We left Budapest as a group last Saturday, and had an easy ride through flat, prosperous countryside to our first campsite at Kecskemet, a pleasant little town full of young couples with small children that happened to be holding its summer festival. The next day's ride to Szeged was similar, ending at a pretty but rustic campsite. This was the venue of the first Orient Express 2008 Talent Quest -- a most entertaining event with songs, skits and poetry recitations. My rendering of the Ballad of Matty Grove won me a bottle of wine.
Yesterday's ride from Szeged to Timisoara was a much more testing 130km in temperatures reaching 39 degrees. It started with a ferry ride across a canal, then a long, quiet country road beside fields of sunflowers to Mako near the Romanian border (passports required this time). The Romanian section was long and hot, along a busy road to a gathering point just outside Timisoara for the final group ride into town. Romanian traffic is by far the worst that we have encountered.
The road took us through a series of small towns and villages; chickens, goats and the occasional solitary cow grazing by the side of the road, horses and carts, and enthusiastic children waving as we rode though. There seemed to be a lot of empty countryside (abandoned state farms?). Most of the villages had small shops and even some cafes selling cold drinks -- hope this will continue!
We have been joined by Sebastian, a Romanian interpreter and guide for the 11 days we will be in this country. He gave us a "city tour" of Timisoara this morning -- actually a very entertaining if rambling overview of Romanian history, ranging from Vlad the Impaler -- gruesome details included -- through to the Dec 1989 revolution.
Romanian is a Latin-based language with many words and phrases that are similar to French or Italian. This makes it comparatively easy to decode signs and menus -- unlike Hungarian, which was impossible.
2 comments:
Congratulations for your talent ! I am sure that they didn't expect that voice and power coming out of you... and that type of song. I always knew that I had a talented boyfriend. Was the wine good ... before and after the contest?
Hello Philip,
Grâce à ton blogue, nous suivons avec intérêt ton périple. Ce carnet de route nous permet de découvrir des paysages nouveaux et aussi les difficultés d'une telle équipée.
Quelques nouvelles de notre coin de pays:
Le 3 juillet, il y a 400 ans, Samuel de Champlain fondait la ville de Québec. La ville est en liesse, le gouvernement fédéral a investi des millions, le provincial aussi et le municipal, bien..., il a fait ce qu'il a pu et en a aussi profité.
Le bon peuple est content, on lui promet parade, feux d'artifice et spectacles.
Comme les fans de Tolkien, nous suivons la "Communauté du vélo" et souhaitons que tu nous racontes plus en détails encore les péripéties de ta "quête" lors d'un prochain séjour parmi nous à Québec.
Amitiés
Martine et Georges
P.S.: C'est un plaisir de lire prose "in english".
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