Romanian Roads

The road to Vlad's birthplace was not paved in gold or silver from his battle success, but unpaved and non existant in places.

We set off with a map of the roads to Targoviste, and all was well at first. We went to the East of the white crossed hill seen from our house and travelled through rolling hills which are a little higher than in the Cotswolds. No country pubs though, just an occasional shop, sometimes with people sitting outside with a drink, chatting and enjoying the sunny day.

This was fun, as it was the furthest we had been, and we were looking forward to seeing the Princely Court and another town.  But; and there is a but,  after too long to turn back, we came to a  road which had fallen away down a ditch. We checked the map but there were no alterntive routes except for the main roads miles away, so we slowly negotiated the road, and after a few more miles it turned to rough stone and gravel. We were expecting a dead end (again) , then we saw some houses and gingerly made our way forward.

Haystacks seen everywhere built in a conical shape.

An elaborately painted church in a small village before the road deteriorated.

Richard had to use all his driving skills to avoid the potholes and boulders on the track which the road had now become. Do you remember the scene in American Werewolf in London when the strangers went in the pub and everybody went quiet and stared at them? Well, everyone in this village in the hills seemed to be in their gardens or sitting outside their gardens watching our progress bouncing up and down on the rough surface. We were not even sure that we could get out of the village at the other end, but kept going.Remember 'Don't leave the path'? We did not stop to take photos or later when we suddenly came across half a bridge ( the right hand side)  and wondered what would have happened if a vehicle, or horse and cart of which there are many, was coming towards us? I literally shut my eyes in case the bridge collapsed, which I know is stupid as having my eyes open would have been more useful in the event of an accident!

Eventually the road improved and we arrived at Targoviste safe and sound. We travelled home the long way round!

I've since found out that about a third of Romanian roads are just gravel and that many of the roads that do exist are in a poor state of repair. There are EU grants for roads, (I have seen the signs), but the work is done v slowly and often seems to be at a standstill.

Look at the following website for a different type of new road in the mountains:

romanianmonasteries.org

Drum bun!  (literally  road good!)