aszfaltozni

That word (which may or may not be correctly formed or spelled) is the Hungarian verb formed out of "asphalt". And there's a lot of it going on right now.

I know I have gone on at length about the state of the roads here, but for good reason. Harghita county in particular has been a disaster area for ages, with Covasna county (the other majority Hungarian county) not far behind. But now, it seems, there is a concerted effort to repair roads. And when I say repair, I mean thoroughly repair in the sense of re-lay, not merely patch up the holes as had previously been the way. A couple of weeks ago we drove over the Bucin mountain road from Sovata to Gyergyo, which we had never before done, because it was so horribly bad. But word had reached us (and many others) that it had been repaired. And how. I never thought I'd find myself waxing lyrical about a road surface, but it was magnificent. "As smooth as skin" as someone told me, which must be the translation of the relevant Hungarian expression. It's become a tourist attraction in its own right. People just drive over it for the pleasure of it.

And now, similarly ambitious road projects are underway on the road south of here towards Brasov and the road west of here to Udvarhely. I have no idea where the money has suddenly come from to perform this expensive job, but I can only assume that the EU must have stumped up some of it. The next question is whether or not the mayor of Csikszereda (whose responsibility the town's roads are) will look at these pristine thoroughfares entering his city and feel embarrassed enough to follow suit.

And on that note, I will sign off for the day, but not before sharing with you the best website I have seen today. Rock, Paper, Saddam. Enjoy.