Old and new in Linz Austria

Last thursday Chrissy woke me up asking if I wanted a job driving to Romania. Now this is not the thing I normally do. I had spent the last few months working at writing and other homebound jobs, here by the beach in North Cornwall. It was a friends company that needed a van full of equipment at Bucharest airport by Monday. Within a couple of hours I was on my way to Bristol to pick up the van. I had four days to get there.

That evening, I crossed the channel at Dover and by 4 am had crossed the Rhine at Cologne and pulled over at a quiet woodland under a huge moon, the weather had turned warm, much warmer than home, and I slept with the windows open moonbathing.

At first light I pushed on. With the sunlight the land warmed quickly and I followed the unwinding road east with the rising sun. By 10 am the sun was high and temperatures in the late twenties and I baked with the sunlight on me. I pulled over when I saw a village on the way to Frankfurt with a lake. It was a pleasure to find cold water to bathe in and afterwards in the shade of some trees I slept again.

Later that afternoon and the miles clicked away toward the Austrian border, at a beautiful town on the Donner called Regensburg I stopped for lunch in the square, and watched a large group of US army students having some free time around the bars. As they headed from one tavern to another I wondered how they and the town would be with the onset of darkness.

Crossing the border into Austria I wanted to get a good nights sleep, and stopped driving at Linz where I had a hotel booked in the city centre. It wasn’t long before I was walking through the early evening light on the high street. It was Friday and it seemed the whole city had put on their best clothes to meet. Many of the shops had impromptu high tables set out with glasses of wine for the customers. On one side street a kind of Brazilian circle dance was being enacted with many joining in. I had dinner: Viener Shnitzel in a Biergarten that was packed and noisy with families, sharing a table with two students. It was good to chat and hard to leave for needed sleep.

The morning following I awoke early and again headed east into the morning sunrise, the sky a deep blue over the white topped Alps to the south. Not long and after and I crossed into Hungary and empty motorway miles across huge expanses of farms, a vista of wheat fields, green in new growth as far as I could see. Now the sun was beginning to bake on the tarmac. 32c and still before mid day. I kept the window open at 70 mph and watched the road unwind hour by hour.

Just before the Romanian border the motorway stopped. I was leaving Europe behind. As I had headed east the architecture was changing mile by mile, but now at the border the change was dramatic. I drove through pot holed streets, and overtook a mile of lorries waiting for customs. Into Romania itself and the border area was full of people trying to stop me. I had to pull over to change money, buy road tax, and get some petrol, and as soon as I stopped a man began washing the windows. I eventually changed some cash on the street, having to make fast calculations, and watch out for the swindle, that of course was attempted. At the same time a gypsy woman was trying to sell me a picture of Jesus. Eventually I got back into the van, locked the doors and was trying to clear reversing space while the washer was trying to charge me 5 euros. I turned up the radio really loud to add to my general discombobulation, and never bought a picture off the Gypsy, which was a shame.

From the border to Bucharest was about 500 miles. No motorways, hardly any dual carriageways, just village after village. Often I would have to stop for a horse and cart, the whole family aboard, and many of the people dressed traditionally. At  6 pm that night I wanted to stop for a rest and looked for accommodation. Eventually I saw a sign for a pension, pointing down a country lane. I crossed a torrent of a river on an old iron bridge and then followed signs up into the hills and forests eventually going off road until I found an old timber farmhouse on a lake. At first nobody came out, I just heard a far off dog barking, until a girl arrived to tell me they were fully booked. It took an hour from leaving the road to get back on it, and I carried on until nine when I eventually found a gothic, old hotel in the middle of a petrochemical town called Deva.

road side cheeses for sale

The next morning I was still tired, but pushed on after waking until I reached Transylvania, where I found a roadside cheese seller, and bought a loaf of bread, cheese and a small pot of honey. It gave a fine breakfast among the trees overlooking the  Olt River and sustenance for the final miles to Bucharest. I had booked a hotel in the city centre and enjoyed the chaos of trams, buses, taxis and people in the old streets, until I passed Ceaucescu’s Palace, twice. I asked a policeman eventually who directed me to the right quarter and I found my room in a modern hotel in an old residential area full of the most delightful architecture from the fin de siecle, It was all very gothic and run down and I loved the shabby horror movie houses, some now restaurants or with beer gardens in the courtyards.

I wanted to have a night out in the city. Seeing what the Bucharest night had to offer, but I was too tired, and after a walk around the neighbourhood and a beer in a courtyard bar, I slept and slept. 2000 miles 3 days.

If you enjoy my writing consider reading one of my novels. They are available from Amazon, and available for tablet, mac, PC, ipod and Kindle.

Set in the dark ages of Cornwall and North Devon, Talan is a medic and cleric travelling the monasteries and towns along the coast.