Lost in Bucharest

Andy C’s retirement flat

It’s my turn to write a blog Andy says he needs a rest!! Having had the piss taken out of me in previous blogs I have some making up to do! My blog will not be amusing but will be informative, not artistic but scientific.

As Andy has already reported we had a convivial stay in Pensiunea Mara in Baiculesti Arges after an eventful drive along the Transfargarrian highway. We had a slight difficulty locating our tavern due to Andy P forgetting to take down the info from the Internet the previous evening. With no internet access James and Tom managed to point us in the right direction. That is after a very kind Frenchman googling and doing all sorts of technical manoeuvres for us after meeting him in an ALDI.

The night was not uneventful due to the fact that Andy had consumed an excess of alcohol (three beers) causing him to collapse on his bed and fall asleep after writing his previous diatribe. He promptly started to snore, you know girls the one when the bloke is shit faced after a night on the booze. He gave me the biggest fright so far, worse than driving up the Transfagarrian highway, he started eating his own face and suddenly stopped breathing, rather than give him mouth to resuscitation I decided awake him. After three more episodes of apnoea which ended just before I awoke him, I gave up and went to sleep.

We left our accommodation at approximately nine clock after a chat with the landlord whose English is far better than my Romanian but still challenging, whenever I said “thank you” he would say “very much”.

We travelled down the road toward Pitesti and then to Bucharest. Two miles from our stay we spied two Oxen pulling a wooden cart a scene right out of medieval times. Andy said “got to get a picture of this”, so pulled the car up almost sending me through the front windscreen. The husband was all for it but his wife was dead against the portrait. She started hitting the oxen, shouting at her husband who was still keen on the photo. He hit her and all hell let loose, Andy managed one snap photo before jumping back into the car and speeding off.

Angry farmers wife

Soon we were on the motorway cruising along when we saw men in the middle reservation shovelling up sand. Minimal cone protection. Andy was fascinated to hear that the sand had blown in from the beach and they were collecting it to return to the beach as they were running short of sand.

Our first fuel stop was interesting Andy pulls into the carpark and forgets to take the car out of gear before he takes his foot of the clutch. No need to turns off the engine, it stalls itself, we parked tighter to the kerb than intended!!!

Nice coffee break back into the car and we depart, but we have a problem Andy isn’t sure which way to go, despite the big notice saying A2. The journey was uneventful until we came across our first toll road. Andy luckily had withdrawn some Romanian currency so having pulled in to read the price notice, Andy read 3 lei but it read 13 leu I did advise him that when he got his hearing test he should combine it with a sight test. However, the best was to come, as we approached the pay booth a uniformed man waved us forward. Andy thought he was pulling us out of the queue so diverted the car at which point the uniformed man waved him back into the queue. Andy turned to me and said, “I thought he was a customs inspector”, I pointed out that we were in the middle of Romanian nowhere near a border!!!!

Onto Bucharest we missed the ring road and landed up driving through the middle of Bucharest. Interesting to see the miles and miles of dilapidated communist style high rise flats. We were thinking that one would be an ideal retirement flat for Andy.

It was not long before we were lost in Bucharest Half so Andy winds the window down to ask a taxi driver the way to Constanta, luckily he tells us we need the next left which we about to drive straight by. Another half an hour and we were on the A2 to Constanta.

Now you remember in a previous blog when Andy took the piss out of me because he was asleep and I took the wrong direction. Well I hate to say this but while I was writing this blog I had told Andy we want the ring road which he promptly drove straight past. I can’t remember the exact words but it went something like this “the person driving is responsible for pointing the car in the right direction” We landed up in Constanta port and after doing a uee and stopping and asking several people we were on the right road for the party. However, we couldn’t find Coral beach resort so after asking several people Andy asked a taxi driver who duly took us to the destination which was 200yards away but he drove 2miles and demanded 30 leu Andy gave him 10 I would have given 5, but Andy says I am a mean b****r!!! Finally we arrive but in Andy’s excitement he drives on the wrong side of the road heading straight for a Romanian car, lucky his co driver (me) shouts loudly, because of his hearing, to keep on the right side of the road.