There was a constant cacophony of barking all night at the Arizona, which added to our tiredness. It was obviously that little area's pack of strays arguing over bins. As we rode hundreds of miles through Romanian countryside today, there were literally hundred of stray dogs, either wandering in little packs, whether in the countryside or in the towns, some being dead at the side of the road. Every filling station seems to be claimed by it's own small group. Still, as we rode around we came across almost every sort of domestic animal, either at the side of, or wandering in, the road. There were old grannies sitting on the verge outside there houses with flocks of geese, chickens or ducks. There were horses and cows, tethered at the side of the road in built up areas and, of course, donkeys. There were scores of horse drawn carts, on almost every road were rode on, we almost seemed able to intuit when we would come round a corner and come across one. Our plan today was to head to down to Bulgaria, just so we could say we'd been. However, when we reached the boarder we found that we needed to get a ferry. As we didn't have any local currency for the fare, we had to give it a miss. During the day, we saw lots of Police, including some with radar guns. During our travels today, we were also pleased to see that it appears to be, exclusively, women's role to clear the ditches outside property. On the subject of women, every village seemed to have one or two beautiful girls wandering about.In the towns, the young women were stunning, to the extent that it was a struggle not to fall off our bikes. Amongst the horse drawn traffic, that we encountered to day, we saw several gypsy wagons, loaded up with belongings. About fifty miles from Curtea de Arges (our stop for the night) we saw a few,stopped in a field at the side of the road, so we stopped to take photos. As soon as we were noticed, a gadjii came over with his son, and started chatting, asking if we were German. His Mrs and daughter then came over, too. We had quite a pleasant chat but left them disappointed when we had 'kein Geld' for the children. When we arrived at the |Hotel Posada, in Curtea, we found it we being used to accommodate teams from an International Under - 16 Tennis Competition. Although the competitors all seemed bronzed, blonde, and over 6 foot, there for being very nice to look at, the noise dozens of them made, in the restaurant, was enough to send out looking for food. We had Pizzas in a really nice little bar-restaurant called 'Capitol No Comment', where we there was a delightful Italian bar maid, called Alexandra. Curtea is a very up marked town, and there was a team of 4 sweeping pavements, at 1 O'clock in the morning. No matter how upmarket it seemed, at this time of night, there were several packs of dogs, wandering the streets, like Coyotes. Also, despite the prestigious appearance of the main drag, just behind the hotel the were some quite run down Communist era blocks of flats.
The car of choice for the Romanian Police force, the Dacia Logan.
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| Gypsy folk and wagons |
The Official bank of Dracula, the Blood Bank!
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