Day 49 Paddling alone, then in the dark

Falling asleep to action thriller movies apparently leads to relaxing dreams for me.  And also, helping me wake up feeling well rested and alert.  This might become a habit if I could just get a TV with cable into the woods.  I'd also need a lazy boy recliner and one of those nice TV dinners with a cold bud light.

I'm actually pretty close to that now.  As the day fell almost completely to night, and I still had no where to camp, I saw some fishermen and a light.  I yelled, do you speak English?  The man yelled, "yes, what do you want?" I said "sleep... but I'm here illegally with no Romanian money."  He said, after talking with his other fisherman colleagues and them all having some laughs, "you can stay at my house, but you sleep outside." 

I agreed, for, after all these years of getting robbed from, lied to, beat up, tricked, played, hustled, and ripped off, I know the feeling in my gut associated with good people, and ones that genuinely want to help.

I followed the man up to his house after passing by the most hideous group of spiders i seen this side of Europe, and found myself in one of the nicest custom built chill pads I've seen, this side of the Mississippi.

There was a covered patio any man would dream to have.  Outdoor kitchen, beer fridge, custom tables and countertops, and relaxing chairs.  The yard was well groomed and after asking, the man had built the place with his friends, who were all there drinking and smoking.

We sat, got to know each other, and it turns out, my gut feeling was right, these people genuinely wanted to help.

Zoran, main guy, poured me a few glasses of fine whiskey.  Later on he brought out fresh cut tomatoes, homemade goat cheese, 4 kinds of homemade meat, 1 of which was boar and cow sausage mixed together, and some good ole watermelon.

I should back up.  This all happened after paddling 55km in the sweltering heat.  After walking with my backpack all morning across a town I cant pronoun to TRY to find things I needed, because some gypsies stole it all the day before.  Important things like parachord, tent stakes, protein powder, mosquito repellent, and all found in different places, and the whole time nobody spoke any English.  Fun day.  It was.  Just before I left, an old man saw me packing my boat and handed me a freezing cold water and a bottle of raki a, which is like Eastern Europeans version of moonshine, and then the old man helped me put my boat in the water.  There was also a cool castle I checked out.

This happened after I did nothing but sit with my own thoughts for 8 hours and not even stop for a break to get out.  Not because I didn't want to, but because there was no where to go without sinking 4 ft into mud. 

This happened after the wind pushed me across the river ALLL day.  If i paddled 7000 strokes with my right hand, I probably paddled 30,000 with my left. 

This happened after I stopped as the sun set over the river, and asked to stay at a beautiful cabana hotel, but was turned away because I didn't have passport stamps.  They thought it was funny when I said, asking for permission to stay, "Does it help if I told you I went through Serbia illegally too?"

This happened after all the bullshit of a long day, and all you want is a place to lay your head, but cant.  A tired lonesome weary traveler, and his thoughts.  And then hope.  A break in the clouds.

Sometimes all a man needs is a whiskey, some bread, and a pillow.  And that's what this man got, at least today.  Today I am grateful

km 1065

Tomorrow we meet with Toby, but not before checking in to Romania!