Day 59

15/10/2011 – Day 59

Zimnicea to Giurgiu – 65km

The day started with the sound of street cleaner shovelling rubbish into bins. The windows were there only to keep the rain out I think. The weather has moved into its autumn phase now and it has become much colder at night. It is hard to imagine that just a few days ago it was too hot to sleep at night. But at least the mosquitos have gone.

Taking a hot shower would have been a good way to warm up this morning but that would mean having hot water in the shower, the best I could get was tepid!

When we set off it was warm when we were in the sun but any shade at all and the temperature dropped dramatically. The wind was very light but it was in our faces again all day. I had expected to warm up quickly and be able to cycle in a t-shirt all day but after the first hour I had to stop and put my yellow jacket on, it was that cold.

It was another uneventful morning, cycling through open countryside with derelict farms, and dirty villages with nowhere inviting to stop for a coffee until we reached the village of Pietrosani where there was a small shop where we took the chance and stopped. The owner gave us the coffee for free because M could speak Romanian so well!

The guide said that there was a restaurant in a village a few stops up the road but as usual the guide was wrong. There were two shops and that was it, neither looked very inviting but the first one had somewhere we could put the bikes off the street so having checked them both out we went back to the first.

As we pulled up one of the men drinking there indicated for us to put the bikes inside out of the way.  While M went inside to buy food the man asked where we were going, the usual questions. Having bought the food we sat down at the one table to eat. The other men in the shop came to join in the conversation. The one who spoke to me first brought us and onion to put in our cheese sandwiches, then the owner brought us a red pepper, then another guy gave us some grapes, it went on and on. They asked as about our trip and how we were getting on, then told us about the other cyclist they had seen this year and finally told us about the best places to stay between here and the Black Sea. It was a very friendly hour spent with genuinely nice people who just wanted to help.

The last 20km were as uneventful as the morning, the only highlight was the children shouting hello and holding out their hands for the usual high five as we passed.

Entering Giurgiu was nothing new, the town looks just like all the others here in Romania, they have all seen better days. We stopped for a coffee in the town centre and checked the internet for accommodation. The hotels listed in the guide were all too expensive. We found three possibilities, the first turned out to be a sex club, the second was full due to a birthday party and we managed to get a room in the third although they are hosting a wedding.

Dinner tonight was another pizza and then I bought a fleece jacket to cope with the colder days. Finally we found a real supermarket, fully stocked and full of customers.