Day 1, Friday, May 31, 2013

Sleep like a king

A sunny morning broke and I visited the local market of Sacuieni then set off towards the east, on a small road to the town of Marghita. There is not much to be said about it, except...it was the day of school-leaving celebration, meaning there were a bunch of 18 year-old girls running around with about 2 tonnes of make-up and skirts of around 2 centimeters long. Awful. I mean awesome. Or whatever, you decide. It was interesting to note that almost no one I met spoke Hungarian...

Fighting my way through traffic, I headed south, back to Hungarian-speaking territory, through Popesti, after which I found a beautiful wooden monastery.

One of the many wonderful small monasteries, churches

This was to become my first summit, through a region called the Black Forest (Paduera Neagra). An elderly gentlemen told me there is mineral water coming from the ground - as he was right...I found a small spring - first, I spat it out, I was so surprised at the taste, but then I liked it. Later I found out that there is bottled mineral water coming from this area.

In the Black Forest

I was getting hungry and found a pretty desolate shop, they did not really have much to offer, then I asked where I could eat, they said at "Erzsi néni" (néni means auntie). It was just a private house, she was on the phone chatting with someone, I interrupted somewhat rudely (remember, I was hungry), if she really is cooking for strangers, she welcomed me inside. What followed was a huge serving of a home-made (well, of course) potato soap and then a piece of meat with french fries, to that cabbage salad, the whole thing was rounded off by a nice coffee. I was a happy camper...the thing cost me 33 Lei, which is well under Eur 10.

It was somewhat tough heading out with a full stomach, there were another 8 kilometers to the summit, but I prevailed. It was a nice downhill ride to Alesd (Elesd), finding some more wooden churches and being able to communicate in my native Hungarian.

Pretty church

My plan (yeah, I kind of-sort of had one) was to head east from there, but the traffic was horrific. Hundreds of trucks whizzing by just a few inches next to me - no biker's dream. So I made a mighty detour through small villages, meeting horse carriages (many of these), cows, ducks, storks on rooftops and seeing more wooden churches.

Getting the scare fo their lives

It rained for a few minutes, the nice side-effect of this was a beautiful rainbow; I saw it from end-to-end.

What a rainbow

Reaching an intersection, I took a long time to make a decision - and this time it might not have been the right one. I chose to go to Királyhágó (Piatra Carauli, or King´s Pass), which is a famous historical border between Transylvania and the Hungarian Kingdom. You see, it carries the name "king" (király) in its name, so I thought it to be something special. Instead, it was on a two-by-two lane highway (the same one I was before the short-cut) and reaching the summit, it was a bunch of touristy restaurants.

There was, however, a sign, saving a monastery was 3 kilometers further up. I had done some 120 km till then, so was pretty tired, but still headed up. Oh, this wasn't much of a road, not paved (as many others later on), so I needed almost an hour to get there. The monastery, though operational, was under construction and was next to a beautiful meadow. I asked the priest if I could put up my tent there, he agreed, so it was on top of the Királyhagó that I spent my second night (for free!) and slept like a kins.

What a rainbow

Wait, do kings sleep in tents?