We went to this village as it has a nice dutch owned campsite which means decent showers and toilets but it also met my expectations of a traditional Romanian village, i.e. storks nest on every other telephone pole, ducks and hens wandering about in the street, cows walking home after being milked - everyone has their own cow and they find their way back to the right house! - and all the locals sat outside watching the world and stupid tourists go by. The old men seemed very taken with Gordon's slovakian hat as theirs were all straw. One lad was also very impressed with his bike so G let him ride it back to the campsite from the shop and he gibbered on in Romanian all the way. We couldn't understand anything except "Super bike" and "suspension" but G mentioned Manchester United and it seemed to cement the friendship!

We were on the bikes as we'd done a cycle ride recommended by the campsite owner which showed us a bit of the countryside and another village. The best bit was crossing the river on this rickety old raft - see photo - which crossed the river as and when someone wanted it. It was motorised but pretty slow and I couldn't believe that it didn't sink out of site when a tractor and trailer drove onto it, but it must have been going for decades and will probably keep going for a few more! Most things in Romania seem pretty old and decrepit but just keep on going.

After Croatia when we were the only English speaking people on a campsite of 750 places, of the 6 couples on this site 3 were from the UK - amazing as its the first place since Prague where we've met any Brits. Both couples were travelling rather than holiday makers - one pair had been on the road for 20 months and had wintered in Morocco which sounded tempting, but it was just great exchanging tips and adresses of good campsites. For example we found that the border crossing we'd planned to use for Bulgaria is actually a ferry which just goes when it feels like, and the Bulgarian police have some interesting ways of getting money off you like two sets of traffic lights which never show green at the same time, and don't leave your van unattended in Spanish supermarket car parks as it'll get broken into, so we have all this to look forward to! The other couple were travelling back from their home in Turkey to the UK and they were very much of the same mind as us so every campsite recommendation came with " and there's this really great restaurant ....." so we'll just have to try and restrain ourselves or we'll be home earlier than planned!