On this first leg of the trip, I had finished reading several magazines and saved them, only to throw them in the seperated paper trash in Bucharest. In short, I didn’t find any.
Frustrated, I took a walk to Lacul Morii[1] because I found a large lake near the city center interesting. In short, I thought such a lake could have been better presented:
The Dâmboviţa River flows from there into the city center, and I followed it to the lake, but instead of the beautiful scenery of a lake pouring its waters into a river, everything was blocked off by a series of highways, (here seen on google street view, the view from car drivers – pedestrians are 1-2 floors lower)
and only because I had enough time and was stubborn did I finally find a way there. You can’t get to the lake directly, but at least you could take a nice walk on the dam. For me, the other direction would have been more suitable, but it was blocked by a fence.
I gave up and walked to the bus stop, from where I took a bus to Burgas late at night.
While I was waiting, on average every 5 minutes poor people came to check if there was anything usable in the trash cans.
The last surprise before departure was the toilet. It was an “Asian” restroom, dirty and desolate, and getting €10 or so for using it would have been reasonable. I used it without receiving any money, though it was also free of everything you’d expect from a restroom, but the real surprise was a guy who suddenly appeared on the scene, demanding money for this sh…
With a few signs, I made it clear I didn’t have any Romanian leu, but then he he conjured up his card payment machine and kindly offered me a paper towel in advance so I could at least wash and dry my hands.
The payment worked perfectly.
[1] Lacul Morii (“Mill Lake”) is a reservoir, made in 1986 mainly to protect the city against floods. It is also a recreation area and it provides a constant flow to the Dâmboviţa river in the city.