Transylvanian Open in Cluj

Cluj was much bigger than Sibiu, and in place of bussling squares it had horribly busy roads and smelly pavements. We trudged through the town after our all day train trip, and eventually located a little hostel which was very nice but was full for the night, grrr. The lady said they had 13 reservations which would probably not be filled, but we must wait till midnight if we wanted the beds...so that is what we did. After wandering round and finding some dinner it was soon 11pm, so it was not so bad.

In the morning we located a market and bought some supplies, before heading to the orienteering registration then on up to 'Camping Faget' where we planned to stay during the orienteering. The organisers sorted us a ride for the next day to the event, so all was good.

August 6: We were picked up from the campground at 12 and taken to the start of event 1, a middle distance event. I was still worried about bears...but none of the many Romanian orienteers aged from about 4 to 70 seemed at all concerned so I soon stopped worrying. Ed, Chris and I all had starts at about the same time, and for me after several whopping 30 minute mistakes I was feeling pretty annoyed walking through the forest, and I was going slowly when I heard a growl! So I ran much faster!! (I don't think it was anything, other than deer, the odd fox and dogs I don't think much actually lives near Cluj, but it certainly made me run, and made Ed and Chris laugh afterwards (0:)

As I neared the finish I bumped into Ed (surprise!) and we zoomed into the finish together with Chris who was hiding out by a control with the camera. Chris won! So he was the proud winner of the Floresti Trophy!! Back at the campground we drank some Romanian beer (which is very cheap) and Ed and I resolved not to make any 30 minute mistakes tommorrow.

August 7: We got a ride to the event with some grumpy Norwegians. Today was the long distance world ranking event, and we were all a bit nervous. The terrain would be similar to yesterday, forested, spur gully, good compas bearings which I hate! So once again I bungled the first control and wasted 30 mins, but after that I took things more slowly and got round in 2 hours. Chris was 3 minutes down from the winner in third place and had some blisters too, so that was a bit sad. Ed was still out after 3 hours, and unfortunalty had the controls collected in on him, so all in all not such a good day, but we went back to the campground and cooked up a feast, so we were still enjoying ourselves.

Our friendly Romanian orienteering camp neighbour got us to try some real 'hungarian goulash' he had just cooked up, which was actually quite good!

August 8: Today a different friendly Romanian camped beside us took us to the event. It was exciting for Chris today because he had the chance to make up his lost 1.5 miutes on the Norwegian over the 3 days. (Having won the first day over the Norwegian by 1.5, then the Norwegian beat him by 3 on Day 2). He had to start 1.5 minutes back(their time difference), and whoever crossed the finish line first would win the overall Transylvanian open. Ed and I were just hoping to be back before the prizegiving seeing as we both had to start 1 hour after the leaders.

I had a much better run wearing my orienteering shoes, no 30 minute mistakes, and the terrain had more features - little gullies and streams - and I got over worrying about bears (0: Ed also got round a bit better, and when we got back we were excited to find out that Chris had managed to chase the Norwegian down and outsprint him at the finish, woohoo!

They had a little prizegiving, and the three of us enjoyed ourselves drinking the rediculous 'fizzy water' they give you at the end of the event. Chris won a pack and a tee shirt and then we got a lift back to the campsite again for a good shower.

We caught a taxi to the centre of Cluj and soon we will catch the 'sleeping train' which departs at 1.30am to Sucaeva on our way to Kiev. In Sucaeva we catch another train which runs all the next night into Kiev, so goodbye Romania!!

But right now we are off for some Chinese for dinner, yum (-:

Sunny Sibiu

Once we wandered down into Turnu Rosu at the end of our tramp (1 August) we waved goodbye to the straggly friendly little dog which followed us all the way from the top of the mountain into the town and pulled out of the station heading for Sibiu.

We couldn't have asked for a better place to blob after our strenuous tramp. The town is the 2007 'Cultural Capital of Europe' and it was buzzing with music, people, shows and delicious food. It's an old town with lots of big squares and cathedrals, and we soon navigated our way around all the best bakeries, pizzerias and ice creameries. We stayed in the 'Alt stadt' hostel which is right on one of the main squares, so for 3 days we didn't really venture much further than the city centre.

We had interesting times at one restaurant with our lack of Romanian. The first time we went there we ended up with five large cups of coffee laid in front of us when we had tried only to order three, and then on a second visit Chris wanted to order the strudel, but this did not seem to be possible. Eventually he went inside and pointed into the cabinet at the strudel and the waiter came and dumped the largest piece of strudel imaginable on his plate...which had us all in stitches, the waiter included.

So after three enjoyable days we packed up our bags and jumped on the train for Cluj which took a full day to reach because we were travelling this time on a 'slow train' which meant we spent 4 hours waiting at a station in between trains, but we entertained ourselves photgraphing the odd horse and cart as it trotted past and the authentic 'haystacks' which sit in every paddock.