Romania Friday 20th August

It’s your turn [so Jenny informs me] so I am writing the blog about our trip into

On our last day in Serbia we went to the supermarket to use up our Serbian money. We still had approx $20 Aust. worth of Serbian money so between Belgrade and the border we stopped and had lunch a late lunch at a restaurant on the outskirts of a village, the meal was very nice and they received our remaining money for the meal and tip.

We crossed over the border from Serbia to Romania on Monday.

The border customs man told us he had been to Australia and even to Adelaide. He chatted with us while we waited our turn to be checked out. On the Romanian side the lady police officer had a look in the camper and smiling said that the children in the photos were very nice. It was the photo of Kayli, Annie and Alexia. She was very friendly and waved us on. To our surprise the roads in Romania were better than in Serbia and we drove towards a town called Timisoara. The town was bigger than we expected and we had to drive through it in peak hour but we arrived at out campsite at about 5ish. Romania is an hour ahead of everywhere we have been so far and we still haven’t got our body clocks adjusted yet.

It was a very ordinary campsite and after setting up we relaxed and sat outside with a drink and some nibbles. It soon began to rain, blow a gale, thunder, lightning and then it poured down. We were lucky to get everything inside and wind our awning in before it got really bad getting drenched in the process.

The next day as we had seen so many times before the weather had cleared and the sun was shining and it was warm again. We drove north towards Arad and then east in the direction of Brasov. The road was one of the main roads across Romania and was newly resurfaced, but it was full of busy traffic and a lot of trucks. The new road we has been told was constructed by other EU countries to help the Romanians but it has been constructed through all the small towns and villages which must be disruptive and in the larger towns straight through the middle of the business area. So it can be quite congested with all the semi trailers, buses, campers and cars just trying to pass through on the way to their destinations.We noticed all the driveways have had to be raised to the new road and the side roads are still mostly dirt. It was also interesting to peer into the backyards of these old homes that looked as if they were still in the 19th century, with small outbuildings arranged in a courtyard containing, chickens, pigs and sometimes a horse and cart. As we drove through the countryside changed from flat farmland to more rolling hills and greener patches of forest, very nice.

We arrived at our next campsite at about 4 in the afternoon it was in the small village Aurel Vlauca a few kilometers from the main road. The campsite is set in the backyard of a farmhouse and is run by a Dutch man and his Romanian wife.

We set up next to a corn field, had a swim in the pool and relaxed. (It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it)

The next day was washing day, every couple of weeks we do a big wash when we are in one place for a few days and as it was sunny with a light breeze it was perfect. In the afternoon we chatted on the internet, swam in the pool and relaxed for a short while. [can’t work for the whole day].

Other people in the campgrounds had told us that if we got a group of 6 people together a local man in the village could take us for a ride in his cart pulled by a horse; it goes through to the next village over the river and back again. It cost us less than $6 each and went for two and a half hours. It was a great experience and a good way to see the countryside and another village. It was like turning back the clock a century or more. The roads were rough with large grooves in them filled in some places filled with water from the rain from the thunderstorms earlier. We jolted over the tracks, past cornfields, sunflowers and assorted crops, sometimes having to swing over onto the field to get past the boggy track. We stopped half way and walked over a suspension bridge while he horse and cart went further up the river to cross by a ferry. Then we walked through the village and had a drink at the local corner store while we waited to be picked up again. Our return journey took us over the ferry and back to the village.

The next day we headed off east to our next campsite. We stopped on the outskirts of Sibiu and did a bit of shopping as our computer mouse had died and needed replacing.

The shopping center was new and could rival most shopping centers in Australia. Getting a new mouse was no problem and we decided to have some lunch there. A Chinese restaurant looked good and we ate and drank for less than $20.

Driving to the campsite in the afternoon we decided to stop for a drink. When we pulled over, a ute with two men and a little boy stopped behind us. He beckoned me over to the back of his ute. My first thought was that he wanted to sell us watermelons as we had seen many stands on the side of the road, but he had a flat tyre and after much sign language I realized that he had no brace to take the wheel nuts off. After helping change the tyre we continued on to the village of Carta to our campground called De Oude Wilg [the old willow]. To be continued……