Wrestling for The Initiative

In chess, 'the initiative' is an ever present quality in the game.  Having it means that you can dictate the next move and your opponent  must use their move to respond rather than having the luxury of pursuing their own strategy.  I say this because since our last post (2 weeks ago) it feels that we have been engaged in a messy struggle for the initiative with some elusive yet omnipresent opponent.  Using the environment, mechanics and psychological trickery they have managed to stall us and we have found ourselves stationary for longer than we would like.  However like any good struggle we have adapted to the new challenges presented to us and overcome them as we have now arrived in the truly European city of Budapest.  Karolina will fill you in on the first part of this tussle!


BUDAPEST!!!

We have arrived, accually we arrived a couple of days ago but have been doing very little, not even being able to summon enough energy to hobble down the stairs of the room we are staying at and walk around the corner (Acually just outside the door) to the internet cafe.  But here we are now.

We left Romania on Monday for Hungary, but not without complications.  As we left the historical town of Alba Iulia we soon ran into trouble...  Chris´ backweel (of course) had a broken spoke, and since we had no spare spokes we had no other options than to walk back to the nearest village to try to get some help.  We soon found out that there was no one who could help us and that our best option was to take the bus back to Alba Iulia.  The locals that had helped us soon disapeared and we were left there with Jan, a fellow bike tourer who had come past as we were trying to sort things out.  He soon left and up came Nico, one of the locals whom we had spoken to earlier, with his car! He offered to take us and our bikes to Alba Iulia straight away!  We happily jumped in and along the way he told us that he did not know any bikestores in town and neither did any of his friends.  He took us to the train station and after refusing to accept our offers of some petrol money, he left us there feeling very grateful but also like puppies with our tail between our legs.  We knew that our best option was to take a train to the border town of Oradea which was bigger and that we surely would find someone to help us there.

After stuffing our things in and out and in and out of trains we arrived, got lost, found a hotel who would take us and our bikes.  But we also found out that tomorrow was Sunday and that nothing would be open!  We accepted our fate and after being told by a man who worked there (Bobby) that he would help us with everything on Monday, we realaxed into our new situation and started to explore Oradea.  It was a really nice old town which had been in the hands of the Austro-Hungarian empire for a while and felt very European (Ed. Swedes have a strong idea about what it is to be European!).  We walked, talked, ate and also found our way to the cinema. Needless to say, we had a good time.  On Monday morning we went with Bobby to the bike store where we handed in Chris´ wheel and then went to have coffee with our newly found Romanian friend.  He proved to be really friendly and he bought us coffees, introduces us to his son and gave us ice cream.  All in order, packed and ready to go we left for Hungary. Not quite the week we had planned but as we got back in the saddle everything felt good again and we were back in our new element. We passed about a 3 Km long line of trucks waiting to get into the lush, clean and bike friendly country that is Hungary!

We were ready for something new and as we rode into the fourth country of our trip it felt wonderful (the boarder was a non event and we did not even get a sign saying "Welcome to Hungary" or anything, very unsatesfying).
We found that Hungary is full of campsites and it was a pleasant surprise since there was nothing of that in the previous countries.

Chris again,

Having finally crossed the border (after being being stationary in Alba Iulia due to storms and Oradea because of the broken spoke) we set about finding accommodation.  As Karolina made clear previously, our trip, which has not given us many options for camping suddenly threw up a number of options.  After a quick discussion we decided to go to the first place we saw, a caravan park.  Entering the reception, sweaty and dirty as usual I was met by a very clean cut man.  He gazed toward me.  I smiled and went about spraying my nasally ruffened dialect towards him, 'Do you have a campsite available?  We have a tent. Also is there any food about?  We have no money.  Can I use a card?'.  Much to my delight he jumped upon the request with the enthusiasm of a a teenager for matches.  Offering help in every which way, help I did not know I needed and then help 'maybe a little like this?'.  I must admit whilst I was happy for the effort he really was putting a lot of time into the help.  Karolina, confused at why this interaction was taking longer than expected popped her head in.  And she too was borne as witness to the blind zeal of this man's helpful attitude.

Later, after we had set up and eaten we wandered around our new home.  'That's odd' Karolina mused.  Taking a closer look at a graffiti mural (the kind that funky art teachers get at risk kids to paint in schools) we noticed a bus.  And who was that driving the bus..  'Ummm.  I think that's Jesus.'.  Looking down the side of the bus we saw emablazzened the word 'saved'.  Pulling a quick 180 the outdoor conference center we realized had an alter.  It all made sense.  The glazed look in the eyes of the helpful man that screamed 'I help for fear of hell'.  We had stumbled into the belly of the beast.  This, my friends was crazy town and Jesus was the mayor.  We went to bed and planned our escape for morning.

The next three days we rode towards Budapest knowing that there we would find supplies (English books, bike parts, sushi).  The weather turned and each day it rained but each day we peddled for 8 or 9 hours.  Both nights we intended to camp and had to contend with mosquitos on a scale that I had not previously encountered.  Though we were thankful for our friends their presence indicated the existence of big pools of hot water.  Thermal baths!  A wonderful way to end any day of riding.

Our entrance into Budapest was no less spectacular.  The roads ran like rivers.  We were saturated and covered in dirt and a little on the tired side.  Arriving at the guest house we had to clean our stuff upon entry.  A job that neither of us felt like doing but would be no more fun when we were clean.  Anyway lets zip forward to now.  We are refreshed, resupplied and planning the next stage of our adventure (Slovakia and Poland).  The internet cafe is slowly filling up with smoke making me wish that I smoked so that I would not notice nor care about the wheeze I am developing.

Before we sign off this post there is a funny little thing that happened to us, apropos smoking.  My back wheel has been the weak link in our trip.  Whether snapping spokes, or bending out of shape it has been a constant force for evil on the trip.  Riding along a familiar wonk developed accompanied by a flapping sound.  Back wheel, punctured tube (first for the trip).  We stopped and replaced.  Karolina took photos to kill the time and about 15-20 minutes later it was replaced.  Then I noticed something.  A familiar looking weed.  And it was everywhere.  On the side of this fairly well traveled road a patch of marijuana plants.  Maybe 100?  Had we not noticed it was like this the whole way?  We set off again and I kept my eyes open to see if this was a constant road feature.  It wasn't.  It just so happened that my tyre puntured at exact place where some local had planted his glaucoma medication.  A strange event.

And on that note we will sign off.  Tomorrow the game continues and hopefully it will be our strategy that prevails in this phase.

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