Golden Tulip Times Hotel Bucharest

... who ruled from 1965 to 1989. Like many dictators, he had appearances of benevolence at first (appealing to Western powers as well), but then quickly consolidated his power & did the typical dictator things. The revolution against him ended in his (and his wife's) death just eight days later after their being sentenced to death in a sham trial. Anyway, I had a bit of fascination upon viewing his & his wife's graves (not right by each other, it's said, because they caused too much ...

... who lives there (the University students are difficult to keep track of) and there is a large group who get together for potluck suppers, movies, theme parties, birthday celebrations and any other excuse we can think of for a gathering. Though we thought we may come to Romania on this trip, we were planning to route our trip through Bulgaria instead, where we would visit Amy, the daughter of Belle, a teaching collegue of Jim's. Amy however, already ...

... 90;рации было очень забав&#10 85;о слыша&#10 90;ь, как нас разыс&#10 82;ивали по громк&#10 86;й связи)

... was there to hide? He made me delete the shot. Nonsense really, but I wasn't going to argue with the guy. I also took in the aforementioned 'Parisian' hot spots, including, after an incredibly long walk featuring a serious downpour on my return (No worries, I was carrying the new travel umbrella I purchased at Tokyo Hands.), the fully scaffolded Arc de Triomphe. I wish had known. Along the way I saw the heavily guarded Canadian embassy but didn ...

... not being bothered to make dinner, then deciding to wander out for a kebab. There not being much open on a Sunday night about 10pm I had to walk quite a fair way. Kebab duly purchased, a gourdian knot like dilemma was upon me: returning to the hostel would mean a cold kebab, but eating it here would mean removing my gloves for the duration. Gloves off, I tucked in. It was not long before I regretted supersizing this meal to the largest available. Three ...

... Good Journey" ?? But seems appropriate for English as the road is drumming the hell out of my buns! Romanian is MUCH easier than Hungarian at least; it has obvious similarities to Spanish, English, German, and to my ears, sounds almost Italian. But despite the beating we take from the roads, this is the Eastern Europe I came to find before it gets EU-ified. Gorgeous countryside stuck in another time. Little old babushka women who come into town to fill a bucket at the well, give ...

... him there but I wasn't about to give him anything either. I knew that if I started screaming someone would hear. Me - Fine. (I handed him 1 lei) Him - You give 100, no good! Me - You are an *******, I know the conversion rate, get the **** out of my room before I start to scream! I think I was loud because he seemed pretty shocked. Him - Fine, I leave. He then kissed his fingers and tried to touch them to my face. I pushed him away and he left ...

... but would not stop talking to you anyway, which was extraordinarily cute. While in Brasov we heard an organ concert at the Black Church (called black because it was engulfed in flame at one point and now all the stones are a smoky color), and took a cable car to the top of the mountain. Once we came back down it started to rain so we took shelter at a restaurant for dinner. When I was about to head off to the old lady's house and my friend and some other ...

... pastries that are about 10c each) -Dacias. Nine out of every ten cars are one. -$2 Becks/Stella/Carlsberg/Heineken. -'Zorba the Greek' Pizza -Sinaia -The antique stores on Strada Lipscani -The priest who is always on the metro, dressed as Santa Claus. -Cars that drive on the footpath and beep their horns loudly when a pedestrian has the nerve to be in their way! -The Christmas lights. So much better than Perth's effort :P -Romanian dance music!!! It's terrible and oh-so ...

... bars and Romanian style gram crackers earlier and we were all able to make....you guessed it....smores! It was awesome...we ate smores and then sat around the campfire for the next several hours just hanging out, talking, playing silly games, looking up at the stars...it was great. I have seen more stars since I've left the states than I have in my life leading up to that point. It's amazing. So we finally all decide to crash around 1am and retreat to our tents. About 1:30 roles ...