God bless Romania

Romanians are so wonderful simply because they don't know how wonderful they are. They are generous, kind, modest and they seem to always be wearing a smile.

Our first day in Romania, we we came in late and were a bit worried about camping, so we stayed in a hotel. We had heard rumours from many Serbians that Romanians eat their children and that we had better just fly over the country on our way to Turkey. How wrong they are. Then again, I might say the same thing about Texans.

In the beginning of our tour through the country, we had dramatic rolling hills next to the Danube river valley, cozy mountian villages, and one really neat falling apart castle.

As we went through the valley, you could hear the monks chanting. It was a beautiful to just stand there and listen. It really touched Wim's inner monk.

For the rest of the time we have been traveling through tiny little farming towns. Each city is just a row of houses along one long street, busy with farmers riding around in their horse pulled carts. You actually see more of these carts than cars. It makes this a superb place for bike touring!

Each night we find a good place to camp out in the fields, after asking a farmer for permission. Here, farmers are not inside playing video games like they are back home. They are actually out working, sitting on a bench, having a picnic. Therefore, it is really easy to find people, and the atmosphere within the cities is quite cozy.

I have to admit that we have been very humbled by the sincere generousity of these people. Often, as Wim is setting up our tent, and I am standing there thinking about stealing chocolate from Wim, a farmer will come over and offer us his watermelons (one guy gave us six melons, quite a load for our bikes!) coffee, grapes, warm milk, fresh cheese, and everything else you can imagine.

This little old farmer in the background, even came back to us after dark with his lantern and horse to give us fresh cheese and bread and some warm milk! All this just because we are camping on his land. It is really amazing, and we often feel almost embarrased because we feel that we really don't deserve these things. I often reflect on these moments and plan to be less greedy with my chocolate in the future.

In little villages we can't find tap water! We're glad that our water filter has finally come in handy.

After setting up our tent at night, we cook dinner, while looking out over the fields. There are horses running untethered through the fields, owls hunting, foxes that sneakily zip by, and the occasional shepherd. It's just fantastic!

We leave Romania now with a heavy heart. (If Wim doesn't watch out, I will run off with one of those cute little old Romanian farmers) But we are excited to head off towards Bulgaria and see what it has to offer.