The Great European Adventure

Arrived this afternoon in Budapest and it feels good to be back in civilsation again. I didnt think I was such a city person but three days in the wilderness was plenty for me.

We hired a car in Oradea, near the romanian-hungarian border and drove it up to the Maramures region, near the Romanian-Ukranian border. The border was literally only a kilometre away and we could see the next town in the distance. Alas we were not able to cross.

Travelling through this region was like time travel. Horse and cart is the usual mode of transport there. We got strange looks in our car. The roads were mostly gravel or potholed and even though the region is less than 200 km long it took about 6 hours to drive through it. We spent the first night in the town of Sapanta. Which is famous for its cemetary. This is because all the graves are ornately painted with the story of the persons life and how they died.

For example, there were pictures of men plowing the fields, a barber, women sewing or baking etc. There was even a barman.

One interesting story was a young farmer making hay in the field a couple of years ago when he was struck by lightening and died. His grave was painted with a pic of god striking him down.

Anyway, graveyard aside, Sapanta was a wierd town. it felt like you were walking into some sort of cult. All the men wore funny little black hats, and all the women, young and old wore the peasant fashion of a ruffled skirt and a headscarfe. But worst of all was the cold hard stares they would give you as you drove by. We would wave and smile in vain. with not even a twitch in return. we camped the night in someones backyard next to a giant smelly hay stack.

The next town, Botiza was amazing. It was completely off the main road and people there live a very remote life. Everything is done by hand. We soon realised that people were a lot more friendlier when we were out of our car. We got lots of greetings and smiles, even a wave or two from them as they drove their carts by.

We found this great little guest house by luck and stayed the night in the attic of a cottage. All this including dinner and breaky for a 10 euros. Dinner was tasty but strange as it consisted of five different types of carbs. Potato soup, followed by cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, served with polenta and cream, and bread, followed by donuts. needless to say it was welcomed with much relief because we were expecting to be served tripe soup ( the national dish) or donkeys brains.

We are on the home run now. Will be home in about two weeks time. Looking forward to catching up with Marika and Lukas in Bratislava on Sunday, and everyone else making it to the Szeigets festival back in Budapest next week. Pack your woolies and raincoat people because its cold here and apparently there has been strange weather all week.

sunflowers

sunflowers
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Travelling from Bulgaria to Romania we passed through fields and fields of sunflowers.

Sozopol, black sea coast, Bulgaria

Sozopol, black sea
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

To check out more of our photos click on this one and it will take you to our Flickr photo page.

Bear beer and good times

We have seen two wild bears so far! And D reckons he has seen a third. Luckily we saw them from the safety of our cable car in which we were acending to the top of a mountain in Sinaia. we saw two brown bears cross a clearing in the forest. I though they were pretty big from that distance. But apparently they are scared of people.

Romanians are obessed with bears. It is like their national symbol, similar to the Nz kiwi. We rented a room from a family in Sighiasoara for a night and we slept in their lounge which was full of bear memorabilia. The national beer is called Ursus, which means bear.

Coincidently mum sent me a bbc article about how Romania bears are being forced to find food in towns. the government has caused a controversy of late because it is allowing rich foriegners to hunt 400 of them this year. Article is being posted below. I feel kinda sorry for the poor creatures...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3854507.stm

I believe Romania is truely underrated by most other Europeans. The countryside and towns alike are really beautiful. It is much more "developed" that Bulgaria, which is pretty rough. I think the EU is throwing a lot of money at it in lieu of its accession to the community in 2007. Everywhere you go whole towns are being rennovated.

In the countryside people are still dirt poor and eek a living from the land.

We are now in the town of Oradea, near the Hungarian border. We arrived here from Sighiasoara which is in the heart of transylvania. The town is the best preserved medieval citadel and it was hosting a medieval festival. It was packed with people. Most of whom seemed to be hard metal fans. There were a lot of black t shirts and long greasy hair. Iron Maiden seemed to be the most popular band on display.

We are renting a car for the next three days and are going to drive around the Maramures region, near the Ukranian border. It is mostly peasant villages where apparenty they live untouched by the modern world. Everything is still done by hand, with no electricity or running water. They even managed to escape the hard hand of collectivisation that communism dealt to the rest of the country.

Romania

After a 13 hour train journey we arrived in the mountain town of Sinaia in Romania early this morning. The last couple of days in Bulgaria we spent camping by the black sea and in a small town with a name too hard to pronounce. The crazy bulgarian who made us dance turned out to be quite a character and was actually great fun. He took us and a couple of Slovenians on a day trip to a national park where we saw turtles and water snakes.

Actually come to think of it, bulgaria is crawling with serpents. I have seen three snakes in three days in bulgaria! for those of you who know me, you will know that I am absolutely petrified of them.
The first two were water snakes, one at the beach and the other at the national park. The third was in our cabin!! I saw it just as we were about to go to bed. I couldnt sleep there so convinced Damon that it was better if we pitched the tent. you can imagine...

Anyway, the currency in Romania is very confusing. There are old Lei and new Lei. The old Lei use 0000's of zeros. So one million Lei is like 100 dollars. But there there are new Lei which have cut of four zeros. So we never know how much we are giving or receiving.

The language is also very unique. Romania is closest to Latin, and sounds like Italian but a third of its words are of Slavic origin. I can almost read some of it, but it still going to be a battle. I was getting rather good at reading Cryillic in Bulgaria towards the end. Damon however is still none the wiser with that alphabet.

We are planning to do some hiking in the mountains for a couple of days. Apparently Romania has Europe's largest populations of bears and wolfs. Nice. Any bear tips for us Gis??

back in bulgaria

We arrived back in Bulgaria yesterday afternoon after a slow bus from Istanbul. It was a great city and I will definitelylike to go back there. We are now near a tiny town on the black sea coast called Sozopol. We are renting a tiny bach from a rather eccentric bulgarian in his "exotic garden".

At the bus station we were approached by a guy offering to take us to a campsite. It turned out to be a garden run by this slightly crazy guy. But it is right on the beach and our secluded hut shaded by fig trees overlooks the sea. All this for only five pounds a night!

Last night our host cooked us a bulgarian bbq and tried to get us and some czech students also camping there to dance with him to his favorite "oriental music". Apart from these strange habits he seems pretty harmless.

battlıng bureaucracy ın the former eastern bloc

I am wrıtıng thıs ın Istanbul! ıt has been a hectıc 36 hours and d ıs crashed out whıle ı am too wıred on coffee and turkısh delıght. We fınally got our vısas to romanına yesterday ın Sofıaç What an ordeal. But ıt was nothıng compared to what the locals have to go through. We lıned up an hour early only to be overrun by a mob of mad women once the gates opened so we ended up back at the queue.

Wıth our forms fılled ın correctly (After our tunısıan holıday dısaster am now a vague as possıble executıve assıstant by way of professıon) and armed wıth $40 us dollars we arrvıed just at the front of the queue as the counter closed on the dot at 12 o clock. tıme for a four hour lunch break ıt seems. sıgh.

The scene ınsıde the emabssy was chaotıc. It was fılled wıth mostly poor russıans and ukranıans tryıng to get vısas to vısıt famıly. There was shoutıng beggıng tears and even a fıght.
Lucky for us they dıdnt really care about a couple of wayward new zealanders and once we got to the front of the counter (agaın) our vısa wasready wıthın mınutes.!

The realısatıon that we got our ımmedıately caused another round of waılıng and dısbelıef wıth the rest of the crowd. we hıgh taıled ıt out of there feelıng all too concıous of how lucky we are to have been born ın a rıch country.

We then caught an over nıght traın to the Istanbul glad to get out of Sofıa and all ıts madness. I am currently over lookıng the sea drınkıng another coffee whıle the somewhat hauntıngly beautıful call to prayer from the famous blue mosque resounds over the cıty.

D and Nush on Tour

D and Nush on Tour
Originally uploaded by damnkeats.

Kamikaze bulgarians

Overtaking tight corners at high speed is a national pastime for Bulgarian drivers. This is the conclusion after a number of hair raising bus and taxi rides over the last week.

We just got back into Sofia, after a night camping in the mountains near the famous Rila monastry. Unless you are an orthodox pilgrim (thousands of which travel there) it was just okay. We arrived at the camping site indicated in the guide book. It turned out to be a restaurant. When we asked about camping the waiter pointed to a strip of grass next to the parking lot. So we slept the night there. It was either that, or rent a cell in the Monastry for the night.

Food is great in Bulgaria. Lots fresh food, which is great as in other countries it has been bit thin on the good stuff. Every meal here starts with a giant salad (usually a greek like salad). I feel so healthy!

We have decided to take a detour to Istanbul in the next few days if we can pull of getting our Romanian visa sorted out here. So it looks like we will be spending our 7-year anniversary somewhere in Istanbul!