Leaving Budapest, for Cluj-Napoka (Romania) was a 300 mile route, on the main road (well perhaps the only direct road), and as luck would have it, it started raining just as we left Budapest. Now Budapest has a fair few cobbled roads, and tram lines, and as any motorcyclist knows – (cobbles || tram_lines) + rain = motorcycle carnage. Luckily we avoided any such carnage. The route through Hungary was fairly uneventful, just one car precariously balanced on the Armco barrier….
A quick detour (I’ll hold my hands up to this one) down a pedestrian road attracted the attention of the local constabulary. A quick flash of the UK driving licence, a discussion about how we were lost on route to New York, and probably the clincher – it started raining, and the nice policeman wished us a good day, and left us to continue.
The Romanian border was soon upon us (below), after a quick flash of the passport (without removing crash helmets), and enquiry as to whether we were in ‘good health’, and we were allowed to pass into Romania.
The condition of the high rise apartments changed quite dramatically – a similar communist style as other areas in Eastern Europe, but in far worse condition.
The same could be said of the driving – I think ‘them Duke Boys’ must have been employed as driving instructors following the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ remake.
The driving was fast and furious, with many overtaking drivers forcing their way into the line of traffic after their overtaking manoeuvre, others simply forced the oncoming traffic to take avoiding action.
On one particular twisty road over a hillock, their were 4 separate accidents within a 2km distance – 3 off the side of the road and down the embankment, and one in the middle of the road – a little more considerate for the emergency services!!
On the approach to Cluj-Napoka, the undertaking (on a single carriageway road) was starting to get a little crazy – parked cars and pedestrians acted as chicanes.
One particular incident happened 4 cars ahead of us; 1 car undertook, the next car undertook the undertaker, and in doing so, mounted the pavement, which launched him ‘General Lee’ style into the air, landing in the passenger door of the car that the 2 of them were trying to overtake. He then bounced between the 2 cars until he had all 4 wheels on the ground – at which point he could slow down and pull over, to exchange insurance details (or left hooks??)
So we have another 2 days of Romanian driving – looking on the Brightside, it seems to be a good introduction to driving in Istanbul……
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