Romania

Europe
July 2nd 2006

Published: September 18th 2006

We were just leaving Hungary on last contact....

Drove into Romania expecting potholes like craters, cops dodgy like in Donegal and more Gypsies than at a horse fair. Found sophisticated cities of Transylvania, friendliness like Ireland's famous for, Ok campsites, unspoilt Black Sea beaches, depopulated Danube Delta, and that remote mobile antenna sites make good camping locations. Highlight was a very peasant experinence in Carpathian foothills:

Having gone off road to find start of hiking trail and got a bit lost in a village with population 260, stopped to ask man standing outside his (not so) humble abode for directions. He went in to get his glasses and came out with them and his wife who immediatley told us what age they were, showed us her garden and sat us down. A beer, a few shots of Palinka - the local Poteen/Schnaps, a discussion about Romanaia beating Ireland 2-0 in the U.S., a swift reminder of Italia '90 and an hour later, we left with 2 litres of milk fresh from the buffalo, some spring onions, an arrangement to leave our van in the neighboring peasants' - Adi and Levi - front yard of v. humble abode while hiking, and for Levi to drive us to the actual starting point of the hike on his horse and cart in the morning. We moved our van to their garden and were brought into their house which consisted of 2 rooms - the living/sleeping room where they and their 2 kids slept and watched TV, the kitchen with a home made wood burning stove. Outside was a chicken coop, pig sty with 3 pigs, stable with 2 horses and out the back a wooden shack with a hole in a shelf was the toilet and 50m of a vegetable patch. Communication was limitted, but entertainment provided by taking photos of them and showing them on the camera screen. We went outside to cook dinner and slept in the van which suddenly felt like a castle with its running water, gas stove and fridge. In the morning, gave the kids some biros and some chocolate eggs for school lunch which they immediately devoured and we headed off out of town with Levi and myself driving the horse and cart, Bla and Adi behind and Adi's brother along for the ride also. Bought them a beer at 9 in the morning at bar at start of trail and headed off on hike with instructions to ring them on one of their landlines or mobiles when we got back to their village.

Good hike up to cabin in mountains, stayed there overnight, next day climbed peak and hiked back to Adi and Levi's village, had a beer for 36c and called Levi who turned up with horse, cart and kids in no time. Bla took kids into shop to buy sweets while I stood around a few logs outside the shop (collectively known as a pub) with Levi, his brother, some truckdriver buddy and another guy discussing God knows what. Bla came out with the kids each clutching chocolate bars the size of bricks and we all jumped in on the horse and cart to head around to Levi's brother's house - he seemed to be doing better then Levi as he was building an extension to house an indoor toilet. Out came another beer and we were introduced to soem more relatives as Levi's brother kept filling my glass with palinka to aid our discussion of Romania's impending membership of the EU and how that would mean the catastrophic end to palinka. I nearly spat my palinka out when a cow jogged in the front door, through thte house and out the back and they all acted as if it hadn't just happened. It worked out that all the cows and buffalos of the townspeople are tended by one herdsman in the fields around town and in the evening the herd comes running back into town, with each cow heading off on its own around the town back to it's house to be milked and sleep. My obvious amazement led to a guided tour of the usual peasant menagerie out back. Back to Levi's then, past a few seemingly homeless cows and buffalos to where Adi had made a meal of one of their chickens and some spuds and salad straight from the back garden - more organic than a farmers market. More family arrived and a few beers and palinkas later I was singing and playing the spoons badly and trying to get them to at least sing Romania's latest Eurovision entry which they said came second. It was definitely time to head out to the van. Next morning breakfast was served on the "lawn" and calls were made to O2 and other people at home to get Bla's phone network unlocked so Adi could have a camera phone, which seemed more important to them than running water. Adi's father took us shopping as our Buffalo milk had gone off. On the way he showed us the sights including a dentists, 4 churches and a patch of tarmac - the only tarmac in the town as all roads were dirt tracks. There was no milk in the shop so we got it from a neighbor, straight from the cow and Adi pasteurised it.The next day that milk was gone off too - somehing to be said for UHT afterall.

Finally it was time to decamp and we were given a farewell escort by Levi in front and Adi's father behind, both on bicycles, to show us the way out of town. All in all a very peasant expereince, and typical of the friendliness of the Romanians.

After getting over the Carpathians we headed to the Danube Delta through bird flu country which was great cos they kept washing our van every few km for us. Danube Delta very beautiful and great fun if you like fishing and bird spotting so we continued on down the Black sea coast stopping at many unspoiled beaches and over border into Bulgaria.

Only meant to spend 1 week in Romania, but had spent 2 and would go back.

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