Down from the Hungarian hills to Romania

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We spent the last couple of days trvelling from Bukk national park to the Romanian border. Once out of the hills in the north, Hungary is as flat as a pancake. The bridge over the motorway is the biggest hill we have gone over in 6 hours driving.

We have come from one of the best campsites in Hungary in Bukk to the worst campsite in Hungary in Miskolc. The guy running it had the cheak to try and charge us 20 euro (twice the price of the best campsite). After investigating the rusty, filthy cold showers we haggled him down to have the price. Tonights campsite is a 'christian' campsite according to our guilde book, Not looking forward to asking them if there is a local pub to watch the camapions league final.

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Eldarado

When we crossed the border into Romania, we finaly felt that we were in Eastern Europe. Dusty roads, horsecarts, lack of tourists, and a free for all on the roads. It just highlighted how westernised the other eastern european countries have become.
We headed for the first campsite we knew of in Romania, Camping Eldarado. On arrival we saw our 2nd GB caravan of our trip so far. We later got chatting to the couple and funnily enought it turned out they were from Leicester (shilpas home town.) He was a prof of Geography at leicester uni and had been coming to Romania for the last 40 years. We shared some of our bulls blood wine and got some handy tips from them.

Next day we took the profs advice and made our way to a village on top of a hill. On route we stopped for a coffee (strong, suggery and no milk), A very friendly chap walked over to us with his laptop. He was a mountain rescuer and recommened lots of places, particulary off the beaten track, to visit in Romania. It was really nice to meet a person so enthusiastic about what his country has to offer. He told us we could also stay overnight in some monastries handy for us to know as a lot of places in romania are not geared up for tourists so there is a lack of B&B and campsites. In fact there isnt even a national tourist info, So we are having to relay on info from fellow travellers and friendly locals.

On route to the village of Marisel we saw lots of horse carts, village men and women working on their farms by hand. We stopped for an icecream at the local shop, wow what a way to see village life. The 10 or so women all dressed up in colourfull dresses/aprons and headscarfs shopping and having a gossip and the men at the pub, which was the other room of the shop.

We then decided to navigate our way back through the hills with no sign posts, but there were plenty of locals to put us in the right direction. We enjoyed our drive through dirt roads and plenty of pot holes despite the Bear warning signs.

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Photos

Stork nests on lamposts
Not sure if the local council provides these nests for the storks or if they are squatting! but allmost every lampost had a nest on top

What....no horsecarts!!!!
These fancy roads dont allow horsecarts or tractors.......

I guess rules are made to be broken.
Dont want to fool anybody by thinking most of the roads were like this. ie White lines and tarmac....This kind of road was few and far between in Romania.

Beautiful Communist Architecture!!!!
Unfourtunatly, the suburbs and outskirts of most of the cities in Eastern Europe are sprawled with buildings like this.

Holy Sh1t !!
There are a lot of religious icons around the roads in Romania. Jesus appears to be belly dancing in this one!!

Bears !!
Translation problems....

The prof
English couple we met with 40 years of travelling in Romania. They were a great source of info for us.