Time Travel

… as usual the photo gallery can be found at the end of the blog entry 🙂

The benefit of not having a fixed route is – not having one. We really fell in love with Romania, it’s people and landscape. We had a great stay at Mustang Camping in Câmpu Cetăţii where we’d been invited to join the annual get together of some Hungarian families now living in Romania and were part of the meeting of the Romanian old-timers car club. The families had prepared a large pot of goulash and served some home made red wine. The goulash was great and the red wine was „special“. Apart from the food and drinks we also got some insights into the daily life in Romania.

Despite the heat we went for 2 hikes along the valley and couldn’t get enough of the untouched nature. But Transylvania is large and we wanted to explore more of this beautiful country. Going east our next stop was Fundu Moldovai just south of the Ukrainian border. The campsite „Vuurplaats“ is run by an elderly dutch couple that stays there during the summer season and escapes to the Netherlands and Morocco during autumn and winter. The campsite had a good rating on Camping.info but we didn’t really feel „at home“. They’d put up posts everywhere with detailed information on what to do and/or not to do. The street cutting through the small village was used by most cars as a race track ignoring speed limits and pedestrians. After one night we decided to continue to Breb in the Maramures. We were warned that the street would be in terrible condition and that it would take us a long time to get there. The street wasn’t nearly as bad as predicted and the scenery was breathtaking reminding me of the north western US. Arriving in Breb the only campsite „Babou“ had put up signs entering the village that the site was full and would not accept new arrivals. We went anyway and were given a beautiful spot overlooking the valley and next to an Australian couple (with kids). Babou, which is also run by a young dutch couple (like Taranomada) is the perfect place to enjoy starry nights, nature and (ancient) village life. In Breb, life takes place at a much slower pace. We got fresh eggs and vegetables from the local farmers and had 2 fantastic dinners at Mocrita, a street-food-style diner setup in the middle of the open countryside.

After 5 days in Breb it was time to start our way back towards Germany via Hungary and Slovakia. After a one night stop in Turistvandi/Hungary we arrived in Brezno/Slovakia at the campsite „Het Boerenhof“ and immediately loved the place. Free choice of the location, free running chicken and great facilities made us stay longer than planned. At this site we also met Susy and James again, the nice Australian couple that we’d already met in Babou. The world is a village. Why is it that the best campgrounds we found on our 11 months trip (so far) have all been setup and managed by Dutch folks? Guess they just know out of experience what it takes to make a happy camper.

On our way to Germany we stopped in Auschwitz to visit the Museum at the former Concentration Camp Auschwitz I. It was the most depressing moment of my live. To see (and feel) what the Nazis have done to humiliate and kill thousands of innocent women, men and children is indescribable. Looking at the political activities in Germany (e.g. AfD), Turkey (Erdogan) or the US (Trump), seem to prove that humans didn’t learn much from history. Despite having read about what happened in those concentration camps seeing the actual site and what happened in those buildings made me angry and sad. We left Auschwitz the next day quiet and inverted, reflecting on what we’d experienced.

The drive from Auschwitz to Görlitz was long and exhausting despite the perfect highway. The temperature reached almost 40 degrees and we had to turn on air conditioning for the second time on this trip. Arriving in Görlitz we were greeted by a thunderstorm that shortened our tour of the old city. Unfortunately we were too early for the Altstadtfest which started later that day but we wanted to continue to a campsite in Bautzen. We left Bautzen the next morning in heavy rain driving north to Lübben in the heart of the „Spreewald“. For the next couple 3 days we’ll stay here for some canoeing and hiking.

One Life. Live It.