Getting to EXIT!!!

To get there in time, i set a side my hitchiking way for a couple kilometers and took a train to Timisora. But i did the last 300 km hitchiking again. Speaking of hitchhiking, today loads of them arrive in paris from different destinations! check out the 888 project!

So after a shity journey on the train, fighting with ticket contolers wanting to sell me a couchet. They would wake me up, yell stuff about a 25 lei couchet and other words i did not understand... I said i only have 14 left and showed my wallet. But that didnt help the dude kept waking me up and in the end, at about 1 am, he draged me in an empty compariment as a 14 lei couchete... of course it was a ripe off... The controler for this cariage was not the same and wanted to send me back to my original place. I played stoopid and went back to sleep. Then it was just unceesing doors opening, train shaking, neighboors loud talking and no sleep. Until at 4 i was sleeping and this time the police woke me up for id check... Told me to watch my stuff... yea thanks...
At about 4.30 the controler came again, this time with other guys checking the guys who check tickets... And they forced me back into my original compartiment... their i got a couple hours aof bad sleep before getting to Timisora...

A mall at 9 am, nothing except a long queu for passports (shops open at 10....)
Cathedral.

A fountain next to wich i sat for a while and watched people come by, some of them coming back. A police man, a gypsy, an old men, a kid, a mother...

Timisora Streets.

I then left Timisoara about 12 to get to EXIT. Yea EXIT Festival, gona be good times! After paying a ride to the next town, my last 7 lei, suporting someones studies. Passing the greatest Pork farm in the east. Seeing all the corn Fields with GMO Corn from dear Pioneer.... I get to the border with an other young very kind ride.

At the border, the Customs officer helps me to get a ride to Novi Sad. Everybody at the border knows where i am going and we have a good laught, they wonder about my trip and are quite astonished. Any how i thank them for my second ride with a truck driver. Little Serbian conversation. It is his birthday and he offers me what is left of his bottle of Brandy!!

The Exit starts well. I have a couple beers in a park meet some Bosnians and get real drunk but that a storry for tomorrow.

Old forteress of Novi Sad! EXIT FESTIVAL :)

Visiting Bucarest

After the rain finaly stoped, Andrei takes me and Criss around town. With loads of explanations and comments he makes it a great journey trough town.

River Side
mmm Comunist architecture!!!
Mad max like old factories in the sunset.
La Ruine, Some buildings here have a big red dot on them, this means that in case of an earth quake, they WILL colapse.
Inside la Ruine.
Chicha and tea with Andrei and Criss in that beautiful hall.
Yellow ligh through the glass roof.
A Bucarest street....

Getting to Bucarest, meeting Criss

Now I decided not to hitch hick down to bucarest, but rather to rest, eat shower and do a bit of blogging at Denis place. This is also because Deni himself is going down to Bucarest by train to meet friends and go to the sea side.

Train ride to Bucarest with Deni, it is raining again...

And now it is sunny again... (check out the endless sunflower fields...)

The sun plays hide and seek, or gods creation as Frances would say ;)

Bucarest Thunders...

Tonight, after droping my stuff at Vasiles, the couchsurfer hosting me in Bucarest, I get to eat some warm food with Andrei in the center. After so many days in the mountain eating bread, we are very happy to get some warm food, him especialy since he ate almost nothing today. He tels me the end of his adventures on the ridge : the water shortage and the thirsty dog, the sun, the pain in the feet and a the adventurus night down at the refuge (a couple hours walk before the bivuak).

Later that night, I meet some of his friends and talk, mainly about blogs... Can i make some money with my travel blog?? maybe, but it is hard, especialy since i have only couple visitors... You need to know some other blogers and exchange traffic... And change the white on black thing, nobady reads that, to painfull. And you need to use highlighting :). I try to ever since but sometimes forget...

We the go to pick up Criss at the bus station. She just arrived, it is midnight and she has been on that bus about 40 hours... we didnt see each other for more than 2 years and now meet again in Bucarest!!! She is here for a photoreportage. Andrei and his friend then kindly drop us at Vasiles place.

At Vasiles, we drink a couple beers and talk more. About photography, about bloging, websites and working traveling. Vasile also wonders why and how i travl alone. I try to explain once agian that you meet more people. He says you have nobody to share that with later... sure thing, but for now i have Criss! :) we argue a bit into the night and I catch up with Criss, so much time, so much to tell :)

Anyhow, it is 4 am and my mind is busy with figuring out how i could make little money out of the blog and where i could get a good camera. Vasile and Criss with their brand new EOS 40D made me jalouse and feel like an amateur with my old small Elph...

Walking down

The Bivuak in morning light.

This park has lots of Orhids but i did not earch enough and saw only those flowers by the path.

Muuuu
Imagine a little bit of snow here.

The sun is shining again, and i finaly get to the valley were Deni will pick me up!

End of the Ridge

Finaly, the end of that other very long day, loads of pictures...

Still walking the ridge, sun is setting slowly, luckily for us... and we can see the end of that ridge


Something like the blue mountains next to sydney....

The path up, sometimes steep, rarely shaded like here

Looking down, evening wind blowing up.

Looking all the way back... the right is not even were we started.

Taking a break on the ridge, behind us, it goes down down down.

Finaly it is fresh and we know that after about 10 h walking, we are getting realy close!

5 minuits to the bivuak!!! sitting down, checking out the view!

Group picture!

The sun is setting now...

and i can hold it in my hand :)

One final view down on the valley before we get down to the hut on the other side for a rich dinner, lots of laughter and a good (so we hoped) night of sleep!

New compagions on the ridge

Back on the ridge after getting more water, i meet an other group of walkers, three of them, younger, faster. They will get for sure to that last bivuak on the ridge will Andrei and Alex are more into taking their time, shooting pics and enjoying the view. I join them for the rest of the walk.

Looking back...

Walked quite a long way in the blazing sun allready...

but there is much more to come...

A lot of sweating later we are much closer but not quite there yet. But it is getting a lot fresher so it makes it easier and more confortable

"all roads lead to Rome" i guess i took the official, easy way but in the end even if you have to climb down a bit, its all the same :)


Walking the ridge...

Another look forward
Another alternative to the official way :)
Rocks rocks rocks.... under the blazing sun

Starting the ridge

Early wake up, today will be a day of encounters and walking. The walking needs no words so today, for your eyes pleasure, more pictures than words.

Morning Light, view out the huts window.

First break, from left to right, the dog who decided to walk along with Andrei and Alex.
Walking in fresh woods, blury movement.
Check out the left hand, can YOU see it? i didnt until saw this picture. Still beautiful clear morning light.
View on the valley.
Romanian path always very clearly indicated.

At about 11 it is blazing hot, water is allready damn low... A 30 min side walk (return) alows us to get our bottles filled and sweat a lot doing so. This tiny water source in the rock gives very welcom fresh and clear water.