Day 31, July 1, Timisoara Rest Day

A New Month and a New Time Zone

We now have less than three weeks to the finish and I am ten hours ahead of Pacific Time Zone.

We are in a hotel right off the old town plaza in a wonderful location. People in the city appear to be doing much better than the country folk. There are lots of new cars – some luxury – and everyone is well dressed. The Victory Plaza, off where we are staying, has been transformed into tourist attraction with tons of outdoor cafes, and pigeons. I am happy to say McDonalds has the prominent position on the Plaza.

We picked up a Romanian guide, Sebastian, who gave us a tour and talked about the country and its transformation. He is quite a colourful character and will be with us for the next ten days. I learned the country is still quite poor and a work in progress, but everyone seems to be happy that they are out from under communism... and those who are not happy about it have been killed. One of the Romanian expressions is that if you want to live like the Germans then you have to work as hard as Germans.

Romania has Europe’s largest population of Gypsies – 1 ½ million. Sebastian said they migrated from India a thousand years ago, and they are good people, but don’t fit into the modern world because they don’t believe in education and intermarry. From here on we have been reminded to keep an eye on our wallets and bikes.

We will be entering Transylvania, but were told that with garlic harvest underway it should ward off the vampires.