Bucureşti

isin: Romania Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti) is the capital of Romania.

Hitching in and around
Bucharest has a ring road completely surrounding the city, which means that hitchhikers can accept a lift to Bucharest and then go further without having to enter the city center and then hitch out again. However, hitching from the ring road in some places can be very difficult, Especially in the north near Otopeni and motorway 1 where they are constructing a new road and it is a very bad area full of prostitutes, stray dogs, gypsies and really no good places for cars to stop. In such cases it is better to just hitch into town and avoid the ring road. Then take a metro or a bus to the side of Bucharest you need to exit from.

Southbound travelers headed for Bulgaria or Istanbul might want to stop at a truck rest stop close to where the E70 takes a right turn, where one can possibly find a lift straight there. Even if there are few drivers stopped in the parking lot that you can ask directly, you can thumb trucks driving by, preferably with a sign reading BG or TR. Traffic moves very slowly here so drivers have plenty of time to see you.

West towards Transylvania, Serbia
Get the metro to Pacii (note the metro is a bit crazy - if you're not careful the trains change lines without warning and you can end up at Gare Du Nord again!). From Pacii you have to find the main road going west, and go to the first bus stop. Get the first bus that says Carrefour and go all the way to Carrefour shopping centre, this is the start of the motorway. There's a part where the fence is broken (it's not broken anymore, if you get to the mall, you have to walk back a little bit, and or a) walk by the side of the entrance of a tunnel (kind of dangerous) or b) get out before the carrefour and walk (and hitch) a kilometer or two) and you can access the motorway here - it's actually a very good spot to hitch, since traffic coming from the big shopping centre stops here.

The Transylvanian road runs through Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca. This is the standard route for central and western Transylvania, the other route through Brasov is a "scenic" journey that takes longer.

South towards Giurgiu, Bulgaria, Turkey
Take the M2 metro in direction of Berceni. Get off at Eroi Revolutiei and look for the City Mall, walk towards it and you will see that the road forks. Take the right fork, the road will be called Giurgiului. Just after the city mall, there's a tram ticket office. Get a ticket (1.3 Lei as of October 2009), and walk a bit more on the road to get to the tram stop. It's right in the middle of the road. Take tram #7 or #25 to the last stop. Then walk down the road for 5 minutes and you will reach a service station on the right hand. You can ask people here or stop cars passing on the main road.

There's a train from Gara de Nord to Giurgiu (leaving at 20:00 and 12:00, August 2010), for the equivalent of about 7 euro.

Personal experiences
guaka thought it was a good option to get out of the city in the evening, but Giurgiu's train station is not even close to the city, or the border, so a bad option for the night. If you consider this option to save some time it's probably much better to take the train directly to Ruse.

Joachim and Ron asked and waited for 2 hours in the truck stop mentioned above, they decided to walk along the ring road towards the E85. After about 4 kilometers and just before a traffic light, there's a Turkish truck stop. You can't miss it's on the right side. We walked in, showed our sign "Istanbul" and found a ride within 1 minute. 5 minutes later drinking tea, they agreed to take us all the way to Istanbul.

Northeast towards Urziceni, Buzau, Braila, Galaţi
Take the metro to Piaţa Obor, then from there take tram #21 north to the last stop. The tram will turn off the main road into its terminus station, but after getting out of the tram continue walking straight on the main road. You will come to a bridge after a large market called Europa. Hitchhiking here is possible, but you will have to compete with other people who are standing alongside the road to flag down minibuses. A better option is to continue walking north for about three kilometers until after the Bucharest ring road, where all cars going northeast are isolated.

East towards Constanţa, Vama Veche
Take the red metro line to Anghel Saligny, the last stop in direction east. If you leave the station, you are right at the beginning of the motorway A2 in direction Constanţa.

Public transport

 * The bus/tram ticket inspectors are not working after 7 pm so a ticket check after this hour is highly unlikely
 * The buses are running between 5 am and 11 pm
 * 1 Ticket is 1.5 Lei (0.30 EUR)
 * Controllers in Romania are very sneaky. They don't get on at bus stops but instead they go on at traffic lights. So that way no one can get out of the bus and they can catch people easier. They usually go in near the front so if you want a chance of escaping then sit right next to the front door and dash out really quickly when the door is open for them to get on. Otherwise, if you get caught try saying you have no money and that you are traveling by autostop (romanian word for hitchhiking) around the world with no money. Having a hitchhiking sign and backpack would help your story :) This worked once for Luke and Sma. Controllers just gave back our passports and left us alone whereas a few minutes earlier they were threatening to call the police.
 * Buses have a special program for night also. They start their route from "Piata Unirii" between 23 pm and 6 am. The buses start the routes at sharp hours.