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//Day 24 /04-04-22 /Bucharest-Silistra

I left Bratislava around 7.45 through the busy Monday morning traffic, the big roads full with cars, needing all my alertness not to be hit by people driving to their work, car doors being flung open. Survival of the fittest. After 15 K  I was in the outskirts of Bucharest but still on a busy road lined with factories and businesses. The number of factories diminished with each kilometer the traffic unfortunately not. After 30 K I was finally send of the busy road to a departmental road which went straight ahead for the next 35 K…My feet told me it was cold today, when I started it was just above freezing, the temperature would not rise above 10 degrees today. I decided to focus on cycling today, I need to cycle around 130 K to reach my today’s destination : Calarasi where I planned to take the ferry to cross the Danube tomorrow. By way of experiment I had not booked any accommodation and hoped to be able to camp as Komoot (the navigation app I’m using) mentioned there was as campingsite. 

After 30 K I took finally  a left turn and was again on a road which went straight ahead for the next 30 K, the advantage was that the wind became more supportive. Disadvantage was that a big portion I needed to cycle on gravel as the road underwent renovation. 










I reconnected with the Eurovelo 6 and started following the Danube again for the rest of the day. Cycling again through small villages alternated with farmland. In one of the villages I started talking with a man in front of mini market. When he asked me what I thought about Romania and Romanians and when I said I had mostly positive experiences he was quite surprised and said that this was strange as most of the Romanians can not be trusted…and that I should not trust everyone. 



The last part towards Silistra brought no change in scenery. I had imagined for Silistra to be a small rural village. Reality was that that it was surrounded by industry and abandoned plants. I entered the city in search of the camping site but the place Komoot indicated was in the middle of a soviet style estate. When I asked someone if he knew if there was a camping I understood “no camping”. My alternative plan was to stay a hotel near the ferry crossing. With 45 euro per night somewhat at the expensive side but there were no alternatives at this side of the Danube. I started cycling toward the hotel. When I arrived at the hotel I saw that a ferry was ready to leave. I cycled on the ferry whilst asking if it was going to Bulgaria…which was confirmed. During the ferry trip I found  a hotel/spa (with internal swimming pool )for 25 euro in Silistra the Bulgarian town across the Danube, which I booked. With the last power Black Horse had in him I cycled 4 K to the hotel passing the Romanian - Bulgarian border.  At the border there was a Bulgarian Red Cross team providing food to passing through Ukranian refugees (the car entering before me came from Ukraine). When I asked them if a lot of refugees have crossed the border they said that until previous week a lot of Ukrainian refugees passed but that this week is was not so busy anymore. 

A the border crossing I was also  informed by the border agent that my covid pass needed to be checked by a doctor (remember that on a previous Bulgarian entry I was almost not allowed to enter as no doctor and scanning app was available). The doctor appeared, put her sigaret in an ashtray,  she did not wear any mask or did not take any other precautions,  scanned my pass , picked up her sigaret from the ashtray and disappeared in the building again…







I was quickly checked into the hotel and the receptionist confirmed that the indoor pool was operational. When I wanted to take my swimming gear I noticed unfortunate that when packing I had taken Viktor’s swimsuit, similar model but some sizes smaller, so no swimming today. Bummer.  Instead I enjoyed a well deserved powernap after 136 K cycling. Before dinner I made a short walk through the city’s nice park along the Danube, of which I can imagine to be a nice meeting spot in summer. I looked for an open restaurant and finally found an open pizzeria called : Stop Mozarella…..

Tomorrow I will cycle another 135 K to Constanta at the Black Sea. If the place is pleasant enough I may decide to stay another night, if not, I will start heading to Burgas via the coast to reconnect with the Eurovelo Iron curtain route direction Sofia. 

Lessons Learned :

  • Viktor’s swimsuit is to small for me. 
  • One need a doctor’s degree to scan a Covid pass. 
  • Orban won the elections in Hungary today. A said day for democracy and tolerance
  • I forgot that Bulgarians put the music (real) loud. I think the bass helps with chewing food. 
Song  of the day : Road - Nick Drake


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