Thursday, Sept. 1 - Deva (Transylvania), Romania

Yesterday we drove to the Hungarian-Romanian border and camped.  Stanley picked some yummy prune plums and some grapes.  We met the goat and 2 sheep.  CGs are generally on the outskirts of towns, and people take advantage of their land to raise food crops and animals for consumption.


We crossed the border into Romania today.  The crossing was like a Chinese fire drill.  Lots of traffic (mostly trucks).  The European countries have 3 choices.  1.  Join the European Union if they are allowed.  2.  Use the euro currency if allowed.  3.  Join the Schwengen treaty (allows travel without use of passport).  Hungary has #1 and #3, but Romania has only #1.  Different countries have different combinations.  Some locals are skeptical that the European Union will survive.


The road today was very winding, only 2 lanes, with lots of truck traffic.  The RR crossings were very, very rough and in several places caused major traffic jams.

Tonight we are camped in Simeria just east of Deva, RO.  In 2 days we will visit Dracula's castle here in Transylvania.  We have 5 days in Romania, then on to Bulgaria.  The standard of living is deteriorating as we go farther east.  Saw a really shabby light rail train, probably of pre-war vintage.
Also many run-down Soviet era apartment buildings with rusty balcony railings, asbestos, few or no fire escapes, etc.

In Budapest, when the Soviets finally left in 1989, the Hungarians took down all the Soviet statues except they let the Soviets choose one to keep in Buda and one in Pest.  They put the one in Buda right by the US embassy.  No love lost for the Soviets but they're OK with Russians.


Dinner tonight was like spaghetti, except we thought we had ground beef but it turned out to be pork.