July 17 -Two dogs or not two dogs

The previous day ended on a high note - the mother of the landlord brought some freshly made donuts, yummy! I wasn't disappointed with the breakfast either - eggs the sunny side up, sausage, home-made cheese, home-made jam, home-grown cucumber, tomatoes, pepper - you get the point. As a parting gift, I got a whole bag full of those donuts...can't complain about the hospitality, can I?

I spent the night listening to the thunderstorm passing above us - luckily the rain stopped, there were even some blue patches in the otherwise overcast sky. It was a scenic county road I was riding on, with numerous signs leading to various wooden churches and fortifications. I realized that I had visited a few of those on my first trip some three years ago, so I stayed on the main road. This one did start heading uphill, before the city of Targu Lapus - and soon I was at the top with an impressive view of the surrounding countryside. Right at the summit I met two cute dogs, who were not stray - they belonged to the owner of the beaten wooden hut. His profession was cheese-maker, he was stirring the cheese over the fireplace and then placing these in some clothes to dry. He gave me a huge portion to taste, cut some bread with it, it was quite delicious. We 'talked' about soccer, as much as saying various team names is considered talking. I once again was touched by the Romanian hospitality.

The hut of the cheesemaker with his two dogs (the cheesemaker himself is in the hut)

Rolling down to Targu Lapus was fun, the only thing that worried me was that there was no road eastwards, just towards south, to the main road, which I was trying to avoid. I went to a shop to get some water and it turned out the shopkeepers were of Hungarian origin, they explained that there was indeed a road towards the east, but partially an unpaved one. This area (well, actually the entire Romania) is very religious - I first visited a catholic church where a ceremony was going on - in Hungarian, there they let me climb the tower while the bells were still tolling. Then came an orthodox church, the mess-goers coming out peacefully, then, in Rogoz, was a UNESCO World Heritage church, to which I managed to find the key-holder, he showed me happily around. After some impressive culture it was time to enjoy the impressive countryside, with herds of sheep and cows were lazily gazing the thick grass.

For whom the bell tolls

Talking about animals, in a small village I heard a cat meowing, but where from? This little thing climbed up a tree and was scared to death to come down, but somehow managed to avoid being hurt on its clumsy way downwards. Once it safely landed, it still meowed loudly, ran to me (but jumped back about a feet when it had to cross a tiny stream of water); I offered it some of the cheese from the summit. It ate it quicker then I could count to three, still meowing, but in a lot deeper pitch, expressing how happy it was.

A cute little hungry cat

As predicted, the pavement did end and what followed was a bit of a struggle to ride upwards, after all, the area did get quite a bit of rain the previous couple of days. As I was pedaling, I suddenly saw two dogs right in the middle of the road. They were neither threatening, nor friendly - but I still did not want to get to bad terms with them.

Well, if you are afraid of dogs, Romania might not be the best place to bike. There are towns with stray dogs, but you will meet them in the middle of nowhere. Most are just trying to get along and are more afraid of you then vice versa. Others are a bit aggressive, they bark and then run after you, should you decide to speed away. The best thing, in my opinion, is to either ignore them or even just stop - that confuses them and they tend to retreat.

"My" two dogs were apparently just curious, they waited till I was about 5 meters away, then they both started going towards me sort of flanking me, then when I was past them, they stopped to see how I was reacting. As I chose to ignore them, they went on their business.

The surroundings were beautiful, lush, green mountains everywhere the eye could see and the tiny villages were the only sign of civilization - even the pavement was back (at least partially). I was confident that I would reach my destination towards the east, but I was wrong.

Lush countryside

A couple of villagers recommended to go yet another unpaved road, this was but 5 km long and would put me where I was planning to go, to Nasaud. This time the unpaved road got the better of me: it was really steep and really muddy. I did try to push my bike, but not even the wheels would rotate, as there was a giant heap of mud between the wheel and the frame. I turned around in defeat, found some water to try to make my bike like a bike.

There was nothing to do, except to follow the paved road southwards (some 15 km), which got me to the main road I was trying to avoid (rode there for 10 km), then turned up north for about 20 km...If you make the math, the 15+10+20=45 km loop brought me back to the exact spot, that the 5 km unpaved road would otherwise have dropped me to. I was not too happy...

Anyhow, I finally got to Nasaud, where I found a place to stay for about Eur 15 - yet again a very good deal. This time, however, I got no treats - not even a breakfast...