pics #1089 - #1150

Thursday July 27th - Blue Lunar Eagle
Early departure,at the time my host Tamas leaves for work. I soon put on the rainproof armor,feeling a nonstop rainy day is starting. Actually when out of Miskolc, in the plan, it is raining hard. Straight road, flat land, rain: I am not missing The Netherlands. Sun shows up when I am in Tiszaújváros, where I get lost in the search for veggies and fruit shops. I end up in a Roma settlement outside of the city. Following a few meters of cycling path, I have to go on the national road again, road forbidden for tractors, horse-driven cart and bicycles. Notice this national road is coupled with a highway where this vehicles are not allowed either. And no alternative solution to go to Debrecen. Where is the mistake? I stop for lunch in the end of a village, when ready to start again, the Belgian trio met three days ago appear, they are heading South from Tokaj, touring Hungarian vineyards. So we ride together some 500m before our routes split again and I am left alone facing the wind. Without any cloud it is really hot. and then a stormy shower, violent but short,meanwhile km are passing rather fast. In Hajdúböszörmény, I see a farmer on a horse-driven cart, and cows browsing by the side of the road. And I reach Debrecen, a modern city with a nice wide main square, it feels like a calm life. In the north a huge green park. I leave my last Forints in exchange of a good diner,red fruit cold soup, mushroom cheese and pasta, and Sómloi Galuska, a delicious desert. I leave the city under an orange sun, to find a camping spot away from the road to Romania.

           Factory near Tiszaújváros

           Stormy sky, golden fields

           Debrecen, main square

Thursday July 28th - Yellow Electric Warrior
The road to Romania is straight. At the border, they check my ID, for the first time it happens in my trip. And now Romania, by the end of the day, I stop counting the horse-driven carts, neither the church with silver roofs -made of aluminim?-.Withdrawing "Lei" at the cash machine in a dusty road with buildings of bare concrete. Small shops, not looking brand new at all,but I can find what I need: fruit, veggies and dried dates. Many signs are in Hungarian and Romanian language, for me the later is a relief: being a Latin language, it is close to French and Spanish, particularly close to Italian. This is the region of Transylvania, where many cultures are mixed: Romanian, Hungarian, Saxon (who left a few decades ago) and Gypsies, who are supposedly lazier than Hungarian Gypsies. For the folklore of the region, add wild bears, wolves, and vampires. Promising program. In the afternoon three young German guys riding to Moldova join me. We end up the day together, finding a great camping spot. In the night we hear suspicious noises, while the "Securitas" car is patrolling. There are wells extracting bitumen around, exploited by ÖMV, an Austrian company. Of course, resources of poorer countries are sucked by the richer ones, and if it is not sufficient, the IMF will put is fat ass to speed up liberalization and subsequently generalize pauperization and modern slavery.

           Entering Romania, sunflower fields, green hills

           Bitumen fields

Friday July 29th - Red Self-Existing Earth
I leave the camp before the three German, taking secondary roads. It is more hilly, wilder. Hens running on the side of the road. Sand roads. For a moment a Romanian ride along with me on his MTB, we are talking while the asphalt road becomes a dirt road, passing a farm guarded by two big dogs. Then he turns back and let me go on my way alone. Nice landscape, heat. Going down a steep slope on foot,two dogs guarding another friend come tome barking. These aren't the ridiculous small doggies and I always carry a fear of dogs. Well keeping cold blooded, it passes fine and there goes a dusty road with many holes through a gypsy village. Easy to recognize with the women wearing colorful dresses and head-scarves, men wearing nice trousers and shirts, with sinister faces. People asking me to stop to know what I am doing,where I am going... Between two human groups, dogs running after me. Crossing the village is tense, but after a road that seems really long, I am done with dogs running but not biting, and I stop the bike in the next village to do groceries for lunch. A bag misses on my bike!
So turning back to the Roma village, ran after by dogs, talking with each group to know about my luggage. In the end of the village, with a lot of gesture and a few words of Romanian, I can explain what happened, to kids speaking loud with arrogance in their eyes and men not having seen anything,of course. Again the farm with the big dogs. I give it a try in the hills, the bag eventually felt there. But nothing. So down I go for a third crossing of the farm and the gypsy village. The two big dogs first. Then the small ones and the gypsies, stopping me again and me showing that the bag is unfortunately lost. I am already thinking how I will get the stuff replaced. The tent being the most important item, and then the toolkit. ... when people in the back call me,showing the bag, inviting me to come closer. The big guy looking like the boss hands it to me, I quickly check the content quickly, tent and toolkit are there, in a mess. Surrounded by the family, I stay extremely vigilant, tensed. The boss let me understand that he still has the pump and wants money for it. Another tells in English that he wants 6€, which are 40 Lei -generous exchange rate-.The boss comes back waving the pump and some other stuff. Meanwhile, I discretely withdrew a pair of bank notes from my wallet to my pocket. They are very excited looking at the cash, like kids happy of their trick. So I leave them 10 Lei telling the rest will come after my going to the bank. One tells me to go, while another other asks me at what time I will come back, what my route is. Finally, I leave, crossing for a third time the gypsy village, and having a well deserved lunch. while checking my bag what misses:
- a pair of sandals - which were hurting my feet-
- a chopstick
- a funnel
- WD40 spray
- a bag of dried apricots
- 10 Lei
Total about 60€. The lesson is: do not stop to talk to those people. And I think :
- that my employer who recently declared bankruptcy owes me 2 months of salary, count in thousands of Euros.
- that the dutch tax office,in the name of a company I started in order to give yoga classed while unemployed, which never made a single cent, took some hundreds out of my bank account.
- gypsies stole me some tens of Euros.
Who are the worse thieves? and then:
- my employer lied to me
- the dutch government is using money for its troops in Afghanistan, probably in Lybia too, pay cops who hit alcoholics, politicians working on freedom limiting laws and all of the horror a western country allows itself to commit. And I have no solution, facing the blind law and its representatives who suddenly do not talk any other language than dutch to foreigners. -while in the 5 years that I lived in this country, everyone would switch to English EVEN if I started speaking in Dutch, god-ver-do-me...
- Gypsy will have pain in the feet wearing my sandals, I hope they do not use WD40 in their hair.
Who are the bastards?
I close the day putting my experience in perspective. Happy of how it went, it could have been much worse. Nothing necessary is lost. I even win space in my bag. I also feel confidence now in front of the dogs who run very close to cyclists' calves but do not bite, it is not frightening me so much now. I camp facing a wide lake between corn fields in high grass in which my low tent is unseen.

           A one horse car

           A farm in the far

           Church

Saturday July 30th - White Overtone Mirror
I leave under a moody weather, overtaken by a wedding procession. In the city of Zalău, I find an animal market, selling poultry, rabbits. Further is a fest organized. Stands selling boiled corn, grilled meat and sweets. I am looking for fruits and veggies for the week-end. Crossing the party area again,I find a stand where soup is given freely,gypsies are rushing to it, but the tenants keep them away from the tables to have other people sitting there. Cops are watching. Well fed, I leave the city under a heavier rain, Transylvania is green indeed. Riding together with a guy on a moped bike, communicating through smiles and gesture, we overtake each other regularly. When our roads split, this exchange made the rain more bearable, and cycling with enthusiasm. Tea stop in Jibou. Then following the valley of the Someş river, between hills and mountains. As I have been riding faster thatn expeted, I amleft free to take a detour before reaching my next host in Cluj-Napoca in two days.

           The Roman legion in Zalău

           Landscape under a sunny day

Sunday July 31st - Blue Rythmic Storm
I remember yesterday night that there is one hour time shift between Romania and center Europe. In the monring it is dry while I hear the cows lead by dogs, moving to the pastures. I ride at the feet of hills, some time cliffs.Grey weather but hardly any rain. The raod is for tismajor part, made of dirt, sand, stones, gravel. The area is very populated, impressing me, I cross very regularly groups of houses, not counting the number of dogs who bark and run after me, neither the times I see poultry crossing the road, eventually pigs. Old women dressed in black walking slowly with their cane, horse ridden carts, car riding slowly to avoid jolts in the road, here you see no macho SUV! I the depth of a meander of the river, I am around 100km from Ukraine. I reacha nd pass Dej,camping high on a hill, offering a wide view above the valley.

           drying hay

           the motorway

Monday August 1st - Yellow Resonant Sun
This morning it is humid again, and i have to stop a long moment to get rid of the mud accumulating at the brakes. Following the Someş river valley, I lunch in Gherla. In a small bar-restaurant, I order "mici", small pieces of meat, fried, while talking with a customer who explains he is Hungarian and Russian, that he does not like the dictator Ceausescu... Which language do we speak? Some words of German, Romanian,Hungarian,French, English, Italian, Russian. He is happy that i know some Hungarian and offers me a coffee, my first coffee since Linz, first coffee of the year. I go out to complete more healthily my lunch in the park, with fresh veggies and bread. I just have to get to Cluj-Napoca, on a fast road, 2 to 4 lanes, no separation in the middle, houses along it. Sometimes a cart or a tractor is there, even a crazy tourist on a Panzerfahrrad. The traffic is not dense and drivers are always ready to slowdown behind slower vehicles.
Entering Cluj shows industrial suburbs,old factories,sad impression: the desire of greatness of communist leaders. While reaching the center I find fresh fruits. I need to find an internet cafe to know if my host is there. The city center is beautiful, built between two main squares, one with the orthodox cathedral, the Romanian monument, the other with a catholic church, the Hungarian equivalent. connected on the world wide web,it seem that my hostess is not in town so I am taking addresses of cheap hostels. In the first one a dutch guy is inquiring about the danger and precautions against bears. And my hostess calls me! perfect synchronicity. 10 minutes later I meet Maria, young bubbly architect. She takes me home, cooks and we share a long and deep talk. Romania does not seem so much taken in the illusion of materialism yet, of recycling which is not so useful are people still have habits from shortage years. Before bed I read in the gospel "It is easier for a camel to go through the hole of a nail than for a rich to enter the kingdom of God".That is to say, we would still have great benefit for Jesus to come again now, although I am not sure that he would be welcomed better than 2000 years ago.

           Painting on a church

           the cart is also registered

           Gherla

Tuesday August 2nd - Red Galactic Dragon
What a pleasure to wake up and practice yoga on a flat floor, then having a tasty breakfast with a kind host. And we go to meet her friend Dorin, who has 23 years of experience of yoga, talking clear and magic about it. In this interesting company, we spend the rest of the day,eating, cooking, joking while visit the older part of the city, cute! And Romanian women know how to dress.

           Cluj, behind a classical building contrast a modern bank building

           Cluj, side street

           Cluj, old town center