Leaving my hotel early I braced myself for the forecast temperature of 4 degrees C. People on their way to work were well wrapped up in padded coats, my breath misted as I breathed out. Flocks of pigeons wheeled overhead. For my breakfast I bought a păcintă with a cheese and potato filling for the old lady sitting behind a window in a tiny kitchen. I ate walking across the bridge into an area of appartment blocks. It was the morning rush hour, with more cars than the roads were designed to handle. Oradea had been building extra roads, too new to be on Google Maps, but not enough to prevent the traffic from moving about as fast as I was walking. Drivers are very polite, people just walk out onto zebra crossings, of which there are many, expecting cars to stop, and they do!
Leaving residential areas behind, I had a long walk beside a busy, dual carriageway with industrial units on each side. Thankfully there was a cycle path that took me all the way to the border and beyond. Romania and Hungary are both in the Schengen zone so they took no notice of me as I left Romania and just waved me through as I entered Hungary, lorries gained more attention.
Once in Hungary I turned off onto the quieter roads of a village. Hungarian villages struck me as rather more tidy than those in Romania that I walked through. There were no chickens wandering around, nor any loose dogs although plenty of canines enclosed in their yards announced my passing. At a shop, hidden behind barred windows I bought an energy drink and a snack, later I acquired a coffee.
The next part of my route was across the wide fields of the Great Hungarian Plain on a quiet road with long straight sections. Most of the crops of maize and sunflowers had been harvested. Many fields had been ploughed. A couple of huge tractors passed me, four large wheels in a line at the rear, two at the front, so wide that they had to pull onto the verge to allow the passage of cars coming in the opposite direction on the two lane road. I kept well clear of the plough blades behind them. The hills and mountains I had recently climbed were now faint blue blur, barely visible on the horizon. A cold wind blew intermittently over the plain. Trees were either grouped in plantations (which were of poplar trees), or scattered along the roadside or field boundaries.
I was making good time on the flat tarmac although my left knee was complaining, and my right ankle was giving me pain. My objective for today's hike was Nagykereki, however there was no where to stay there and I did not wish to wild camp as I had a spot of bother when I last came this way. Consequently I planned to catch the train from Nagykereki to the city of Debrecen, where there was plenty of accommodation. As I entered the village a police car stopped and asked my nationality and what I was doing. I said I was intending to catch the train and they did not bother asking for my passport. Partly owing to the one hour time difference between Romania and Hungary I was able to catch an earlier train than I had anticipated. Or rather I caught a bus replacement for a few miles, and was then transferred to a train. The train proceeded slowly, the old carraige experienced a double bump every couple of seconds as it rumbled over the old track.
Debrecen has a beautiful town centre. I walked by where I enjoyed a gin & tonic at a pavement bar on a previous visit, although today it was too cold to sit out. This evening I finished the day with a typical Hungarian dish of catfish paprikash.
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