Today we left the Schengen area and showed our passports for the first time as we entered Romania which is the 5th country we cycle in if we count Sweden where we started. The borders between Schengen states are internal borders and very often there are not even immigration officers present and crossing such a border is usually as easy as crossing between two provinces in a country.

The border guards gave us thumbs up when we said we had cycled from Sweden. They raised their eyebrows when we said we were going to Istanbul next. And when we said we will end in Bangkok in December they said we are crazy, which probably is a statement that is not too far from the truth.

Although a bit cold in the air, yesterday offered sunshine from a clear blue sky. We had tailwind, stunning views and the cycling between small back country villages were easy and without any problems.

Today the conditions were the opposite. The sky was grey, the wind was on our faces and the road was extremely boring. We went on a section of straight road that was so long that we couldn’t see the other end of it. All this made me very demotivated and I chose to cycle in front of Wej to take the wind for her. When things get boring and I lack motivation, I can get some relief in focusing on the physical work and being first in a line of cyclists always require harder work. Wej seemed not to be having any motivation problems and was singing like a bird behind me.

All was not bad today though. We lost our wire lock in Krakow and without it we can’t camp in our tent. The weather hasn’t allowed it anyway but soon we hope that it will be good enough to allow us to start camping.

When we passed the town of Nyibator we found a little local bike shop. We stopped and went in to the shop that was heated by a stove in the corner. The shop had some bikes of brands we have never seen before. The owner spoke no English and even worse German than myself but by pointing and using sign language we could understand each other. He had a couple of different locks to choose among and we bought one of them and continued cycling.

When we were standing at the exit of one little town to change batteries to our electrically heated inner soles (not many batteries left now), a car pulled up behind us and a guy came out. He spoke some English and presented himself as Zorik. Besides being interested in cycling Zorik said he is a singer in a wellknown rock band in Hungary. We had no pen, but if we had one we would have let him sign his autograph on our panniers. It is not every day you meet a Hungarian rock star.

Two hours later when we approached another town, a car came towards us flashing its head lights. It stopped in the middle of the road and there he was again. Zorik the rock singer had been doing some business in the neighbouring town and was on his way home. He said he will write something in the commentary field in this blog. If your read this Zorik – then please tell us how to spell your name, because spelling it Z-o-r-i-k is just how I guess it is spelt.

We had planned to cycle 90 km today and we had researched accomodation in the Romanian town we were aiming for. When we had passed the border by 500 meters there was a motel. My motivation level was below zero and I said to Wej that I had got enough and wanted to check in at that motel. Wej didn’t resist and now we sit in our room overlooking the border control area between Romania and Hungary.

I feel a bit better now. Tomorrow it is going to be warmer and it will stay like that for a few days but then it will get colder again. I am starting to get sick of this weather and I wonder:

– Will there ever be a spring in central Europe 2013 ????

Déjà vu in Pere
Last Friday we checked out from the hotel with the rock-hard beds and struggled through the snow to the little nice resort in Pere. It is a small village with a single grocery shop, a small school, 3 churches and 350 inhabitants.

The hotel was run by a family and the rooms were clean and simple with a tiled bathroom and tiles on the floor in the bedroom. I believe our room was quite newly built since it had a smell of freshness in it. The smell, design and way of furnishing quickly gave me feeling that I had been there before.

Since I am in Hungary I had to try a hungarian gulasch for dinner. It was delicious and on the table there was a little bowl with dried chillies to spice it up. I put a lot of it in the soup and soon it was almost as spicy as a thai dish. The feeling of being at home grew stronger.

We have cycled mainly on the countryside both here in Hungary but also in Slovakia and Poland and it seems rather popular in this region to keep a dog or two. The dog barks at us every time we pass by but since they are within the fences of the houses it is not a problem. Later on we will be chased by dogs for sure.

Last night when I had gone to bed I heard that the dog in the house opposite to the hotel started to bark. Within a few seconds the neighbour’s dogs barked too and soon we could hear how the barking spread all over the village. This is something I have experienced a lot before too.

These three separate experiences gave me a déjà vu feeling of Thailand. Tiled, clean rooms in a resort run as a family business, spicy delicious soups and dog barking competitions in the street at night. I felt like I already was in Thailand and we could stop cycling already here 🙂

This morning we started to cycle at 10.15 which is very late for us. It was planned since we wanted the ice on the road start to melt a bit so that we could get some grip when riding up the switchbacks out of the village. The road was not as bad as expected, but at some places we can understand that it had been a big trouble to pass a few days earlier. We saw big piles of snow that had been cleared from the road and thick layers of snow in some ditches along the road.

Later on we entered the Tokaj area which is famous for its vineyards. It was much less snow there and the sun was shining and we could actually see some green grass on some spots. Although probably not as nice as during summer, it was still beautiful with grapevines in tidy rows.

The sun kept shining all through the day. We had a little tailwind and could move over the small back country roads and pass nice little villages at a convenient speed with only a few cars passing by.

Since at least I have had this déjà vu feelings of already being in Thailand, I thought that we might as well hurry up to get there and when this thing stood at the entrance of a town, we thought that we could as well leave our bikes there and catch a ride with the rocket instead.

Today we have a wonderful sunshine. The temperature is probably around a few degrees above zero and the sun is working hard to clear the roads for us. I have never known that Wej has been interested in snow trucks before, but yesterday evening she noticed every time one of them drove past our little hotel.

Yesterday one of the staff of this hotel told us that the road would be bad today too and he advised us to wait another day here and let the sun and the snow trucks clear the roads first. We then decided to not decide anything about cycling or resting until we had seen how the conditions were this morning.

This morning we were told that the bigger road we plan to go on some 6 km from here is OK now, but the local road to that bigger road isn’t cleared yet. Our experience tells us that what a non-cyclist think is a not rideable road often is good enough to ride on for us.

Since it was a nice sunshine and pleasant temperature we went for a walk up the hill to take a look at the road that was supposed to be bad. As far as we could see it looked OK, but we only walked some 1.5 km of the 6 km claimed to be bad so there might very well be problems further on.
It was already after lunch and we were a bit lazy so we decided to stay the night here and continue tomorrow.

We have used the day to do laundry, write e-mails and check information about the route the coming week. Tonight we will watch some movie on our computer and have a nice and relaxed Saturday night.

This journey is between Göteborg and Bangkok, but it is hard to understand that we are on the way there so we have split up the entire trip in a couple of sections. First section is from Göteborg to Istanbul and this section is divided into three parts. First part was to Krakow, next part is to Bucharest and the third part is to Istanbul.

From here it is some 800 really hilly kilometers to go to Bucharest where we are invited to stay with staff at the Thai Embassy to Romania. It will be fun to see Thai people again, but it is a little bit of a rush since they are expecting other guests and we need to get there and leave before they come. This snow storm did certainly not make it easier to reach Bucharest in time.

The surroundings were all white when we woke up. Our room was at the rear of the hotel and as far as we could see the fields as well as the small roads had all got a christmas like snow cover and it was still snowing. Wej went to a vacant room on the other side of the corridor and took the following photo of the main road which showed to us that the cycling conditions certainly could be a lot better.

At the breakfast table we discussed the situation. The big road looked good and rideable but it is in a direction we don’t want to go. We want to go southeast towards Debrecen and the staff at the hotel told us that those roads had most probably not yet been cleared from snow.

The hotel we stayed at had three major problems that we didn’t like and that influenced our decision.

1 – A bit expensive

2 – Poor internet connection

3 – Rock hard beds

If we were to stay for an unplanned rest day we think a cheaper place would be good, a reliable internet would be very useful and softer beds a requirement. The beds in the hotel was so hard that we thought they had put a sheet on a piece of plywood. In order to get a nice sleep we pumped our own mattresses and put them on top of the beds. We will happily sleep on those mattresses in our tent later on, but why pay for a hotel and still need to use the camping equipment?

We checked around on the slow internet for other hotels and found one only 12 km away. It was 25% cheaper and that matters to us who have no income this year. The problem was that it was 6 km off the main on to a smaller road.

We took off at noon and the first 6 km on the main road was perfect. The wind was strong, but OK to ride in. There was no traffic due to a national holiday. Once on the small side road the situation changed. There were lots of snow and ice and we had to cycle very slowly and be cautios about invisible pot holes.

The place we stay at now is a lot nicer. It is cheaper, more cosy, the internet is a little bit better and most important, we don’t need to use our own mattresses.

Last weekend the forecast for the eastern part of Slovakia and Hungary looked worse than for the western part of these two countries. As you might remember I put up the question if we should take the western route through Budapest rather than this eastern route that we finally took. Now it appears that it wouldn’t have been better to go the other route. On TV they show how they use military heavy vehicles to pull cars out of the snow not far from Budapest so we are happy to be where we are. It is an experience to witness this mess from close range and the locals here are surprised. A week ago they had nice spring weather and now this.

Our friend Kalle said in a reply to yesterday’s post that he was eating shrimps as Friday night supper and asked what we had. I replied fried cheese and beer, and below you find the evidence.

We will stay the night here at our new hotel and we will decide tomorrow if we should move on or stay another day.

Yesterday we couldn’t upload any pictures due to the slow internet, so here are some from yesterday that we uploaded today.