Special Agent Nancy

4 countries in one day.
Czech Rep.
Slovakia
Hungary.
Romania.

The day has arrived for us to leave Prague on the train for Poprad Slovakia. We had all day to pack but I was so beside myself with concern about forgetting something important…I almost did, my tent!
Coupled with the fact that I still had no adapter to charge my camera battery. I resolutely went to over a dozen stores and even got lost in a dreaded mall only to find after buying two different ones that neither fit. I got so frustrated with not being able to get my money back I chucked them like dice on a crap table in Vegas across the store counter.

Finally found one…then after a huge lunch (where Johan enjoyed a huge beer) and our clumsy waiter knocked my camera to the floor then gave me attitude about it, headed back to pack, some more.

Found a vital piece of equipment, thick plastic bags to keep everything dry, thanks Edith!

Johan was able to secure our respective country flags to our bikes,
Secure our luggage and get us off on in time.

We then rode to the train station to load our bikes in the pitch black

...Johan was nice enough to take care of mine and bumped his head on the ceiling too.

We got an AWESOME cabin, just 3 bunks so we don’t have to share with strangers. We even have our own sink. I decided to give them some privacy before my little magic pill kicked in and after hearing some loud thumping coming from our cabin decided to take a stroll up and down the car.

First stop, Levoca, Slovakia.

Local farmers market setting up. It was 7am and freezing!

Neat collapsing roof overgrown with vines.

Great castle in the distance.

Cemetary with massive carved tree trunks as tombstones.

Stopped for lunch at Nyiregyhaza it’s known for buildings that look like Italian wedding cakes

I ordered a veal stew with noodles and it was so good! This time I dropped my own camera.

Met another couple from Poland also doing some cross country but on one bike.

Crossed the boarder into Romania…lots of horse drawn carts here too.

Drinking with the locals. My first night in Romania, camping in the middle of nowhere and loving it.

But one of Quentin Tarantino characters was there.

We stopped shortly after the Romanian crossing in a small town and went to the only pub. The woman told us we could not pitch our tent but a friendly older man urged us to follow him on his bicycle around the bend to his property.

It was a beautiful clearing, off the road, cows, rabbits and tons of hay.

He even brought us a bath, soap and a towel. I used a pail from the well to fill it up and yes it was freezing cold but I took a bath.

We pitched the tents in the setting sun, ecstatic at our good fortune. He even gave us fresh milk from the cow!

I’ve debated most of the evening whether to share this but it is part of the trip and regardless of things turning out in the end I think it’s an important story.

We are programmed to fear things such as say motorcycles because they are dangerous. True they elevate your risk but as Edith pointed out cheerfully over dinner, a pedestrian got run over in front of her house by someone running a red light. Danger can be your next door neighbor or the small town drunk who appeared normal…

We took him to the pub for a thank you drink and all appeared fine. He acted normal and there were no warning signs as we later discussed the situation.

Until I felt something wake me. I then heard someone outside my tent trying to get in and called out to Hilary to ask if they were there.

Johan got out of his tent and walked the campsite and sure enough, there was our seemingly friendly, harmless host almost naked crouched behind my motorcycle.

He left only to come back roughly 6 times to insist that I sleep with him or we leave.

We handled it all well. We didn’t get scared (not in the paralyzed with fear sense), stayed calm and debated our options of safety which were numerous, (none of us are set up for night riding) but when he came back with an axe, it was time to go.

I’m rather proud of how well Johan handled this, only 29 and quite a man about it. He immediately took charge, made the statement we are going and started to pack up. Hilary, kept a calm head too and we eventually found a hotel

And the man who brought us there the night before and helped us check in is a former border patrol, his name is Cosmin (I’m sure I spelled it wrong) so the next morning he called a friend from the police force over to the hotel and we gave him the story.

You know thinking back, if I’d accepted the interest of a rather cute boy at the local pub I would not have had a problem with the old one. LOL

Turns out the cop knows the man and will go and warn him ‘sternly’ and write a ticket. Whatever. I guess it felt good to at least report him. The police shook only Johan’s hand and was off. Women are like chattel here.

So off we went to some roads that were white on the map. Now I could spend hours detailing the extreme fear, frustration and anxiety that these roads caused…heavy large gravel, dirt roads with huge pot holes. Paul suggested that Romania invented the pothole, or was it Bob…I just kept repeating to myself while panting from exertion and fear, keep it between the trees with the shiny side up. (Thanks Bob.)

My very own episode of lost.

We ended up doing a perfect circle through fields with sheep herders and very excited dogs, ravines, concrete bridges with nice drop offs, up steep hills then down the other side with so many trees it was hard to stay upright. I didn’t actually take one spill but tipped the bike in a deep ravine. It was completely remote and Hilary and Johan were having a blast while Nancy (reminder, this is my FIRST real off road experience) was ready to burst out in tears.

All in all it was some of the most gorgeous scenery I’m likely to ever see and here are some photos.

A very cool pully water system to fill the trough for the sheep and cattle roaming the hill side. The weight on the arm was the perfect weight to pull up a full bucket.

Cool crossroads

We stopped off for a lunch in a small town and ended up in this pastry shop

Where they have Coke Zero in GLASS bottles!

Hilary’s hand grips are giving her blisters, here is Johan being the medic too.

We finally decided to stop for the night and eventually had the whole street of people sitting outside talking to us.

Our pension, ready to go the next morning.

WARNING : the following images are very beautiful

Fun getting around a construction site.

All the men wear fedora's and blazers.

Stopped for lunch and as usual, groups of cute boys everywhere, they helped us order.

Schnitzel?

Street side vendors selling food from their gardens.

Sibiu is a fortified monastery. Just gorgeous.

And this cutie scooping my gelato

On my was to dracula’s castle, found lots of people digging up potatoes.

Heading to those mountains. Alone. Yikes!

Stopped off at this very nice pension. A bunch of bikers from Germany on an Enduro run stopped here too.

Had breakfast with this nice woman who is Romanian and speaks 5 languages!

So tomorrow I get an early start to go to one of the disputed Dracula castles. The famous one is in Brasov but this one is also supposed to contend for the title and it has a much nicer twisty road without much tourists so I’m good with that. No photos of it, because I never found the darn thing.

Tomorrow, hopefully Hilary and Johan will make it through the pass and we’ll meet up.

Tigger is starting to look less orange and more brown.

And I feel like I’ve crossed over into an A-sexual zone, I certainly don’t look like a girl anymore.

Chipped nails, dirt under most of them and that’s OK. Kinda fun to be dirty.

So in conclusion....

Let’s talk about roads.

White: this is what Hilary and Johan find the most fun. A white road on a map brings a twinkle to their eyes, similar to mine when champagne bottles open. For me, it means the death grip on the handles, some colorful profanity and lot’s of adrenalin.

Yellow roads. Still fun for Hilary and Johan and more and more for me too. These are as reliable as rolling dice. Could be paved, could be dirt, could be rocks (big ones), and most certainly riddled with potholes. Now when I say potholes, imagine that you cannot steer anywhere without hitting one (on a bike with only one line of tires) so just stand up and let your legs become shock absorbers because wherever you steer you are going to hit one and then another and then another right after that…

Orange roads. Now these are usually nice, almost never dirt and they are asphalt (so far) but there could be gravel so taking turns is still risky.

Red roads. These are freeways and by far the most DANGEROUS. People here drive with a death wish.

So believe it or not, it’s safer on the dirt and rock roads and more fun.

Oh and Leo, I’ve started stretching.

Czech Men stink but Prague is beautiful

So as I left Amsterdam with their version of hello kitty,

the wooden shoes

and just look at this fabulous place, (it was missing the sign that says 'welcome special agent nancy') I boarded the long anticipated Czech flight to Prague.

As I was unsuspectingly walking down the aile to my seat I had the happy moment of smelling the most pungent 3 day old vinegary sweat of the man lifting his luggage to the overhead compartment. My face turned a shade of green and since my face is a perfect barometer of what i'm thinking it made a few people in the rows following laugh out loud.

And no Meara, it wasn't that yummy vinegar and sugar smell of our favorite dish of cabbage and bacon.

Fortunately the ground crew,did not broadcast on inside minotors (now I'm more worried...what are they doing out there) blessed me with not only delivering both my pieces of luggage but in the top 10 first off the carosel. An excited, although slightly more tired Hilary awated me outside.

My attentive host telling me how to not get lost

Look at all those plastic caps, they really take recycling seriously here.

Cab to my pension and then a fabulous home cooked meal prepared by Hilary.

...now the real fun begins. Before Nancy crashes like the last flight of the condor, we all pulled out our maps and lists and started to plan the dates and destinations. It went well with as I suspected Johan being completely quiet.

Now I planned my sleeping well. I knew I'd need 1) a little stuffed cute buddy to cuddle 2) a safe purse that I could carry my cash close and 3) a backpack because when gearing up you just don't have enough hands.
Tigger of course was the natural solution but my first night on a 3 inch foam mattress with 20 lbs of blankets on top somehow pushed all of his contents out on to the floor, well except for one thing, the chocolate which smeared all over the sheets and my clean, a-hem, not so clean PJ's.

Bad Tigger, bad bad Tigger.

Up early for a 1.5 minute hot shower, the rest is WAKE UP COLD. Dried my hair, put on a dress and am still debating between the keen's and the high heels. Now THAT is a delimma. Lot's of walking today, heading toward Prague city center.

I got an early start. Not because I wanted to but more so because their idea of drapes here belong on the body of a belly dancer in 1001 Arabian Nights. I could do quite an erotic show for the people in the building across the way.
You know how we have those annoying people handing out free newspapers in the morning on the way to work? They do that here for the Yellow Pages.

It was surreal sitting on a bench watching everyone scurry to work...it finally feels like my vacation started.

Stopped off at the imperial cafe for an omlette. Delicious and got to practice my French with the waitress.Hilary warned me that the Czech not only don't believe in deodorant but also breakfast but I was OK.

The man next to me ordered what looked like a Latte and a shot of Vodka.

How does one stick out like an American? Loud? no. Sneakers? no. Baseball caps. no. Wear Sunglasses. People here don't believe in them I guess.

Hilary loaned me a phone for my stay here and let me tell you it's wonderful to be able to constantly look down at it while completely missing humanity passing by.

Walked by many historic buildings, my favorite was acentuated by the sound of someone practicing opera drifting out from the window above. This is the river that runs through Prague and behind me you can see the historic area with the castle high above.

Now if you want to see photos of all the gorgeous buildings in Prague, go to my web album but otherwise here's one for you....

European service. Tip is extra here and yes, you have to beg for the check. Loving it. I've gone from 1 hour meals to 2 in one day. Now I stopped at this overpriced Italian restaurant because of the view. Heck, I'd walked up this rather steep hill (in heels) for what seemed like an eternity so I wanted a photo to prove how spectacular it was. Now clearly the waitress is sick and tired of doing this for us annoying tourists, she took this photo. 10% of the image is the view (upper right corner).

And of course I'm annoyed she can't photo graph it.

this is the view I was trying to get ding-dong to take.

Found a special antique musical instrument dealer. Thought of my friend Amy who is musically inclined and took some photos of 300+ year old Violins.

This was a cool fountain that if manned by 3 people you could spray the hell out of each other.

Went to the castle and found some good looking guards.

And gingerbread cookies here are a big deal.

And so are puppets

Found this gorgeous park for rest.

I am so glad I am not part of this group...follow the yarn pom pom on the stick.

I am officially Czech. After walking practically half the city today, I'm stinky and ready to head to the pub and eat a big chunk of fried cheese.

Now this is steak tar-tar.

Next we got ready to go to the opera. Took the metro.

The cute couple.

The third wheel. Honestly, we've been having a blast, all my worries about it being awkward and uncomfortable for anyone were in vain.

I wanted to make my Zucchini bread for the trip. I like to compare it to the Lamas bread in LOTR....I was having trouble finding a zucchini then I realized it was because they were nuclear huge....used a bottle (empty) of champagne as a point of reference for you.