Got up feeling very refreshed. Had a quick coffee and banana. Decided on a better hitchhiking spot than in HitchWiki (turned out not so good, but worked), got a bus heading the wrong direction but got there in the end. Ended up at the end of a tram line, in a run down industrial area. Next thing I know, there is a horse and cart galloping by! Was pretty random, but would become a regular sight during the course of the day. Managed to get a delivery van to stop, Felix haggled a price of 10 lei, which is around 2 euro for a ride for both of us for 100km. It is pretty common to pay for hitchhiking in Romania, as it is very common for locals to use this method. You don't have to pay, but it is expected and they do know that you as a foreigner will have the means to pay. It doesn't feel that good, but we were in a hurry and needed to take any lift that we could get. However, with our colourful signs, Felix and I felt like the kings of hitchhiking! Anyways, back to the delivery driver. I am not sure what he was delivering, quite possibly hearts for a in progress heart transplant for which the surgeons had forgotten that they needed a new heart about half way into the procedure. He was consistently surprised to see cars on the other side of the road, around blind corners or over crests. Their sudden and unwarranted appearance usually provoked a stream of abuse towards theses obviously poor drivers. I noticed once, by the whiplash, that he was once or possibly twice forced to extend his foot in the directions of the brake.The countryside was simply stunning, as you pass through the rural heart of Romania, due to the major highway still being constructed. Picturesque farmyard scenes abounded and it really felt like a step back in time. People actually using scythes to cut the grass for hay, geese just wandering around and saw a potentially mischievous donkey or two. They always look like they are on the brink of some elaborate plan for causing mischief, but are slightly unsure of how to put their plan into action. OK, so I look at donkeys too much. Was a pretty good drive, apart from the frequent near death experiences. We got only had to wait a short time for our next lift, turned out to be a 300km one, awesome! Two brothers who were 'buying' used cars from Germany (rich country) and somehow selling them for more in Romania (poor country). Sounded like a rather dodgy proposition to us. The brother who was not driving could speak pretty good English and we chatted a lot at the start. However, the atmosphere in the car cooler considerably after he started speaking about Gypsies (we had just passed some living in tent like structures, in the forest) and said "I hate gypsies, they are 100% thieves, always stealing from people, even us Romanians! I tell you, if I had a gun I would shoot them. Hahaha! Probably be a national hero. Hahaha!". Thing is, he really would like to have shot them all and this is a pretty common sentiment. Anyways, I was more worried about the grey hairs I was accumulating at a rapid rate due to the driver trying to repeatedly kill us all. He seemed to have a bona fide death wish. He had a ferocious attitude towards overtaking and held very personal grudges against those fools who overtook him, making every effort to overtake them and restore his honour. He also thought that the correct response to calm a scared horse who was frightened by a car ahead of us overtaking it at 140km/h, was to honk his horn and maintain speed. Interesting approach.
So we got dropped at a roundabout in the middle of nowhere and managed to promptly flag down a truck heading to Iasi, a town very near the border with Moldova. Nice driver and he rang his daughter who could speak English and so i could pass on our thanks to him. Pretty nice. Made our way into Iasi, only to realise we had no idea how to get out onto the highway. Oh well. Got directed to a supermarket where we might be able to get a lift. Got fed a watered and the were wandering through the car park when a Moldovan guy saw our sign for Chişinău (capital of Moldova) and asked if he could take us. GREAT! I was so happy and relived, we were going to make it! So happy. About 2kms down the road, he stops to let his wife get out and buy something from a shop. He then informed us that he was a taxi driver. He wanted 100 euros for taking us to Chişinău. Fuck. I felt so stupid and like an idiot. We said we didn't have any money and got out. Hidden taxis would become an annoyance as we headed further east. So wandered around Iasi, trying to get a lift. We showed our sign to a middle aged Romanian couple and they asked if we spoke English. WTF? We had bumped into an English teacher and a mathematics professor. We had a nice conversation about things past and present and they told which way to go. It started to rain and we found ourselves wandering down a hill, trying to get a lift. We eventually got a car to stop, was a taxi again, but agreed to take us to the border for free. Got there and waited for ages to get through. We we got to the Moldovan guards they checked our bags asked us if we had any money? We said no. Any cards? No we said. Ok, you can go. Man, corrupt bastards. Anyways, we couldn't get a lift for a while. Then this nice Moldovan guy took us to the nearest town, Ungheni. We couldn't get a train so he took us to a taxi who agreed to take us for 35 euro. We were to tired to haggle and got in. The main highway was like a dodgy Australian country road. The driver was going pretty damn fast. He thought it an appropriate safety measure to just stop in the middle of the highway, putting on the hazard lights to go and take a piss. He also thought it would be a good idea to pick up a drunken friend when we arrived in Chişinău. He was a wanker. After driving the wrong way down a one way street, he eventually dropped us off, all the while his friend demanding 50 euros. Met our awesome host, an Australian lady had a shower and slept soundly after a rather stressful day of travelling...
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