On the 11th, we arrived at the "port" closest to Bucharest, Olteniţa. 

I guess the guy who altered the map was concerned about being overlooked.

 

This is what greeted us:

 

 

Here's our boat captain running after the Romanian customs officer to give him his bribe.  This time it's two boxes of orange juice and a carton of cigs.

The local welcoming committee:

 

Lots of poverty out in the Romanian countryside.

 

The trees ameliorate an otherwise dusty road.

Our local apologist tour guide had the bus bring us into Bucharest along this sewage canal.  It was originally meant to be a freshwater canal to bring water to the city, but somehow it ended up being used for sewage.  They built a big reservoir on the far side of the canal, intended for recreation.  But all the houses on the other side of the road were getting flooded because they built the reservoir by building up berms instead of excavating.  All the water in the reservoir was above grade. So naturally the local water table rose to grade.  So they abandoned the project.  I was seriously worried that Bucharest was going to be a big shit-hole like some of those cities in Russia.  Luckily it was not.

 
 

I think this was started with the intention of being a performing arts center, or opera, or theatre.

 It's been like this since 'the change'.

Our apologist told us that this house was here Nicky and Elena lived;  they were actually modest people who lived conservatively.  bullshit.   It was at this point that I started to recognise that our apologist was actually very extensively trained.  like the apologist in Serbia.