Drobeta Turnu Severin-Cetate and the small rural villages - 2nd June 2010

I had forgotten to mention that, from the border of Serbia, limetrees perfume the air, from time to time.

I spent the day crossing rural villages, horse and donkey-carts, old men and women on their bench, dogs...of course, gooses, former water-wells, brand new and colourful schools and churches, youngsters with their mobils : a funny feeling of being in an old magazine of rural Romania from the 70's on which someone would have pasted brand new roads or buildings, cut in a current revue. I'm not sure but I think that this part of Romania benefits from new european fundings (confirmed by all the EU symbols and signs that I can see everywhere). In the end of the afternoon, people gather to have a "rural after-work" beer and they park their vehicles in front of the bar : horses, donkeys, scooters, bikes, old cars and Mercedes, carts...!

I really get tangled up between romanian and serbian-croatian-slovenian languages. Thanks to the strong wind in my back, I reached Cetate quite quickly to sleep in a place called Angel Park, that Joelle (a french woman who made this trip 2 years ago) told me about : a kind of residence for artists where you can rent a room, along the Danube. I'm a little bit disappointed, because the place is quite empty. But a weird story illustrating inflation and deflation in Romania happened : I asked for the price of the room and one woman answered me in German that it was 10 Euros. I asked her if dinners and breakfasts were included and I understood "13 euros, alles". I agreed with her. A few hours later, she converted into Lei (the romanian current) the price and it occured to be 30 euros...which is really a lot for me and for Romania. So I started to explain that it was too expensive (I already had the dinner...). I was quite upset but she kept saying "tariff tarrif...Herr Direktor..Tarrif". Then, I suggested that I should leave the room, then. But she answered (in german) "No, no, go to sleep ; sleep well and tomorrow, it will be maybe 10 euros"....So I went to sleep and when I paid in the morning, it was indeed 10 euros...!?!

NB :

1/ I saw a very old woman, wearing wool tights, socks, a skirt, a cardigan and...a football shirt of England above it (number 07) !

2/ Have a pee-break in Romania : Find an empty small way beside the main road, look around to check whether there is somebody or not. If it looks desert, then start to do what you have to do. Stand up and prepare yourself to greet the guys who suddenly appeared from nowhere...Ride again your bicycle as if nothing embarrassing happened !