I purposely left early(ish) – partly to get roads quieter / partly because it was cooler. Getting out of Ploiesti was quite straight forward and there was some cycle paths – some very good – some terrible – couple of bits where the cycle path / pavement was being dug up – when this happens nothing seems to be put in place for the pedestrian or cyclist. At end of town the cycle path runs out and it’s a case of joining the dual carriage – not too bad to begin with but the further south I go the busier it gets. Again I make detours through the nearby villages to get off the main road as much as possible – trying to stay on just paved roads – my rear tyre is on it’s last legs and I have another broken spoke and I’m hoping both hold out until I get to Bucharest. I hear lots of barking to my right at the edge of one small town – all behind a fence and there are lots of dogs and kennels for them – wondering if it might be a rescue centre but didn’t get chance to find out as the road changed to rubble and I managed to slow down? Just narrowly avoiding going through a huge pot hole at speed – I got such a fright the dogs were forgotten about. At another town I stop at a crossroads to check the map on my phone – a lady approaches to help – it looks as if I’m going going to have to join the dual carriageway again – when I say “Bucharesti” – she points right and left and confirms what I thought – in mime she tells me I’m strong – I’m able to tell her I’ve been cycling in Romania for 4 weeks and I tell her that Romania is beautiful – all in mime and odd words – she puts her hands to her heart and gives me the biggest smile ever. In my attempt to avoid the dual carriageway I have to cross it 4 times – once at a zebra crossing and I’m pleasantly surprised that all the traffic did stop – and at 3 pedestrian bridges – at the bridges I had to take the panniers off, get these to the top of the stairs and then return for the bike and then repeat going down the stairs at the other side – at the 3rd set of stairs a guy coming down towards me helped me out – he went all the way back over the other side carrying my bike while I carried the panniers and I was so grateful. About 10 miles from Bucharest I’m thinking yippee I’m nearly there but no – I’m at a really busy intersection and I really don’t fancy it – did a lot of map checking and tooing and froing – there was a train station not to far away but there didn’t seem to be an easy way to get to it – to get to Bucharest I needed ro get to the other side of a railway line that was at right angles to the direction I was going in – there seemed to be lots of minor roads on either side of the railway line but very few seemed to cross it – eventually with lots of zooming in I managed to plot a better route and finally got on my way again and even found a stretch of cycle lane. I walked the last couple of kilometers, pushing Bertie, to the hostel – navigating in a busy city while cycling is not – in amongst the sea of concrete I spotted this huge violin sculpture –

And then the fountains –

Initially thinking I was getting wet from the fountains, but it had actually just started raining – made it to the hostel not long before the heavens really opened.

I will definitely return to Romania in the future but not sure I would repeat the last stretch of cycling.