{"id":68,"date":"2019-09-14T06:20:35","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T06:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/?p=68"},"modified":"2019-09-14T07:46:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T07:46:38","slug":"romanian-brake-trouble-and-a-lot-of-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/14\/romanian-brake-trouble-and-a-lot-of-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"Romanian brake trouble and a lot of beer: Day 6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6420-e1568446796183-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-96\"\/><figcaption>Getting our brakes fixed in Romania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>During the 7-mile drive to Dracula\u2019s castle, the brakes started making an ominous sound. So on the road to Bucharest, we pulled into a mechanic shop \u2013 no go. Then, we pulled into another mechanic shop and a bunch of men in overalls huddled around the wheels loudly sucking in their breath and saying things like \u201cno safe\u201d and \u201cbroke bad.\u201d We kept going. We found another mechanic shop where all the men were wearing official looking jackets over their dungarees. Immediately, the credibility went up. I pantomimed a brake pad, and surprisingly, was understood. This service station could get four Opel brake pads and one disc for the \u201cbroke bad\u201d wheel, but it would take a day and a lot of Euros. Augustine drove us to a hotel in town, smiled and pointed in the direction of a pub. He said he would pick us up at 10am tomorrow. Thirteen Romanian beers and two plates of cheese fries later (the cook and waitress expressed their admiration for both), Helen and I made this video of the London launch day: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mongolia Charity Rally 2013 London launch\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FxhzH3Bgbsk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6425-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-97\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6425-980x735.jpg 980w, https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_6425-480x360.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><figcaption>Helen sitting in the beer garden attached to our hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Driver info for Romania: You need to buy\nroad tax, called vignette, in both Romania and Bulgaria when you cross the\nborder. They have stands just at the border and you can also buy it in petrol\nstations. In Romania it cost 5 Euros to buy. You don\u2019t need it until you leave\nthe country, when you have to show it to get out. If you don\u2019t have it, you get\nfined.&nbsp; One team said the guards fined\nhim more than 100 euros but he negotiated down to 40. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Romania, there aren\u2019t always speed limit\nsigns so be careful. There are policemen with radars everywhere and I saw\nnumerous people pulled over. I got fined 80 euros for going 98km in a 50km area\n(there was no sign but all towns are 50km\/hour). Oncoming cars will often flash\ntheir lights at you to let you know there is a policeman ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Driving at night on the way to Brasov was a\nlittle nerve wracking. Lots of drivers weaving, trucks going really slow,\nbroken headlights and super steep mountain bends at the end. I recommend\nstaying in the old town of Sibiu if you are driving late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robin Ewing<br \/>\nDuring the 7-mile drive to Dracula\u2019s castle, the brakes started making an ominous sound. So on the road to Bucharest, we pulled into a mechanic shop \u2013 no go. Then, we pulled into another mechanic shop and a bunch of men in overalls huddled around the wheels loudly sucking in their breath and saying things like \u201cno safe\u201d and \u201cbroke bad.\u201d We kept going<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_0439.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlondontomongolia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}