Next day (Saturday) I had a substantial breakfast and was back on the autobahn by 9:30 heading for Hungary. Traffic was fairly light and thankfully the road was dry making the journey much more enjoyable. I stopped for lunch at a McDonalds 90kms west of Budapest then pressed on at a good pace. Around 30kms beyond Budapest the E60 parted company with the M5 motorway and became a single carriageway road via Szolnock towards Romania. Once darkness fell, my tired eyes were getting dazzled by many oncoming vehicles with badly adjusted headlights and I decided to find a hotel for the night.
In Berettyoujfalu, 30kms from the Romanian border, I followed signs for Hotel Angela but when I found it, they didn't take debit or credit cards and I did not have enough Forints in cash. The chap on reception, whose English was not very good, said there was an ATM at Tesco (Aaagh! I hate Tesco!) just down the road. I drove off to find it but could only see a Lidl store and while turning the car round, noticed another hotel with a Mastercard sticker on the door. I parked the car, confirmed that they took credit cards and also found that their price was only €25 including breakfast whereas Hotel Angela would have cost me €55. So, for considerably less than I would have paid for just bed and breakfast at Hotel Angela, I also had a nice steak dinner and a couple of beers at Molo Hotel!
On Sunday morning I had a large plate of scrambled eggs with bits of bacon which filled me up nicely before setting off for Romania. Another diesel fill up just after Oradea and then on to Somesul Rece. I went to the Tambuc house first but the gate was locked so next stop was the Lazar house. Denisa was at home with her parents, Saul and Maria, so we had no communication problems and spent an hour or so catching up on what had been happening since I last saw them in June on a visit with Louise, Chris and the kids. I left at 3:30pm and was soon cruising down the new A3 motorway and on towards Targu Mures. After turning onto a back road which bypasses Targu Mures, it started to get foggy so the rest of the journey was at a fairly slow pace and I finally got home at 6pm.
When I opened up the house it was colder inside than it was outside! The thermometer in the living room was reading -2C but outside it felt warmer and the snow still on the summer kitchen roof was thawing rapidly with melt water dripping everywhere. I had drained as much water as possible from the pipes before I left but the taps were nevertheless frozen even though they had been left open. The water in the toilet pan was also frozen and it was the middle of the next day before a couple of electric heaters warmed the kitchen and bathroom sufficiently for everything to be defrosted. However, my problems were not over. After turning the supply back on in the cellar, I went back to the bathroom to hear water running in the shower cubicle. At first I thought the instant shower heater had frozen and split but after turning the water off again, a closer inspection revealed it was the mixer tap which had a split in it. The mixer tap was replaced the same afternoon and the house is gradually warming up again now one of the wood stoves has been lit.
It took a while to unload the car, started on Sunday evening and finished Monday. I have slept the last four nights in a sleeping bag on an airbed on the living room floor as there was only enough cut wood to keep one stove burning. More wood was cut yesterday (Wednesday) but the chainsaw was getting decidedly blunt. Today I went to Sighisoara and had the chain sharpened again (cost 7 RON - £1.40!) and I'm sure it is actually better than when it was new. Once the chain was refitted, I managed to cut considerably more wood in half an hour than I had managed in three times as long on Wednesday! Tomorrow I shall attempt to build up enough cut wood for at least a month - here's hoping it doesn't rain!
The photo at the top of this post was taken on Wednesday 12th in Danes, a small town about 10kms from Roandola on the road to Sighisoara. As you can see Christmas/New Year lights are still very much in evidence here in Romania, probably because the Orthodox church does not celebrate Christmas until January 7th. Presumably the lights will be there until January 18th - or possibly longer!
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