Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

I just finished a 3 day trip through Romania. I entered the country from the north (from Ukraine) at Siret, and drove along tertiary and secondary roads from there to Cluj Napoca, eventually exiting to Hungary at Oradea.

In every respect, Romania was delightful. The customs employees at the entry point at Siret were the most courteous, welcoming, and gracious customs people I have ever met - I think the Romanian government must have hired the concierges from the best hotels to be customs employees. They all spoke English perfectly, it was obvious that they were happy to welcome me as a tourist, and when I asked about the 'vignette', they told me that they did not think it was needed for a moto, but as they were not 100% sure, they would check. Subsequently, a lady from the 'vignette selling office' came over to speak to me, accompanied by the chief customs officer, and assured me that I did not need the sticker for the moto. The chief customs person then gave me his name and phone number, and told me that if I encountered any questions, just to call him and he would make sure I had no problems. All I can say is: WOW! What a great start to the visit.

The money is easy to figure out. As Szabi has already explained, there are two varieties circulating, old ones and new ones. An 'old' 100,000 note is worth the same as a new 10 note. But, this is not confusing, because the old notes are physically much larger than the new notes, so, you would really have to be mentally incompetent to get confused with the money. It is a little funny, though, giving someone a 10 note to pay for lunch, and getting 40,000 in old notes back! But, honestly, you can't be confused - the number differences are too large to allow any confusion to happen.

Most young, educated people in the country speak English, so, no problem if you are unilingual. I don't know what language is actually used in the country (my guess is that it is probably called Romanian, or something like that), but it is a very easy language to figure out if you can speak French and also a Latin language such as Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese. I didn't have any difficulty, in the sense that I never felt lost or confused. I mean, half the words in the written language are almost exactly the same as they would be in English, French, or Italian.

Everything is inexpensive. Decent pensions cost about €20 a night, and you can eat very well for about €4 for a lunch, and €8 for a dinner. Gasoline is also quite inexpensive, far less than what you pay in France or Germany - about one Euro per liter (though it will be considerably higher if you are way out in the back woods, where it has to be trucked in a long way).

Roads in Romania fall into one of two categories: They either meet the specs for the rest of the EC (meaning, at they are least as good as French, Czech, or Slovakian roads), or, the road is being torn up in the midst of a huge construction program to make them meet the EC specs. So, no problem with roads at all - at least, not with the secondary and tertiary ones, anyway. But, you need to be patient with all the road construction that is going on at this time.

The only real 'problem' is how people drive. There are very, very few motorcycles of any kind in Romania (I only saw two, in three days, that were larger than 100 cc), so, Romanians are not used to having motorcycles around them. This means they don't look out for them, nor do they automatically move to the right slightly to facilitate you passing them on the road. In fact, people get kind of pissed off if you ride up to the front of the line at a construction queue - behaviour that is considered totally normal and acceptable in most Western European countries.

Because of the very high number of horse-drawn carts on the roads in the rural areas, car and truck drivers are used to ignoring the solid white line on the center of the road, and pulling out to pass anywhere they want to. This means that you always have to have your wits about you, and drive VERY defensively at all times. If you see a big, slow moving truck coming in the opposite direction, it is best to assume that someone will suddenly pop out from behind it, into your lane, to pass it, without any regard to no passing signs, solid lines on the middle of the road, whatever. In other words, traffic is a complete free-for-all, and you have to stay alert all the time. Fortunately, the government is aware that this is a problem, and they are doing their best (with advertising programs, and a strong police presence in the villages) to try and get things under control. Keep your headlight on all the time, and be prepared to flash your high beams when you see someone coming at you in your lane. Chances are, they are not looking for you, only for other cars or trucks.

I talked to a few Romanian policemen - they were pleasant, well educated, and had a good sense of humour about the whole traffic control problem. What they are trying to do, it seems, is get things under control in the villages first, then tackle the highways later. So, whatever you do, obey the traffic rules (speed limits and no passing zones) when inside towns and villages, because there will almost always be a traffic policeman on the job at the side of the road in the villages. Good thing for that, too...

Do not ever make the mistake of assuming that a car with a German or Italian licence plate will follow the normal traffic rules that are in effect in Germany or Italy. Wrong. Chances are - especially if it is an Italian plate - that the car is being driven by a person of Romanian origin who lives and works in Italy, and is back home on holidays. This is doubly dangerous, because it means they will have all the bad characteristics of an Italian driver, plus, as soon as they get back on 'home turf', they revert to the wild Romanian driving practices as well.

Lastly, be very alert for railway crossings that cut across the road at very narrow angles - in some cases, as little as a 20° angle to the roadway. In such cases, the railway track will grab your front tire and high-side you if you are not alert. In every case where you see a railway crossing - especially out in the country - slow right down, and plan to inspect it first before you ride across it. If the road has not recently been rebuilt, it is likely that the railway crossing itself will be quite rough and uneven, with large gaps around the rails... so, slow down and look first!

It is possible to buy good quality fuel (95 octane) everywhere, but do pay attention to the writing on the pump, because many gas stations sell both leaded and unleaded 95 octane. If your moto is designed to run on unleaded, you need to grab the green nozzle, always. Also, you can use a European credit card at the gas stations, but the credit card authorization technology used is the very latest and most modern (like Switzerland), which means that you might need to key in a PIN for a gas purchase on a credit card (not simply a debit card). So, make sure you have a PIN for your credit card.

There are enough ATMs around that you don't need to worry about getting local money first. Many businesses (not all, but many) will accept Euros, though obviously local money is preferred. Having said that, though, I note that it is much easier to use Euros in Romania than it is to use Euros in Hungary.

There are a surprising number of new cars on the road in Romania, and a welcome shortage of underpowered Eastern bloc beaters such as Ladas and Trabbants. I think Romanian people are pretty sensible by nature and not at all status or brand conscious. In other words, they would rather pay x dollars and get a new, 2006 VW Polo than pay the same amount of money and get a 10 year old used Mercedes S class or BMW 5 series. That's quite a difference from what you see in Hungary or Slovakia.

All in all, I think Romania is a delightful country, a place that is full of friendly and well educated people who are proud to live there and happy to see visitors. Tourists on large motos are still an unusual sight - my Honda ST1100, which is a 15 year old design of moto, drew a crowd wherever I parked it, which is certainly something I am not used to. I was never particularly worried about security of the moto (and never worried about personal security). All the pensions and hotels I stayed at were happy to allow me to put the moto in the barn, or behind the building, or even right on the front doorstep.

I will be back next summer, for sure. This place is what Croatia was about 10 years ago - beautiful scenery, nice people, inexpensive, and undiscovered. The first two attributes still apply to Croatia, of course, but the last two don't anymore. Visit Romania and you get all four.

Michael