Woke late and did not rush to go downstairs. After breakfast, turned the TV on to watch some English news, but only got the U.S. election. Dan dropped us off at the Funky Chicken and after we dumped our bags, Dan sat down with us to help us plan our next 10 days. He spent over an hour with us in his own time. He made sure we had a car, and even arranged one for us to get delivered to the Funky Chicken that night. We walked to the main train station so David could take photos and try and find train control. He eventually found the Station Manager who took him to the internation tourist information window. At first the lady was confused about what he wanted, but when she worked it out, she told him that it was not permitted. Oh well.

We wandered downstairs to the dingy Metro. I would not like to travel on this system at night. On the green line are the oldest 1984 ex-communist trains, which are covered with graffiti. The other lines have newer carriages with automated indicators and announcements. The trains run every 8-10 minutes on a Sunday which is incredible, when in Paris, St Petersburg or Moscow, you never wait more than 5 minutes off peak. One train was over 12 minutes behind the one in front, making it extremely crowded. Also, Bucharest's Metro goes nowhere close to anything, and has a no photography rule. It was only later when I found an A6 sticker hidden behind a grill on a door that we became aware of that rule. Oops.

We returned to the Parliament Palace and found the entrance for the tours, where inside, we and two other ladies were told very rudely that there were no more tickets available for today. She shoved a phone number into one lady's hand and told her to ring at 09:00 the next day to see if she was lucky enough to get a ticket that day. The palace needs maintenance as the rear of the building is in a bad state of repair, but as they didn't want to take our money, we left disgusted at their attitude and walked around the perimeter to get photos on the sunny side. We walked down Bucharest's Champs Élyssé to the next Metro station, only to discover that the nearest Metro to our hostel was the one we had started at. D'oh! Arrived back at the Funky Chicken ready for a lie down, but I grabbed the laptop and started catching up on LiveJournal entries. An annoying Romanian guest kept trying to tell David how to read a map and was insistent on "helping" him, so we retired to the common room.

Dan appeared in the doorway with a smile on his face, and explained that the car would be a little late "due to traffic". Dan then got trapped into a conversation with the "helpful" Romanian guest who did not know Romania as well as he claimed.

The car arrived a short time later. It is a pretty blue Ford Festiva. Dan returned the Mercedes van, and we offered to drive him home so he wouldn't have to catch two buses. We got there safely in about 5 minutes, and he gave us detailed instructions on how to retrace our steps back to the hostel. It all went horribly wrong at the first roundabout where we ended up on the wrong road, and eventually ended up beside the Parliament Palace. Then I steered David past the correct bridge, so we headed east instead of north. With all the one way streets and a complete lack of street signs, our 10 minutes drive took over an hour. It was with shattered nerves that we parked the car for the night. Knowing what traffic is like in Bucharest during peak hour, David decided to leave by 06:00 the next morning to beat the traffic, so we went to bed early. The "helpful" was still smoking in the court yard when the other guests returned from their evening out, and he talked to them very loudly trying to get them to buy something. They scurried away as soon as they could and went to bed, but he followed them in and kept talking loudly in the dorm room, keeping me awake.

We awoke a bit later than we have been recently but still before any alarm went off. Sighisoara was under a dull light, but where the sun peeked through, the brightly painted buildings shone. The old town centre has no road surface, so when you walk around, you have to watch the uneven surface. An early morning walk before the crowds where we found some brightly covered buildings. It was with regret that we checked out of our comfortable hotel where the three star tariff was cheap, and we would like to return again.

Dan took us for a walk of the old town centre. We investigated the clock tower which had a lot of local historical relics dating back to Roman times. We enjoyed watching the clock mechanism work. At the very top of the tower you have a 360 degree view of Sighi?oara. We then looked at another tower which was part of the old wall which was built strangely - a pentagon, hexagon, octagon, then another hexagon looking from bottom to top. It must have been tough to build, but apparently the design gives better visibility than a circle. We then climbed to the top of the hill to a school, church and cemetery. Inside the church, the crypt was open for inspection, so we walked down into it. The tombs were all sealed with bricks. After we walked out, April and I wanted to look at the lovely cemetery on the hill, so we took a slight detour to this wonderfully restful place with a great view of the valley.

A little brown dog escorted us the whole way and only left us when we walked out of the gate. The only other highlight was some covered stairs to the top of the hill, designed so the children can safely get to school in inclement weather.

Into the car to head towards Bucharest. Our next stop was Sibiu.
Sibiu was another walled Saxon city. I enjoyed the short time we had there. Steve and I bought Dan a card to say thanks, but all we could find was a Romanian post card. The drive back to Bucharest was just plain long, and in the dark we could not see any scenery. We did not arrive back at the Crystal Palace until after 22:30. :( We had planned to have dinner with Dan and present him with the card and some money, but the restaurant was closed and neither Lilly nor the other couple wanted to go out for dinner. Lilly had an early start (10:00) so that was understandable. We made our presentation to Dan in the lobby of the hotel. Unlike most tours I have been on, Dan knew his stuff and made sure we were never rushed, and even took us to a train station so David could take photos of trains! :)

Our new room was not as flash as our first one - it had been set up for only one guest. One cake of soap, one shower cap and ONE TOWEL!! We stayed up to watch Robocop (with Romanian subtitles).

Sunday 26/10/08
Woke up early but due ti late arriving Germans @ 2am did not sleep through the night. They did try to be quiet once they realised that they were not alone. Their dorm was between me and the toilet so I had to sneak through and of course the ancient doors of the Hostel tried their hardest to let people know they were being opened. The a sneak through snoring bodies and strewn luggage and another ancient squealing door. Then after I got to the other side, I realised that I had forgotten my shower stuff and had to repeat the dance again.

As we were up so very early, we went for a stroll around the block and I found a cute little bakery for our breakfast and across from her was a mini market for the rest. Cool. Amentities close by. Romanians do bread. You think the french do but no the Romanains get it just perfect. A delight to eat.

We discovered that we had not contact details for the tour company to find us and had no idea if we were going to be picked up or if we had to join the tour at the hotel we were starting at. SO the night lady allowed us to use her phone and her internet to look for details. Very nice of her. The tour guide rang us back and told us he was going to pick us up at 11:30am so we arranged with the staff of the Funky Chicken to look after our bags and we went for a walk.
Bucharest has a bad reputation and yes, there are dogs everywhere but besides a high risk of twisting your ankle, it is no worse than most cities. The roads have big holes and the footpaths are uneven with huge trenchs appearing in them with no warning. OH&S is not here.

We searched in vain for an internet cafe be all we found was a sign but no shop. We gave up and returned to the Funky Chicken.

Dan turned up around noon and after picking us two people from the US, took us on a driving tour of the capital. Bucharest has has so many ugly streets and ruined blocks that the lovely parts have a far greater impact than usual. Dan had been in the square during Ceauşescu's address to the people on 21 dec 1989 and was there when the shooting started. He told us about that day and it is an amazing story. We were very lucky to hear is from a participant. He showed us the enterance tothe secret passage. Which I was surpirsed that never mentioned during his trip to Romania.

We saw an old church, right next to the royal palace and the priest kindly let us take photos (For free) He spoke english and was delighted to tell us about his church.

We drove to the Palace of Parliment, the world's second largest building. Built in 1984 by Ceauşescu (Not finished) This building is awe inspiring. It takes my fish eye to fit it all in but when we return to this city, maybe we can get a tour inside.

Off to the Crystal palace to meet our 5th member of the tour, a lady from Mexico ,Lillian.

Saturday Paris to Bucharest
Awoke early and had to wait an hour for the showers to open. Flitted around and desperately tried to get my still sodden sneakers dry. I watched some workmen turn up in their trucks, take up the road and then proceed to build a wall around a pile of rubbish. Odd.

Walked to this silly Maccas (Glutten for punishment) and they were closed and the sign said until 9am even though they were supposed to be open at 7:30am. Gave up and went to the cafe next door. It was here that I had Fromage blanc for the first time in 20 years. Ah! Bliss. BAck to tidy up and then head for the airport. On the way, I stupidly suggested that David may want to look at Gard du L'est and he agreed to I sent the next hour or so there. But I wrote some postcards and posted them, then bought some more. So I was not stressing. :) We were lucky when we got to Gard de Nord that an airport express train turned up so we arrived at the airport without the crowds of a normal train. I found free internet at the Station. I had to pay a few euros for the toilet, but the Wi-fi was free. Odd. After a bit, we ventured to the terminal, smug in the knowledge that we should get good seats as we were 4 hours early. How the mighty fall. :D The plane was booked out!! There was only 3 seats left and two were for us but they were at opposite sides of the plane. We took the boarding passes and headed for the baggage check in only to find that our bag was too long to fit the carousel and we had to walk back down the terminal to get to a carousel the bag could go through.

We discovered that customs leaving Paris is more anal that Russia. We queued to get searched. OK. I had to take off my belt which neither Auatralia, Singapore or china have required and then I get selected for a drug swab. They took my boarding card and opened my bags. After the swabbing we could go. I wonder if it was a little typcasting....who knows. Not a worry and I have never touched any of the stuff. Making it throught that is but the start...We sat and waited for our plane, and David (Yay for husbands) bought me an EXCELLENT 600ml coffee. It cost more than a whole meal but it was wonderful. The french just do coffee.. The gate required a passport check at the top of the gate then a walk othe bottom for the bus, where they check your passport. (Less then 100m from the last check) and then again on the plane enterance. The bus did nt fit all the passengers and the plane had to wait for the next bus which was late as people were late for the flight. We left Paris 30mins late. Grr

The man who was supposed to be in the window seat didn't care and the lady inthe aisle was happy to swap with David so we got to sit together. David was delighted to get the window seat and made full use of it. I talked to the man from Atlanta who was very interesting. The food was uninspiring and the flight uneventful.

In Romania there were only 4 people in the non EU line. That was cool, we got through very quickly. The baggage claim area was almost deserted and David stormed past the customs lady, not realising she was there. She left him go. Outside customs all the vulture like taxi drivers were waiting for their prey. They were insistent (I will take you, only 60RON) But we had done our research and knew the bus was running and it was 7RON. (We found out later a couple on the tour were caught and they were actually quoted 40RON then charged 80RON at the destination). The bus was quick and efficent but the lady at the ticket office refused to give change for 10RON. Grr. Small but annoying.

When we arrived at the square that we were told to alight, we followed the directions but found the place was a block acroos from where we were told. BUT we found it. The Funky Chicken is small but clean and at 9.50euros each you can't complain. Dorm rooms only.

Tired......

The instructions we got were out by one block but after finding the place, the lady who looks after the night shift is the friendliest person you will ever meet. At €9.50 per person per night it is one of the cheapest places in this city. The rooms are clean and tidy. The beds are lumpy and the rooms for me were over heated but a lot of people will like this. The common room is close to the down stairs dorms but the lady is strict with noise so there is no problem if you want to sleep. The meal room is very basic but the hostel is very close to a wonderful bakery and a little shop that will supply everything you will need. The shower is clean as is the toilet. The staff were helpful when my tour didn't turn up and allowed me to phone the company and look for the details on line. NO internet here though and the internet cafes around where not to be seen. Close to a for attractions I would stay here again with no qualms

This is the second internet cafe in Constanta I've tried to download my blog into . . . nobody takes memory sticks so the blog will be slightly delayed untill we reach a larger city.  However, Trish, Diz, my husband and I are having a great time.  Who knew that Eastern Europe had such an energetic spirit and good food?  I think we have been testing both.  Monday was spent in Bucharest  and in the evening we boarded our ship to travel to the Black Sea port of Constanta.

City tour of Bucharest, including a visit to the People’s Palace:  transfer to Oltenita, Romania and board ship - depart 7:00 pm.  Welcome briefing onboard.

I didn’t know what to expect here.  Bucharest is the heart of what I considered Communist Eastern Europe and I had pictured it in grainy black and white, full of large square cement buildings.  Such buildings are around but even they are better looking than expected.

Romania is recovering from what they call the “Red Plague”.  The country came under Russian control after WWII and had a dictator, Nicholae Ceausescu who was overthrown and executed in 1989.  Many Romanians were killed in this revolution especially in the capital city of Bucharest.  The deprivations they suffered under Ceasescu (including not having enough to eat while the government was building huge civic projects to impress the world) plus the horror of having people fighting in the streets have marked them.  Everyone I talked to welcomed the opportunity to talk about the improvements they have made in 16 short years, and their hope for the future development of their country.  Joining the European Union in January 2007 is a major topic (if a bit unlikely).

We had a short tour of the city and then visited the People’s Palace, now the Parliament.  The Romanians seem to have mixed feelings about this building, the second largest in the world and made entirely of Romanian products by Romanian craftsman.  They are proud of having produced such a beautiful building (and it is beautiful - a far cry from the Socialist Realism that I’d expected) but disgusted by the waste of effort to produce something not terribly useful.  Ceasescu had had it built to glorify his regime and to impress the world.  Since ordinary Romanians were not allowed to enter “The People’s Palace”, there was more than a little irony in the name. 

Next we went to an old Eastern Orthodox Church complex called the Patriarchal Palace.  All of this occurred before lunch which was in a café in one of the city parks.  A local dance and music troupe entertained us. 

We took a bus through the countryside to reach the Danube and our boat.  There were horse-drawn carts and small trucks sharing the road with us which went thru an area of small farms.  There was definitely a caste system where larger traffic made its own rules and tour buses trumped everything else.  There is no such thing as a no-passing zone for a bus; everybody gets out of your way. 

By now we were all really tired so we had dinner (the food is way too good and is going to create a growth problem I won’t worry about until I get home), toured the ship (lovely) and went to our cabins (very comfortable).  By tomorrow morning we’ll be in Constanta, Romania on the Black Sea.

So we landed in Romania Friday evening and after checking into the hostel we hit the town.  There are some cool bars in town, notably Twice.  It's a huge club with about four levels.  The top level played good music and had go-go dancers on the bar, which is always a good thing.  Saturday we hit up two castles further north.  The first one was the former king's castle.  It was very nice with some intricate wood carvings throughout.  Then we headed up to Transylvania to see Bram Castle (Dracula's castle).  It was ok, even though the castle had nothing to do with the Dracula story, and was artificially chosen by Hollywood when trying to find a place that matched the description in the book.  The countryside on the drive out was interesting.  Lots of horse drawn vehicles and farmland.  On the way back to Bucharest we stopped in Brasov for a late lunch.  That city had a cool, picturesque town square.  Now I'm headed back to Vienna for the night before catching a train to the Czech Republic.

Land in Bucharest on KLM 1389, leaving 9:40 am, arriving 1:25 pm.

The staff makes this hotel suffer with the ratings. The staff are not very helpful at all. No one at reception or management team made any effort to make my stay welcoming. To them, the people staying there only meant one thing...money. I was even told by a staff member when I complained about not getting an ironing board and an iron for an entire first week I was there was I didn't have to stay in their hotel. He said that there are plenty of other hotels in the area that I could stay with. My company could not move me to another hotel since we have a partnership with this one. But relationships have definitely soured. The food in the restaurants are aweful. Forget eating at the Mediterranean Restaurant. I'm not Mediterranean but I bet a Mediterranean would be offended if he/she saw the food labled Mediterranean cuisine. The only worthwhile food is the burger at the bar on the right side of the lobby and the ice cream at the ice cream shop in the small plaza attached to the hotel.

I've spent the past couple of days in the capital city of Bucharest.  Took a tour of the People's House of Parlament - which is the 2nd largest civil building in the world & #1 most expensive.  Got to meet & talk to several (at times random) locals.  All great experiences, but the best part has been reuniting with the kids at the inner city orphanage, Pinocchios.  A group of us from Texas A&M visited there in 2006.

I remembered quite a few of the children & to my surprise, they remembered many of us - by name.  I was impressed because its been 2 years & I know other groups from the US have been through... so I had imagined it would have been easy for their young minds to blur the history.  I won't lie, it was probably the highlight of my trip, the first time I saw the "little" girl that was my favorite back then.  Granted she is 2 years older, taller, shorter hair, etc... and the added age has reduced her unabashed affection - but her smile is still the same & it just melts my heart to see it.

Unlike 2006, I am the only American visiting the orphanage - so I have the sole attention of many kids.  I try my best to make the rounds - but it is difficult for me.  My personality is to focus on a few and give unique attention - however that isn't easy given the situation.  However I've had a blast playing board games, going to the park & playing sports, etc.  I also think they enjoy practicing their (limited) English on me.  Some of the older kids have excellent English - but most only know a handful of phrases... but then again, I only know a handful of Romanian phrases - so that puts me about equal to the 10 yr olds.

Also of note - its terribly hot here.  Upper-90's every day.  Its brutal, especially coming from London... which was stereotypically cold, damp & dreary.

Today I arrived in Bucharest and my friends Claudiu, Isabela and Mihaela made me feel right at home. We drove two hours from Bucharest into Brasov. On the way we stopped at the Castle Peleş which is really amazing. We ate fresh barbecued corn there and looked at the various Romanian goods for sale, as well as at the beautiful castle. We saw bear-sighting signs there because there have been a lot of bears in that area recently. Driving the rest of the way to Brasov was absolutely amazing. The Carpathian mountains seem to reach all the way to the skyline.
The feeling of being here is overwhelming. We stopped at a market on the way to Brasov and bought various fresh fruit like watermelons and apples.

Took a BA flight across Europe.  Departed from the new terminal 5 in Heathrow.  Awesome terminal btw - very modern & efficient security.  Flight was short & sweet.  The kids I want to see at the inner city orphanage are currently on holiday.  They should be back next week - so I am going to hit the road (with the 67 yr old husband of the family I know) and visit up all the Transylvanian countryside.  Should be an adventure one way or the other.

We drove from Brasov to Bucharest to catch our flight today and it was pretty much like every drive has been in Romania : slow and frustrating! I  love driving, but I absolutely hate driving here. Tip: take a train instead.

This time we had a special treat of being forced onto the shoulder of the road by a crazed truck driver. Seriously! This is what happened: We were parked at one of the interminable construction stops, just waiting for the guy to flip his paddle to green so we could have our turn on the road. When we started going again, I zipped the wee Spark partially in front of the enormous truck I was next to, because the lanes were narrowing from two to one. He didn't like that move one bit! I guess he didn't want to get beat out by a car the size of a tissue box, so he blasted his horn (loud!) and floored it, edging his rig forward until he had eventually closed the gap between his bumper and that of the car in front of him. That meant there was no longer room on the road for the Spark, and I was bouncing along on the soft shoulder! Such a dangerous move, all to block a car the size of his wheel. Dick! I sure hope karma bit him on the ass later. I bet it did, because life is always fair. 

Despite our delays, we were early to the airport as usual. We had some Romania Lei to burn, so I bought two sodas (about $4.50 each!) and grabbed a Chupa Chups pop to use up the last couple lei. In case you are not familiar with the Chupa Chups, it's a delightfully delicious lolly the size of a large grape. But the price was five lei -- about $2.30. WTF, are you crazy? These things sell for about 25 cents in the rest of the world and you are telling me they are all of a sudden worth ten times that?

Oh boy. So today's the day I got run off the road and couldn't afford a lollipop. Bu-bye Romania.

After the never ending train ride into Romania and peaceful couple of days in Brasov, I set off to see Bucharest. I had heard mixed things about the city from fellow travelers and decided to just stay one day before I headed south to Bulgaria. In the end that was the right decision. Bucharest to me was a city that was struggling to become modern, but lacked the infrastructure and care to the city center I had found in other cities. It seemed to be worn torn, buildings were crumbling, every street you turned down was torn up and it lacked the character that the other Eastern European cities had. To be fair, I had only one day to explore and am sure that if you  dug a little deeper there were some hidden treasures. I discovered though that my most enjoyable moments have been happening in the smaller cities where you can get more of feel for the people so I decided to set off for Bulgaria and see the Black Sea town of Varna.

We are in Romania! I have done Western Europe to death, but this side of Europe is new territory for me. I am very excited to be here.

I don't have much to report yet, though, since all we did this evening upon arrival was pick up our rental car and drive to the hotel about 1 km away. Rin Hotel is situated pretty much at the end of one of the runways. The jets appear to be landing right next to us... makes for interesting scenery I guess. 

The hotel isn't very nice (it's really dark and hot, and no Internet in the room.) We are just staying here overnight, then will head off to the Transylvania region in the morning. Another road trip coming up!