Casa Olga Predeal

... less th*n 25 minutes my instincts told me the be*r h*d gone. I could he*r the dogs b*rking 2 kilometres *w*y *nd when I peered through the sm*llest of slits in the tent entr*nce, *ll w*s cle*r.

I p*cked up so quickly I *lmost went b*ck in time, which would h*ve been dis*strous since I'd h*ve come f*ce to f*ce with the be*r. I picked my w*y *cross the p*stures on top of the mount*in, noticed only by * cow which mooed *nd no one listens to ...

... the town of Saint George. The food was a mix of Hungarian and Romanian food. Adrians most interesting fact of the day (I make no apology for finding anything to do with factories absolutely fascinating!): A factory on the outskirts of Brasov (which used to make engine components) used to employ 30-40,000 people! Our hosts are keen to point out the difference between employing that number of people, and having that number of people 'working'! Mike's ...

... roots and develop skills that would contribute to the community as a form of work. So we end up with a group of disenfranchised drifters, that still do not have roots and acceptance within the community, they have only themselves. The main trade they historically have been associated with is as a repair person, a tinkerer of systems. Not only has the need for this trade dwindled due to our style of living and consuming...the lack of trust in a ...

... a Champs-Élysées, although he made it a few meters wider and longer than the real one. Surrounding the palace he built a whole stack of french style buildings for his communist buddies to live in, one of which is now the Marriott. And at the other end of town he built an Arch De Triumph. On Tuesday afternoon I headed north to see the museum of the romanian peasant and the arch de triumph. I managed to get myself in trouble 3 times :-) 1) As usual in Bucharest, i ...

... piled into a smallish tram with the rest of my tour groupies. The tram was bright red with Coca Cola painted on the side and went up up up....had to close my eyes a bit. Jumped off as the tram shook and rocked back and forth... Before, had a bit of a wander about town with our local guide who shared his not so positive opinion about Romania joining the EU...his grandma can't make her cheese the ways she has ...

... meal of authentic Romanian cuisine (lots of meats), bottle of wine, couple of beers and dessert equaled about $16 each for the four of us. Very nice. Otherwise street food could be had for between 1 or 2 lei - about $0.50 or $1. You needed four people for the hostel to do the castle tour and the next day only Jordy (the American from New Jersey) and myself had signed up. We decided to do it on our own but on the way out we ...

... the ones I am defeating are those of my own American backyard. And perhaps I helped dispell some of his preconceptions, too: that a Romanian and a Hungarian can be friends; that not all people from the Creek are snobs; and you can never beat a Magyar at a game involving math. ;-) (Although he's probably too open-minded to have believed all those to begin with; well, except maybe the last one!) Thanks, dear friend, for a great time in Brasov. I can't wait until our paths cross again soon!

... 13th century fortress, which overlooks the city and is actually much more impressive and interesting than Brans castle. While walking up to the fortress we took the wrong direction and instead of turning back and looking for the entrance, Kenny and I decided that the shortest distance between two points would be a straight line, so we headed straight up the hillside in order to shorten our ...

O Rumunskych horach som vzdy pocul len to najlepsie, takze preco sa tam neist pozriet s nashou znamou cestovnou kancelariou Eset, no nie? :-) A to ked vam este sprievodcu budu robit miestni. No proste odmietnut sa nedalo. :-) Ked som prisiel do Bukuresti, zistil som, ze tu uz intenzivne 4 dni prsi a nejako sa nechysta prestat. Polia okolo letiska v Bukuresti boli pod vodou a zaplavy vycinali po celom Rumunsku. Nastastie pristavacia plocha letiska bola este nad vodou, takze ...

... show for it. Brasov itself is nice, too, with lots of tourists and services to service them. I'm not the only one who’s noticed its Latin connections. There are even Andean musicians there, playing for tips and selling CD’s. Rooms are so scarce that one lady hangs out at the bus and train station ...