Fati Club Mamaia

... as security dogs at rock concerts and now hear nothing. I haven´t been bıtten but am actıvely searchıng a rabies injection, ıncase the terrible rumours of rabid turkish dogs the size of elephants are true.

Over the next few days I really pushed hard with my cycling:  on the day I finally and somewhat sadly left the Carpathian mountains I peddled 170 km/106 miles.  On that day I met Sebastian, who had ...

12th June

Golden Sands (Bulgaria) to Constanta (Romania)

Sunny periods 29 degrees

We left Golden Sands and travelled north to Constanta. The drive was fairly easy as we passed huge fields of barley, corn and sunflower (must be stunning when flowering). We also passed some new wind farms. We crossed the border with a little difficulty as they scrutinised our car paperwork but finally let us continue. We arrived in Constanta without a ...

... hit the road so we got on our way and headed to Bran to see the highlight of our trip, Dracula's Castle! Actually it wasn't that exciting once we were inside because it is quite sparse, but it was still really cool to see the inspiring castle and to read about the history of the castle. And it is still a castle so I enjoyed the visit there.

From Bran we back-tracked a bit and went over to a small town called Harman to see a fortified church ...

... everywhere walking around after money, turks all over the place, people spitting all over the ground. So i enquired at the bus station for the next bus to Varna, it was in about 4 hours time. Being reluctant to leave my luggage behind and not wanting twheel it everywhere I just sat down and made myself comfortable. Finally the 4 ...

... out and blow it up, so we had a nice dinner and I hit the rack early. We did get some mititei, which is my favorite Romanian food...little lamb, pork and beef sausages with no skins, grilled over an open flame. German sausage pales in comparison. Starting to drag a little now...something like 11 cities in 15 days... The Black Sea is beautiful and the resorts are ...

... quote has become one of our favorite ones of that trip J We had been doing sightseeing till 2pm. I was really impressed by the ancient Roman ruins, the narrow streets and beautiful tenement houses. Randomly I even found the way to the sea. In the afternoon we went to the station to find a mini bus getting us out of the city. Marcin had talked to a DHL driver though and 2 of us saved 2 lei :D. We arrived to Ma-something and had to walk 3 km, in order to get to the ...

... especially Canberra). :-) We are both tanned after only a couple of days here (and yes we have been using sun protection). The beaches are sandy and really packed. I took some photos early in the morning and there were already a lot of people. Around lunch time you cannot find a spot to sit on the beach. It was good to have Roxy as she knew all these tricks. On Sunday night we went to one of the resort areas called "Neptune" where they have ...

Here was a day we will never forget. We were scammed of cash and didn't even realize it till later on. What happened was we were looking for a bus stop to take us to a place called Mamaia resort which was recommended to us by a Romanian working on the ship. With the brochure in hand of the on/off tourist bus that went there we were asked by a guy in the street if we needed help finding the stop. We were with another couple ...

... much beer as I do. If that's not a match made in heaven I don't know what is. Fortunately, she's bringing him back to the states next year. Joy. I got robbed for the first time. Worst part is that it was able to happen because I'm a nice, trusting traveler with empathy for other people on the road, and because that's who I am and I'm not going to change, there's nothing I can do to prevent it in the future. With that said, I hope he gets hit by a bus. Cheers. Romanians ...

... of sitting upright and dribbling on self and cabin curtain under the watchful gaze of a Romanian family. We confused Costinesti with Constanta, a major tourist spot and port a few train stops north along the coast. We eventually realised we still had forty minutes of another train ride ahead of us and jumped the next train. This was our first and only Gypsy hassle of the trip. These four girls literally forced their way into the cabin and tried to banter our ...