26 abandoned villages - EU funding - nice people

Thursday, 30.8.2018

Route: Danube Cycle Path 5 (Harsova - Greci)

distance ridden: 83 kilometers

Highlight of the day: the guy with the fruit

We didn't sleep very well in the guesthouse in Harsova. It was rather uncomfortable and very hot. That's why we started early, so early that we even put on our sweaters. First, we rode out of town to get back on the main route. We stopped at Penny's and because it was only a quarter to 8, we had to wait a bit until it opened. At the fresh bakery, we took rolls, donuts, and the like with us. Then we really started.

After Harsova, we initially followed a busy main road. The landscape was like before: not as hilly anymore, but many fields and a lot of cattle next to them. It wasn't as windy as the day before, but still quite strong. We cycled without much incident back and forth, I listened to a bit of an audiobook on the side. Finally, we came to a junction where we had to choose between the longer route on the main route and a shortcut on a busy road. We, or rather I, chose the longer route, Julius didn't care. This involved quite a bit of ups and downs, and we passed a pretty funny landscape: on the left, it was always quite flat because there was the Danube Valley (unfortunately, we didn't see the Danube itself, but we saw many meadows and trees), on the right, the landscape changed. Once there were these little hills that reminded me a bit of the Teletubbies, somehow round and overgrown.

Eventually, we passed through another Ostrov, the third one now. Before that, we had already read a bit about it in the travel guide: on the left, there were a lot of ruins of walls, sometimes you could still see houses, but sometimes there were only walls left. This is because a few years ago, there was an extreme flood here, where the houses were flooded so much that the residents rebuilt their houses higher up because everything below was destroyed. Some were really just small mud huts, but also newer larger houses with columns in front, in the end, like all houses in Romania, beautifully decorated, but old. And there were sheep herds everywhere, goats, ducks and geese on the streets, and many tethered horses. And of course dogs, they were getting a bit annoying by now.

Once, 3-4 dogs came very close to us, closer than any others before, with sharp teeth. They didn't want to leave anymore. But then we saw a herd in the field with an old man as a shepherd, who immediately came hobbling towards us, called his dogs back, and asked us in Romanian where we came from, but by now, we could communicate with each other. As an apology, he gave us grapes and we continued our way.

At some point, we took a lunch break. We first passed through a village (downhill!) and at the outskirts, there was a small chapel. There are often such chapels there: they are covered and glazed, so you can look inside from the outside, and they are on a tiled platform. We sat down there and ate our Penny food. Opposite, there was a horse tied up, and in combination with the landscape, it reminded us of an American Western film. We lingered for a long time before we continued. And slowly, the environment changed enormously: rocky mountain ranges appeared, reminiscent of Greece. That means, there is something growing there, but rather scrub and taller grass, everything quite dried out already and a lot of bushes and again many fields and livestock.

Most of the time, we rode on barely trafficked side roads, but towards the end, we came back to a busy main road, which gradually became steeper. That was very exhausting. Fortunately, we weren't on it for long, maybe 10 kilometers. Then we had to turn right because that's where Greci (the place where we wanted to sleep) was located.

We rode there and searched for the accommodation. It was simply a guest room in a private individual's house. We found it quickly because the landlord had already called us at noon and asked about our arrival time. We said between 4 and 5, and we actually arrived at 4:05, so ideal! Our landlord was a young guy, about 30 years old, and very nice. He let us in and showed us his house: we were supposed to sleep in the guest room, we could use the kitchen and the bathroom. He also lived here, together with his father, whom we never saw. The radio was on in the kitchen all the time, great music! There was no shower in the bathroom, but there was a separate room at the back of the house for showering. He told us we could take some fruit and use the ping pong table while he quickly went into town. We chilled out for a while, and when he came back, he offered us watermelons. We chatted a bit. He told us that he once rode a daily distance of over 70 kilometers and never more. He also told us that the small mountains next to the village are now being developed for tourism, all funded by the EU. He is creating a footpath next to the only paved road in Greci, leading to a tourist information center.

We wanted to see that for ourselves, so we walked a bit into the village. Yes, Greci was really better maintained than many other places. The houses were bigger, the gardens more well-kept, it was more like a town, about the size of Berching. We walked through the village and found the tourist information center. Unfortunately, it was already closed, so we looked through the windows. And suddenly the alarm went off. But no one cared. So we just went back. There would have been a viewpoint, but it would have been quite far away and it was already getting dark.

Because we were hungry, we stopped at a kind of main square. We had seen a small pub or restaurant on the way there, but we couldn't find it anymore. But we found a kebab shop instead. While walking through the village with our acquisitions, a dog followed us, but not for long, and we sat down at a fountain and enjoyed kebabs and fries. Actually, Greci is nice: at the foot of the mountains (which are only 450 meters high, but the rest is even lower) and quite lively. When we returned to the apartment, we took a shower, and our landlord offered us some more of his fruit. But I was so tired that I fell asleep at 8:30 already.