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But at the border, you always had to hand over money, or sometimes alcohol and cigarettes. It was the same in the USSR, for example, when my grandfather once traveled to Sochi from Poland in the 1980s and had to have alcohol and cigarettes ready for border officials.

Was Romania safe for foreign visitors under Ceausescu time?

It happened to a friend of mine in 2008, I remember it vividly.   Yes, travelling in Eastern Europe was safer during communism, as police kept a tight grip on society  

Well, maybe not until 2010, but until 2000, and it was probably safer there under the communists, than in 1990 years? I traveled to Croatia alone in 2006, via Hungary and Bosnia, but those were more peaceful times Generally, during the communist era, Poles would travel to Bulgaria in 3-4 cars for holidays- it was safer at all. And it worked the same way the other way around. If a Bulgarian/Rumunian person were traveling alone to Poland in 1995 and don`t know its realities, they might have had problems with the police or other dangerous, for example. 

This happened until 2010s, travellers were hijacked by criminals impersonating Bulgarian policemen; felt like Wild West    Tbh, if heywoody travelled through Romania, I'd pull the same stunt nowadays