Coroana Brasov

... me seems to be the key to develop some understanding of this place. Divided between Turkish domination in the south, Hungaro-Austrian rule in the north and Russian claims in the east, with orthodox as well as catholic, protestant and Jewish influences it got a late start as a nation and remains full of diversities. In a patchwork of different ethnic groups they were fortunate to unite all territories with a Romanian speaking majority within their frontiers ...

... blocking the road for oncoming traffic, or using the stationary queue as a means to overtake all and duck into the front just after the lights. We had left the site at 9, with a view to getting to Bran shortly after lunch. We arrived at 5, having had two brief stops and having only done 212 miles, some 40 miles further than our planned route. I was a wee bit crabby and Lesley just about had a nervous breakdown. If you ...

... stayed in contact with my bank and my father to do what could be done to get me some cash. I found a torn 20 Euro bill in one of my pockets that I taped up and had payed the hostel for another night and enough to get me to the train station to hop on the train. All I had was 2 eggs I snuck in my bag from the breakfast, 2 Euros from the torn bill, and two days to go - Life sure has a funny way testing oneself and never lets you forget what you take for granted ...

Wow, its been a while huh. It's been a week since I last wrote. How time flies. I've been going out to the home every week day. Its been cool. I spent last week out there with Rebecca, another volunteer from England (from Southport right near Liverpool). On Wednesday she wanted to make chocolate crackles and little sweets like that. Golden syrup is nowhere to be found in Romania so we decided to get some patty cakes and decorate them with coloured icing, lollies, freckles and ...

... she came in and kept pointing to the milk, i think she was trying to tell me that was my drink. i pulled a frown and got my phrase book and pointed to tea. and then she went and made me some. she is really very nice, im sure it will be fine once i get used to it. there must be something wrong with her husbands back, this morning as i walked past he had a bunch of xrays. he showed them to me and pointed to his back so i guess thats what it was. not sure whats wrong with ...

... Headed back to Brasov and Julien got a call about the paragliding. I'd been sitting on pins and needles all day waiting to hear if we were going to get to go. He asked how ready I was and in about 90 seconds we were in a cab and heading to the hill! Stopped on the way to grab some quick lunch, Romanian fast food, it was fries, cabbage, chicken schnitzel, ketchup and mayo all grilled in a pita. Yum! Ate as fast as we could on the way to the hill and finished just in time to ...

... ticket! The next torment that awaited us was threading though the narrow corridors and tiny rooms of the castle, while hundreds of mostly Italian tourists took photos with their cell phone cameras (that is between their incessant text messaging) of literally EVERYTHING in the place, from light fixtures to warning signs written in Romanian. After finally emerging from the bowels of the castle an hour later, it felt as if we'd had the blood sucked out of us. Thankfully, there ...

sometimes i stop in a place that i like feeling maybe as home....but life is beautifull and overwhelming so i constantly move on but keeping in my mind a warm memory of the place or person that used to be my home... so we realise how life is made of temporary moments...when the feeling of no fear has nothing to do with our state of mind. let me introduce u then to the world of insanity..... these moments before the trip ...its not the physical effort sometimes that takes all the ...

... bread and nachos. Doh. Once we were sated, we walked around town for a little while before attending an organ recital at the enormous Baserica Neagra. It wasn't very long, but the first piece was boring (it sounded like me improvising stuff when I was 12), then there was some Bach, which is always good, and the last piece was super-dramatic get-all-the-pipes-going-at-once-and-mak e-it-sinister kind of thing. Much too loud for my taste!

Our last two days in Lake Bled were a bit more active than the first few. One day we hiked to a national park called Vintgar Gorge and then walked along the tiny wooden trail that hugs the side of the rock cliffs that form the gorge. The path zig-zags over the river and waterfalls, a very beautiful place. Of course at the time, all I could think about was what idiots we were for going on a hike when it was 100 degrees outside. The following day we rented a boat and rowed out to ...