Romania (Country #37)

You cannot get much more of an efficient border crossing then this. 

Hand the visa in one window and out it comes the other and you are in your next country

I had yet to stay on the black sea so I decided I would do the border crossing from Bulgaria to Romania there. The crossing brings you out into the party beach town of Vama Veche where there are more bars than accommodations.

I though this was an interesting set up in a private campground. It seems there is some sort of advantage to digging a hole and placing your camper in it.

After Vama Veche it was off too Bucharest to see my friends Andreea and Alex who I last saw three years ago when we crossed from Panama to Columbia together. Since alex was busy with work and school Andreea took me out to the city centre to see the sites at night.

After a few hours of snapping pictures and walking around it was time for some traditional food. We opted on the Mici with samples from the various regions of Romania. It was served with garlic potatoes (they love garlic in Romania.....think Transylvania) along with an assortment of mustards. 

The following day we decided to see the city by bicycle. Since Alex had to study I was able to use his bike and that damn sexy helmet you see on my head. 

And I wonder why the beautiful Romanian women were pointing and laughing when I rode by. Well better luck in the next country maybe.

One of the many city parks we rode through.

Monument in the palace gardens

Interesting fact I did not know, but this building is only second in size to the Pentagon as far as largest buildings in the world.

Once you do pull away from the city centre you do see the styles of the old communist regime. There are hundreds of soviet style apartment blocks that were built to house the family's working in the equal number of huge factories. 

As much as i love seeing the old buildings etc it is the odd things that catch my attention. The first is this music concert that will be powered solely by peddle power (note the setting up of the bikes in the left and corner).

Now if you have been following my blog from long ago. You maybe remember I was propositioned by a hooker (in Nicaragua) on a bicycle who rang her bell to get my attention which I thought was unique.
And as uniqueness goes it seems that both in Bulgaria and Romania prostitution has another twist. As you drive down the highways near cities there will be prostitutes standing on the side hoping for customers flying by at 100km hour to stop. I found it really interesting to be driving down a four lane freeway and seeing a prostitute standing or sitting on a bottle crate waiting for customers.
(I will try and get a picture for the next blog as proof).