WITH SADNESS WE LEAVE ROMANIA

Some day it had to happen to us in Romania, and it was on the exit of Brasov. We showed our cartel of Focsani, and stopped a big truck with more local “hitch hikers”. The driver had his small business, with different fees depending on the destination; ours it was 20€ per head, so our answer was: stop the truck now! The 200 km took nearly 6 hours, at the hands of another car through stone tracks that cross completely the Carpathian Mountains; and as we go out from the mountains all the ground turned into an infinite plain up to the Black Sea. In Focsani we were a couple of days with Oana and her family; and as it comes being usual in Romania, everything is: eat, drink, eat, drink... They invited us to a very big barbecue that we will never forget, since the first moment, they received us with the open arms.

In the city we saw the theatre inside because Oana’s aunt works there. The theatre is remodeled after a big earthquake that devastated the area 30 years ago.

We continue route towards Braila; we had to wait in the road for about 20 seconds, and by rhythm of an excellent Romanian Heavy Metal, and by truck, we arrived direct to the city; this stop is only on the way to go to the Danube’s Delta.


We had a very curious meeting; while we supply ourselves to go to the Delta in the supermarket, we coincide with two Spanish and two Romanians who live in Spain. Casually they were going to the Delta the next day, and… -maybe we see each other tomorrow! While we were walking in the morning to catch the platform to cross the Danube, we listen from a car SPANISH!!!, quickly they stopped and took us up to Tulcea, we were very lucky, because it would have taken us a lot of time to arrive, and a lot of sweat, from now we will have a temperature of 40 degrees or more everyday.


Danube’ Delta is a huge area, and only it is possible to see it well by helicopter or boat. We went by a road that borders one of the three main branches in which the river is divided. Tulcea is just on our way again, because of that we caught the road and hitch hike; but we don’t know what’s happen with the people here, they want money for everything. Two guys stopped and ask us 60€ for the lift, besides they tell it in Euros directly!! They reduced their offer up to 15€, but we didn’t accept it. After a while stopped another car and pick us up, but on the half of the way more problems, they asked us for a lot of money and we told them to stop the car, though they didn’t want to let us go, finally we did, and didn’t pay anything; we were in the middle of nowhere walking back 11 km to a village that we saw before when we came; while we were walking a man stops, after ask him if he wanted something, we went to the village with him. He didn’t want anything, he was friendly man, and proud he told us stories abut his sails from Tulcea to Canary Islands.

After a bath in Danube we search where to pass the night; due to the climate we start to have problems sleeping outside, for the sleeping bags are of winter. If we enter inside, it is very hot, and if we sleep out of them, the mosquitoes bite us... So we passed a nice sauna night…

When we went back to the city we hitch hiked again, but now always asking about the money, to don’t have problems afterwards.
We went to Constance, with desires of seeing the sea, we already started to miss it. And for these days of 40 degrees… what is better than to spend the rest of the day on the beach; well, in the water better said. This city is higher level than the rest of Romania, here is where Romanians coming to spend the summer holidays. The centre is nice, apart from orthodox churches, catholic..., there are several mosques, and surrounding the centre, the coast of the Black Sea.

Our night on the beach was disturbed by the discos, bars, and a lot of people drinking everywhere; even some people tried to steal us during the night, with no success. With 2 hours of sleep, we left to the capital, Bucharest. For the first time we took the wrong way, we were so happy with our cartel of Bucharest, in the way to Istanbul…We were lucky that one guy came to tell us that we were wrong.

Anyway it was 2 hours of waiting beside all the local hitch hikers, some of them coming with the purchases, others going with the tools to the work...

If 40 degrees was a lot, in Bucharest was much more, the days here have been unnatural, the people here can’t believe this unusual heat.

In spite of our tiredness, we went out that night in Bucharest to celebrate the birthday of Cati, the boyfriend of Andrea, the couple who hosted us in the city. We enjoy a lot the night, and the dinner that invited us.

The most interesting thing in Bucharest is the House of the People (Parliament); it is the second biggest construction of the world, after Pentagon. It contains more than 1 million tons of marble, more than 1.000 rooms, and in the visit of 1 hour that we did, we only could see a 4% of the interior. The interior is an extreme luxury, big columns of marble, lamps of crystal... curtain of 16 meters of height...

The Russian church, the Atheneo, the square where the communism and the dictatorship of Ceausescu fell... they are other things that we saw in the city. Also curious constructions, as the ancient building with a modern one in its interior, or the chaotic light cables that are mixed with those of the tramway and trolley buses.

We traveled fast across what remains of Romania, to arrive to Serbia. In Pitesti, I would say that there is nothing interesting to see, but yes to tell; here we have had our first serious attempt of stealing. Seated on a bench with our backpacks to our side, a boy at the back managed to open the zips, logically we don’t have any valuable staff there; when he tried with María’s, she listened at it, and the guy run away very fast. It seems impossible to us that he could open our backpacks; it means that we must to be more alert.

We keep moving fast up to Craiova, our thought was to stay a single night, but the warm welcome of Geo and Marina, oblige us to pass two beautiful days. From the beginning they were very nice with us, they took us to see the entire city, and at night the show of a musical fountain.

As it says the title of the blog... with very much sadness we leave this great country!, when people ask us which country is the best up to this moment respect people, undoubtedly the answer is ROMANIA. Very warm people, which are very friendly, proud of their Latin origins, and with a dark past for the dictator Ceaucescu, of whom it is spoken a lot still in the streets. A country that grows, and who looks the Euro with optimism, because worse could not go the country. The groceries have the price of Spain, and the minimum salaries are 150€ to 200€. We hope that this confidence in the Euro, be truly recompensed...