Romania Day 5 - Dracula

Our itinerary had to change. We'd weighed up the options over dinner last night. Two days left, and a lot to see, it was obvious we couldn't fit everything in. Whilst Sarah snored, sounding similar to the Romanian bear she was probably dreaming about, I altered the route mapping. 

First stop on the fun bike, Brasov. A city with an excellent old town. Whilst on the approach we saw three military choppers and two fighter jets over the city. On arrival there had just been a military parade and multiple different army regiments were in attendance. Some troopers had AK47s on them, Sarah asked me to take a photo. 

I didn't fancy a pistol whipping and thought better of the idea. It was here that we first saw a Thai rider on a Yamaha Tenere 700 with Thai reg plates. He was a long way from home and parked his bike next to ours. 

Stop two on the mystery ride, Rasnov. An ancient town, possibly of Saxon heritage, purched defensively atop a hill. So well did it's defenses function, we couldn't find the entrance, got bored and moved on. 

Stop three on the historic horror tour, Bran  Castle (Dracula's Castle). Underwhelmingly it's not actually Dracula's Castle, he wasn't real apparently. Even if he was real this wouldn't be his castle.  The Romanian tourist board designated this his home a few years ago and now it attracts droves of daft tourists, like us.  There's loads of Dracula related tat, restaurants and hotels to draw the money from your veins. Cool to see. Well done Romania! 

We beat a hasty retreat. Skimming the lowlands of the Carpathians provided some of the best riding for days. We were off the beaten track, away from the main arteries (keeping it Dracula related) and really enjoying the country.  

Until a massive convoy of tanks turned up, accompanied by the Po Po who forced us to stop (keeping it military themed)

Our final destination, Sibiu. It was also our starting point on Monday, but we hadn't actually seen anything other than a hotel toilet (hiding from the taxi driver) and dual carriage ways (making a quick get away).

On our way in the Thai traveller on the Tenere passed us. 

Love these three lads in the Romanian flag colours. If only they'd sat in the correct order!

The streets were thronged, from rocking oddballs to biker heroes and everyone in between. All of them providing delightful people watching opportunities as we drank cocktails whilst the day turned to night.