Transylvania and Beyond: A Travel Memoir

by Dervla Murphy

The intrepid explorer’s journey to Romania. Dervla Murphy spent eight months in Transylvania - and beyond - sharing the everyday lives of ordinary Rumanians. Her book describes a journey on two levels - wandering through the remotest corners of the Carpathians, on foot or by bicycle, and into the often daunting mental terrain of a post-Communist society where nothing was quite what it seemed.

Genres: Travel, Romania, Nonfiction, Memoir, Adventure

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Dervla Murphy’s first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, was published in 1965. Over twenty travel books followed including her highly acclaimed autobiography, Wheels Within Wheels.

Dervla won worldwide praise for her writing and many awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing and the Royal Geographical Award for the popularisation of geography.

Few of the epithets used to describe her – ‘travel legend’, ‘intrepid’ or ‘the first lady of Irish cycling’ – quite do justice to her extraordinary achievement.

She was born in 1931 and remained passionate about travel, writing, politics, Palestine, conservation, bicycling and beer until her death in 2022.

Reviews

[Ciaran Monaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable book from Dervla Murphy and I'm glad I've got another couple lined up to read. She is a really impressive person; it takes a great deal of strength and grit to overcome the multiple challenges she faced on this trip and not just completely give up. The completely understated way in which deals with some of it in the text also ends up being quite comical, like when she was attacked by dogs and only narrowly avoided being very seriously mauled, and then in the next paragraph just talks about riding to the next town for lunch with no further mention of the dog attack.

I also like how she deals with other people. She lacks that aloofness that you sometimes find with travel writing. Although she is an outsider, there is never any hint of romanticisation/exoticisation, nor does she patronise; it always feels like she is just treating people as equals.

In terms of the setting, it was also very interesting. As well as the unique political moment that prompted Murphy to visit when she did, she also portrayed a country with a varied history and culture as well as a lot of natural beauty. I'm definitely interested in visiting myself, especially to head into the mountains.

[Lea Hadley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book as it gave a good insight to the culture and people of Romania and the hardships they have been through as a result. Of communism. It was interesting to learn something of the gypsies, Jews, Magyars and Romanian peasants all of which are Romanian citizens, but with different historical belongings. The impact of the indoctrination of the Romanians underCommunism has left a generation of people who don’t know how to even think in a democratic way. Hopefully the youth will be the change in the future. The cycling exploits and experiences of the countryside through out Romania along with the connections with local peoples makes this an interesting read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy to read book, and it shows the birth of post-communist Romania through the eyes of a traveller to the country. It is detailed and interesting and does not leave out much from something as small has the railways system and how the trains were, to the very deep changes that she saw during the Romanian Revolution, and its aftermath.

Both a great travel book and a hisotry primer on teh 1989 Romanian Revolution I enjoyed the artful way murphy makes teh land of Transylvaia, and other parts of Romania come alive to me.

[Vinayak Hegde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dervla Murphy stumbled onto Transylvania (and Romania) during the fall of the Communist Ceaușescu regime in the late 80s/early 90s. Starting with Transylvania, she toured the other regions of Romania like Moldovia, Banat and Maramures. The book is split over 3 visits over a short period of a year so we can see the mood of the nation sour from the initial euphoria/optimism of the revolution to the eventual disappointment of return of a milder form of corrupt communism.

Through the book, the author describes the interaction with the people with the historical context. Examples include the stunted development of communism and collectivisation of the rural landscape scarring the psyche of a whole generation while communism was state policy. During this time, the populace was controlled via the Securitate (the Romanian secret police) similar to the Stasi of East Germany.

The last third of the book is dedicated to bicycle rides through the Carpathian mountain in which the author describes the unspoiled forest landscape and snow-capped mountains along with encounters with the rural folk. The book is educative, funny and pensive in equal parts. A good travelogue from the 90s - a time of great change in Eastern Europe.

[MJ Brodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another stirring adventure with Dervla Murphy set at a momentous time in Romania's history, the years from 1989-1991. This is not a fortunate trip for Murphy and she experiences many injuries and accidents on her way trekking through Romania and has to disrupt her trip twice and return later due to misfortunes. Nonetheless she battles on to give a poignant and complex portrait of a country in transition from a bizarre, tinpot dictatorship to the beginnings of the modern European democracy that Romania is today. Some of her insights are a little old-fashioned, as always, comparing the neat and tidy Magyars (as she puts it) with the easygoing, hapless Rumanians. Modern Romanians would probably find the comparison offensive but she is exploring Romania at a low point in its history and the poverty and deprivation she encounters is heart-breaking to read about. I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed Murphy's descriptions of the stunning landscapes and encounters with ordinary Romanian people. I just kept wishing along the way that the woman would get a decent hot meal and stop drinking so much tuica on an empty stomach... but Dervla Murphy is going to Dervla Murphy so in that regard, the book is exactly as one would expect.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever since watching Nadia Comaneci dominate the gymnastics games of the 1976 Olympics I have been drawn to Romania. I remember being confused about how communism played a role in her life, as I was young then.

Romania was on my bucket list of places I wanted to travel. Recently, I had the pleasure of discovering a coworker of mine was Romanian and when I told her I always wanted to visit Romania, her response absolutely shocked me. “Why would you ever want to visit Romania?!”, she exclaimed very passionately. During a long lunch later, she shared about how her father rescued her and her family by escaping when she was a very small child in the 1980’s. She talked about their having to be smuggled out of the country hidden in trunks as to not be discovered by the guards. She is very clear her father is her hero because of it. After reading this book, I see why.

I am so ashamed to say I had no idea what the Romanian people suffered - and right under our American noses.

This book humbles you in every way about all we take for granted in our everyday life…

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5.... because I've loved other books by her, but this one left me lukewarm.
This book chronicles a series of travels, on foot or bicycle, across Romania soon after its 1990 revolution. It is an interesting country, and it's varied scenery, agricultural regions, and ethnic variety are vividly present. Romania was in a state of flux at the time, and there are constant, and repetious, musings about its future direction and its political hopes. Perhaps because she realized that things were certain to change, she tried to discuss all the possibilities. Therefore, we get a level of detail-- e.g.why one county is more likely to support a specific politician-- that could only interest a Romanian historian.

[zunggg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly misleading title, she doesn’t spend much time in Transylvania because she keeps on getting invalided back to Blighty. When she does finally spend some time there, on a bike the following year (1991) it’s entertaining enough though as she fends off mad sheepdogs and gets tipsy on tuica before breakfast.

An interesting analysis of Romania immediately post-Ceaucescu but didn’t give me the wanderlust like a great travel book does.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Transylvania and Romania are featured in this book. Dervla travels there right after the communist party broke up. She returns in 1991, so a bit later but still a long way to go. This story is more about how the government changed than it is about travel ideas. But I truly enjoy the focus on the people who live there.

[Karen Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff. What an INCREDIBLE woman.

[Janice Pono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dervla Murphy is one of my favorite travel writers. This time she tackles recently democratized Romania alone. But at the beginning of her trip, her rucksack is stolen off the train by the police. With only a plastic bag of notebooks, pens, and a bottle of duty-free Scotch she plows ahead. In this drab depressing country she manages to meet a lot of locals but hurts her back in a car accident in which the driver dies. She finally flies back to London to properly see a doctor and returns with books and proper gear.

I'm in the process of re-reading so I'll write more later...

[Almira · Rating 5 out of 5]

December 22,1989 broadcasts from Rumania start to trickle out that things are truly changing - by the end of the year the Cesusesaus have been overthrown, and executed, as rulers of the country.
Derval Murphy's dream of hiking/touring Rumania have become a "harsh" reality.
Deprived, by the ruling class of just about every civilized item to survive, the Rumanian people find it difficult to face a new era of Democracy.
Stunning look into a society coming to grips with its new found "independence" seen through the eyes of an experienced world traveler.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dervla Murphy is my second favourite travel writer. A woman, incidentally, Irish name. I had a personal grudge against Ceausescu since I found that he was demolishing historic Transylvania and covering the place with concrete blocks of council flats, but luckily he and his odious wife were shot before the damage was complete. Most of the heritage remains intact, including some wonderful castles. The book is an energetic and witty ramble across the 'land beyond the forest'.

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this isn't as good as Dervla's other travel books. Maybe it was the subject matter - which to be fair isn't as interesting to me as her travel in Pakistan or India etc. It seemed to me that she didn't enjoy her time in Romania, and consequently I didn't enjoy reading about it.
Despite this, there were still some entertaining passages

[Shelbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know travel narratives depend heavily on what occurs during said travel, but while I found this book extremely informative about the conditions in early 1990s Romania following the fall of Communism, it was very repetitive and the narrative a little stale. I can't help but feel a lot could have been cut out without losing anything.

[Trevor Kew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read from Dervla Murphy. Having traveled to Romania myself a few years back, it was incredible to hear about what the place was like in the year after Ceausescu's death. Murphy is the ultimate inspiration to travel cyclists...she is always looking for the road less taken (or sometimes, for a road that does not exist at all) and it leads her to the most incredible places.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting account of Romania in early 1990s.