La Legende du Cheval Blanc - dedicatie pt. bunul meu prieten Razvan Anton

Crossing Romania by bike with a friend from Canada in april 2009 ( part 1)

On 17th of april I arrive at Bucharest after an eventful journey in Romania and about 1500km of cycling. Here I cycle with some friends among which Florin Leonte, a cycling trainer, one of the most fervent cycling promoters in Romania. The last 30 km till Bucharest I cycled together with Florin and another 2 cycling friends Horia and Alex.
In the evening I go to Horia Nitu, a friend of mine, a keen cyclist and after a good meal and a few beers, quite late after chatting so much I decide to sleep in his garden in my sleeping bed on an iron bed under an apple tree in full blossom .
Oh, I slept so well, dreaming about my cycling travels. The next morning we snapped a photo with us and that wonderful tree.


It's a grand day for me. After cycling more than 100 000km in the last 10 years, after some memorable bike tours in Europe, after appearing in some important newspapers and even TV reports, I became pretty well-known as a cycletourer in our cycling community from Romania. Therefore one of the most successful patron of bike shops from our country, Mr. Mircea Florescu invited me to Bucharest to give me a great bike.
On 18th of april 2009 is the great day one of the happiest of my life.
I go to one of his bike shops accompanied by Horia, I meet the kind hearted patron, I am verry emotional, and I also meet Dan Mazilu, the editor-in-chief of Mbike, the only one bike magazine from Romania. He snapps photos of me, I'll be a star in the bike magazine. Oh yes!
I receive a Kona Sutra, a bike more expensive than my father's old car. I should have worked hard 10 years in Romania to be able to save money for such a bike.
The generous patron also gives some nice outfit, some special trousers, cycling T-shirts and a crash helmet.
God bless Mircea Florescu! I was a happy young cyling star!


Then I wait a bit till Razvan Anton makes his appearance. He pops out of a cab carrying a super heavy bag. He came by plane from Ottawa, Canada just to cycle with me a couple of weeks. He is such a good friend of mine.
I give him my brand new Kona and I cycle on my old MTB. The first day we cycle just a bit about 40km till the village Luciana where we are allowed to pitch out our tent in the garden of a local businessman on a perfect lawn. Here we eat well and we enjoy some beers. We spend a great evening.


The next day I am impressed by the wooden cart I see in this garden. It was one of my best camping places ever.


After the breakfast we start pedalling. On our way we meet some interesting carts.


It's Easter day, so buck up friend! We stop in a village to make merry with some youngsters.


In a couple of hours we get to Targoviste, an old town with many touristic attractions. Here I catch a glimpse of Chindiei Tower that dates back to XVI century. It's one of the most beautiful bastions from Romania and it is 27m high.


Then we cycle some more 25km till we get to a guest house in Fieni where we spend the night. The next day we start climbing. We will cross the Charpatians soon.


We have to climb a pass that gets to 1100m high. As we climb more the temperature gets chilly but I endure quite well.


After the descent we pass through the most important ski resorts from Romania which are quite long especially Sinaia and the traffic is busy. From Predeal we turn left on a secundary road. We have to climb a few km till we get to another pass. Here we halt to have a dinner in a nice restaurant. We stay on the terrace and we admire the view. We can see the Postovaru massif.


Then we carry on cycling for the accommodation here is very expensive. We have to go down about 15 km on a bumpy road full of potholes and we take risks for it's getting dark and this area is famous for the great amount of bears roaming freely. Finally we get to a safe place where we find a hotel that is quite costly but it can't be helped. We rent a room and we have a tasty dinner.
The next day we are ready for the adventure.


Near the hotel we see a pool full of fish. Here we buy the most expensive bottle of mineral water from all my life.


After less than 30 minutes of cycling we get to Bran where one can see the most famous castle from all Romania.


Here we find a tiny spectacular old church.


After the Moeciu de Jos'touristic village we start climbing and the route is scenic with many hairpins.


We gain altitude soon and we enjoy the gorgeous views. Below us we can see Moeciu de jos village.


Then in the distance we can gaze at the snow-capped Piatra Craiului' massif.


Razvan says my Kona Sutra bike works miracles. We stop to snap a picture with her and the lovely scenery.


After an half of hour of climbing, the weather dramatically changes, bleak clouds are invading the sky.


The storm overtakes us en route and we get under a shelter very wet.


We are lucky to have reached under this shelter and from here we can attend to a terrible hailstorm that lasts only a few minutes. Then all around us we can see plenty of ice.

Expeditia "Cuceresc Europa pe 2 roti" - plan si propunere

Va salut prieteni,

Pe 15 mai in acest an voi porni in cea mai lunga tura din viata mea, o tura prin Europa in care voi pedala prin 15 tari.
Deoarece am un buget foarte redus sunt nevoit sa incerc sa-mi mai fac rost de niste bani. Trebuie sa strang bani pt. expeditie si sa-mi rezolv o bicicleta.
M-am gandit sa apelez la membrii comunitatii de ciclism si la prieteni, poate voi gasi ceva sprijin.
Am urmatoarea propunere: pt. suma de 50RON ofer o poveste din calatoria ce ma asteapta, ofer pozele pe o anumita distanta si pot oferi promovare pe blogul meu cu dedicatie speciala si multumiri pe forum daca se doreste. M-am inspirat de la Mihai Barbu care a obtinut peste 2000EUR vanzand kilometrii, povesti si poze.
M-as bucura mult daca v-ar interesa idea si daca ati dori sa ma ajutati.
Daca nu, imi cer scuze de deranj si va doresc numai bine si tot ce va doriti!

Cateva date despre expeditie si despre mine:
Sunt un impatimit cicloturist, in acest an se implinesc 15 ani care mi i-am dedicat trup si suflet cicloturismului care este o imbinare perfecta intre cultura, aventura si sport.
Deja am pedalat peste 150 000km iar in aceasta vara imi doresc sa fac un tur de traversare europeana cum nu a mai fost facut de nici un est european vreodata, sper eu.
Voi pedala pe ruta Romania – Olanda pe un traseu cu cat mai multe pasuri si catarari posibile prin muntii Europei, iar itinerariul meu va include vizitarea a 15 tari si anume: Romania, Ungaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italia, Austria, Liechtenstein, Elvetia, Franta, Germania, Luxemburg, Belgia si Olanda. Pe traseu imi voi vizita niste prieteni din Germania, Franta, Italia si Olanda. De aici in functie de bugetul ce voi avea voi lua probabil un traseu direct spre casa tot pe bicicleta sau in caz ca nu-mi mai ajung banii ma voi intoarce cu un autocar ceea ce nu mi-asi dori decat in cazul ca nu am de ales.
Scopul expeditiei este de a cunoaste cat mai multa lume si peisaje cat mai diverse, de a aduna un material fotografic cat mai interesant pt. realizarea unor fotoreportaje cat mai atragatoare. De asemenea vreau sa promovez cicloturismul si sa povestesc tuturor strainilor pe care-i intalnesc cat de frumoasa este Romania si cat de primitori suntem noi romanii.
Vreau sa calc pe urmele maestrilor Anton Duma si Stefan Hodi!

Cu respect,
Claudiu

Vanessa Mae - dedicatie speciala pentru prietenul meu Andrei Ozizu!

Bike trip in Hungary with my friend Andrei Ozizu (june 2009)

In the beginning of june me and a friend of mine decided to have a nice bike tour in Hungary. Andrei who is an experienced cycletourer from Buzau, but who lives and works in Bucharest, travelled till Arad by train and from there he pedalled till Dorobanti village where it was our meeting point at a thermal spa. I cycled till there about 60km. We enjoyed very much the first day, taking a swim, sunbathing, drinking beers and talking to gorgeous girls in tantalizing bikinis. Then we cycled about 25 km till we entered Hungary at Turnu customs. We pitched our tents near the border behind some bushes.
The next day we cycled 50km through the steppe under a sweltering heat till we reached the town of Mako where it was time for us to have a tasty lunch at a restaurant.
We also tried the local beer which is not so bad, indeed.


We were enjoying our meal on a terrace and we were happy to see people of all ages, and of all sorts, cycling to and fro. Even old hags were using bikes here.


Cycling is such a healthy way of life. It is so pity and a shame that in Romania we can not see so many bikers like here in Hungary, the mentality of our people is still precarious.
Dear citizens, if you want to lose weight and enjoy life, you would better start cycling like the hungarians do!


Beautiful girls were also cycling to our sheer delight, and we kept on snapping photos.


Then we cycled another 30km on a secondary road till we reached Szeged. We started visiting this lovely town. We liked very much the center.


The cathedral was very impressive, too.


Around the cathedral was a huge and magnificent palace. We stopped to rest a bit on a wooden bench.


In this town we saw many gorgeous girls on two wheels.


This town is crossed by the mighty Tisza river and our big river Maros is flowing into Tisza at the entrance of Szeged. There are some interesting and modern bridges over Tisza here.


Then we erected our tents in a clearing next to a forest not far from Szeged.
The next day we cycled on secondary roads with almost no traffic.


Soon we had to cross Tisza by ferryboat. The weather was so hot.


We were lucky to find great cycling tracks and so our trip in Hungary was very enjoyable under these circumstances. There were plenty of cycling ways of good quality even between localities.


My Kona Sutra bike works smoothly. Andrei is a fit cyclist, sometimes we cycle with 30km/h. Plenty of cycling tracks will be still finished in Hungary.


All of a sudden I run into a dead badger. It seems the great hungarian steppe is full of wild animals.


Then we enjoy a nice sunset in the middle of the wilderness.


Soon we find a good place to camp behind a old cottage. The next morning we snap a picture of this wild spot.


Andrei is a great fellow-companion, very resilient and always joking. Thanks to his GPS we cycled on safe secondary roads with light traffic.


We have to face a scorching heat so I'm very pleased to take advantage of some water when I come across it.


This day we have to make many halts, we even spend 3 hours in a lovely touristic place where we have a lake to swim and a pub to refresh ourselves with some beers.
Later we admire another wonderful sunset and we pitch our tents not far from Budapest near the Danube.


Finally we get to Budapest, one of my favourite cities. We immediately climb to Citadella to enjoy large panoramic views over the city.


The weather changed drastically and it started raining and the temperatures dropped a lot. We had to put on some clothes and then everythin was OK again. We were happy to be here.


Such a lovely view can be seen from here over the metropolis.


Here we find an interesting bench where we rest a bit.


This is one of the best places in Central Europe.


We also meet here a huge statue. We can see lots of tourists from all over the world in this particular place.


Then it's time for us to visit other landmarks of this city. The Royal Palace is absolutely stunning.


When we get close to the biggest cathedral of Budapest it starts raining cats and dogs.


But putting on a long raincoat solves the problem and we carry on sightseeing.


The Parliamentary Palace remains the most fascinating construction in this wonderful capital.


Outstanding statues can be found here, too.


We have four days of incessant rain so we make a very slow progress but when we get to Balaton lake, the sun comes out again. We cycle on the northern part of the lake on a good cycling path.


At Balatonfured we see swans with cubs. They are so cute and we start feeding them with some cakes.


I simply fall in love with the tiny nestlings.


All along this huge lake which is the largest from the Central Europe we find swans and we are quite excited about this.


On the other part of the lake at Szigliget we stopped at a lido and there we decided to separate for I wanted to head for the Alps to climb there as many passes and possible and Andrei wanted to go to Wien.
So after 9 wonderfull days we had to take leave of each other. Before leaving he gave me some money and I promissed him that one day I would return the favour.

Thank you a lot dear Andrei for this wonderful trip!
I'm looking forward to our next adventure on 2 wheels!

Thank you very much to Mircea Florescu, the generous sponsor who gave me the great bike Kona Sutra for this tour!