Budapest,
13th of July 1998
Hi
There!
Esztergom is surprisingly impressive. The dome of the Cathedral is inside 71.5 meters high and on the outside 100 meters. Easy math to figure that the ceiling is 28.5 meters thick! Further investigation proves that in the ceiling there is about 5 meters empty space for builders and tourists to walk through. Still 23.5 meters massive stone which they carried up in the beginning of the 19th century. Except for the impressive size (100 by 50 meters floor space) its also impressively beautiful with paintings and church art.
Esztergom is surprisingly impressive. The dome of the Cathedral is inside 71.5 meters high and on the outside 100 meters. Easy math to figure that the ceiling is 28.5 meters thick! Further investigation proves that in the ceiling there is about 5 meters empty space for builders and tourists to walk through. Still 23.5 meters massive stone which they carried up in the beginning of the 19th century. Except for the impressive size (100 by 50 meters floor space) its also impressively beautiful with paintings and church art.
Sighisoara,
July 28th 1998
Hi
There!
Budapast, on one day cycling from Esztergom, is a nice city but nothing more than that. While I visit the castle hill I had the feeling of standing in Prague. The same building style, the same way of trying to attract tourists: portret and caricature painters. The rest of the tourist industry runs on what they built in honor of the Millennium party in 1896. Yes, Hungarians are a hundred years ahead! In 1896 they celebrated the 1000 years existence of the Hungarian empire. And it was some celebration I've been told!
About a hundred years after that they opened in a national park near Opusztaszer a open-air museum about life in they early days. How the Magyars arrived and what they did. They are decedents of some Mongolian race and when they started traveling they liked the Hungarian area. So they came and killed the locals and made the land their own; the way it always goes with human mass migration. This is btw the reason that Hungarian is a totally different language that that of its neighbouring countries.
On the campsite in Mako, between Szeged (Hungary) and Arad (Romania) I encounter the results of the floods that flushed Romania this year: Also here the river has been real high and now there are billions of mosquitoes. Although I'm eaten alive by those bastards, I wait a day because here I meet some real Hungarians and I learn a bit about their life. I eat typical Hungarian snack: melt a big block of bacon above a fire and let the fat drip on bread and flush away with something alcoholic; the stronger the better. Slowly I'm getting used to the heat. Last week I still complained about cold and wet, now it is 30 degrees Celsius (85 F).
And then I cross into Romania. A country for which I have been warned again and again. After 40 kms it lives up its reputation: My camera gets stolen. That's why I don't have any pictures about Hungary. But after that I experience nothing but good times!
People are willing to help, friendly and hospitable. Nobody tries to rob me or tries to do something else scary. After this experience of traveling in Romania I have the opinion - and I'm not alone - that Romania doesn't deserve its bad reputation. In what country are no thieves?
This bad reputation lives on since the 15th century when here in Sighisoara Prins Vlad Dracula was born. And he thought it funny to put people on stakes. The old city center of Sighisoara still reminds the wanderer of him. It all seems a bit creepy. But Dracula lives on in the Romanians memory as a good ruler. When the Turks came to Romania they took Dracula and his father to Turkey. There he saw (and learned) how they tortured people to death. As he grew up he managed to get back to Romania and found his country in despair. Travelers weren't safe, the country wasn't ruled, is was used by thieves. Dracula called himself king and decided to clean up the mess. Within a year he publicly tortured some people to death and after that the country was safe. It is a way to do it...
Budapast, on one day cycling from Esztergom, is a nice city but nothing more than that. While I visit the castle hill I had the feeling of standing in Prague. The same building style, the same way of trying to attract tourists: portret and caricature painters. The rest of the tourist industry runs on what they built in honor of the Millennium party in 1896. Yes, Hungarians are a hundred years ahead! In 1896 they celebrated the 1000 years existence of the Hungarian empire. And it was some celebration I've been told!
About a hundred years after that they opened in a national park near Opusztaszer a open-air museum about life in they early days. How the Magyars arrived and what they did. They are decedents of some Mongolian race and when they started traveling they liked the Hungarian area. So they came and killed the locals and made the land their own; the way it always goes with human mass migration. This is btw the reason that Hungarian is a totally different language that that of its neighbouring countries.
On the campsite in Mako, between Szeged (Hungary) and Arad (Romania) I encounter the results of the floods that flushed Romania this year: Also here the river has been real high and now there are billions of mosquitoes. Although I'm eaten alive by those bastards, I wait a day because here I meet some real Hungarians and I learn a bit about their life. I eat typical Hungarian snack: melt a big block of bacon above a fire and let the fat drip on bread and flush away with something alcoholic; the stronger the better. Slowly I'm getting used to the heat. Last week I still complained about cold and wet, now it is 30 degrees Celsius (85 F).
And then I cross into Romania. A country for which I have been warned again and again. After 40 kms it lives up its reputation: My camera gets stolen. That's why I don't have any pictures about Hungary. But after that I experience nothing but good times!
People are willing to help, friendly and hospitable. Nobody tries to rob me or tries to do something else scary. After this experience of traveling in Romania I have the opinion - and I'm not alone - that Romania doesn't deserve its bad reputation. In what country are no thieves?
This bad reputation lives on since the 15th century when here in Sighisoara Prins Vlad Dracula was born. And he thought it funny to put people on stakes. The old city center of Sighisoara still reminds the wanderer of him. It all seems a bit creepy. But Dracula lives on in the Romanians memory as a good ruler. When the Turks came to Romania they took Dracula and his father to Turkey. There he saw (and learned) how they tortured people to death. As he grew up he managed to get back to Romania and found his country in despair. Travelers weren't safe, the country wasn't ruled, is was used by thieves. Dracula called himself king and decided to clean up the mess. Within a year he publicly tortured some people to death and after that the country was safe. It is a way to do it...
Russe,
17th of august 1998
Hi
There!
Well, what else to say about Romania. It is a divided country. With in the north (including Transilvany and Siebenbürgen) a gorgeous landscape and very friendly and hospitable people. The far north is only for day tourists, the center - and culturally most interesting part - is well equipped for tourists and travelers. But to the south of Bucharest the countryside dries out. It is flat, agriculture and poor. So also the hospitability of the people dries out. They don't look at me as if I were a human, they try to find out how many dollars I'm going to bring them. I don't find it really charming. So I start cycling on a higher speed, to get to Bulgaria or better to Turkey.
Well, what else to say about Romania. It is a divided country. With in the north (including Transilvany and Siebenbürgen) a gorgeous landscape and very friendly and hospitable people. The far north is only for day tourists, the center - and culturally most interesting part - is well equipped for tourists and travelers. But to the south of Bucharest the countryside dries out. It is flat, agriculture and poor. So also the hospitability of the people dries out. They don't look at me as if I were a human, they try to find out how many dollars I'm going to bring them. I don't find it really charming. So I start cycling on a higher speed, to get to Bulgaria or better to Turkey.
View of the old city center of Brasov, as seen from the cable cabin up the nearby mountain.
The grass in the local 'stadium' is being mowed.
