Day 9 - Curtea de Arges to Bucharest/Fetesti

Mileage from home: 2350
Did I mention the free food and drink we were given yesterday by the hotel owner? Amazingly generous people! Had a good sleep in the little hut but we hit the road and managed to get petrol before Dino totally ran out. Got to Petesti quickly and then the roads improved so we got to Bucharest in no time.
Bucharest was pretty busy and congested for a Sunday but the weather was nice and we rode around taking in the sights. Had a chat with a fellow Romanian biker who gave us some hints on what to see / what roads to take during our next few days.
Went to Chaucescu's 'Peoples Palace' to do the tour. I was worried about parking so asked a policeman stationed at the gate. He guided us through a 'no-entry' sign and told us to park next to where he was stationed - excellent! The palace is massive - 2nd biggest building in the world after the Pentagon. Buying tickets was confusing and a pain. This communist trait is still here. Got very hot and fed-up waiting and nearly left but then they started screening us. Obviously I carry a couple of knives which the x-ray spotted and as the building is also their parlament then this caused a slight issue. Still got them back after the tour.
The palace is stupidly big with over 1000 rooms. And by rooms I mean 2000 square meter ones.... The oppulence was crazy but at least the building still gets used and it hasn't all gone to waste. After walking a km, we had apparently only seen 8% of the building. It's good to be king. Well until your people revolt and shoot you.
Dino isn't comfortable in big cities and wanted to get out. I wasn't fussed and am a bit of a rural boy myself, so we hit the motorway to Constanta. Obviously for us, the weather turned and it started chucking it down. As it was getting late I drove to the first village off the motorway and have found an amazing 'motel' right on the banks of a very swollen river. In fact the road leading to here is totally flooded. If it rises another metre then our bikes will be under water and we won't be able to leave here without a boat. I'm told that the weather is set to improve tomorrow - lets hope so.
Tomorrow we'll hit Constanta and then head South to the Bulgarian border and the resort of Vama Veche which is meant to be famous for hippies, naked people and for being like Woodstock (as described by my new Romanian biker pal). After that we've gotta start heading back. How I'm not really sure yet, but it feels like we're a long, long way from home and Dino has got very home-sick.
Anyway - the good new is that they have a bar downstairs! O, the very nice room was only £20 incl. breakfast.
Ass-pain: 3/10
Beers: 34 + 2 rums + 2 cherry grappas + 3 bottles of local white wine + 2 rose + 1 jug of cherry? wine
Mechanical problems: 1
Theft count: 0

Day 8 - Brasov to nr. Curtea de Arges

Mileage from home: 2016
Had a great evening in Brasov despite the constant heavy rain. Walked into town, saw the Black Church and hit a trendy restaurant bar. Wine went down well and we got back to the hotel very wet.
This morning - more bloody rain and our gear is still wet from before! Tanked-up the bikes and went over to Bran to see the Dracula castle. It's pretty cool but it was constantly chucking it down. Dino was getting fed-up and started going on about turning back home.
Anyway, carried on to Fagaras where I hoped to do the Transfagarason highway. We were told that it's closed but carried on anyway. It was still chucking it down - couldn't see where we were going, the road surface was shocking and there were rock-slides everywhere and lots of debris and pot-holes. In fact I witnesses one whilst taking a pee - the whole road was blocked behind us!
We persisted through the fog, cold and rain until we got to a sign and road block indicating that the pass was closed. We ignored that and road around it. 30 minutes later I was shivering, snow started appearing next to the road and eventually blocking most of the road.... We carried on to the very top where we met some Lithuanian bikers who had just made it up from the other side. They assured me that we'd make it through but that we'd need to remove our panniers at strategic points.
We rode through the narrow gap of snow (more than head height on either side of us) and made it to a metal 'door' which blocked the entrance to the tunnel. There was a narrow gap cut in metal door which we squeezed through after removing our panniers. The tunnel was freezing and pitch-black. With panniers re-fitted we went through the tunnel only to find a smaller metal gap cut in the other metal shutter that was closing off the tunnel. This time the hole was very narrow and raised of the ground. With some bits of wood and rocks forming a ramp on either side - Dino's bike made it through. My one was trickier as I have stupidly wide handlebars but we eventually squeezed it through. We then had a choice of basically riding down a rocky meltwater river to re-join the road or having a go trying to ride on/through the snow. The Lithuanians must have done the river as there were no tyre tracks in the snow. Dino gave it no thought and blasted through the snow with no issues - I did the same. Immediately the weather improved. The fog vanished, the rain stopped and the temperature rose.
We had some fun blasting down the rest of the Transfagarason with the usual interruptions (having to stop to let heards of goats pass, etc).
Our next stop was the Virdau dam. The sat-nav took us on a really muddy logging trail. It was fun, but after a couple of km it was obvious that we'd struggle to do 30km of it without crashing so we returned to the 'tarmac' and made it to the dam (which is very spectacular).
Dino is now running on fumes but we've come across a place with excellent little wooden huts. 50lei for the night (£9) so we're not roughing it tonight! They even have a good wine selection.
Tomorrow we go down towards Bucharest after seeing the rest of the sites on the way down. Lets hope the rain stays away as it was getting a bit depressing.
Ass-pain: 2/10
Beers: 30 + 2 rums + 2 cherry grappas + 3 bottles of local white wine + 2 rose
Mechanical problems: 1
Theft count: 0

Day 7 - Bistrita to Brasov

Mileage from home: 1940
Does nobody sleep in Romania? Restless night in the woods. Lots of animal noises, people sawing wood, cars blasting past on the nearby road, tractors, dogs barking, etc. Well at least nobody came and bothered us so from that perspective a quiet night.
Packed-up early and headed into town for breakfast before hitting to road on to Brasov. Dino dropped his bike moving it in front of the cafe - his side cases were all scratched anyway so no problem there.
Went through Targu Mures - gridlock. Traffic here is shocking. There are a lot of cars on the road and traffic lights are all out of sync. Couldn't wait to get out. Got to Sigishoara which is a 'medeaval city untouched by time' it was pissing down though so right or wrong we pressed on to Brasov where it is still cold and rainy.
Driving here is slow and tiring. The major routes are like UK B-roads only full of lorries going 30mph vs. Modern cars going 70mph and doing the craziest overtakes you can imagine. Speaking of that, I did an overtake crossing a solid white line with a police-car coming the opposite way. He didn't even bat an eyelid! Later saw a camper van that overtook us all smashed-up with a mangled Merc next to it.
Checked into a swanky hotel in Brasov. We can get clean and do some much needed washing. Pretty fancy place for €25 incl breakfast. Currently in a great bar - Brasov is great despite the intense rain!
Bought some teflon chain lube to keep me going and some engine oil for Dino's bike. Otherwise bikes all good.
Ass-pain: 5/10
Beers: 30 + 2 rums + 2 cherry grappas + 3 bottles of local white wine
Mechanical problems: 1
Theft count: 0

Day 6 - Mocanita to Bistrita (in the woods)

Mileage from home: 1776
Was meant to be another short day today. Left the bikes in the back garden where we camped and got up early to catch the mountain steam train at Mocanita.
The train was amazing - lovely views, good food and we went on a guided hike whilst at the top which was just the ticket. Met an interesting American guy who's based in the embassy - gave us some good tips on what to see. Picked-up the bikes (all our gear wasn't pinched which was nice) and we headed onto the small and bumpy mountain roads to see the old wooden monastaries.
The old wooden churches were cool but a bit of a chore after the first couple so we decided to skip the rest and make our way towards Brasov as it's miles away. Struggled to find a wild camping spot off the beaten track. Finally found something and by some miracle managed to get the bikes off road and into the forrest up a really steep hill. Some deer ran right up to us, scared us and themselves before running off. Not sure if we are allowed to camp here. Got the evils from some bloke who spotted me off-roading into the woods. Hopefully we won't get mugged or moved on....
Tightened the chain last night whilst Dino was taking an easement - seems to be OK now. Hopefully it'll keep holding out.
Ass-pain: 3/10
Beers: 26 + 2 rums + 2 cherry grappas
Mechanical problems: 1
Theft count: 0