Smederevo – Home

29.4.2013

Km counter: 45488 today: 736

Sum: 10.372 km

Days on the road: 29

Petrol consumption: 1,35 m3

N42°15’56” E024°18’31” – Home

I wake up when the sun rises and lose no time to leave. Today I want to cross Romania and Hungary and if I succeed this will be my last day on the road. But yet it is more than 700km to go to my mothers house where I want to spend my first nights in Austria. River Danube is incredibly beautiful here with its big islands in the middle of the stream. Soon I stop at a closed café with a water pipe outside to make some coffee and go to the toilet. I really have a desire to get a shower so I try the pipe but the water is too much cold. No problem I stop again a few kilometers later at a small lake and have a wonderful refreshing bath there. Feeling full power now I believe nothing can stop me. I stop at a small village to get my Serbian flower and when I want to leave the gas wire snaps again.

I smile, fix the rope and drive Suryananda horse riding style again to the next town. I ask a few people but nobody wants to help. They are not really unfriendly but just not interested at all. After some time I find a taxi driver who tells me the way to a mechanic who is close by. By now I can fix it myself, I just need the tools. The mechanic doubts if his wire will fit because he has diameter 1.5mm only an mine is 1.25… I smile at him and put in his wire, no problem. By the time I start talking to another guy who is at the workshop and who seems to be very nice. After fixing the car Danijel invites me to his home to meet his family and have coffee. As he even offers me to take a hot bath I just can’t say no. Of course we have to make a sightseeing tour after coffee and bath. The arrea is amazingly beautiful so it is late afternoon when I arrive at the tiny border station. Romanian customs can’t believe when I tell them where I come from and the official part takes less time then they need for taking pictures. I am back in the European union!

I like what I see from Romania. It is flat and green here. My eyes enjoy the gentle green and the old villages. I stop at a nice restaurant and eat my first wiener schnitzel for a very long time. I enjoy a coffee in the low sun and leave after singing a few songs for a few guys who arrived while I was eating. Its not far to go to the border, sunset is coming and I have no flowers yet. I drive for half an hour seeing no flowers at all but then, as its getting almost dark I see a wonderful garden directly at the road and an old guy watering tulips and roses. Immediately I stop. As he doesn’t understand what I am talking about I show him my dried flowers and point on a map. By now his wife came out of the house and I recognize they are a really cute old couple. Flowers are no problem, they give me some tulips as the roses are not flowering yet. I say thank you and continue as I want to be at the border before its completely dark.

The border is passed before recognized. They laugh at my craziness as usual and I am free to go. After the border I have problems to pay the road toll. System is down until 2 am but will be no problem they say, just go… I follow the navigation system which seems to be a little lost in a tiny village after the border. Soon I am at a small road heading towards Szeged – this can’t be right! But I am curious so I stay on the road. Suddenly the navigation system shows a ferry to come! Its short after dark so I hope the ferry will still be working and go on. I pass a flood dam and when the gps shows 1km to the ferry the road disappears in the black. I hit the brakes and recognize my front wheels are underwater when I stop. Again I regret having no camera for taking a picture of this situation. I nearly drowned together with Suryananda because there is a flood and no whatever warning! (The place is marked with the “C” at the linked map) I turn around and after getting a coffee and a flower I go on the highway. Traffic is ok and I have a target in front of me. I enjoy the road at night, my mind is clear and the kilometers pass quickly now. Still I am little paranoid because of the road toll story so I leave the motorway at 2 am about 50 kilometer before the border to Austria. At about 3.30 am I arrive at my mothers place. After more than 10.000 km I am at a place I call home. But home…. Isn’t that the neverending concrete appearing in the lights of suryananda? The beaches and the mountains? The mechanics work shops and the cafes full of artists?

Thank you for reading my adventures my friends. I will be back on the road soon! Hope to see you there and if you feel like I can help you with any question feel free to contact me on facebook! I also have a little surprise for all of you which will be online soon!

Save journey to all of you!

HariOm!