Fellow Riders and HU community members
First of All, Happy new Year and wishing everyone plenty of travels and good memories in 2017.

As I was the one starting the thread, I thought it would only be courteous to post some of my experience riding in east Europe few months ago...

I started my Ride from the Netherlands with a destination The Transfagarasan in Romania.
I rode to Dusseldorf where I loaded my bike onto the overnight Train from Dusseldorf to Vienna.
With the arrival in Vienna at 08h30 in the Morning, i got myself a good night of sleep and avoided 900 km of good German Highways, I was rested and could ride strait to Debrecen with a Lunch Stop in the beautiful city of BUDAPEST... the Roads in Hungary are in great condition and traffic rules are well respected by Hungarian and Austrian drivers. i did have to buy a Vignette in Both Austria and Hungary.

From the quite city of Debrecen, I headed to Romania, crossing out of Schengen area at the Hungarian (Artand)/Romania (Bors) border crossing point, the crossing out of Hungary was with a head node, while the Romanian side took about 20 min (but this is mainly because I have an Algerian passport, live in NL and travelling on the Motorcycle) the Border agent confessed at the end that he has never seen an Algerian on a Motorbike at this crossing since years .... :-) at least i got to be the First ...
the first few Kilometres on the Romanian roads was good until the city of Oradea after that i took the E79, that goes through a number of small passes and hills, the road section between Oradea and Deva had about 40 road works points that made my journey last forever, the road was in such a bad condition that i rattled every bone and bolt on my loaded F800GS ... but to the credits of the Romanian ministry of transport, they have been working hard to have it completed before the winter, I am confident that next year( Summer 2017) this section will be a pleasure to ride through
once at Deva the Fantastic Romanian High way A1 was a blast too ride through, not only it was very well made and toll free, but it was not busy as most of the vehicles takes the secondary roads ...
I arrived to Sibiu (my temporary home base for 2 days) after 3 days and more than 1150 km

the Transfagarasan and the TrasnAlpina were undeniably the BEST part of the trip, it is worth every single minute i spent planning the trip and every single minute i spent riding on its asphalt... the Transfagarasan was so great that i changed my plan and rode it again from South to North... while the transAplina i did only a small section, but yet the best part at 2134 mts altitude...


Riding in Romania, was extremely safe, not a single incident or issue and no stray dogs neither .... :-)
definitely recommended for anyone planning to visit the Transfagarasan & Transalpina

Happy to answer questions if any

Cheers
LC

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My Rides evolution: MTX125, KLR650, KLR650, F800GS, R1200GS, R1200GS LC + F700GS

Great photos, Romania is a beautiful place, not so fussy on Bucharest but the rest especially the North is amazing..

Much prefer the Eastern block countries to the west, more gritty and the food is great...

Hijacking the thread a little..

Can anyone comment on how often the Trans-Fagarasan is open earlier than the 'official' end of June date? When it is still closed, how much can be ridden until you hit snow or physical barriers?

I will be there around the 3rd week May 2017 at the latest and hoping that I will get to do some...

Apologies for going off topic!

Thank you

We did Transfagarasan in the end of September and it was a bit chilly but still doable. There was some snow on the top but the road is well-maintained so I don't see why May would be a problem! Off season is great because you have the road to yourself, almost