Tuesday,
10th
May 2011/Thursday 12th
May 2011
Blue skies yet again, aren't I lucky. Kept on the B roads until I
reached Hungary, just to test out the roads really. I thought I
would head to the World Heritage site, just west of Budapest, the
Pannonhalma Monasteria a beautiful building, high on a hill. After
the festivities at Altotting it was very sedate and not a lot of
visitors. Kept seeing signs saying no horse and carts – didn't see
any either!
I bought my first 4-day vignette to go on the Motorways. Diesel along the route has been pricey too! (15,643 Florints £52.50 including vignette). B roads in Hungary were a bit bumpy so I decided to use motorway hence vignette; it was a pleasure to drive along, didn't have to pay any more tolls.
Hit Budapest about 4 pm traffic quite
heavy and TT working well until the last km when it told me to turn
left and it was obvious I couldn't, I had to turn it off because she
kept telling me to turn round, and I couldn't do that either.
Eventually found a left turn and it caught up with me, thank
goodness. Camp site alongside a main road but has double fencing as
security and a beaten up old car as the security hut. Makes you a
bit nervy. 
So
am at Haller Camping ACSI (N47-28-33 E19-4-59) Central Budapest,
lovely young gentlemen in reception with very good English. Can't
understand their language, doesn't sound how it reads! Travel for the
over 65 yrs is free if you show your passport. A weeks ticket is
about £16, so I'm £'s in. Been on the trams, Metro, over the bridge
to Buda and back to Pest. Saw the square where the uprising in 1956
started and which I vaguely remember, lovely memorial gardens there
and a unique everlasting flame outside the Parliament buildings.
Walked along the Danube embankment to St Stephen's Basilica,
absolutely beautiful inside, much gold leaf and red marble. Saw the
1st King's mummified hand! and people posing in front of that and a
large urn! Found this a bit odd. Then I tackled the steps to the
Basilica dome, didn't count the steps, a bit out of breath and took
the lift the last 40 ft to the viewing platform. All round view of
the city, marvellous.. Weather has been glorious, very warm and a
bit sweaty too! Very clean city, lots of single older age group
tourists, spoke to quite a few English people. At the camp site I
was parked next door to a couple from Northern Ireland, Belfast,
thought I was going to have an early night and then got on the
internet! Went back into the city today, got to the main palace which sits on top of a hill, went by tram and a look at Pest from the other side. This castle reminds me more of a French Château than anything. Thought I might head off again tomorrow to Eger, another interesting city advised to go and see. Making my way to Romania where I want to see the very old painted Monasteries and there is a camp site right there. There is a thermal camping site just over the border, then to the painted Monasteries further north-east. Found out about these in the Lonely Planet, so have to go and have a look, didn't plan this one.
Once I get into Romania I think I must rest, it's been quite hectic, but I certainly don't feel so nervous now. Driving here is OK, driving standards quite reasonable. It's just like any other European city. “Romania”, the gentleman in reception said, “is much poorer than here and more horse driven carts on the road”. That's what I found quite funny when I first came here signs saying "No horse drawn carts allowed". Haven't seen one yet!
So after good night and thought I'd just check out emails, fix TT and email the camp site for tomorrow. As you know it takes time and I wasn't ready to go out till at least 1100. The trams at this time were less crowded got off at the wrong bridge, but walked to the one I wanted in order to get the bus 16 to go to Buda and see the city from the other side. The 16 bus, a bit old, and boy there were cobbles the other side. Talk about being shaken up! Got off at the top of the hill to see the Church of St Mathias and the Fisherman's Bastion. The Church had a beautiful tiled roof and inside every single inch of plaster was painted. Amazing, the work that went into it. Not as opulent as the Basilica couldn't see any gold paint anywhere. Built in about 1850's, quite unique but I'm sure not the last example I'll see. It was good to be in the coolness. I then spied a lady and gentleman behind a wrought iron screen and in front of them was a crown, sceptre and orb of gold. The lady was working on the jewels I asked if it was original, they spoke English. “No” it was a copy of a copy, jewels and enamel portraits on the sides. She said she had made one of the copies, not this one, but another elsewhere. The original dated 1000 and was just a round circle, the cross members came later along with the portraits. Must have been a King's crown, as Hungary as a state originated then.
Outside
the heat was getting stronger, a mediaeval knight passed me by with
dreadlocks! He walked over to the statue and there was a large
falcon sitting there for you to have your picture taken with it. The
man made an effort to cool the bird down and put him in the shade,
there were not many takers, until one man did. He donned an
elaborate thick leather arm band and proudly stood there with the
bird, still tethered to the man. I
then walked up to the Bastion and had a good look across the Danube.
Big city one side and smaller older city the other. Lunch time. On
the parapet a newly wedded couple were having an enormous number of
pictures taken of them. Perhaps this is normal here in Hungary, she
was lounging over the stone, then the kiss, short at first then
lingering to, eating each other! Down from here, through a square,
into the Toilet for .50€. Clean, tidy, outside a display of cakes with icing depicting various old fairy tales and some new Disney stuff. Feet beginning to ache now, so I decided to find the bus. Caught one which took me down to the river but not across, so I got back on and went back up, shouldn't have bothered it was so bumpy. Got off, crossed the road to find that the bus I wanted was round the corner. That came along and we went past Buda Castle which I thought looked like a big French Château, down the hill, under something in a tunnel and then across the bridge again, to change bus, no sorry, get on a tram. Unfortunately, something had happened to my foot whilst crossing the road and it was a big pain. Fortunately got back to the van swaddled it in cold wet towel, had a nap, now it's ok again. Talking to Sally my daughter tonight via Skype. Well that didn't happen, too many people using the internet on the camp site. We talked via Facebook, but it didn't flow very well. It was getting cold outside so after half an hour we said goodbye.
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| The fountain you can play with! |
The picture of the Tomb commemorating the uprising in the Square of the Revolution in Budapest. The Parliament building was behind it, I decided against going in as it was such a lovely day. The picture is The Monument to the Revolution and an explanation about the hole in the Hungarian Flag follows:
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| Symbolic Grave |
The Hungarian Flag has a hole in it because on October 23, 1956, the revolution, those Hungarians who revolted against the Soviet Union, tore out of it, the foreign coat of arms that symbolised the power of the Soviet Union and Communism. Since then this flag has symbolised the freedom of the Hungarian naton. This memorial is a symbolic Grave. Here on this square several hundreds of people fell dead onto the ground, due to the killer blow of a firing squad on October 25th 1956. Honour and rememberance to the victims! The system of communism has failed in every sense. However, it will be very hard to get rid of communists, for there is nobody as dangerous as the usurper of a failed system, who abandons the system, but guards his loot and power position. (Hungarian English)!
Friday 13th May 2011 I woke early the next morning, packed up and was ready by 9am said goodbye to my neighbours, swapped email addresses and phone numbers. It was the wrong time to have left. Budapest has a rush hour too. Still never mind just gave me more time to look at the suburbs until I got on the motorway, which didn't actually take that long. The next part of the journey was flat, flat flat. Hungarian plains, the weather was good, back to vast fields for easy maintenance when harvesting. However, now and then there were a few small fields clustered around farm houses with a few cows munching away. I turned off after about 150 km to go to Eger, Had a quick look at the architecture and spied Tesco's. Well I might as well go in. It was a Mall, apart from Tesco which was up the very end, so you had to go past all the shops to get there! It was vast, one thing I noticed that there wasn't much packed meat, it was all laid out butcher's style, so people had to queue up to choose. I didn't get much, just to use up my Florints, still have a few left. The heat was getting to me as there was no air conditioning in Tesco's, so decided that was it, off I went. Back to the motorway to head over to Romania. 
The border guard didn't smile, looked at my passport “Ann Pauline” never mind the Speirs. Gave it back to me and asked me to open the side door. I did, expecting him to get in to look around, but he just looked me up and down and asked“Where are you going?” “Through Romania, to Bulgaria, then Turkey”, said I. “Finish?”. “No, then Greece and up through the Adriatic coast”. “Have a nice day”, again no smile and slammed my door shut. Except although I latched the door quickly and got on my way, half way down the road I realized it was flapping in the wind. Quickly stopped to make it secure and carried on driving, road not too bad and then oops, what a mess cars going all over the road trying to dodge the craters! And then, new tarmac, brilliant as I made my way to Carie Thermal Camping site, Romania (N47-40-27 E22-26-42 Reisemobil not actually right!) Road was good, then very very bad. 
They did drive along like mad things, especially the white vans, not mine of course! On entering a village you had this long oval island, the village, then a long oval island again. Speed went from 50kph to 70 kph back to 50 kph in less than 1 km of road, just keep it at 50 kph. No I think it was to give the road sign painters something to do! And I saw lots of them signing the roads. The houses were different to the Hungarian ones, not just one floor, but two with high gables. Some run down, falling down and then you'd get a completely brand new opulent house. Couldn't make this out if Romania was supposed to be so poor. On entering Carie the GPS position wasn't the camp site, couldn't find it so just drove through town to have a look. Found a garage, bought some
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| Church in the mountains |
No camp site in view, no motorhomes, anything. It might have been 4pm but I decided there and then that I would drive on, in the hope of finding somewhere. I was heading towards the Painted Monasteries in the North east of Romania, something I'd read about whilst in Budapest and decided to give it a try. I proceeded up the DN19 to Satu Mare, through villages, saw my first horse and cart and when I was least expecting it. It was Friday and high up in the hills I came upon everyone coming out of the Church; the ladies in their traditional costumes, hats, waistcoats and black skirts billowing out over many layers of petticoats. Couldn't stop to take a picture, no where to park! Blast, another mighty ornate hideous looking house, brand new with sculptures up the front, no parking space either, so only my memory of it. Up towards the border with Ukraine into a very beautiful forest and up the hills from then on. Well it was getting darker, I didn't stop for any tea, too taken up with watching the road for pot holes and then whoosh round the bend, without any lead car came an enormous wide, heavy transport lorry and trailer and I had to stop, so it could ease past me just on a bend! Breathe in, many cars behind it and then low and behold another one, taking up most of the road. No camp sites, then a good space, lorry and coach parked there, decided to go in! Parked up for 5 minutes when along came another lorry which backed in narrowly missing me in line with the other lorry, too close for comfort this. Off I went again leaving them to it, obviously a private parking space.
Not long afterwards I came to a Coluic Popas Touristica (Tourist Hotel) Romania, with a very wide parking space to the front of the floodlit (well, one light) entrance. I was well off the road, had something to eat, locked up securely, put alarm on too, because I couldn't keep awake any longer and my arms were practically dropping off, apart from a numb bum too. Took a couple o/f Ibuprofen for a good sleep, must have been about 9.30pm and dozed off straight away.
Saturday,
14th May 2011 I awoke to the sound of a
pack of dogs barking! The dawn was just breaking, got dressed
quickly and breakfasted on route. I had written down the mileage of
31992, 04.39 the time, and progressed on my way. Well, I suddenly
realised that the clock must have gone forward another hour because
everyone was up and busy by 0600, wrong 0700. The road got worse and
then of course got better, but you could see the cobbles making up
the road surface where the tarmac had worn away! It was very bumpy
and noisy in the van, my nerves were taking a hammering! Many packs
of dogs along the way, allowing nature to take its course, right in
front of me. As I was going past a wood yard I stopped to take a
picture of the notice, and then an old man was at the window asking
for cigar, cigarettes? Well, not smoked for 20 years said me. Didn't
have anything else to offer him either. I'm not good at that sort of
thing, don't believe in begging, or either fancying a fag! He was OK
waived me goodbye and I drove off, dodging potholes. Eventually
coming off the mountains, which were very beautiful, typically alpine
together with flowers, firs and yes, snow! Got up to about 4800 ft
and snow still backed up, I got on the main road, found a beautiful
parking spot looking over the valley and promptly had another sleep.
It
was now about 1100. An hour later after hearing the noise of
something landing on my roof, I decided it was time to go again.
This road was marvellous, but back again to the leapfrog speed limits
which got boring after a while. Followed main road and came across
a very beautiful church standing back and a large hotel to the side
with a sign at the front saying “French/English
spoken VLADIMIR Suczawa with a motorhome dump point sign”. Took
the GPS N47.49632 E25.26106 which was the first one I'd seen.
Obviously a B&B as well, although I understand they don't do
breakfast! Just rooms. Then I came to Garu Homorului and turned up
left towards the Monastery. This was the next GPS location for
Cristiana Camping in
the Reisemobile handbook. Except she wasn't there. Yet another
false log. I turned up left to the Monastery, went past it saw the
pictures on the walls and kept going, because somewhere I had to turn
round. Found a place further up this one track road, at least I got
up there and turned round successfully. Saw some people coming
towards me, grabbed the book, said “Hello” asked for Cristiana
camping and showed them the book, which was immediately handed round
and one of the ladies said “I phone” and with that she was
talking to Cristiana and in so many words I worked out she would be
waiting outside her house, if I turned left at the bottom of the road
and just kept going straight on. Cristiana
Camping in Suczawa N47.60257 E25.85236 correct GPS
Cristiana
was a lovely lady, quite modern in dress, opened her gates to let me
come in. We had a conversation about how many days and there was
only me in the Van! In that case I could have it for 15 Lei, or €6
a night. I only had 100 Lei, so I plumbed for €'s. I was flaked
out. Realised I'd driven 669 kms and the hours had registered 54.97
since Sandy; 32121 miles, 1571.60 from Calais, average 36 mph but my
average miles per gallon has stuck on 30.5 mpg. I was only going
very slowly, I'd been registering that mpg doing 70 mph back on the
motorway!
Well
it was a lovely day, so I rested, got my skin out, slip slap slop,
book, Campari and feet up! Along came Cristiana with a bowl of beef
soup, specially Romanian. How lovely, my grateful thanks, because I
just realised I didn't have any lunch either, I was just glad to get
here after all that. It was
delightful. There were a bunch of school children gradually
filtering towards the guest house, obviously the contents of the
white van sitting in the parking space. Bit of a rowdy lot, but they
are teenagers and what else can you expect, so out came the special
earplugs. Actually, I bought these when I was clay pigeon shooting
with my ex some 20+ years ago and they are the best investment I have
ever made. They cut out the bad decibels and leave you less
shattered, but still able to hear and talk at a reasonable level.
Just found out this is an actual dilemma called hyperacusis which had
come up in a book by James Patterson called The 6th
Target. Actually the man with it had just murdered several people,
so I'm glad I know my limit of noise and take precautions before I
start doing anything like that! However, I don't hear voices either!
But I might do if I didn't know how to take care of myself! My
grown children can vouch for me always saying “Don't scream like
that, it goes right through me!” If only I'd known about
these earplugs then! Had dinner quite late, several Campari's,
wasn't drunk at all, but at last found a drink that I can handle. 
Sunday
15th May 2011 Sleep came quickly and I woke to bright sunlight
and the clip clopping of horse's hooves on the road in front of me.
How delightful! Got sorted out quickly, Cristina came along and said
the children would be leaving by 1300, I hadn't complained, but
obviously she didn't have a set of ear plugs. I went up the road on
my bike to the Humor Monastery (c1530-1535), a child just wouldn't
let me in the door until I raised my voice and his mother took him
away so I could get the bike inside. A little rattled I started to
walk my bike up the path when a very dower faced nun walking towards
me said I could park it against the fence, which was something I
hadn't naturally thought of. I thanked her and I got a smile and “No
problem”. Padlocked it 'cos I didn't know what security was like
and strode  |
| The School |
When
I was absorbing all this from the guide book I could hear a loud
voice, from England with a northern lilt, American thrown in,
expounding the fact that Christ instigated his own demise and made
Judas betray him to the authorities. Then a Romanian voice saying
“Who was the first human being to go to heaven”, “Don't know”
says the now broad American; “Well the good thief, at the side of
Christ who said, when asked, he would follow him”. There then
followed a conversation about who was to blame for Christ's death,
not Herod, the Romans, yes it was the Jew's themselves. The wife had
walked off at this point, quickly followed by the guide.
Later
on, this gentleman really upset the guide by going over his views yet
again. I learnt the guide was from Bucharest and he gave me his
business card. I was invited to their guest house, however it was
some 9 kms away and I would not be riding my bike there, graciously
thanked him for the invite and they quickly left to catch up with the
wife who had toddled off back to the car.
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| Most houses have a well |
