Day 30, Szeged to Timisoana, Romania, 128 km

Goodbye Hungary, Hello Romania!

Timisoana was an interesting study in communist cities in transition. Outside town were old deserted heavy industry factories, and down the road from them new high tech industrial parks. There are lots of Soviet high rise apartments, with some being converted into condos, others look like slums or are abandoned. The old down town has been converted into tourists walking streets with parks, art, and outdoor cafes.

We had an interesting ferry boat ride across the river to get into Romania. As usual, the ferry boat operator could have cared less about customer service and let us stand around for better part of an hour before he was ready to cross. Part of my quest is to learn patience, so I am chalking it up to part of the adventure.

What an interesting day! Romania is a different world. I finally got my passport stamped after six of us waited 20 minutes for the border agents to inspect our documents on a quiet country road. This country side is like Kansas – flat with fields of wheat, corn, sunflowers, and oil wells, but in Mexico with dirt poor peasant farmers, beat up farm equipment, beater cars, dusty towns with the highway being the only paved road, weeds, litter, and lots of stray dogs. The people and dogs are friendly, and food is cheap!

I biked through the town of Sandra, Romania. It was blistering hot with road temps approaching 100 deg so we stopped for a cold drink at an outside cantina, shared by a construction crew having a cold beer. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of a pretty young lady standing on the highway soliciting her wares, almost in the shadow of the church. What contrasts!

The ride was long, hot, and hard. We are now on main highways and have to share the road with traffic, but there is no shoulder, so we have to ride as close to the edge as possible…not much fun, but the pace is much faster than bike paths.

Three people went off the road and fell, including out tandem couple, resulting in some cuts and bruises. I am staying vigilant and keeping my eyes on the road!