Then drive to Wallachia

Day #34

Wednesday, June 3rd.

From Morârești to Bucharest

Country: Romania

Shortly after waking up, I witness firsthand how trash ends up in the woods.

A farmer couple is herding their three cows down the road and, in a seemingly casual motion, the next bag lands in the forest.

That's how microplastics come back to you all by themselves.

Or, as I've seen, plastic sticking out of haystacks.

Yum.

What I have been hearing all night is the trucks passing by on the country road.

Let’s wait and see what awaits me.

I’m a bit worried about my left thigh, it feels somewhat swollen and hurts.

I hope that goes away.

First, I'll take an ibuprofen, since it's anti-inflammatory.

After the last climb, which is what I get to tackle first, there’s a beautiful descent through the forest.

It would be even nicer if the truck behind me would keep some distance. Overtaking is impossible due to the road limitations anyway.

That both of us are above the speed limit is irrelevant.

It seems to always be just a rough guideline.

Accept and pedal steadily is the motto.

And then one village follows another.

All the houses line the one road I’m traveling on. Occasional side streets only lead to other villages.

Probably the only reason there are different place names is that it would be difficult to assign house numbers from 1 to twelve million.

Due to this setup, the local recreation area is always right behind the garden.

To the left, the foothills of the Carpathians rise, and on the other side, there’s agriculture.

This way, I can enjoy looking at each individual house, which are in various stages of construction.

From dilapidated to under construction, to half palaces.

Anyway, I have the feeling that considerable energy is being invested in restoration.

Sometimes it’s hard to decipher what I’m looking at when a construction site looks like a ruin at the same time.

Shopping at noon is a necessity; first, ice cream, because it’s very muggy again.

Occasionally there are even bike paths, and sometimes I can actually use them.

Too often, they are used as parking spaces.

Bike paths here are a bit of a specialty. If there’s an obstacle, they just end and then start again as if there never was a creek or a tree.

I take a break under a bridge to have some shade and sit in the greenery without it being a front yard.

And if you ignore the cars and the trash, it’s quite a nice spot with a small stream by a kind of dyke, where two farmers supervise their cows, sheep, and goats.

Sometimes I hear a cart rumbling above me.

If I counted right, I’ve turned off five times on the way to Bucharest.

Ignoring rest spots and roundabouts that I went straight over.

The whole day is completely monotonous, aside from even more traffic in Pitești.

Although, I drive off the federal road twice and get to enjoy the permanent decline that accompanies me throughout the day and finally switch off my mind for a bit.

When I finally see one, I notice there are almost no sports fields.

Playgrounds are also almost completely absent.

Basically, people seem to be primarily traveling by car.

The first road cyclists on this side of the Carpathians, people riding just for fun, I see only shortly before Bucharest again.

I prefer to go around a military exclusion zone, even if my GPS shows that as the optimal route, and then it’s finally time; I enter Bucharest.

Unlike the traffic-jammed cars, which I can elegantly weave past.

The check-in is a bit annoying again. I have to call several times until all the information is available to access the apartment.

And there’s no internet, but there’s a terrace and a view of the Palace of the People.

Time for a shower, then with help from home pick a restaurant and off we go into the city.

While finishing the last report, I realize that I’ve covered almost exactly 3,332 km.

I could have done another round around the block.

As the tobacco nears its end, I set out to look for more and ask around, which works even without language.

Then into the accommodation and just fall into bed.

Song of the day:

Zeal & Ardor - Row Row