Sunday, 06 May

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="044d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <A HREF="id139.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Saturday, 05 May"><U><IMG SRC="0450b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="previous" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="id141.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Monday, 07 May"><U><IMG SRC="0460b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>       <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="11" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="11">   <A HREF="id133.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="May"><U><IMG SRC="0480b0b0.gif" border=0 width="11" height="11" ALT="up" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="1f0af830.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="131" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Romanian Parliament Building, Bucharest</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Gastropod's Trail</B></FONT>     |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Gastropods Trail"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> Sunday, 06 May</div> <div> Borovo, Bulgaria to Toriceni, Romania</div> <bR> <div> Our last stretch of road in Bulgaria. In all fairness, Nicole and I loved driving through rural Bulgaria. The roads are generally excellent and the countryside simply beautiful. Rolling hills with endless freshly tilled and seeded fields alternating with woods and forests. The Bulgarian landscape is highly diverse. Its mountains – both high and low, craggy and undulating - are divided in places by deep valleys or shallow river basins. The north is dominated by the vast lowlands of the Danube plains, the south by highlands and elevated plains. The towns and villages, on the other hand, are rather depressing. Most of the many industrial complexes, we came across, are idle. In the poorer villages many houses are still built with mud-bricks. The 1980's Lada's and horse drawn carts far outnumber the BMW's and Mercedes' (which are all equipped with hair-trigger alarm systems).</div> <bR> <div> This time we had arranged to arrive at the border after lunch! The Bulgarian formalities were quick and simple, but the customs inspector was very thorough. After he had learned from us that we had spent time in Turkey he was concerned about hidden drugs and explained to us that the road from Turkey through Bulgaria and Romania was one of the major drug routes to western Europe. He told us that it is not uncommon that drugs are stashed in tourists' cars without their knowledge and later recovered just as clandestinely. It was good that we could assure him that we had hardly left the Gastropod alone and had slept in it every night. </div> <bR> <div> With a sigh of relief we paid the bridge toll and crossed the majestic Danube which, at this point is only about 35 m above sea level. On the Rumanian side of the bridge the Gastropod was thoroughly sprayed with disinfectant (for the modest sum of U$7.00 - no washing of hands this time) and then, for the next km we stopped every 150 m for Passport formalities, Vehicle permit and Green Card inspection, Ecological Tax collection and finally a customs declaration. All in all it had still taken almost an hour and a half to finally be on the road to Bucharest. </div> <bR> <div> Romania's capital - named after its legendary founder, a shepherd called Bucur - lies on the Wallachian plains, between the Carpathian foothills and the Danube river. In the 1930s it was known as 'the Paris of the East'. Since then, earthquakes, W.W.II bombing and Ceausescu have combined to destroy much of its prewar beauty.</div> <div> In the 1980s Ceausescu bulldozed 7000 homes and 15 churches in historic southern Bucharest to build a Civic Centre. The focal point of what locals dubbed 'Ceausima' is the enormous 12-storey 'House of the People', intended to be the largest building in the world - it's actually the second, after the Pentagon. Ceausescu - who was executed just as it neared completion - intended it to house the president's office, central committee and all the state ministries. The first post-communist government did not know what to do with this white elephant - many people wanted it demolished - but in 1994 decided to use it to house the Parliament and to host international conferences. On weekdays there are guided tours with a chance to visit the ornate 1000-room interior as well as the mesmerising exterior. This being Sunday, no visits. Instead we walked the perimeter (must be 3 km or more) and came to the conclusion that it was probably built by the lowest bidder! barely 20 years after it and the 5 km long avenue with it's ornate fountains were constructed,  they show wear and tear beyond expectation.</div> <bR> <div> Sundays and capitals are bad to get an impression of a country, so I'll hold on for now. The pleasant surprise in Bucharest was that there are plenty of chic and modern cafes which serve delicious (first time since we left Italy) pastry and at a very reasonable price.</div> <bR> <div> After strolling the side roads from the central avenue and climbing the hill to the old parliament building, the Metropolitan Church and the residence of the Metropolitan of the Romanian Orthodox Church it was already getting dark when we left this sprawling city of 2 Million people.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>