Romania is littered with colorfully painted bikes. Outside restaurants, next to popular tourist destinations, or just sitting in the main square of a village, visitors can find beautifully painted bikes, often with their baskets full of fresh plants and flowers. This is yet another fun example of why I fell in love with Romania so hard.
Where I come from, the only painted bikes we see are the white ghost bikes, which serve as memorials where cyclists were hit and often killed. Imagine my surprise when I saw the rainbow of painted bikes around Romania. What a stark contrast in mood and color (definitely not trying to downplay the importance of the ghost bikes!) and something I’ve never seen before.
Here are some of my favorite painted bikes!
Nikki and I arrived in the quaint town of Sighisoara (sig-ee-SHWAH-ra) and were instantly enchanted by the beautiful old buildings, preserved city center, and rolling hills dotted with farms and houses.
As we made our way into the center for some dinner, we located a place to sit down and relax while we looked around.
My eyes instantly fell upon the beautiful bikes (another one below) stationed at the edge of the outdoor seating of a restaurant.
It was too dark at the time to take a quality picture, so of course we had to return the following day and capture the taxi-yellow bike!
I love bright colors! Whether they’re bikes or big boulders in the middle of the desert, I am drawn to beautifully colored objects. So it’s no wonder that I took as many pictures of the bright bicycles around Romania.
I spent a day walking around Bucharest on a guided tour and then just on my own. I can’t remember where specifically I saw this bike, but I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it!
Our cute little AirBnB in Sighisoara had a sweet bike out in front of it. Now, I’m sure that the little Romanian lady and her husband that own the place weren’t thinking about the USA connection to these colors, but I couldn’t help but smiling at the red, white, and blue. Plus, the flowers smelled amazing!
In the town of Sibiu, there’s a street that proclaims to be the most beautiful street: Strada Cetății.
I’m definitely not going to contradict this self-proclamation. Street of the fortresses (as it loosely translates to) is beautiful and even better, has a painted bike! Isn’t it beautiful? With the clock right behind it, I imagine this would be a bike that the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland would hop on and ride away on.
Last and definitely not least, here’s the other bike from the center of Sighisoara. I love the contrast of the greens in the baskets and the bike against the colorful buildings in the background.
Have you ever seen the painted bikes of Romania before? Have you seen painted bikes in other cities and countries?
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