Sep 2007

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.

Serbia has been really interesting. People here are very nationalistic and also very bitter that America has been so involved in their politics (all the bridges over the Danube are brand new, after the NATO bombed the old ones to pieces). When talking to people, the subject always seems to come up without us mentioning it. Therefore, we usually pretend that we are Belgian tourists...well, Wim is not really actually pretending.

Many people have said that they are surprised and happy to see tourists coming through the area, because it has been so long since anyone visited the country. Everyone seems to feel that the world has a very bad image of their country, and therefore they can't wait to explain to us what a great nation they are. The low-budget Serbian MTV only shows little fat men in funny traditional clothes playing the accordion and singing about how Kosovo is a part of Serbia.

We are now in Belgrade taking a much needed rest. It is not really cheap here because the exchange rate of the Dinar is controlled. So hotels are expensive, but food is incredibly cheap. Six Euros for an excellent 40cm pizza and 35 Euros for a small dirty hotel.

A sign in our hotel letting us know the different frequencies of sirens in different types of disasters. We can then easily distinguish between a nuclear bomb, our building crumbling to the ground, and an air strike. Very good!

Serbians are even more generous and persistent in offering us drinks and fruit than Croatians.

Every other stop we make, we have to load our panniers with generous gifts. Therefore, we are also not buying any more fruit. We have so many grapes, peaches, and walnuts, plus one liter of vodka, that we can hardly get up any hills. When we finally try to get leave and be on our way again, the people we visit always make sure to give us their address, so that when we can write them a nice postcard.

People also like to honk and wave at us. However, it can get old really fast when large trucks and cars are honking at you from all sides of the road.

Tomorrow we will be off again, this time taking a random road to the north of the Danube, in hopes of avoiding the heavy traffic and crazy honking. There are hardly any towns on that side of the river, and with no hopes of crossing (maybe we could pay a fisherman?), it means that we are going to have to stock up on food, and get ready to start filtering Danube water. After a day or two, depending on the road conditions, we will be heading into Romania for another 1000 or so km. From what we have read, Romania is very poor, with mostly farming and hardly any hotels, shops, or restaurants. If you want some food, you have to ask a farmer. If we want a place to set up our tent, we will have to ask a farmer. It will be really cool though, just like Europe hundred of years ago!

When I think of Croatia, I always think of beautiful beaches, touristy resorts, and Victorian era houses. This is not the Croatia that we went through. Since the war, they have had to replace almost everything. In the bigger cities near the border with Serbia, you can see a lot of the destruction yet.

Houses and buildings are crumbling and full of bullet holes. You see this on TV, and somehow it just doesn't touch you like it does when it's staring you in the face. The houses are either brand new, under construction, or full of bullet holes.

We carefully stay on the road, as huge areas have these weird signs against wild camping.

The landscape is becoming hilling, and it is really fun to discover a cute sleepy town when you arrive at the top of a hill. Everyone has a damn rooster though, so it's hard to sleep. You would think in the past thousands of years that people have been breeding these obnoxious animals, that they would have developed a breed of quiet roosters.

Each day, we buy lunch supplies and find a nice grassy spot to eat lunch. In Germany, this was often a problem, because the grassy spot often ended up being owned by someone, who would pass by and tell us to leave, and that it was not meant as a "picnic area". Fair enough, I wouldn't want any bums snacking away on my lawn either. But In Croatia, it is different. Many people have a bench out in front of their house, and we have been using these for our lunch breaks. Each time we do though, some old guy comes out, offers us coffee, vodka, and then starts picking fruit from his garden to fill our panniers with.

This always takes a long time, but often proves to be interesting, even though we can only communicate in grunts and gestures. People brew their own schnapps, and are very persistent in sharing it with us. This guy gave us a one liter Coca Cola bottle filled with schnapps for on the road. According to him, it would make us strong for pedaling up the hills.

What were we thinking? This is a question that we have asked ourselves many times while standing in the rain, alongside a road with heavy traffic. The campings are usually closed, the weather has been bad, our clothes are all wet, it's hard to find the food that we're used to, etc... We often talk about how great it would be to be on one of those package vacations with old people and nice hotels. However, when we are not pedalling uphill in the rain, with no food, we are often really happy, without a care in the world, and completely sure that this trip was a fabulous idea. It is a rollercoaster.

So far in Hungary, we have found that some people speak a little german, so that has been a tad bit helpful in trying to find food, a camping spot, etc... but mostly you just ask someone something and they will go on and on in Hungarian, even if you tell them that you really don't speak their language, they just continue on for a long while, until you are just nodding and smiling and hoping that they'll go away soon.

More and more we stay in little rooms that locals have for rent. It's always a challenge to negotiate a good price when you don't understand each other...

Like Slovakia, there are not a whole lot of highways, so a lot of the small roads are heavy with traffic. Instead of risking our lives, we try to find little roads to go on, which are often muddy or grassy, or full of potholes. However, we don't want to die, so this is okay, just really really slow.

Slovakia aparently does not have a lot of highways or bike paths. This means that we have been riding along the one little road that runs from town to town, alongside every truck, car, and bus that ever left home. The alternative is going through the mud or the grass, which is really slow.

It has been raining over the past few days and we are cold and all of our clothes are getting drenched. During the day, we try to stop and warm up with a tea, in one of the few dingy bars that we come across in the tiny little towns. On going into the bar, wim is always a bit concerned about the sketchy people, and I am just happy to be out of the rain. The next thing that happens is some hairy slovakien man will usually buy us both a shot of rubbing alcohol (here they call it schnaps), surely a gesture of hospitality. I am usually able to pour mine out in some unsuspecting place, but for wim there is often no escape. Before I know it, Wim is commenting on the fantastic bar and all of the great friends that he is making. With lots of gestures and grunts, we try to show our appreciation, and then slip out the door as quick as possible, before the next round of schnapps comes along.

Amy drying her laundry along the way after 5 days in the rain.

Although things are getting more difficult as far as roads, weather, camping, finding food, not understanding the language, we are still excited about our trip and looking forward to the unknown that's yet to come.