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Eastern Europe
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Halfway Around the World 2005
Romania
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Caucasus
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I'd been to Romania several times before, but I always had something to do, like visit my dentist or go to Bulgaria. This time I lazily wandered east, unsure how the hitchhiking would go.
Regarding the photo, this border used to one of the most infamous I have ever crossed in the world. Nagylak/Nadlac links Szeged, Hungary and Arad, Romania and it used to be crowded with stalled trucks, foul-tempered people, gypsies, prostitutes, dust, indifferent immigation officials and beggars. Now it's all cleaned up and boring.
The time before this I had walked across the border back into Hungary. The Romanian border guy poked my backpack and asked me what was in it. I said, "My life". He pondered this for a moment, felt its heft and said, "It's a very big life," and let me go.
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I have a friend in Arad who is a dentist. I begged her to let me take a photo of her smoking through her dental smock, but she refused. She doesn't work like that, but it would have been a great photo.
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She has a friend who is into rocks and he glues colorful rocks on the windows to brighten up the place
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She lets me sleep in the office overnight! It's the greatest.
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Candy bar
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huh?
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I stayed at a monastery for a night. I didn't call ahead, I hadn't reserved, I wasn't positive where it was, I arrived late since I had been hitchhiking, and yet it all worked out. When I sit at home and think about traveling like that, it seems crazy and I understand how others regard my traveling as reckless and dangerous. While there, though, it seemed perfectly normal. I can't remember seeing other hitchhikers, but I rarely had to wait for rides and I always managed to find a place to stay for $15 at most, which seemed expensive once I left Romania.
In western Romania (Transylvania) where ethnic Hungarians live, I was relieved if one picked me up because I can speak Hungarian and it is easy to communicate while I barely know three words of Romanian. On the other hand, when a Romanian stops for you and you say a few words in Hungarian, his expression changes. They assume I am Hungarian and the two don't always get along well.
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Arad's river by morning light
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The fabulous countryside
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Hitchhiking
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Road marker to the town of Humor
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The Hungarian name for this lake is "Gyilkosto", which translates loosely as Killer Lake.
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Bullet holes in the facade of a theatre on the main square in Timisoara during the revolution.
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The train and I
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My disgusting feet after wearing Teva sandals too long
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