06.06.23
Since my Travel Younger GROUP documents our day to day travels, I am also sharing them here:
May 28, 2023
Back in the saddle again! If you’ve been following our journey, you may know that last year Kathleen and I rented a small BMW 310 GS motorcycle and spent 88 days traveling from Southern Turkey into northern Greece, where we stayed for a month. We rented it in Bucharest Romania and finally returned it last October. Well, if one time is so much fun, two times must be twice as much fun, because I just picked up another bike today in Romania, only this one is bigger: a BMW F750 GS. I spent all of one night in Athens, mostly at the airport(!), flew to Bucharest, and Kathleen will stay in Athens for six days, and then we will meet in Budapest Hungary. She gets to fly, and I get to ride through the amazing mountains of Romania.
For those of you that are motorcycle lovers or would like to try, I cannot speak highly enough of Romania. They have two of the highest mountain passes in all of Europe, and we were on one, the Transfagarasan, in 2019, and tomorrow I will visit the other one, the Transalpina. My journey may be shortened however since the roads are just now starting to open after the winter snows.
My short flight from Athens to Bucharest was flawless, and as I exited the baggage claim, I was reminded so clearly why we do not check luggage! You can check out the picture.
This is the start of a whole new chapter since we will be on the bike until the third week of August, and then start our journey to the other side of the world. Hope you can join us!
May 29, 2023
Waking up under cloudy skies, seeing raindrops on the cars, and looking at a pretty iffy weather forecast was not a good way to start, but you have to do what needs to be done sometimes, right? I was able to find the rain gear and pack everything up nice and secure, but I was pleasantly surprised that I ran into no rain! Because it was not a good day to handle twisty roads or look for scenic views, I decided to pass on the TransAlpina for now. We will return to Romania near the end of our trip in August, so I will make that trip when the weather is more cooperative.
Even so, I decided that the town of Sibiu would be a good destination, since Kathleen and I were here in 2019, and found it charming. Like many European towns it has a big open square with restaurants surrounding it, which truly makes you feel like you are an old Europe. Finding a room for the night proved to be more challenging that I’m used to, since none of the addresses they had on the bookings website actually existed, and signage was nil! I found a nice one by talking with a local, and it worked out great.Sibiu is a unique Romanian town, with a strong Germanic influence. It consistently gets rated as one of the best towns to visit in Europe, and I can see why. They have unique architecture that “looks” at you as you walk down the street…kind of eerie. Since I got an early start this morning I skipped breakfast, so was pretty hungry for a good lunch. I took care of that with the largest schnitzel I have ever seen, along with a lemonade, followed by a nap to catch up some much needed sleep.
May 30, 2023
Sometimes we read horror stories about lodging while traveling as a nomad, so today I am sharing a good story! And it proves that you can never judge the inside from the outside.
I left Sibiu (Romania) about 0900 and my Maps said that Timisoara was about 3 hours away on the highway. After about 45 minutes of boring driving, I said, “forget that,” and changed my route options to exclude highways, so took one of the alternative routes instead. That added another 90 minutes to my journey, but it was worth every second as I explored some magnificent roads and scenery in Romania. The day started off beautifully, and it stayed that way, with some light clouds but no rain.
My destination was Timisoara, a town that Kathleen and I visited back in 2019 when we first started our journey. When I pulled up in front of my lodging, I was very confused, which was compounded by the fact that the road in front was totally torn up by construction and not a sign to be seen anywhere! You can watch the video and see what I saw, but the room exceeded my expectations for all of $28 USD. Come to find out it is not a hotel per se, but just an apartment in a building and it is quite lovely.Meanwhile, while looking for restaurants, I found one called Meat Busters, and it was right in the old town. Perfect! This town square must be a carnivore’s heaven because there were 3 burger places within 50 ft, but I ate at one around the corner called E10, and it was the first TRUE burger I’d had in months! As much as I like Albania, and Saranda, finding a good burger was an Impossible Dream.
May 31, 2023
Szeged: another town, another town square, but this time in Hungary, the land of my mother’s birth. This is my heritage, and I’m in the process of trying to obtain citizenship, but am being challenged by bureaucracy and the lack of some documentation. Regardless, the first and only time that I was in Budapest was in 2019 with Kathleen, and we had only been traveling for 6 months. Hearing the Hungarian tongue spoken around me brought me to tears since it was so reminiscent of my mother, who passed 14 years ago.Budapest was terrific, we spent about 4 days there, and will be staying for about 8 days again starting tomorrow. Meanwhile this town of Szeged (the s is silent) is the third largest city in Hungary, and the home of one of the largest and best universities. And I was pleased to find a cat cafe! Something that is always cool to encounter. I got into town very early, my room was not ready, so I hung out with the kitties for about 2 hours. They are still beta testing the cafe, not formally open for business, and the owner was very kind and obviously trying to create a good presence and asked for my feedback.
While I was waiting for my room to be ready, another great room BTW, I walked to the Town Square, which was very cool and full of restaurants, though not like the two towns I just left in Romania. The population is supposed to be just under 200,000 and about 80,000 our students, so that should certainly help the energy here.
After staying in four different cities over four different days, it will be nice to have 8 days in one place! Then it will be onward to Zagreb, Croatia, followed by Slovenia, a country I have been wanting to visit and look forward to.
June 4, 2023
After 4 1/2 days on the road and about 940 km/ 584 miles, I finally rolled into Budapest under beautiful sunny skies. Thursday was the first day of the ride where there were few clouds and the weather was comfortable. It was very uneventful and I got to our room about 1:00 p.m. and found it ready to go, always a nice surprise! It’s in a beautiful part of town with amazing architecture all around us, and more eateries within walking distance than we could visit in a year’s time. After relaxing and unpacking, I went to pick up Kathleen at the airport, and her Athens flight was right on time. We have 8 days to explore Budapest, or just relax…Kat and I both agree that hitting all the sites/ attractions is not as important as it used to be. Because we are always on the go, sometimes it’s nice going to a coffee shop and relaxing, or going through a market. We found a large mercado where they have fresh produce and eateries over three floors, and whereas they used to be bargains, I think they now cater to tourists and push up the prices.
We returned to our room to leave some of our stuff and to take a nap and the plan was for Kat to go out and shop without me pacing back and forth. We got back just in time, no sooner did we get back and the sky erupted with hail, and the thunder boomed overhead! Thank God that didn’t happen on the way into town…June 6, 2023
Seven miles yesterday, 6 miles today; no question, Budapest is a great walking town! You can go for blocks and blocks and constantly be amazed at the churches and synagogues and old buildings on every street.
We just connected with Johnny and Roxanne, friends we initially met in Romania, then again in Croatia, and they’ve been here for 3 months, (for their third time), so they love this town and were kind enough to show us around a bit. Last night we met with some other friends, John and Nina, who we met in Albania and they are here as well!
The town has two sides, a fact that I learned when we were here the first time in 2019. Buda is on one side of the Danube River, and Pest is on the other. Yesterday we walked along the waterfront up to the Budapest Parliament, one of the most prestigious buildings we’ve ever seen. Since summer is starting, we came across a music festival, so checked that out for a bit, and today we went to the Buda Castle, which we did not visit our first time. The place is ginormous and it still houses the Royal crown.The weather has been pristine, today a bit cloudy with just a few sprinkles, but nothing threatening. One of the things that pleasantly surprised is their extraordinarily large cups of coffee, after having those picayune cups in most other places! Prices are reasonable, but nothing like what they were in 2019…
