the ductile anchor: romania

Monday, August 04, 2008

romania

some of the traffic on the from hungary to romania

23-25 july
Our drive from Hungary to Romania was not just a drive from one country to another but a departure from the west to Eastern Europe. We’d seen hints of it in Czech, Slovakia and Hungary, but none of it could compare to Romania. First of all, it was our first border with check points. Romania is now part of the EU, but they are not fully integrated yet. I don’t know if they want the check points or if the EU makes them have them. Curt, no smiles, sour people passed us through without any trouble. They disappeared with my passport but at least explained that it had to be stamped ‘because from U. S.’ We needed to buy a motorway tax sticker. Some guy on the side of the road offered us one for 60 euros, almost six times what Switzerland charges. We turned him down. The woman in the petrol shop said we didn’t need one as the program was suspended. Paul had spoken to our Romanian neighbors in Vienna at length about driving in Romania and got some good advice. About the road tax, he was told that no one pays it. We didn’t want to deal with any more surely Romanian officials than necessary and decided we’d get it anyway. We stopped at the next petrol station, but no one spoke English there. (This continued for our entire stay in Romania.)

Sighişoara

Our first destination was Sigisoura where Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula, was born. We knew we wouldn’t make it that far and drove until Tim couldn’t take it anymore. We tried to find a pension but put if off for too long and settled on a new hotel right on the road. It was more than we wanted to pay, but the room was clean, large and comfortable. We discovered at lunch that eating out here is very cheap and the food is tasty, a nice change from Hungary. It took us a long time to get anywhere in Romania. The roads are rough and it's a big country. Everyone that we asked about Budapest responded by asking why we wanted to go there. So we decided to go there for lunch and so Paul could tour Ceausescu's palace and then drive south. The city was nicer than we'd been led to think it would be. Unfortunately, Paul wasn't able to enter the palace.