Hungary Romania Bulgaria Turkey: September 98

Sounds of Istanbul

Having left Slovakia and the hills, we were now heading through Hungary on our way to Romania but this is the flat plains side of the country with many small roads to cycle with very little traffic, very pleasant it was, with many nice little villages most of them having public water pumps for us to top up our bike bottles.

The famous 650cc 2 stroke fibreglass East German Trabant were in abundance in Hungary but no where else we traveled as the other countries had such other wonderful vehicles like the Russian Lada, The Rumanian Dacia (The old name for Romania at $4000US new) the Czech Skoda and the Polish Polanska or something. Most vehicles blew out black smoke and were noisy and boring.

A sign, coming into Hajduboszormeny said Thermal Camping as we were cycling in the rain, so that sounded interesting and yes a paradise was to be found complete with 10,000sq metres of thermal warm water pools complete with hydra slides and a wave pool, so needless to say we spent two days lazing around there and only $10US for both of us including a campsite full of Germans.

Hungary along with Czech republic and Poland are in the next wave to join the EU. Understandable as it was in better shape than all the Eastern European countries visited but still quite poor by western standards.

The Romanian border we were dreading as we had heard many stories about the bribery necessary to get through and yes, the price in London for the visas was fifty five pounds each and must be obtained prior to entry, so the London travel agents said, to hell with that we were going to take a risk. As it turned out it was the nicest border crossing experienced to date and only fifteen pounds each for visas ($22.50US). Entering the first village in Romania was a sight to be experienced and after three villages of similar poverty we thought this is Romania so didn't take any film at that point but that was a mistake as the old policies of Ceausescu meant there was no money put into the non Rumanian peoples areas and the western plains were probably mainly occupied by Hungarian Romanians. The side streets were gushy mud with chickens goats, some pigs, and turkeys and the like, all over the roads scavaging what little food there was and the houses were crumbling, we had never seen anything like it before. As we progressed through Romania however, conditions became considerably better, by East European standards that is.

Heading south to Arad, the thunder and lightning was chasing us and yes caught us, to spite our waterproof clothing we still were drenched. This sign said Sofia 990kms, Bucuresti 545kms, Vienna 650kms, Budapesta 275kms and Belgrade 180kms etc. After finding a hotel, in the dark, in Arad, we actually were lucky enough to have CNN and Euronews on the TV so were quite cozy for a change.

Arrived in Deva next day, yet another disgusting industrial city where the same boring architecture prevailed. No possible camping sites so had to stay in one of those horrible hotels, this time no hot water because it is supplied by a central city burner which was shut down because some citizens were not paying their hot water bills. Crazy we thought, that they pumped hot water all around the city, they must lose so much heat doing it this way, especially in the winter.

Brasov is the city where where we would launch our search for Dracula's castle, high in the Transylvanian mountains. Visiting Transylvania was a desire Rob had for many years as it always conjured up to be a mystery bred into all of us in our generation.

Yes, we arrived at the entrance to Bran castle where the story of Dracula was set. We were lucky in being able to go through the whole place. Radu, our guide, who was the man whom we rented an apartment from also, took us around in his old Dacia car and after Bran castle it was off to Peles Castle (pronounced "pelesh") where we both experienced the most fantastic building we had ever seen let alone toured internally. Built by King Carol 1 at a cost of $240,000,000 and completed after forty years of construction only eighty years ago. The opulence and luxury is out of this world. Even complete with a small thirty people movie theatre. The suits of armour clinging to the walls and the Turkish and Indian rooms were all immaculate and authentic. The Government now owns the building and claim it is priceless. Over 250 rooms of which we viewed a mere thirty.

Arriving finally on the Black Sea coast (another area on Robs wish list of places to see) at Constantsa after a lovely cycle through the rest of Transylvania but the plains to the east were simply more smelly power plants, corn fields and inefficient farming. No wild camping done in Romania as there were plenty of cheap Motels and Hotels and no easy places to camp anyway.

A pretty horrible place Constantsa was but with a nice beach. Just a shame there is so much of every ones daily rubbish left strewn all over the place. No waste disposal companies around but hopefully someone will start up but is that too much to ask. A couple of days in Constantsa then off down the Black Sea coast to Bulgaria, a country we had been warned about with stories of roadside hijacking by gangs and no qualms about cutting your throat and stealing everything you have. Also stories that from the border guards through to the Police, everyone is corrupt and will charge you dearly just to pass. We thought the stories would be like the ones we heard about Romania.....

Well, nearly everything we heard about Bulgaria seems true. Arriving at the border was the worst experience so far. The border guards just drink liquor all day and make you wait forever before attending to your need to pass through. Lines of traffic were there before us and people waiting around for hours. It took two hours for us to get through, no visa required but they tried it on. Well so far the road is the worst encountered but there is no alternative so bumping along we went then we saw the first sign, a red circle with a picture of a bicycle in it, that meant no bikes allowed. Great, they could have had the sign earlier. Then the police at every intersection pointing at us to get off the road. We could understand why the signs were up as the roads were also horribly narrow and dangerous, so, thoroughly annoyed and discouraged by the lack of scenery and not being able to follow the coast as we would have liked that by days end, reaching Varna, yet another ex soviet style dump, a large city however, we had had enough of this side of Bulgaria and the grittiness of it all. By good fortune we managed to catch a bus going to Istanbul, loaded with Romanians looking for work down there. Weird as Rob simply asked one of the guys as the bus waited up for a minute at the lights if we could get a lift. Only $12US each oh and ecological money for the borderland (actually it was bribery money).Well the fact that we were never going to cycle into Istanbul anyway it was a good decision. Plenty of room for our gear and an English speaking Turk made everything easier.

Well, getting through the border from Bulgaria to Turkey was something we'll never forget. With the Romanians who, by the way, can only get a two month visa to work in Turkey then have to return home only to go back again and they said the bus trip takes them 18 hours for only 650kms that means they spend 7 hours waiting at borders. It was three in the morning when we went through all the same procedures to get out of Bulgaria as we did getting into it except this time being part of a group we all had to hand our passports over to the guards and line up along a white line whilst everyone's photo and face were compared then wait in another line for all the passports to be stamped yet again. All this, after waiting two hours in the cold filthy borderland area with no street lights with four other bus loads ahead of us. It was also amusing to watch the three guys operating the bus, getting US dollars and cigarettes together as the usual bribery to speed things up, or should we say, not slow things up anymore than they are. Finally however driving through the gates and into the Turkish borderland area meant more officialdom including requiring a health stamp and for us, finding out that a NZ passport requires no visa, then emptying the bus and all our belongings onto a metal table and wait in the cold for another hour for everything to be searched. A quick look however and repack everything in the bus and on our way. Wow we're in Turkey! What? 273,000 Turkish Lira to the dollar that means we are multi millionaires, just a shame a cup of coffee is 300,000.

Arriving in the middle of this metropolis at 7am the first mission was to find a bed which we did almost straight away. A grotty hotel but cheap (it was actually a brothel as we found out later & we called it Cockroach Hotel afterwards), and off to sleep for most of the day. Arising at night to find a donar kebab, like Italy, which seems to have the worst pizzas well Istanbul seems to have the worst donars. We gradually found our way around, one could spend a lifetime exploring this city. Finding a tourist office near the blue mosque seemed probable and yes we did. A sight seeing bus was really the best way for us to familiarize ourselves quickly and so we did an open top double thingy trip. A few exciting but exhausting days in Istanbul then it was time to find a holiday resort where after traveling for over a year and cycling for nine months solid we thought we would find an idyllic spot in the sun and do nothing but swim and sunbathe for days and days... and days.