Orient Express Day 31 Gyula to Buteni - 98km

I woke up at 5am to the sound of pouring rain which stopped around 6.15am just in time to start the ususal routine of packing up and breakfast at 7.00am. The ground, however, was very muddy and most people had to clean their shoes to clear the cleats.

It was our last day in Hungary and, as we set off to the border, we got lost straight away so I activated the trusty Garmin and Sheila directed us to the border. Everyone got through OK and we discovered why Edna has a mirror on her bike.

 

As we crossed over into Romania we lost an hour and about 30 years but there was an improvement in the condition of the roads.I rode today with Stirling and noticed the locals paying him particular attention.Stirling guessed they probably hadn’t seen an asian since Genghis Khan passed through town.

We had been warned about rabid stray dogs and we had our first encounter at our first food stop.

I also spotted the black sheep of the family and tried to figure out why the chickens crossed the road - I'm really not sure why!!

 

Romania appears to be fairly primitive still with farmers using scythes to cut back their fields and buildings rather dilapidated. I thought I spotted a Renault 12, my first car nearly 40 years ago, and I was later told that Renault had shipped all the equipment for that model to Romania when it was discontinued and Romania had then manufactured the car under a local name "Dacia".

We set up our tents in sunshine behind the Motel Buteni and Pizzeria Sandra and then the rain started pouring down. Some of the gang decided to rent little cottages for about 9 euro for the night but I have now become so fond of my tent that I decided to hang out in there. I probably had a little more headroom anyway. The gang sheltered on the pizzeria terrace and watched Cadel Evans take out the stage of the Tour de France.

It was Gergo’s birthday today and we celebrated with a three course meal of minestrone, pizza and fruit salad with ice cream and aerosol cream topping. Gergo was presented with a large bottle of champagne which was shared out for birthday toasts and songs in English, Afrikaans, German, Hungareian and Hebrew and then Chris presented Gergo with his birthday gift from us - all the loose Hungarian change which we couldn't change. Must have been at least a couple opf dollars worth there.. :)