Quick hello from Romania. We’re in a town called Sibiu, in Transylvania.  

Lovely ride coming in here, apparently one of the most scenic in Europe, although we were caught in heavy fog and a storm for half the day so couldn’t see more than ten metres in front of us 🙁 

Last few days have been a bit disjointed, initially because I woke up with a very painful swollen left hand (no idea why) which meant I couldn’t use the clutch, which is quite critical when travelling by bike, and then we were refused entry to Macedonia because our falsified bike insurance document was not accepted… fair enough too!

So we’ve been riding around in circles with only one good hand, lucky it’s the right hand or we’d still be in Bulgaria!

Very odd to just wake up in the early hours with a pain in your hand for no apparent reason, so much so that you find yourself in the communal kitchen of the hostel at 3am with someone else’s frozen peas atop your hand…

Anyway, so we tried to get into Macedonia unsuccessfully, actually we could have gotten in, but we refused to pay the 50 euro insurance premium on the basis that we’d only be there 2 or 3 days, and then would need another one for Kosovo, and another for Serbia and another for…

So… back to Sophia, by which stage I was really in some pain with the hand, so we stayed two days there to rest it, before heading off for Romania, which is in the EU, where they seem happy to accept the fake insurance document. Lovely.

Last night we stayed in a nice little hostel run by an Italian couple, where we were surprised by the picturesque town square and all the cafes and restaurants in that random little corner of Romania.

Today, after 300km of the most beautiful road in the world (which we missed due to fog), we have been similarly impressed with the even more picturesque town, with grand old buildings and another smattering of cafes and restaurants.

Tomorrow we stay here again to no doubt sit in aforementioned cafes and drink coffee and then wine before going to bed in single children’s beds, with bright red satin quilt covers. Living the dream…