Just arrived in Oradea, RO, having driven only about 25o Km today, though mostly on 2-laners, which have always been this shun-piker's favorite roads. The western side of Hungary was apparently the poorer. The eastern half reminded me of the Plains States, especially Illinois and Indiana. Flat but fertile, with very black soil.
I had absolutely no hassles from the Romanian border agents. They did look at the German license plates, but seemed not to care about them.
Even better, the "iris HOTEL" (sic) appeared here in Oradea as soon as I passed the border clutter.
Iris is modern, is equipped at the quality standard of a new Holiday Inn Express or better, has wireless Internet, and cost me 46 Euros, roughly the same as a Red Roof Inn in most U.S. cities (About $70). I got here at 7:00 Budapest time, which is 8:00 here, and expect a light supper and a good night's sleep. Cluj is only about three hours away, and I am not expected until 6:00 tomorrow night, so tonight I will relax. If I can figure out how to download from my new birthday camera (Thanks, Kids!), I'll add some photos to this post later on. (Addendum: That is proving problematic. The camera is too good; its 8 megapixel images won't upload. I'll look for a way to make them Internet friendly.)
