Chris Solo Central Europe, Mon Jun 19, 2023

Belgrade Serbia→Severin Romania (day8)

Ride Log

Kathi's notes 

I got lost getting out of Belgrade.  Google maps wasn't routing, seems
like something to do with the floods warning or maybe the route didn't
start with "my position".  Later I got it corrected by adding a new
starting point, but it still caused a lot of confusion leaving the
city.  I took a toll road for a while.  Worked out OK because paying
by card worked.  Some nice folks at the highway rest stop gas station
said it would probably work and that reduced my worries.

Belgrade to Severin 4h57m 285km



drove out - very quiet, got confused getting out of the city, google
map links for route better than tablet routing - quite confusing - had
wrong hotel which it kept trying to get me to instead of getting
out. Confusion due to flooding - maybe Google tried to route around -
but really the starting point was wrong - turned around back and forth
across the city - google and tablet said different things.

Got stuck on toll road. No Serbian money. A bit flustered - pulled of
on nearest exit, a couple in a car approached Chris with the woman
enthusiastic about Chris’s ducati (she has one). They said he could
pay by card or euros if necessary

entered directions on tablet - google going - said get off toll road -
off next exit to rest area - paid with card - thru an industrial area,
then up a little road

very nice houses, road was very patchy with bumps, some burned out
burned out concrete block houses (pic) with people living in them, sun
parched older man driving tractor to get around town with wife

tractor had run into a car with female policewoman writing up a report

Pek river - really running and high - trees were submerged 2m in river
- less than 1m before flooding road - lots of farm fields full of
water - had rained a lot in that area

stopped at an interesting bridge over river - weird structure of circular columns - miliary?

lots of landslides - part of hillside has slide down over the road

passed a gigantic copper mine - this one is not as big as biggest, but
still giant dumptrucks and blasts, another view with another explosion
with dust rising (pic), flowers (pic), mine (pic)

national park of tunnels of trees and beauty but really bad roads - just a little bumpy but wonderful riding

park road turned ito a ridge line - right Serbia - left Danube river /
romania - down thru that coming out to a main road, then another
little road back into the hills (small roads that look like driveways)
- then turned into dirt - rain had cut channels into the road so I was
picking my way down carefully - slick surface - no cars seen - 8-10km
before pavement returned

pics of lumpy dirt road with ruts, nervous face pic, pic when pavement came back

pics of lookout, met guy with motorcycle who spoke English - a
romanian film producer - worked w/some american producers - give me
his round business card - Nicols Vision - Gigi and Nicol - pic of two
of them on motorcycles, standing on wall taking pics so he took a pic
on wall, then they exchanged selfies

drove down to border without gas station, motorcycle came other way
and said - go up to front, but I waited with cars anyway, lots of
truck on other side

on exit they wanted passport and bike papers - stamped in and out of Serbia to Romania

Woman in passport control at Romania border looked like a model - very
beautiful - how was she doing passport control? she seemed out of
place, did the processing, and let Chris go. another guard shake after
moving bike to get out of the way

people in slavic cities are dressed up walking around, also early 20’s
women with flashy, revealing dresses - walking around to be seen - 4
women walking behind 3 guys where the guys can’t see them ?? two
separate groups walking together - no couples in groups - lots of
groups walking around, eating ice cream (a big deal in the more
eastern EU cities) ice cream stands everywhere

pulled into a gas station in Severin which was closed but wait for 5
minutes which didn’t open so road on to hotel - looks like hotel (6
rooms - casa butalan) on top of bar restaurant - had trouble finding
it - asked a place which turned out to be the hotel, went to bank to
get money - only take cash and Romanian $

some religious holiday with flowers - pic of fancy flowers - very cathelicy place

went to a store - bought kefir which was really good - two diff places
for milk - Romania milk in a diff area and very very good - tastes so
diff from memory

in central sq of town:

park with pigeons - a boy about 12yo running around grabbing pigeons -
has one in each hand - puts pigeons in trashcan, then gets another one
- puts them down in the trash - pigeon whisperer - pretends he has
food in his hand, then just picks it up, pigeons don’t seem to care

pigeons were courting Chris, then went to another who actually had
food - like they are telepathic - they all took off at once from
everywhere in the park and went to the food person - they levetated
and turned towards the sound - opposite of an explosion - all birds
collapsed onto one point.

sat infront of pigeons and drank milk, walked took pics of fountains,
church, down to waterfront - really nice flowerbeds - lots of flowers
planted in the park, stopped at ice cream cart and got a strawberry &
chocolate ice cream - very strong flavors - dark choco flavor

citadel used to guard Danube river, severals plaques (in both languages), pics of various military figures
room $50/eu (leu) very nice place with balcony.

Flooded rivers from recent torrential rains just a few days ago

Hotel Casa Budulan