Romania – Page 3 – Flesh & Relics

Yeah, yeah- still on a riceburner with the M72 needing bearing replacements and the Dnepr under construction. We won’t speak of the Izh right now.
Still, despite large quantities of visual and verbal insubordination I managed to rack up some desperately needed road time (about 1300k / 800 miles) and some sweet high altitude sidewinding. Those big assed foot pegs are slightly skinnier now.

Rally was at Stațiunea Climaterică Sâmbăta near Sâmbăta de Sus, Brașov (Transilvania), Romania (also known as țarina satului Drăguș), a small remote ski resort in the Fagaras mountains. It was a good turnout and several international riders showed up, including my bro Sven who made the tour from Germany. Having a restaurant/bar on hand was an interesting twist, and not one I particularly enjoyed. Face it, I can party at a fucking bar anywhere- but everybody else seemed to enjoy the obnoxiously loud crap music that was blasting all night along with the convenience of having their food prepared for them in a modern kitchen rather than sitting around a nasty old campfire with hairy unwashed drunken bikers.
Civilians will be civil I guess. Or maybe I’m just not right in the fuckin’ head, who knows.

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Height of the trip was the Transfăgăraşan, the second-highest paved road in Romania: it’s 90k of switchbacks running north to south between the two highest peaks in the country (Moldoveanu and Negoiu) and connecting the historic regions of Transylvania and Wallachia.
The Transfăgăraşan was constructed by Ceaușescu between 1970 and 1974 as a response to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia; Ceaușescu wanted to ensure quick military access across the mountains in the event the Soviets attempted a similar move into Romania. Some 6 million kilograms of dynamite were used on the northern face and the official records mention that about 40 soldiers lost their lives in its construction.