Two weeks ago I had to set out for the little town of Beius to help with the Peace Corps 20/50 celebration build with the Romanian Habitat for Humanity. Now, Beius is no where near where I live. I was originally supposed to take a train with Adam from Bucuresti, but do to a turn of events, I couldn’t make it to Bucuresti in time.
The week prior to our departure, I ran into the lovely Miss Tara at a teacher’s conference. She suggested that we try hitchhiking to Arad. Sounded groovy to me. So that’s exactly what we did.
On a gloriously sunny Saturday morning, I met Tara at her site in Babeni. We make our way to the dusty main road with some colorful signs and hoped for the best. After a few minutes and some helpful advice from some locals (“Stand closer to the road!”) we were picked up by a guy in an over crowded Dacia. He wasn’t very friendly, but he got us to the outskirts of Ramnicu Valcea. We couldn’t complain.
We again, took to the side of the road with our Sibiu sign. Again after a few minutes, we were picked up by another Dacia. This driver was great and very entertaining! It turns out that our driver was a shepherd from the Fagaras area. He was very proud to be a shepherd and was telling us all about his 300 sheep and his 150 goats that he kept up in the mountain pastures and milked by hand.
When we got near Coiza he pulled over for a short stop. He asked us if we wanted any bananas and we said sure. He strolled across the road to buy some bananas and then poured some water on the old car’s engine. We were off again, snacks in hand. Tara started munching on some bread that she had brought with her. Our shepherd gave her a perplexed look. “You can’t eat bread plain!” he exclaimed. He found a place to pull the car over and opened a sack in the backseat. He gave us farm fresh eggs, tomatoes, and some delicious, fresh sheep cheese that his wife had made. It was a delicious lunch!
Later in the ride, his friend called. He started telling his friend that he had two American women in his car. His friend obviously didn’t believe him. He handed the phone to Tara and asked her to talk. This evoked some smiles from our shepherd driver who was entertained by the fact that he had randomly found two Americans on the side of the road.
As we approached Sibiu, he asked us where we were going. We told him that we were trying to get all the way to Arad. Even though it was out of the way for him, he drove us to the best hitching spot to get a ride westward. We thanked him for the ride and lunch and he sent us on our way. Much can be said about the kindness of strangers.
It was time to try our luck again. We stood by the side of the road again, with our pile of luggage and our signs. This time we were armed with two signs; one for Deva and one for Arad.

Fancy Signs in Sibiu

Geography lesson time: Arad is a large city near the western border of Romania, where Romania borders Hungary. Deva is about the halfway mark between Sibiu (where we were) and Arad.
Back to the story. We didn’t know if we would get lucky getting a ride all the way to Arad, hence the Deva sign. We stood in the road for awhile. There were tons of other people trying to hitch from this spot so we weren’t sure how lucky we would be. There was a guy from Germany that stopped by to chat with us for awhile, a cute boy destined for Cluj-Napoca, and a guy that Tara and I were sure was American but we were too focused on our task to go ask. We each stood with a sign and waved at the passing traffic. Finally, a guy in a large white truck took notice of Tara’s Arad sign. He pulled over and the truck was rushed by a mob of hitchers. The driver stated that he wanted the girls destined for Arad. We rushed to grab our stuff and jump in the cab. We got lucky! Actually, we hit the jackpot as we were soon to find out. Not only was our driver going to Arad, he spoke English too! He was a long haul truck driver in route to Amsterdam. He was going to stop off in Vienna for a few days on his journey to take in a festival. Sounded like fun to me! We chatted most of the ride to Arad. The scenery of Western Transylvania was stunning. Soft green rolling hills and lush forests that stretched down to greet the winding road. The fresh spring air seeped in through the slightly cracked window and provided a little relief to the stuffy heat of the cab. Tara catnapped for awhile while I chatted with our driver. As we approached Arad, he asked us where we were going. I called Tom, the volunteer we were staying with, to get the address. None of us were very familiar with Arad. Following Tom’s directions as close as we could, we found an easily identifiable spot to stop. Our driver even agreed to wait with us until Tom arrived, but not knowing how long that would take; we told him he could go on.
What started out as a complete unknown turned into an enjoyable adventure. I will always be in awe of the kindness and hospitality of people here. Gracious and generous people scooped us up off the side of the road, shared their lunches and lives with us, and got us safely to our destinations. We couldn’t ask for more!