30th July Gilau to Baie Mare (Firinze)

Main street cluj-napoca

We were leaving the campsite and dumping our grey water when Cass discovered an outside tap under the camper, she turned it and a huge amount of foul smelling discoloured water literally poured and poured out. It transpires that the waste water tap we had been opening for the past two months was actually only draining fresh excess boiler water (so that’s why it only trickled out). For the past week or so we had been accusing each other of missing the toilet at night and weeing on the bathroom floor, Bek being a nurse was obviously the one to clear it up although she didn’t think it was typical urine and was rather puzzled. The puzzle was now solved however as we soon realised the ‘ urine’ on the bathroom floor was actually waste water that had made its way up the pipe from the very full waste water tank, and now we no longer have puddles of ‘ urine’ on our bathroom floor!
On our way to Baie Mare we stopped off in Cluj-Napoca for several hours, while we were here we visited the pharmaceutical museum which was the site of a pharmacy until 10 years ago and still contained all the original pharmaceutical items many dating back to the 14th century when the pharmacy was established.
We later arrived in Baie Mare which is in The Maramures region of Romania and is very rural. We got slightly lost trying to find our campsite and in doing so we stumbled upon a pension (guesthouse) which only charged 9 euro each and the room had a balcony with a view of the mountains, river and countryside. We were the only guests staying here with the owner and her children.

28th July-29th July Gilau (Cluj-Napoca)

Spot the kittens amongst the tortoise and the washing

The drive from Baile Felix to Gilau was very scenic as we were driving alongside the Crisul Repede river and the Apuseni Mountains. The campsite was in a very picturesque location and had a washing machine so we decided to spend a few days here and do some much needed washing, catch up on a few camper chores and recharge our batteries. The campsite had a restaurant and one night we had trout caught in the local river which was delicious, Bek thinks she’s now mastered the word for trout in Romanian so let’s hope she has more success ordering this than a tomato and cucumber salad lol

27th July Timisoara to Baile Felix

Local transport

On our way to Baile Felix we stopped off at a farmers market and stocked up on fresh veggies, we stayed well clear of the ‘ sweet capsicums/peppers’ . During the week we purchased some at another farmers market, while preparing dinner Cass took a bite of the ‘ sweet capsicum/pepper’ and then rubbed her nose and eyes, several seconds later she was on fire, her face felt swollen and her throat constricted. Cass was doing the whole breathing thing you do after eating something very spicy but this didn’t ease things so Bek gave her some milk to cool her mouth down but after taking a huge swig found the milk had curdled. Turned out the sweet capsicum/peppers were very spicy chillis lol
We arrived in Baile Felix late afternoon and went for a stroll in the small town which was full of thermal baths and also full of local tourists. Later that night we cooked dinner at the campsite and watched a DVD while breathing in the fresh aroma of pig poo which they had used to fertilise their grass and due to the incessant rain was all over the cement to walk through lol

26th July Timisoara Romania

Timisoara square

romulous and remus in centre park

Timisoara is the birthplace of the 1989 revolution and the 4th largest city in Romania it is also famous as the city of flowers and parks. After having an ice cream in The Park Of Roses we wondered around the city which is unique as it has two large squares and was built on a swamp. The city had some lovely old buildings and many had clocks on the top, all said a different time but we weren’t surprised by this in the slightest .We were surprised however to stumble upon a street lamp which indicated that Timisoara was the first city in Europe to have electrical street lighting back in 1884.
At night we went for dinner in a pizzeria and randomly ordered two pizzas off the menu, apart from pizza we didn’t have a clue what we were ordering as the menu was in Romanian and the waiter didn’t speak any English, luckily both pizzas were nice.

25th July Baile Hercules to Timisoara Romania

We spent a large part of the day driving and were tired by the time we reached Timisoara campsite. After chilling out for a while we decided to go out for dinner unfortunately we couldn’t find anywhere open near the campsite, the campsite had a restaurant but we didn’t want to give them anymore money as they were already charging us 20euro per night which was a rip off but we had no choice as it was the only campsite in the area. We are not quite sure how The Lonely Planet came up with the conclusion ‘excellent campsite’. To make matters worse the owners were rude and miserable and drove a flash car lol Instead we watched some David Attenburgh Dvd’s and ate our new invention of egg toasted sandwiches.

24th Baile Hercules Romania

Wedding procession

Badly in need of renovation

In the process of renovation

A spa experience

Hercules (it was his favourite spa location)

Diana

We woke up and decided to have breakfast at the campsite restaurant as well. We sat down and the German came out to ask us what we wanted, after ordering ham and eggs and chips (Bek swears this is breakfast, lunch and dinner in England) we watched him leave with his back and brow dripping in sweat (it wasn’t that hot btw), after hearing copious amounts of coughing he then disappeared for a while and came back looking much better so we assumed that his wife was trying to poison him or he was suffering some ill effects from tying one on the night before! Baile Hercules is famous for Hercules and the thermal springs as well as medicinal Roman baths, so off we set on our bikes in search of these; by the smell of sulphur in the air we assumed there would be plenty of options. We stopped first of all at the tourist information and attempted to communicate with a young guy whose English wasn’t the best and whose knowledge of the area seemed to require a little brushing up so we headed out on our own to explore. The town had some lovely old buildings that badly require renovating, most unfortunately were derelict and abandoned. We saw a wedding in the town centre, the procession of cars for the wedding must have been about 50+ and all were beeping their horns continually which seems to be a tradition here, it was rather noisy to say the least! We rode to The Roman Hotel to go to the Roman Baths, the hotel appeared to be having renovations carried out as there were no cars in the car park and workmen seemed to be coming and going, however the receptionist never mentioned this and said the baths were on the 2nd floor, were open and the price was only 2.5 euros and we were to pay after so off we trundled to find them. When we got to the 2nd floor it was very dark with no lights bare wires hung from the ceiling on the floor there were ladders, bags of rubble, pots of paint and general rubbish .There were no signs for the baths and after entering many empty rooms we found the baths. The water was hot and there were no other people using it so we decided to stay, we also had chairs on the balcony which faced a stream down below and the mountains above. Bek got electrocuted in the shower although lived to tell the tale! On our way back to the campsite we stopped at another market for fruit and veg, we were less than impressed when a lady tried to rip us off by charging 2e for 4 pieces of sweet corn. That night there was a huge thunderstorm, the thunder echoed off the mountains, we were quite pleased though as it drowned out the noise of the discothèque next door and the sounds of YMCA could no longer be heard!

23rd July Donji Milanovac Serbia to Baile Hercules Romania

Spa wear

Romanian face carved in the cliff

Iron gate

Hay fields

A serbian cat

We woke up and peaked out of the campers curtains, we weren’t expecting to be greeted by a completely chock-a- bloc car park and we were literally surrounded by vehicles in every direction. Turned out it was local market day and we were in its car park, maybe next time we will pick a better place to free camp. We had our first proper wash in days in the outdoor shower and had a wonder around the market while contemplating how we were going to get out of the car park. As luck would have it we went back to the camper and a couple of nearby cars soon left so we were able to manoeuvre our way out and head to the Romanian border crossing. We caused a huge tail of traffic at immigration in Serbia as Beks passport hadn’t been stamped when entering Serbia, we also had a small hold up in Romania as customs found a gun in the car in front of us. The customs officials must have thought they had done their days work as we were waved through without insurance document or drivers license checks. The first thing we noticed about Romania were the crazy drivers, after the border crossing there were lots of single lane roads due to road works and the drivers didn’t believe in stopping at red lights, we even saw coaches and cars towing trailers skip them. More often than not our lights would turn green and cars would continue to pass from the opposite direction, we went through on an amber light once and counted 12 cars follow behind us!
We got slightly lost finding the campsite in Baile Hercules and drove through a thermal spring area which was absolutely full of local people all of who were staring at us and many were dressed in clothing which didn’t leave much to the imagination. All along the road the verge was full of cars and caravans and people selling towels, popcorn, fruit, ice cream etc there were even make shift washing lines hanging from tress which people had erected. We finally stumbled upon our campsite which was surrounded by mountains in a nearby area but more civilised (read only 2 other vans there and they all had their clothes on!) than the thermal spring area we had passed through. We had dinner that night in the campsites restaurant the shared mixed grill was lovely but we kept getting a smell of burning and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. After some time we realised the 400+ moths which had been flying near the restaurants outdoor lights were diminishing in numbers, we then saw smoke and realised the moths were getting burnt to death as the outdoor lights had no cover. We both felt tipsy by the end of the meal after the German owner insisted on us having shots of local brandy with him, this tasted pretty gross! The owner was the only waiter working but he was very drunk and we could hear him in the kitchen arguing with his wife.