BikeRomania
Rumänien per Rad entdecken
Reisebericht
von Lukas Tschupp.
Lassen wir ihn doch am besten selbst zu Wort kommen. Danke, Lukas, für den Bericht!
hallo thomas,
also wie angek�ndigt: hier unser reisebericht. unsere tour fand im sommer 2000 statt, ich schreibe den bericht jeweils in unserer reise-kommunikationssprache und die war meistens englisch (bin zuwenig gut in italienisch). wir starteten in slovakien (kosice), dann ein kurzes st�ck in ungarn befor es uns nach rum�nien verschlug. wir befuhren die strecke satumare, bajamare, borsa, vatra dornei, shigisoara, brasov. nachher genossen wir noch einige tage erhohlung (ohne velo) an der schwarzmeerk�ste. ich habe vorallem pers�nliche eindr�cke und erlebnisse festgehalten, und weniger landesinformationen die auch in reisef�hrern zu finden sind. w�rde mich freuen wenn der bericht auf der page erscheinen w�rde. eine super sache �brigens, wir zweifelten lange ob wir die reise so machen sollen, nachdem ich dann aber �ber eure page gestolpert bin, gab es kein zweifeln mehr!!
The story of an Eastern Europe travel adventure including
a 1000 km bicycle trip from Kosice (Slovakia) to Brasov (Romania)
ROMANIA 2000
Wednesday the 19. of July until Wednesday the 16. of August
Lukas Tschupp / Michael Eggenschwieler
HIGH-LIGHTS
� Driving the bicycle across rolling Transylvanian-hills into the sunset, carrying all the necessary stuff including tent, kitchen, food and a good bottle of wine with us, the current BonJovi song: �It�s my live, and it�s now or never....� in the ears.... � that�s what I call freedom!
� The excellent hospitality we could enjoy on this trip: Andrej in Kosice and Katy / T�nde in Brasov! Thanks for everything, we had a great time!
� Diversity of Romania: From the flatland around Satu Mare into the Carpatian mountains and back to hilly Transilvania.
� Contrasts: From the busy live in the cities to ancient agricultural peoples in Maramures and further to the unbelievable holiday resorts on the Blacksea-coast!
� And last but not least: Our incredible luck with the weather! It was always fine and hot, the rain caught us only once.... but then, he did a good job....
Wednesday 19. July
Thanks to Jeanette, we went to Zug by car from where we caught the train to Z�rich. Luckily, we had a beer on the way to Z�rich already because we forgot our lunchbag with all the food and drinks in the train (not to forget: we had 15 pieces of luggage, and we didn�t leave something anywhere on the whole trip afterwards...).
Around half past ten, we boarded the train. The sleeping car conductor didn�t like us when we put our bicycles on one of the beds in our compartment, but while we went for a beer into the restaurant-wagon, he smartly opened a third bed on the opposite side of the bicycles, so that four people including our bikes fit into the compartment without problems. There was that nice girl travelling in our compartment as well, due to she never said something we supposed that se was Hungarian....
Thursday 20. July
I slept approximately 25 times for about 15 minutes.... Michael, as he said, a bit more.... Doesn�t matter, before we arrived at Budapest Keleti Pu at 11.30, we already got some (positive) reports about Romania from other travelers in the train!!
Of course we went to the great restaurant called �Champion� near the Keleti train station for a �Filet minion Hungarian style� after leaving the bikes at the dusty left luggage office....
Enjoying the beautiful weather, we spent our first day of the trip doing a sight seeing tour by foot. We strolled around the pedestrian area in Pest, went to the Buda-hill and relaxed at the Gellert thermal bath. The outdoor pool was open as well!
We caught the train from Budapest to Kosice at nine PM and filled up the compartment with our luggage again. In the train, we met Joseph, a young lawyer from Miskolk. We had a nice talk about these and that... finally he invited us to visit him on our way back from Romania!
For some dubious reasons, the train got very late.... we arrived at 2.30 instead of 1 o�clock AM in Kosice, where poor Andrej was waiting for us at the train station!
Of course, we had to drink beers and tell some long stories at first before we went sleeping, it was quite late already.... We stayed at the flat of his aunt, while he slept at his parents place, while his flat was renewed...
Friday 21. July
After sleeping in, we had kings-breakfast-lunch in an amazing restaurant. We fought about who was going to invite who..... we didn�t have a chance....Andrej did the job!
While he had to do some exams in the afternoon, we were sitting in the beautiful main street in the beautiful sunshine, watching the beautiful fountains (and women walking by....). We met Andrej again at �Hell�, after a beer we did a sight seeing tour by car around Kosice including visiting the Gypsy suburb. It�s unbelievable how they live, how these guys run down their houses.... they represent a big problem in Eastern-Europe, there are so many of them and in general, they do not adapt to the local lifestyle. He warned us: �Going to Romania might be dangerous....�
Andrej decided to drive a friend of him, Stanka, to her home in Medzev. After visiting another friend, we had a nice evening at Stankas home, drinking wine and eating, while talking about life in an English-Slovak-German language!
Saturday 22. July
After sleeping in, we chartered Andrejs Skoda for the Tatra-trip. Our first stop was at the place where they sell HUMER, the tank-like US car. We thought about swapping cars but decided finally for Andrejs car, because we didn�t have enough pocket money with us.... We did other stops in Presov and Levoca and had delicious lunch at a hotel.
We decided to go to Zakopane (Poland) on the other side of the Tatra-mountains. After spending an hour at the boarder, we explored the nice resort. There where hordes of tourists, but we could figure out another style of the wooden houses than in Slovakia. We tried local Pizza: excellent!
While we drove to Strbske-Plezo, the weather went bad. We didn�t care, for eating in the restaurant and dancing at the disco was it all right. Because a large beer was only 1.20 SFr, we had some.... good music, better woman and soon it was late.... but....
Sunday 23. July
... despite that, Andrejs handy interrupted our sleep quite early for the hike in the mountains! After a huge breakfast at the hotel near the lake, we did the four hours hike. There were many people even it was rainy: Slovaks don�t care about rain when they go for a hike... we even met people in something like wedding clothes.... we enjoyed the magnificent scenery despite the difficult stony path! Nice mountain atmosphere at the Teryho chata (2015 m above sea level). Back in the village, we had fast food lunch in addition to the sandwiches.
Later in Poprad, we sat in the sun and enjoyed a coffee... We drove back home trough fantastic Lower Tatra landscape. We went for a beer in the city after eating Pizza at Andrejs favorite Restaurant. Very soon, it became our favorite as well....
Monday 24. July
We slept in and went to see some other things in Kosice: Andrejs Bushman office, the view point and Gelniza (the place where Andrejs Backpacker is going to open soon!). On the way, we had great lunch at a hotel again, ice cream at another �G�tsch� like place...
Back in Kosice, we prepared for our bicycle trip: Post office, Food, Baguettes, Internet-Cafe....
In the evening, we went for our obligate Sunday-celebration at McDonalds (Chocolate for me, not Strawberry of course...), then a beer in �Heaven� this time, after that, we celebrated Michael�s birthday at disco Palmeria.... Andrej offered a big bottle of Champagne!
Tuesday 25. July�� (104 km)
We tried to leave early, but Andrejs car was in another opinion, so Andrej had to find Camil at first to guide us by car out of Kosice! It was great to ride the bicycle, but sad as well because we spent a really good time with Andrej!
After leaving the city, there was a small pass to cross. We had to do a long lunch break because it got too hot, we sat in the shadow and did the first experiences with the petrol-cooker while preparing a delicious soup �Putsda-style� with Swiss ingredients....
We crossed the boarder to Hungary without problems and got into the flattest flatland of the flat Hungarian Putsda! It was great to drive trough vast fields of sunflowers, along endless straight roads without traffic, agricultural area forever! Finally we camped wild, somewhere lost in the reeds and felt like real Bushman, cooking our own dinner in the sunset.... if there only weren�t the bloody mosquitoes...
Wednesday 26. July� (116 km)
Breakfast consisted these days of Yogurt, Champion Muesli from home sweet home (Sarnen, to be exactly....) and hot coffee of course! The straight parts of the road got longer and longer, up to a dozen of kilometers! We found our way quite well, enjoyed cycling, enjoyed even more the delicious lunch at a hotel in Fehrgyarmat: Filet plus salad plus coffee for less than ten francs.... After a siesta in the park behind the hotel, we continued our flatland-ride....
We let the first rain pass while sitting in a small buss-waiting-cabin which appeared just at the right time beside the road... Thanks to we could overtake the long queue at the Romanian border, we found ourselves under the roof of the border-station when it started to rain like crazy for the second time... We got the visa without problems except that it was a bit too cheap, they told us two prices and we even paid less. We didn�t care and drove to Satu Mare, the rain had stopped in the meantime! Welcome Romania! We checked into Hotel Sport, gave a shower to our dirty bags and went to the city center. Everything was closed, we forgot that there is a one hour time delay to Romania... After the mosquito-fight and after the dogs got quiet.... we slept quite well!
Thursday 27. July� (76 km)
It was sunny, hot weather again, we left the city without problems despite all the people were watching us quite strange... After the first shopping experience in a small �Magazin Mixt� (It�s possible to buy everything, only some things were probably sold out after our shopping...) we lost our way. Completely. We got into some rural farming villages with unpaved main roads, animals on the road and wells to drag water in front of every house. Our way disappeared in the cornfields, so we had to go all the way back.
In Baja Mare, we decided to stay at a hotel again. The name had changed, so the price was double as it was written in LonlelyPlanet... At least it was clean and quiet. We had our first dinner this evening at Hotel Bucharest: Cordonbleu, French Fries, Salad and a large beer: This meal set us back 3 Swiss francs per person... after using the internet and having a coffee in a nice restaurant, we considered to have another dinner: The Pizzeria beside our Hotel Bucharest sold pizzas in the range from 1-3 SFr.... We enjoyed eating and watching people, especially the female ones.... On places like this, it�s hard to believe that we are in Romania, the appearance of the city and people would fit well to a city in Italy!
Friday 28. July� (95 km)
We tried to get up early, we left town after shopping on the market and cash a traveler check around 10 am.... There is one word to describe the next 15 kilometers: gas-chamber! We had to pass the Baja Mare iron mine (where the horrid accident happened some month ago) and there were just too many dangerously smoking trucks on the road for us....
But immediately after the mine it got better: Good asphalt, the road, hidden in the forest, was continuously climbing the pass (950m) but never too steep! By driving across the pass we got into another world: From the city we cycled into something like a huge open air museum: It was almost impossible to see anything from this century! Farming like our grandparents must have done it! It was fantastic cycling, along the valley, great scenery, even better weather! We had a good own cooked lunch somewhere in the fields. A nice guy, who takes care of the wooden church in Barsana told his daughter to show us the usually closed interior of the church: Much more comfortable and warmer than churches in Western Europe! By the way, people were quite talkative around churches: In a monastery in the same villages, some people from Bucharest were interested in our trip, a monk later on couldn�t believe that we came all the way from Kosice by bike. He finally tried to make us going to church a bit more....
In the evening, we had problems to find a suitable spot for wild camping, we had to continue driving.... finally we set the tent on a nice spot with some strange guys in the surrounding forest.... furthermore, at four in the morning, we had to set up the rest of the tent because it started to rain....
Saturday 29. July� (128 km) + 1450 m high Prislop Pass
Breakfast in the tent, outside everything was still wet (we used to get up around 7.30...., well we usually went to bed at 10.30!). Back on the road, we were a bit dirty because the small path back to the road turned into a mud line over night...
Just on time, we got to the nice (and probably only) restaurant in Borsa. The menu was small (very small, written on a tiny paper!) but we got a good cooked schnitzel with salad and soup, while our bikes got washed outside in the heavy rain... After going to the toilet, we decided to reach a comfortable hotel this day (the toilet was worse you would ever imagine...). But that meant that we had to do a lot of kilometers including a pass in front of us, it was already around three PM! We cycled and cycled. At least the rain had stopped, the road went up to the remote Prislop pass, there was very few traffic and the road was in a good condition. After reaching the pass, we followed the river for about 80 km along the Canada looking valley, all the way down to Vatra Dornei. We got tired, but fortunately the road was following the river so it was going down a bit all the time. Just before it got dark, we reached the city. We intended to stay at the villa Zimbrul, according to our guide it has a good reputation.... I tried all the languages, but the woman kept talking in Romanian to me. She repeated every sentence four times to make sure I understand it proper.... Finally we got a room without windows for two nights..... It was clean, quiet, cheap and there were comfortable toilets..... so it was all right!
Sunday 30. July (no km)
This was our relaxing day! That means: We slept from midnight until 12 o�clock in our �always night� old fashioned room without windows.... For the breakfast/lunch we found a nice hotel (recommended by LP): Schnitzel again...! We strolled around the small city and got a strange impression: It�s a Romanian holiday place, but we couldn�t figure out, why so many people came to this place! Even the Romanians couldn�t tell us. Doesn�t matter, there was another very nice restaurant where we ate pizza after using the internet. We basically spent all afternoon sitting in the sun, eating, drinking and enjoying live! This is what we call holidays! We did a bit of planning our next steps on the trip, before we went eating again: A Chateau-Briaux this time: Excellent food for very few money! Early Bedtime!
Monday 31. July� (122 km)
We cycled all the way down the still Canada looking valley, still along the same river from Prislop pass, the wind in our back. Instead of own cooking, we went to a small restaurant where we ate schnitzel (for a change...). We reached Bicaz lake in the afternoon, when the weather definitely cleared up. Thanks to 20 Romanian guys (they were too many people for the small spot, so they left it for us....) we set up our tent on an incredible place: On the top of a small hill, overlooking the whole lake-area. After our own cooked wine/pasta dinner, the Canada Expert Michael agreed: A view like in Canada!
Tuesday 1. August� (79 km)
Beautiful, hot weather again. In Bicaz town, we made a phone call home and did some food shopping.
Our main direction turned from south to west, we cycled towards Transylvania. But first, we passed Bicaz-Gorge, that means, we encountered our first tourist attraction in this country. The road went directly trough the really steep and narrow gorge, it was quite impressive! The road got steeper and steeper before we reached the red lake where we ate another schnitzel in a restaurant!
After the meal, the rain caught us! We found ourselves on the road, about half away up the pass, when it started to rain like crazy. We were standing in the rain and didn�t know what to do except becoming wet.... We continued climbing in direction to the pass.... Of course, when we reached the pass, the sun came out again, but we were wet already.... We decided to stay in Gregorgheni.... But this town didn�t offer many hotels, four, to be exactly, one was full, the rest of them difficult to find, rain started again... driving tired around in the rain, looking for a hotel isn�t good fun..... After turning the room we finally got into something laundrylike-looking to dry our clothes, we had dinner at an excellent pizzeria (best value in the country) and went to bed quite early.
Wednesday 2. August� (102 km)
We started early and set off into the fog... it was an atmosphere like autumn already! We had the choice of three roads, we caught the one in the worst condition... When climbing a small pass again, the fog started to clear up, it was a great mystique atmosphere!
There were quite a lot of kilometers to do on this horribly bad road, it was tiring but landscape was something like Jura in the Swiss French part. After passing quite a large artificial lake which wasn�t on the map (!) we had lunch in laid back Oderheiu. Coincidentally, we ordered the national food called �mich�, something like a small sausage. We ate quite a few of them, sitting in the sun, enjoying music from a parked car nearby: Delicious+funny!! We continued our way in direction Shigisoara. This night, we camped in the middle of large corn fields. For our surprise, we had quite a lot of visitors.... we even had a conversation with an old man without a matching language.... using hand signs and feeds.... despite that, we slept well!
Thursday 3. August� (69 km)
Next morning, we did the remaining few kilometers to Shigisoara in a beautiful morning atmosphere, the weather was going to be great again! After a lovely discussion with the left luggage woman at the train station, we managed to leave all our luggage there despite the room was almost occupied afterwards....
We walked around the lovely old center and visited the history museum in the clock tower, to be honest, mostly because of the good view from the top floor! We let to pass by the afternoon-heat by eating a lot of food in a nice restaurant, caching another TC (took about 30 min), calling Katy in Brasov and writing the first postcards while having some coffees... around 4 PM, we left the city by bike in direction Agnita. It was great cycling, the wind in our back, a good road, no traffic, fantastic landscape: rolling hills with little rural villages between them. We did almost an average of 30 km per hour and really enjoyed it!
For dinner, we had a schnitzel at the only (former communist) hotel in Agnita. We spent the night camping wild on the top of a hill, watching the amazing sunset over the Transylvanian hills while having a cup of coffee!
Friday 4. August� (107 km)
We continued driving trough the nice area. Before Fagarasch, we had to join the main highway to Brasov, there wasn�t an alternative road. Heavy traffic and the heat made us hard working! Around lunchtime we did a 3 h break including lunch at the restaurant (a �pork medallion�...) and sleeping in the shadow while our gear was drying out from last�s night wetness.
There were another 50 km and a small pass to do before we reached Brasov, the final destination of our cycling trip! My computer displayed 998 km when we got to the pedestrian area of central Brasov!
Our first meeting with Katy was quite strange... we didn�t recognize each other despite sitting beside at Crama-restaurant, waiting... However, she arranged best accommodation in the center of town, we were so happy to have a shower after the long time on the road (the third best thing in the world....)!
In the evening, we met Katy�s friend T�nde and went for Pizza together before going to the Disco.... it was a good place but we guys were maybe a bit tired...
Saturday 5. August
We slept in, then the girls picked us up for a trip to Poiana Brasov, the ski and hiking resort in the mountains beside Brasov. We strolled around the resort and went to a restaurant of course! We had a good time together including some discussions about travelling, communism, Switzerland, Romania.....
In the evening, we were invited to Katy�s house where we had an excellent Romanian meal! We were served like kings, Romanian hospitality is unbelievable! Later on, we went to the disco called �No Problem�: This is an incredible place including laser show, good music, lot�s of people.... soon it was late again!
Sunday 6. August
Bran Castle day. The castle is a must even Dracula never slept there... The 30 km journey was quite exhausting due to the crowded bus and the heat. At first, we ate two pizzas to make us strong for visiting the castle.... it is in a very good condition, including it�s furniture � great! It is situated on a pass (to collect taxes on the main trading route in earlier days).
It was already late afternoon when we went back to Brasov, where we were invited at T�ndes home for a huge dinner. It was an amazing evening, we could enjoy Romanian hospitality again! At first, we drank some Schnapps with T�ndes father, while watching ancient postcards. T�nde showed us how to cook �Mammaliga�. Second course was stuffed chicken.... it was excellent! Later on, we played the Casino-game where Michel was finally the unwanted winner....
Monday 7. August
We spent the day almost only for organizing: Get money from the ATM for several times, buying several train tickets (it was much faster with Katy�s help...), get some food for the night, moving the bikes to Katy�s house to store them there, use the internet....
We ate two times at Katy�s place (thanks!!). Everybody got tired in the evening and we started to laugh about silly things.... despite that we set up a good end for the day: Smoking under the roof with nice, open view to the lights of Brasov city center! Then Michael and me took the night train to the coast....
Tuesday 8. August
Surprisingly, we slept for two to three hours despite we were 5 people in the crowded compartment and Michael got to smell on some Romanian feeds.... we arrived in Costinesti at 7 AM and it was already quite hot. Lucky as we are, we got maybe the best accommodation in town, tiny and with a strange owner, but still nice and quiet.
We spent the rest of the day sleeping, hanging around the backpackerlike accommodation and strolling around the tourist area. In the evening, we had pizza dinner with wine, then we tried the disco �the ring� but we couldn�t really assimilate....
Wednesday 9. August
After sleeping in with several wakes up (we have to sleep with open door because of the lack of a window in our cell) we had a good own prepared breakfast consisting of yogurt, fruits and corn flakes.
Between several naps, we went to the beach: It�s unbelievable crowded, but this makes it interesting as well.... the water was warm and clear!
In the evening, we encountered difficulties in finding a good restaurant � almost only pizza, schnitzel and fast food available... before bedtime we had a look at disco �T�....
Thursday 10. August
The days at the coast are basically all of the same shape... however it was relaxing. After our obligate fruit-Yogurt breakfast, just short before noon, we went to the biggest hotel from Costinesti for a coffee and to use their comfortable toilet as well...
later on, we enjoyed the crowded beach again, I called Nicola and wrote some e-mails in a sauna-like internet cafe... Because we got fed up with the greasy fast food, we went to the hotel Azur restaurant for a change... and we were well surprised: They served great food, Michael even got the fish he was talking about for a long time....
There was this German speaking Romanian guy, who saw us using the yellow dictionary... we had a nice conversation and got some impressions about the possibilities to leave Romania if you are a Romanian (legally and less legal....)
We didn�t stay long at the �VoxMaris� Disco later on, we preferred to have some more food on the way home, including a pancake from the smiling woman....
Friday 11. August
We spent the day like the previous ones: relaxing at the backpackerlike accommodation an on the beach, combined with eating several Kebabs!
We bought a tape with Romanian-music for memories, to save the animal-x song which was following us these days... N am crezut...
After a good double Pizza dinner, we bought some food for next day and tried to start sleeping between 23.00 and midnight but....
Saturday 12. August
... we had the choice between bad and worse! If the door to our room was open, we couldn�t sleep because of the noise, when it was closed the roomclimate turned into a saunalike atmosphere....
However, at five in the morning, we had to get up to leave for the queue at the train station thanks to tickets can�t be bought in advance.... the train left on time, five minutes before six AM! Despite the crowd on the train, we got our seats and sweated through the four hours to Bucuresti-Nord train station. After visiting McDonalds (no toilets this time...) we successfully stored our luggage and bought a first class ticket to Brasov, leaving at half past six PM.
We got around the city by the LP map quite well. It was at least 35 degrees hot, so we had to stop at several restaurants.... A well guided tour at the �House of people�, Cousescus second largest building in the world, gave us a good impression of this crazy building.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city visiting some places of interest. Piata Revolutiei for example, where Cousescu had his last speech in 1989 before the start of the revolution... We got a good impression of the city, maybe because there was only a few traffic on the road (it was a hot Sunday).
Thanks to our double-check, we caught the train to Brasov despite the tracknumber wasn�t displayed on the information board... small world: In our compartment was this Swiss-woman going to Brasov as well! After we arrived in Brasov, we got cheated by the Taxi-driver: He charched us 5 instead of only 2 SFr for the twenty minutes ride to Katy�s house! The girls welcomed us back with a huge, special for us cooked dinner (It was already ten o�clock....)
We took a shower after eating and before we could proper finished it, we had to drink some wine with some people because there was a wedding going on in the neighborhood!
Because it was Saturday and because it was our last evening together in Brasov, we went to the Disco �No Problem� again! We danced to the music and enjoyed it very much but we got tired as well, thought, it was quite a long day already.... Back home, Michael and me, we had to sleep in Katy�s huge bed while the girls spent the rest of the night on the sofa (we had no other choice, really!)
Sunday 13. August
They woke us up at 11.00 because breakfast was ready: The very first thing we encountered was a small glass of local poison (Schnapps), there was a lot of ham and bacon, bread and vegetables: A kings lunch for breakfast!
We spent the break between eating and eating for packing our gear together and walking to T�ndes place, her father cooked a huge Hungarian afternoon-lunch especially for us! It was a pleasure to sit outside in the shadow and eat the delicious menu consisting of several dishes! While having some good wine with coke (really!!), T�ndes father explained about his hobby: Wood carving. He showed us some really nice examples!
We had some really good ice cream at a coffee-place in the city on the way home to Katy�s house, unfortunately it was already time to get our luggage...
Her father gave us not only a bottle of Vodka for the way (or to bring home?), they guided us by car to the train station as well! There, we stored the bikes into the bags and moved everything in our first class compartment on the night train to Budapest.
When the train left, the troubles began: The conductor really didn�t like our luggage, especially the big bags with the bikes. He shouted at us in Romanian like crazy, while we kept going to tell him that our bikes in the bags had to be threatened as luggage and not as bikes.... He showed up again with the chef of the train, who spoke English. The guy pointed into his large book, a kind of train-bible, and translated us word for word that there was written: No bikes in the train and only three pieces of luggage per person (we had about 15 all together....). We kept arguing for maybe another 20 minutes, finally the problem was reduced to the bikes only: The guys left with the sentence: �This is going to be a big problem....� It wasn�t a nice way to say good night to first class passengers but we didn�t hear anything anymore except the custom officers knocking at our door for several times at the boarder to Hungary!!
Monday 14. August
Because we forgot again the one hour time delay between Romania and Hungary, we got up one hour too early.... but finally, we arrived at Budapest Keleti Pu after seven. After setting up the bikes, we went down town. The nice backpacker I knew from the last trip was unfortunately fully booked, so we checked into a run down student hotel, didn�t matter for one night only.
We had a look around the city center again, but it wasn�t that nice because we were in �going home after one month� mood and because we�ve basically seen already all the sights. It was incredibly hot, we went back to the hostel for an afternoon nap.
I went to the Gellert thermal bath again, while Michael kept sleeping! We had dinner at a lovely Greek restaurant, it was so beautiful to eat spicy pastas again! For some reasons, Romanian don�t eat pasta! After a beer in the pedestrian precinct we considered to go to bed early once more.
Tuesday 15. August� (65km)
As we �considered� so many things these days, we considered to spend this very last day of our trip cycling again. After waking up at nine and checking out at the hostel at fife minutes past nine (we didn�t want to pay for another night despite oversleeping), we put our luggage in some of Keleti Pu�s lockers and left for the village called Scentendre. It�s about 30 km north of Budapest and the cycle path, which is part of the international Danube cycle path, went all along the river, passing the bridges and great sight of the city. It was beautiful weather and we really enjoyed to cycle again, especially relived from the luggage as we were.
Scentendre is a lovely Hungarian village with Serbian touch. The only problem are the hordes of tourists being there as well, so we left soon after lunch and walking around the center.
Back in Budapest, we spent the remaining Forints for another delicious meal at the great �Champion� Restaurant! As two nights ago, the conductor didn�t like us with our heap of luggage. With the agreement of the other travelers, we smartly but our bikes into the aisle of the cabin and everything was alright, except that Michael slept buried by two bikes....
Wednesday 16. August� (8 km)
We changed trains in Zurich in not more than four minutes and therefore we could watch a Swiss sunrise out from the train to Rotkreuz! We didn�t want to change the train again, so we set up the bikes for another time and cycled the remaining few kilometers in peaceful morning atmosphere towards back home.... Home sweet home after one month travelling in Eastern Europe... Our girlfriends and families were happy to have us back, while we had a lot to do with cleaning our gear and telling stories.... we had such a great time, there is no doubt, travelling makes addicted..... so see you next time!
Our Romanian Vocabularies:
(it grew while travelling, but already melted away again..... unfortunately)
-da������������������ yes������������������ -schnitzel��������� ?
-paine�������������� bred���������������� -no������������������ no
-mici���������������� small��������������� -magazin mixt�� shop
-mare�������������� large���������������� -N am crezut���� don�t believe....�
-bere��������������� beer���������������� -multumesc������ thank you
-elvetia������������� switzerland������� -buna ziua�������� good day
-bicigletta��������� bicycle������������ -va rog������������� please
-room�������������� camera������������ ........................���������� and so on........
� by Lukas Tschupp, August 2000
Lust auf weitere Berichte? Dann hier zu den Berichten von Eberhard Schmalzried , Markus Müller und Ursula Schaub