Sleep Deprivation

I got a wee single room in a hotel last night – more because there wasn’t a handy campsite nearby rather than lack of sleep but sleeping was definitely an added bonus! And staying here again tonight because today I’m going on a steam choo choo train and I’m very excited.

In my head I have decided that there are 4 categories of dogs in Romania –

1. Behind gates and fences and like to bark a lot – where the gates and fences belong to houses pretty sure that if owner invited you in and introduced to  the dog(s) they would mostly be friendly – don’t quote me on this as it has not been put to the test yet.

2. The ones that wander round villages, towns and anywhere in between until it gets too hot and then they just flop themselves down – none of them look underfed so far so I wonder if they’ve got homes somewhere – rarely bark.

3. Sheep / cow etc sort of dog – the dogs aren’t there to just round the animals up – they are there to protect the animal – if a shepherd is with them the dogs don’t seem to be a problem – not that I have seen so far.

4. As no 3 but with no shepherd there!!! Not come across this situation yet and hopefully won’t if I stick to the main roads – I’m told these are the dogs I need to avoid as these are NOT friendly!

Now most or all of the above will bark at some time during the night  – like anything else I’m sure you get used to it with time but wish they wouldn’t- it’s not all night but most of it – but at some point one will start and it continues from there – it’s kind of the dog’s equivalent of the dawn chorus just much much louder, nowhere near as nice to listen too, most of the hours between dark and dawn and it’s keeping me AWAKE!!!

Four mornings ago I left Sapanta where the Merry Cemetery is and managed to get some better pictures of the church in the morning sun.

I cycled to Breb where I stayed for 3 nights and then onto Viseu de Sus, where I am just now – roads not too busy and beautiful scenery. This area is much more traditional and the older ladies, especially are dressed in traditional skirts and patterened head scarves.

Breb is in the Maramures – a wee village only a few k’s off the main road and when you reach the village it is made up of a sprawling net work of dirt track roads. It’s got a fantastic wee campsite and hostel – very basic but beautiful and really friendly – Bram who runs it is really helpful. All my camping / campervan friends (as long as you don’t have a big beast of a van) this is a fab wee place to go. https://baboumaramures.com/campsite/

Amongst other things the Maramures is famous for it’s wooden churches – the one at Surdesti was once the tallest wooden church in Europe and the painting inside is incredible – it was great to leave the tent and panniers  behind at the campsite and do a loop on the bike to see it. https://www.komoot.com/tour/1137607828?ref=aso

It was a shame to leave the campsite yesterday as I’d met some lovely folk there but time to get moving. On my 2nd night I got invited over to a German couple’s campfire – he used to do a lot of touring on his motorbike and especially liked the gravel roads – now they have a wee Ford 4 wheel drive with a fab lift on / off camper van on the back and have taken it all sorts of places including the sand tunes in Tunisia. The next night we were joined by a Dutch couple and a couple from Scotland and it was great hearing about their adventures and where they had been. The Dutch lady was a retired opera singer and a great story teller – she trained for 2 years in Glasgow and knew the word “wee” because if she didn’t hit a note her teacher would tell her “it was a wee bit beyond her beauty” – she also told about when her first child was very little her husband would travel with her to look after the baby while she was on stage – at interval she would rush off to feed the baby – this in turn led to the German lady establishing what a wet nurse was in German, English and Dutch.

Folks are busy in their fields – families working together at weekends – not a lot of mechanical machinery is in use. Every where you go, you will see someone walking or cycling with a fork and or rake and or scythe in their hand or strapped to their bicycle.

Yesterday I sheltered at a bus stop when a thundery rain shower came on – I was joined by an old man who was on his way home from the fields – one of yesterday’s new word’s “ploua” – raining. Before he got back on his bike he mimed that he was going home for a wee alcoholic beverage!

My other new word / phrase from yesterday was “Strada principala” – main street – when a very helpful lady pointed me in the direction of the monastery I was looking for when Google maps took me to a nice wee church instead – she was the perfect person to learn a few words from, and I mean this in the best possible way – she was loud and clear and pointed in the direction I needed to and repeated the directions at least 4 times.

Since arriving in Romania I’ve stopped at a lot of churches – for no religious reason – I just like the architecture and there are so many different ones.

Yesterday I was flagged down by Nicholas from Netherlands – in his 60’s, wearing a once white t-shirt with a hole in it – he was on his way to Moldova in his old campervan. He was interested in where I was going and that I was travelling just by bike – he regularly spends time in Moldova because he prefers the simple way of life, similar to the area we were in, in Romania ie working the soil by hand; not as consumerist as the Netherlands are – he blamed the EU for the way the Netherlands is and thought the UK had done the right thing for getting out. Although I could understand his liking of the simpler life I wonder if he was looking at through rose tinted glasses?? Interesting a friendly gentleman all the same though.

And today Bertie was abandoned while I went on the steam train from Viseu de Sus to Paltin – the trains were used to take logs down to the town. Fab wee day out.