A little Tuica Goes a Long Way – Mountain Biking Transylvania – by Kirsten Koza
July 18, 2004
The adventure had begun.
Canadians love using their credit cards, but we aren”t likely to SWIFT transfer money to the personal bank account of someone in Transylvania, Romania.
It defies common sense but my sister-in-law and I did just that. “Who is Horia Matei?” our friends and family would ask? “You found him on the Internet? There won”t be anyone at Bucharest Airport to meet you,” they taunted us.
They were wrong and Horia was there to greet us, and my mountain bike in its hard case. I”m glad I brought my own bike because I”m stature deficient and I”d have been riding on the cross bar of one of Transylvania Adventure’’s bicycles, plus I”m rather attached to my full suspension. I wish I”d gone with my big-wide fat-boy tires, though.
Horia said I wouldn”t need them and suggested I bring my faster more narrow tires but then Horia is a young buck who flies down mountains without a helmet and carries a heavy backpack on his back-now there’’s a hard ass for you. What else do I wish I”d brought?
Well, a bottle of wine for that first night at the farm near Bran would have been helpful. Our hosts soon realized that my sister-in-law and myself were fully capable of polishing off a bottle of tuica (plum hooch that tastes like grappa) at night and then fully capable of spending the entire following day pedaling up a mountain in granny gear.
Of course tuica should come with a warning on the bottle: will cause your liver to swell to the size of a turkey if you misuse this product. Transylvania Adventures, may not shove booze down your throat (that’’s up to the client) but food they do and the food at the farm will undo instantly any weight loss the grueling bike rides may have awarded.
Did you read that word-grueling? I definitely have a different definition of the words “moderate” or “easy” than Horia does but then Horia rides around sporting that massive backpack and drinks from streams in the middle of sheep pastures.
We had a fabulously exciting mountain bike adventure in Romania and it is part of my second book. www.kirstenkoza.com
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