Sept. 1: Through the Iron Gates and into Romania

[ES]
Well first off - what a day. In summary, we biked 70 km along the narrowest part of the Danube (Iron Gates), crossed the border into Romania, figured out how to take our bicycles on Romanian trains, and were pleasantly surprised by the cosmopolitan feel of Craiova, Romania.

Fortunately we got off to an early start from Etno Compleks to ride before the heat of the day. It would be our last day cycling in Serbia for this section of the trip. The route took us along and within sight of the gorgeous Danube all day. There were occasional larger towns on the Romanian side with more industry. We didn’t have too much traffic on our side but did encounter tourists from other parts of Eastern Europe including a gaggle of motorcyclists from Hungary. We kept pace with a big river cruise boat and eventually passed it as we went through the Iron Gates. We went through the last of the tunnels and passed the recent (1990s) sculpture of Decebalus carved into the rock on the Romanian side. Decebalus was the last King of Dacia who fought to stay independent from the Romans. His likeness was carved into the rock as a symbol of Romanian nationalism and perhaps is an idealized view of Romania’s place in history. It’s a pretty cool sculpture in a gorgeous setting but kind of unsettling as the face stares across the Danube towards Slavic Serbia. This was the day we expected the most hills to climb. While there was some hills we only climbed 3200 feet both this day and the day before...nothing compared to climbing Kneeland or other routes in Humboldt County.

We got to the Romanian border by about 10am and processing was rather swift. There were a lot more cars waiting to get into Serbia interestingly. Here is where I let myself say to myself that there were a lot more big semi trucks going the other direction up the gorge, thankfully not on our side of the road. Perhaps on a circuit carrying goods from the EU into Serbia? Perhaps just a matter of timing? I don’t know, but I was thankful.

While Erin knew what lay ahead of us for the ride from the border into Drobeta Turnu Severin, I somehow never really looked at what that segment would be like. It was an 8 mile stretch of highway with big semis with one lane in each direction. Fortunately there was a roadway shoulder but as I was just getting comfortable in Serbia to then cross into another country and have to ride the highway with trucks was pretty anxiety inducing. Fortunately we just put our head down and pedaled and for the most part traffic was not wizzing by and it was okay. The outskirts of Drobeta Turnu Severin were industrial and felt more poor than most areas we had traveled through in Serbia. But once we got to the city center I could see it was a regional center that had a well planned grand pedestrian boulevard.

We successfully bought train tickets to Craiova - a stopover transfer point for the next day getting to Sibiu. We were told (mostly by interpreting the helpful ticket employee’s Romanian) that we would pay for our bicycles on the train itself. We went into the center of Drobeta Turnu Severin and found lunch before the train arrived.

Though we were nervous about how our bikes would fit on the train, we never had to move them once. One of the conductors eventually came past and asked us to pay for the bikes. As we were on an inter-regional train that at least online looked to not allow bikes we knew we might have to pay a bribe to take our bikes along. Erin handed the guy the smallest lei bill we had - 50 lei ($12.50) - and he looked at the money as he took it and booked it out of our train car. Our first bribe, a bit larger than needed but successful. As our train ride settled in another passenger spoke to us in broken English - Leonid who we came to know over the two hour train ride. He and his little son live in Severin but he works at the soccer stadium in Craiova and commutes by train several times a week.

I had pictured this southern part of Romania to just be mostly industrial and had not read about Craiova as it was planned to just be a stopover en route to somewhere else. We found a place to stay for the night, took a shower and headed out to see what Craiova was all about. What a surprise to find that Craiova was hidden gem! Amidst beautiful but crumbling old villas there was a vibrant pedestrian zone with many people walking around. It is a university town so there were lots of young people and kids and action we did not expect. Many people were dressed up to cheer for the local soccer team at the stadium nearby. And women in Craiova were fashionable! Definitely not a tourist town but a cosmopolitan regional center for sure.

Add caption

Craiova: decaying but beautiful

We had bought tickets the night before so getting on the train to Sibiu the next morning went fairly smoothly, though everyone seemed confused by a last-minute order to switch train cars. Although we had bicycle tickets this time there was no actual place to put a bicycle on the train. The conductor did not seem fazed though and asked us to move our bikes in front of some seats and away from the back doors. Although we took up five seats with our bikes and many people came on and off the train, it worked out. A couple other people had a giant TV and a weedwacker (that everyone tripped over) on the train rides as well. We traveled along the Olt River for much of the journey and stopped at tiny, crumbling rail stations along the way, each with their own rail employee or two that held an unknown lollipop-type sign. We arrived in Sibiu Sunday afternoon just in time for a cultural festival.