Flora Hotel Mamaia

... from Germany in a 30-year-old East-German mobility cart.  He told me how the engine had blown up 100 km outside of Bucharest and wıth the help of a local farmer had disassembled the 50cc engine and removed the cylinder and piston.  

With the offending parts in hand Sebastian had taken the bus into Bucharest, found a mechanic who had given him the new parts, driven him the 100km back to his disabled, disabled-mobility cart ...

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 ...

Ally and I had a very busy day yesterday and fortunately it ended at the Black Sea, so today we have a day of relaxing.

We started off yesterday seeing the sights in Brasov we couldn't see on Monday because of the holiday. First was the Black Church, so named because the exterior walls are black from a fire. The interior has lots of collections of church artifacts, mainly rugs, tapestries, and pew boxes.

After the Black Church we were ready ...

Finally got to the bus station, got onto a sleek looking mini bus and off we went. Unfortunately the windows were mostly fogged up, still being early so didnt get a lot of pics on the way. About 2.5 hours later we arrived at Constanta, the seaport of Romania. I had planned to stay here a night, but i didn't like the look fo the people ...

Woke early Saturday to catch an early train to the Black Sea resorts in Constanta. You have to catch an early train this time of year coz the trains are 40 years old and have no AC, so in the afternoon they are brutal. Met up with some friends and went out on the town. Notthing too exciting to report...good food and a good time, but I was too tired and heated to really ...

... przejsc cale miasto, ponad 3km, az do wylotowki. Zatrzymal sie jakis dziadek, ktory zabral nas do samej granicy bulgarskiej. Na granicy spotkalismy... p r z e z n a c z e n i e. To bylo tak, jakby zstąpił na nas snop swiatla. Wpadlismy tam bowiem na Zajaca i Arka. Opuscili oni nasza grupe pol dnia wczesniej i samotnie udali sie w strone Turcji. Reszta nie zdecydowala sie na ten krok ze wzgledu na czas i koszta. Ale to nie koniec, bo rowniez na granicy ...

... 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 ...

... it out to see what we had and gave it back. Then they did it a second time all the while asking us where we were from and where we were going. They then sent us on our way. On recalling this incident to our fellow travellers we showed them what happened and only then noticed our bigger bills were missing. I ended up losing 50 Euros and my wife lost $50 US and 50 Euros. They were so slick we didn't even notice. Anyway we ...

Wow. The end of the world, and the last leg of my journey before I start the long voyage home. It's weird, to think of everything I've done and seen in the last few weeks. And to conclude my journey in a country so unknown by so many people...what a magical experience. Staying with my mate from Uni was another awesome experience. Just like in Bucharest, it was so easy to tap into the locals and to see what Romania and life there is really all about. I'm absolutely ...

... and they paid us no attention. We didn't see a single child begging, which is pretty surprising considering the fact that the average monthly salary in Romania is something like a hundred dollars a month, and there are lots of orphans here. Bucharest isn't the most beautiful city in the world, but it had some advantages. The Parliament Palace, which is the third largest building (in volume) in the world was one of the more ...