Destination: Toplita
Starting Location: Near Route 15
Today’s Kilometers: 14.00
Trip Kilometers: 229.95
SEMI-REST DAY
09.06
Dayend GPS: 046 55 32.0 N 025 21 13.6 E
Altitude: 690 m.
And that is: Hotel Mures, Toplita
Distance advanced: 9 km.
Weather: Sunny throughout the day, road hiking was warm by 1000. Gotta get up earlier, I think.
Up by 0615 and walking by 0715. Reached my goal, the first reasonable-looking hotel or pension that I came to in Toplita, shortly before 1000.
The walk was uneventful, the exciting bit coming when the local bum or drunk in the village Vale accosted me and tried to make friends. I was happy to chat with him as far as our non-mutual languages allowed us, but three times he asked me for money, and three times I lied to him and told him I had no idea what he was saying. He eventually went away, to bother some one else I suppose.
I know it’s a cliché, but the wildflowers around here are amazing. In one field you can see yellow, white, and violet.
I was going through a mixture of countryside and houses strung along the road, which was a major two-lane called Route 12. The going was easy enough, and there was plenty of shoulder in case traffic came up behind me. Most of the people with obvious rural business – in a tractor, hauling a trailer with wood – would nod or wave hello. The only bothersome part was that from time to time one of these two-horse wagons would clop clop clop up behind me, and I would have to get on the shoulder for THEM. I don’t mind being overtaken by automobiles, but by a pokey two-horse wagon, it’s a little depressing.
Toplita seems like a nice enough town, not hugely rich but with all the basics, and when I got there lots of people were out enjoying the sunny warm weather. Although I have heard some people speaking Hungarian, I can’t say that now that I am in Haghrita province, which is supposed to be outpost of Hungarian settlement, I feel like I’m out of Romania. All the signs are in Romanian and only a few seem to have a Hungarian translation with then.
Farm buildings and wildflowers, Mures River Valley. Getting tired of the wildflowers yet? Wednesday, June 09, 2010
However, in people’s gardens I have seen garden gnomes, my first time in Romania. If my kid Max is having this read to him, I looked to see if Kat or Mrs. Munson were around, but I didn’t see them.
I saw my first example of hotted up Romanian teenage girls. My first reaction as a pair of them walked by was smelling their perfume; after while walking your sense of smell is supposed to improve. On the other hand, maybe they had just overdone it. The second impression was: “Not nearly as pretty as in Ukraine” followed by “Look, they’re wearing flat shoes!”
Once in the hotel it was time for some strategy. After the last two days of pounding I decided today was a good day to give the feet a bit of a rest, so by 1200 I had all my chores completed and was in the hotel catching up on the journal. Chores included:
Getting all clothes washed at hotel
Buying a bit of camp food
Buying a bit of town food
Buying a couple of pairs of light socks, what with the warm weather
Changing money
Putting more money on the cell phone
Two lessons learned:
1.In Romania, when you change money you have to have your passport with you.
2.In Romania, the way you put money on a pre-paid phone is go to one of the bazillion shops that offer the service for your provider, give them your phone number, and they add on the credits. You pay in Lei but they count in Euros. This is different from the former Soviet Union, where you just buy a little card with a code, punch the code into the phone, and your account updates. Live and learn.
So now I am considering how best to make my way south. From the map, it looks like the straightest approach is a roadwalk to Gheorgheni and then Miercuiea Cluc, but that would be 3 days of very hard walking or 4 days of moderate walking. Adjacent is the Gurghiuili range, and further south the Haghrita Range. Both look like logging centers from the map, I don’t know how enthusiastic I am about walking some more logging roads.
I’ll consult the guide and the timetable, and sleep on it. How happy the feet are will also be a factor, I can feel them toughening up, but I can also feel that they would really appreciate a couple of days off, and I can’t really give them that. We’ll see. "Boola Boola!"
Stefan Korshak is a reporter and blogger at Trail Journals. You can read his blog entries at http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=311030
