The clogged Romanian Border
When I rode by a side of the road picnic area on the main highway, it took me a while to figure out what the strange structure in the middle of the picnic tables was. It was a ramp and raised area so that you could work under your car or small truck. That is a really useful thing to have in a country where many of the vehicles are chronically breaking down.
Speaking of vehicles breaking down, a fancy new Audi, which was one the cars that screamed past me as I rode through Romania on the shoulder (roads got shoulders today!) ended up wrecked alongside the road a few miles later. No one seemed to be hurt, but the car was smunched badly in the rear and on the drivers side. I didn't see the other vehicles that might have been involved, but I suspect a failed passing attempt that ended up with the Audi sideswiping an on coming vehicle and getting rammed in the back by the vehicle, probably a truck, being passed. The passing style here, as in Hungary, has to be see to be believed.
I actually used a bike path today because they were painting the stripes on the road going into Szeged
And, in a Hungarian town near the Romanian border, I used a proper bike lane
Highway 43, which runs from Szeged to the Romanian border, has a shoulder most of the way
I haven't seen many shoulders in Hungary
Mako Hungary where I visited with the family from Budapest
The Gellato Parlor is visible under the sign
The border crossing from Hungary
Folks waiting, seemingly forever, to get into Romania
Ah, road signs with distances, like Hungary, how nice!
It was educational tonight, when I walked for about an hour round trip to an internet cafe which turned out to be both very limited and blocked - for hacking - from accessing the systems my mail is on. I did send one important email message, but from another system. Walking is a good way to get the feel of a place and Arad felt good. I stopped on the way back to get a 'hamburger' for supper. It was a Florida burger, but there was no way the lady doing the burgers, could connect my pronunciation of Florida -- heh, I grew up there - with the word Florida on her sign. She had to stick her neck out the ordering window so that I could point to the word. Then she pulled her head back in saying Florida as I said it. Everybody that I have interacted with here has be friendly and helpful. No one, except at the hotel, has had much English, but that hasn't provoked anything other than smiles.
Romanian 7, which I'll be on for several days, is nicer than most of the roads in Hungary
It was very windy as you can see from the handworked fabric blowing in the wind
When I rode into Arad, all I could see where what seemed like miles of apartment buildings, but I had seen signs for relatively fancy hotels (three star) coming into town. I wanted to find an ATM (Bankomat here) to get some cash and a nice hotel to work and sleep in. I figured, correctly, than even a nice hotel would be cheap and, if I didn't find a cash source first, they could help me with that. For at least half an hour I searched for those hotels. Finally I asked an older fellow who told me, with words and language indepent hand motions, how to find the hotels.
I followed his directions, then found a sign for a three star hotel and followed the signs for it, finding a Bankomat, which gave me some cash, on the way to the hotel. I rode almost 30 mile into Romania, through several towns and this big city, and I've seen only that one Bankomat. I better take out at least a few million Lei from it tomorrow. My room tonight is 1.1 million, but heh, that is under $35 at the current exchange rate.