Central (Standard) Ploiesti

Romania April 23-27, 2009 Romania is the hospitality capital of the world. We know this to be true through our experience in Bucharest, where over a 24 hour period of time we were dined, chauffeured, and toured around the city, all by people we have never met before. Our Neighbours in Saskatoon, Vali and Mihei and their two children Maria and Stephan have been regulars at our block parties, and skating parties. Our block is very special. We know most ...

Today is Sunday. I overslept and my colleagues had already headed off into the mountains before I woke up. (I'd said not to disturb me if I wasn't at breakfast). This was my first day off when the sun has actually shone. Still cold but at least it's not pouring with rain for a change. I strolled around for about 10kms according to my GPS. Here are a few snapshots I took on my wanderings through the town behind my hotel.

... about in the UK! The physics department has some fantastic modern equipment provided as a direct result of the projects that the research staff are working on. Our thanks to Leonardo and Calin for a fascinating morning. We were joined for lunch by Rotarian George Dumitru, the Director of Sting; a company specialising in fire protection services. They provide fire engines and crews for industrial districts, fire ...

... too. We started the tour in the the real-life twig collage, at the private art school, Centrul Createi Populare, where Mihai holds studio classes for students of all ages. He is keen to differentiate between the 'studio' and 'crochiu' styles, i.e.: long studies and sketches; and also between sculptural, pictorial and graphic styles, which you can see depicted in one of the pictures. Coming from a graphic ...

... and into two of the studios where we were assaulted by a vast range of paintings. The students range in age from 6 to 80 and there were some stunning pieces of art. Then on to the Musee de Istorie Dimbovita, which had an exhibition of books and artwork from Scoala de Arta. A whole room was devoted to book restoration - fascinating Next stop was The Royal Court of Targoviste - with the Church, castle remains and the tower. I ...

... artefacts and images from Queen Maria. Following our visit to the castle Alexandru took us to a traditional Romanian dinner in the open air in the mountains. Purely for medicinal purposes (to keep out the cold), and to toast 'hello' to our new hosts we raised a glass of Perlinka and had a lovely meal. On arriving in Targoviste we dropped our bags off at our accomodation - a brand new university campus building on the outskirts of town, and made our way ...

It seems that I become a traveler. I am away from home relatively often, which is great, as I like new places and new sights.<br> I usually travel by train, where I can see lots of interesting things during my journeys.<br> <br> Here it is my latest travel-company...<br><br>He/She was sitting calmly on the seat during the journey, no barking...<br>I noticed him/her only after 2 hours, as I changed my sitting position.<br>I suppose he/she had a ticket :-)<br>

... the tail. After making good time on the maxitaxi, we got stuck in a dead stop about 20 minutes away from arriving and had to sit the hot late afternoon sun. I never figured out what exactly was causing the hold-up - likely a big accident (though it was a construction zone to boot!) - but the driver eventually turned around and found a back route to another inbound road. So that added a good 30-45 minutes to the trip, at a time when I was dying for ...

... a patternless deejay played popular music in a busy open-air club. I ate some food here and began writing a letter to a friend. Later, the deejay began playing like he had ears, I danced a bit, rain poured down on the people who danced instead of hid, and the club closed early. Oh, no. Four more hours to go. I shivered a bit from the rain upon my red flannel shirt, finished the letter in a museum-like building's doorway, took some photo's when the sun ...

... we've got a long day of travelling ahead of us. Should all go as planned, we'll be leaving here at 6:20, crossing the Bulgarian border sometime in the afternoon and arriving on the Black Sea coast at about 8 in the evening. That means we have to stock up on snacks for the road. We've grown fond of a "Chio" chips, which G dubbed "puppy chips" and they also make a kind of sweet cinnamon-walnut bread here that's delicious.