A big city and a big heart

With a malfunctioning brake, I made the decision to interrupt my trip and head for the town of Cluj, the largest one in my vicinity, where Mihai had recommended a bike shop, called Mures Bikes. So it was the big question how to get there, it being some 100 miles away. I missed the first bus of the day, which leaves at 4 am, I was quite asleep at that time, the next bus would have been around 4 pm. So I was somewhat lost in Borsa, when I saw a hatchback taxi - maybe the driver would take me there. The guy and I did not become the best friends. He was not very talkative and his asking price was 350 Lei for Cluj, after some haggling we settled for 300. He did not trust me at all, he wanted to be paid upfront, then sat in there, turned on some pretty nerving gypsy music and off we went. He was a pretty good driver and the car (a Ford Focus) had an acceptable engine; still, we needed cloe to 3 hours to get to Cluj.

There I got lucky, as I spotted the bike shop by accident. I explained all the stuff I wanted fixed and got a rental bike, so I could visit the town during the repair.

The town in impressive, with a number of catholic and orthodox chruches, the national theather, having a huge statue of King Matthias, his birthhouse and some pretty pedestrian zones. There are some seven universities, lots of energy and young people walking around, who speak excellent English. It was the largest of the towns I was on this trip so far and I felt somewhat overwhelmed. It was an exceptionally hot day and I had a nice limonade and a not so nice salad at one of the restaurants. There was a lot of Hungarian to be heard and when I asked an ice-cream vendor, she sent me to some great Hungarian restaurants, called Bulgakov and Kaja-Tanya.

I had a beer at one of them, too bad I wasn't hungry.

Going back to the bike shop, my bike was still being worked on. The owner and I did not make best friends either, even though I left quite a lot of money there, buying a new saddle, rear tire, a saddle bag and paying for all the repairs, I left some Eur 150 there. A smile would have made me feel better - he practically kicked me out of the shop. It is not my fault that his mechanics - who spoke Hungarian - were slow.

When I came out of the shop with the repaired bike, I honestly did not know where I was heading to. It was then that a small pick-up stopped and I asked the driver if he would take me to Dej, towards the north, about 50 km's away, towards the direction where my bike broke down. Had he said no, I'd probably have headed somewhere else. However, Gregori, as he later introduced himself, gladly let me sit in his car.

He was a super guy: listening to classical music, he told me he was working on various charities. This time, he was running various errands for his relatives, we stopped to buy a motorcycle tire, to pick up and drop off a washing machine, get some extra patrol in a cannister for yet someone else. In all, he had a great heart. The relatives we met were all very glad to see me, they gave me some snacks and to drink and offered me God's blessing. We drove north of Dej, towards his parent's house, but before that, we visited a monestary ran by women. Judging by the gravel road, I was expecting to find a tiny church, but instead, it was a huge place, with multiple buildings, the oldest one being over 300 years old. The nuns, when they saw us two guys show up around eight in the evening, greeted us, offered us to eat (which we declined) and then showed us around.

Then we got to the house of Gregori's parents, located amoungst some peaceful, tranquile hills. Some of the village children set around in the middle of the road, as there was practically no traffic. Gregori, next to working for the charities, is a hobby beekeeper and is growing flowers. His parents also have cows, pigs and grow a large number of vegetables. As it was the end of the day, he offered me to stay at their house - and I took on the generous offer. He left back to his family in Cluj, while I chatted with his father, who spoke some broken Hungarian. It is a world language, after all.