Transfăgărășan & Transalpina

Six Bikes Through the Heart of Romania. There are trips you plan over a weekend, and then there are those that stay in your head for months.

Belgrade → Timișoara → Sibiu

Like most good motorcycle trips, this one started at a gas station.

Timișoara was our first proper stop — breakfast, coffee, and then back on the bikes toward Sibiu.

Somewhere along that stretch, you realize you're actually on the road. Something you've been talking about and planning for months is no longer just a line on a map.

Sibiu welcomed us with its old town, beautiful squares, cafés, and that atmosphere that makes you drop your gear at the hotel and immediately head back outside, even after spending the entire day on a motorcycle.

And, of course, there was the famous Bridge of Lies.

All six of us crossed it.

The bridge is still standing.

We won't go into any further details.

There was also beach volleyball.

Right in the city center.

We stumbled upon the matches quite by accident and let's just say - showed serious interest in this local sport.

Some journeys only really begin when you stop checking how many kilometers are left.

Rain Changes the Plan — Next Stop, Bran

The next day, rain interfered with our original plans, so we decided to head toward Bran instead.

Dracula's Castle, crowds, tourists everywhere. The ticket might feel a little expensive for what you're getting, but once you've ridden all the way there, it would be ridiculous not to go inside.

The castle itself is remarkably well preserved. You move through rooms, narrow passages and different parts of the building, each carrying a piece of its history.

There are plenty of visitors, though, so don't expect to wander Dracula's corridors completely alone.

And after the castle — papanași.

Pure reward after a day on the bike.

An Evening in Brașov

From Bran, we continued toward Brașov, where we decided to spend the night.

Brașov is exactly the kind of place where you park the bikes and slow everything down for a few hours. Walk through the center. Find somewhere for dinner. Grab a drink. Watch the city go by.

Some of us will remember how beautiful it is at night 😂

The following morning, there wasn't much to discuss.

Transfăgărășan.

We headed through Făgăraș toward the road that was one of the main reasons we'd come to Romania in the first place. As you gain altitude, the asphalt begins twisting tighter and tighter across the mountain. The views open up. The temperature drops. One corner follows another.

And at some point, you simply find the rhythm.

Bike.

Corner.

View.

Next corner.

The Carpathians surround you — rock faces, green slopes, patches of snow still holding on at altitude and water cascading down the mountainside.

And then you reach Bâlea Lake.

Our next stop was Alba Iulia.

And this time, we slowed down.

The city is beautiful, but the enormous Alba Carolina Citadel is what really makes you leave the motorcycle behind and explore on foot.

We walked through the fortress, its squares and old streets, seeing pretty much everything we could fit into our time there.

Alba Iulia is also one of the most important places in modern Romanian history. It was here, in 1922, that King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie were crowned as sovereigns of Greater Romania.

There's also an interesting connection to Serbia.

Their daughter, Princess Maria of Romania, married King Alexander I Karađorđević of Yugoslavia that same year.

It's only a small historical detail, but when you're hundreds of kilometers from home and unexpectedly come across a connection between the two countries, the place somehow gains another dimension.

And then came Transalpina.

Different from Transfăgărășan.

Vast, open. At times, almost impossibly quiet.

The road crosses some of the highest parts of the Carpathians and gives you a completely different kind of riding experience.

There's less of that dramatic feeling of having the mountain walls surrounding you and more open space — huge views and asphalt disappearing somewhere beyond the next ridge.

And just when you think you've become used to everything Romania can throw at you...

A bear.

Then another.

And another.

Bears by the Road — Look, But Keep Moving

On some sections of the road, you can encounter bears literally standing beside the asphalt.

Seeing one for the first time from a motorcycle is something you don't forget.

But this isn't a zoo, and these bears aren't a roadside attraction.

Drivers sometimes slow down or even stop completely to take photographs. For riders, that creates another danger, especially when a car suddenly stops just beyond a blind corner.

Then there's the bear itself.

Wild bears becoming accustomed to receiving food from people creates a dangerous situation for both humans and the animals. They shouldn't be fed, approached or treated as something to pose next to for a photograph.

On a motorcycle, the rule is even simpler:

Look, keep your distance and keep moving.

That's what we did.

And the truth is, you don't need a photograph for that moment to stay with you.

A bear beside the road is a story. A bear beside your motorcycle isn't.

We continued along Transalpina toward Târgu Jiu.

A short break there, some time away from the bikes, and a chance to gather enough energy for the final stretch.

From there, we continued toward Drobeta-Turnu Severin — our last major stop in Romania.

After several days of the Carpathians, cities, rain, sunshine, corners, mountains and probably far too many occasions when somebody said, “Wait, let's stop here,” it was finally time to start heading back toward Serbia.

We crossed the border.

But the ride wasn't quite finished yet.

For the final part of the journey, we got to ride through the Đerdap Gorge.

The Danube on one side.

Rock faces on the other.

And the road slowly taking us back toward Belgrade.

It felt almost as if the route had decided to give us one last gift before sending us home.

And when it's all over, what remains are the images in your head.

Snow high in the Carpathians.

Papanași.

Rain changing the plan.

Brașov at night.

Six motorcycles parked next to each other.

Bears beside the road.

And that one corner where, for no particular reason, you find yourself laughing inside your helmet.

In the end, you realize that Transfăgărășan and Transalpina may have been the reason we went to Romania.

But they weren't the whole story.

The story was everything in between.

Because if all we'd wanted was to get from point A to point B, we could have taken a much shorter road.

But where would the story be in that?

Moto Nomadik — Stories begin where the plan ends.