Where am I?

Sometimes I have to pinch myself; am I really in Romania, or maybe in Germany, eventually in Hungary. On this day my preference for this country went up yet another couple of notches.

After an abundant breakfast at the hotel (I think I had a little - and not just little - of everything), I went to a bike shop, where another Mihai was in charge. His technician wasn't there, so he rang him and an elderly guy of Hungarian origin, Erno, showed up. Honestly, I did not have high hopes, but he turned out to be a master of bike repair. He took care of my axes, repaired the spoke, centered it and installed a new seat, all of this for 25 Lei (or Eur 6). I remember in Munich, the bike shop charged me Eur 25 for getting the tire replaced (plus the cost of the tire); I gave him a tip equaling the labor cost.

It was yet again noonish when I packed up, flirting with the three ladies at the reception of the hotel and did yet another tour of Sighisoara, this time going up to the tower to enjoy the view. Beijing, according to a sign, was 7,007 kilometers away.

At around 1 pm I left the town eastwards on Highway 13; this day won't go into history as my most productive biking days. You see, it was a national highway where biking is officially forbidden, but we're in Romania, where rules are a bit lax; I took over multiple horse carriages which are also not allowed on that road. I reached Saschiz, yet another on that UNESCO list, but the church wasn't open. It wasn't bad of a ride, just the occasional truck diver expressed his opinion of my riding there by honking at me, but the nature itself was pretty; the map has it as a scenic highway, which it is. I made a small detour to Cloasterf, where I got lucky: the bearer of the key, a lady with a cute (and a not so cute) son was there, she let me visit the entire structure, including the bell tower (which I of course rang).

Good weather gave away to some grey clouds, those to some even darker ones, when it started raining - just a bit. You could see lightning and hear the thunder and I thought I was really lucky to have just avoided it. When the rain was over, I even stopped to take some nice photos of the passing storm. What a lucky fellow I am, I thought...or am I?

As I looked up, I saw that the clouds I thought to have passed turned around and were heading right towards me. It started raining - what raining, hailing - and my only hope was a little village not far away. I got soaking wet in about 10 seconds, somewhat later estimated it rained 50 liters every square meter, but I did not actually check his measurement. I was quite hungry, hoping to find a place to eat, but I reached the other end of the village not seeing anything. I turned around, entering a tiny little grocery store, dark inside. I failed to see the woman sitting in the corner, she did not even stand up as I entered. She explained they had to turn off the light during the storm.

So I spent the next hour and a half, waiting for the downpour to stop, having a "lunch" of white bread, some cheese and ham; standing in my wet clothes (there was no place to sit), while they did not let me put my bike to the covered garage - no idea why; but I found a spot where it stayed relatively dry. It was around 6 pm by the time it had stopped.

Viscri is a town not only on UNESCO's list, but also on that of Price Charles of Wales, he bought a guest house here. As I headed the 10 km from the main road, I understood why. It was perhaps the nicest countryside I have yet seen in Romania...then I spotted the village, finally the fortified church. In the span of five minutes, I saw horses, turkeys, ducks, a stork on a rooftop, dogs, cats - probably just like in the 12th century, when the church was founded. Tranquility is probably the motto of this little village...it was an old lady holding the keys to the church, she expressed her surprise in perfect German at someone coming that late in the day, but nevertheless handed me the keys (which I did not lose).

So I was in a UNESCO World Heritage site all by myself and felt like a little boy. There are numerous towers, gangways, alleys and I had to check out each. Especially the church tower was exciting, I really (really) felt like being thrown back a few centuries in time. The view of the surrounding countryside is still in front of my eyes.

Then I found a rustic place to stay (for 40 Lei), where a 3-course dinner was served (for another 40 Lei), consisting of everything home made and grown. There was a soup, a delicious chicken with a number of side dishes, desert, then all the schnaps, wine, elderberry sirup you could drink - which I enjoyed with a friendly French couple. Now I can hardly walk. And I got a laptop, where I am writing this from, welcome to the 21st century. Am looking forward to a nice shower and a good night's sleep.