a nice RR, just goes to show what can be done without any fancy bike, tyres, crash bars, luggage and all that other stuff we all tie ourselves in knots over.

When we rode through Hungary and Romania it felt so civilised but I guess that was compared to the crazy countries we'd recently been through. Still managed to get the DR bogged though :huh:

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Any bike will do it. Remember its a fair ride away so a bigger bike might be better, it all depends how much tight & rough stuff you plan to do once there. Either way, you'll have a great time

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