July 15 -Third time is a charm

The morning I had yet another look at Debrecen, still very pretty, broad roads with little traffic (at least in the center), a synagogue with a long wall full of names of those murdered, a nice museum boasting my name (Deri Muzeum) - but then it was time to leave. It was a start which I'd rather forget - I was being sent around town multiple times in the wrong direction, guess it wasn't on purpose, there are two border crossings to Romania with similar names. After close to an hour of crossing railroad bridges and crossing major roads, I was finally headed the right direction, where I finally reached the border and bought a couple of Hungaricums, the yummy Turo Rudis. The crossing itself at Nyirabrany was easy and suddenly I was in the landscape I truly enjoy: that of the rolling hills with herds of sheep. Most towns along the border were overwhelmingly Hungarian, but even now, on my second day, I still can use my native language. The road was excellent, much better than the bumpy section in Hungary, though I soon saw why - they were diligently building that section, not sure why 'my' country is not doing the same.

The first town was Value lui Mihai (Ermihalyfalva), somewhat beat of a town, where I was found a bike shop, looking for an inner tube (just in case). It was run by a lady, who was actually a watch maker, but ran the bike shop as well, we had a nice chat, she told me a lot about the relationship between Hungarian Hungarians, Romanian Hungarians, Romanian Romanians, Hungarian Gypsies and Romanian Gypsies, just to name a couple of folks. After following a major road for a dozen kilometers or so, I turned off towards Otomani/Ottomany, soon after which the first highlight of the tour happened. It was just a seemingly regular city called Salacea/Szalacs, except there was a sign saying 'welcome to the village with thousand cellars'. Well, at first I did not see a single one, but was told to turn to narrow dirt road going up a hill - and there they were: one after the other, one little cellar dug into the mountain followed the other. While they were all closed, I soon met Gazsi Bacsi and Attila, who were pushing up their bikes. I asked them if any of the cellars were open and they said 'ours will be in a minute' and with a huge key, opened the door of one. I was treated to three glasses of fresh wine, which quickly went to my head and I got more insights into Hungarians in Romania. They told me that their town has close to no-one speaking Romanian and that most kids barely pass the compulsory Romanian class in the otherwise Hungarian school. If the police is not willing to talk to them in their native Magyar, they have the right to completely ignore them.

Getting my first treat in Szalacs from Geza Bacsi

It was a nice trip towards the town of Tasnad, except for the fact that the pavement was non-existent, there was a sign saying the road will be built by 2012. Well, close, but not quite. BTW, remember the title of my first Romanian trip? 'Road (what road?) biking in Romania'. Memories were now quite vivid - but the situation is indeed improving, at times I find excellent roads, and i do not suffer as much as three years ago - though the lack of the pavement was not helping a speedy push forwards.

After a small village with a wooden church beautifully placed in the middle of a sunflower fields, I got to Astana, which had a spa, but is not to be mixed up with Tusnad, which also has a spa.

Me being surronded by sunflowers being surrounded by a wooden church

This Tasnad is on a hilltop and was a bit disappointed with the town, from far, it resembled San Gimignano in Tuscany, I often thought (and still do) that this place is related to that part of Italy. From close, though, the town has both two churches, one Protestant, one Orthodox. It was then that I met Mr. Banfalvy, who is from a noble family. The short version (and believe me, there was a long one) is that I went to a small shop to ask about Tasnad, and boy, he did tell me all that was to be known and a lot more. It turned out that his (probably) father wrote a 9-volume 'History of Transylvania', in the one hour I spent there, I think he told me information that could have filled the first three volumes or so. Well, it was a bit more that I could have argues for, but now, if you want to know the six famous people from Tasnad, do not hesitate to contact me. The one downside was that the Protestant church was closed by the time he was done.

...oh, will it rain? (answer: yes)

The day still had some amazing scenery left for me to enjoy, as I rode into the evening - but those black clouds made me somewhat nervous. I got to a major intersection at Supuru de Jos, and found a restaurant. Now the threat of a thunderstorm was imminent, and the bartender took pity on me. While his inn was closed, he did open up a room for me - first, he offered me to camp, it would not have been pleasant with the lightning. He made an excellent borscht soup with chicken, then a salad, both of which I washed off with a home-made schnapps (palinka). For the dinner plus the room I paid less than Eur 20 - yet another reason I like it Romania (compare that with the Swiss Alps, where I paid Eur 60 for a non-memorable soup and a bland piece of meat).