Hi Kumuya,

Do you know about road conditions in east Romania, especially in Galati area.
I'm travelling in Odessa next April and one plan is to continue route Odessa-Galati-Bucharest-Brasov. On that route I have to ride through Moldova. We as EU citizens dont need a visa anymore, but is the border crossing working nevertheless ?

Moldavian roads are 90% good on major route - like Suceava to Bucharest, Galati - Bucharest is not bad but I don't know how are secondary roads.
Now depend from Galati what route you choose to Bucharest, If you take Galati - Braila - Slobozia - Bucharest ... Is a good road at least Slobozia Bucharest is ok.

Or if you take Galati-Focsani- Bucharest ..... also Focsani - Bucharest is a very good road ... but in Galati area depend if it will be again a flood ... roads will be affected

Bucharest - Brasov is a good road only if you will go on week-end you should expect many cars

ALSO many roads will have radar systems - Bucharest - Brasov already has, but if you go along many cars you will notice where are radars because all are slowing down
On moldavian roads last summer were a lot of police cars with radar or "our favorite" unmarked police cars with radar. Luckily car drivers signals a radar so if you see some cars flashing their lights you should verify your speed.

Also romanian road legislation says that motorcycles must always have lights on, and cars only outside cities.

I don't know about border crossing from Ukraine to Romania ... but you shouldn't have problems on romanian border.

As I wrote on previous post take care of your pockets in Galati area or if you stop at a gas station don't loose sight of your luggage - is valable for Bucharest too - especially when you see gypsies.

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I crossed from Ukraine into Romania in July of 2006. No problems of any kind, the Romanian customs officials were friendly, very courteous and helpful, and several of them spoke English. They checked to make sure that I actually owned the motorcycle I was riding, but I very much got the impression that they were doing this in an effort to reduce importation of stolen vehicles, not to give me any kind of hassle at all. Total time at the border crossing: about 10 minutes.

I entered Ukraine from the Czech Republic about a week earlier. That was a totally different experience. Although the Ukrainian customs officials were very courteous, they were not at all efficient, and they looked at all sorts of documents 'by rote' - ownership, insurance, passport, my visa, everything. Total time at the actual crossing point (interacting with officials) - about 90 minutes. There was at least a 4 hour lineup to enter Ukraine, but all of the local people at the back of the lineup kept telling me to just go ahead to the front of the line. I'm not sure if this was because I was obviously a visitor, or because I was on a motorcycle. Anyway, after a lot of prompting, I did that (jumped the queue), the folks at the front of the queue let me in as if it was normal, and I then started the customs formalities.

No-one at either crossing point ever raised the slightest suggestion of baksheesh, bribes, anything like that. All the extortion began once I entered Ukraine - every 50 kms, I was shaken down for about USD $10 or so in local currency by traffic cops running roadside shakedown stations.

Hope that helps.