Hotel Albatros Constanta

... the plain and lands dominated by man for some 300-treeless kılometres.

Constanza is a busy sea port and tourist destination.  A kebab shop worker advised me to be careful as the city has a few very rich who drıve around flaunting their wealth and a lot of very poor of whom a few aspired at any cost to have what the rich have.  Thus with his advice taken and his kebab making its way into my lower intestine I slept out ...

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 ...

... 50 minute massage. It was just OK. Afterward I told Ally and she canceled her treatment. Then I went to get the 5 scoops of gelato that Ally was gloating about. It was at least as delicious as she made it sound. It melted really quickly so I had to eat it fast.

The fog burned off after a few hours and we had yet another hot, gorgeous, sunny and clear day. It is also really humid here so we both have big hair but since Romania seems trapped in ...

... 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 ...

... got a place to set our tents thank to Zajac, that had found Ms Emilia, a woman she`d randomly met a year before. She gave us a pretty big lawn area for use, behind a locked gate, right next to a beach. It was a horribly windy night and it seemed like it was going to rain, so we set our tents properly. We left our pasture after 8 am and took a bus to Constanza. We were allowed to leave our luggage at museum, after paying 2 lei per ticket. Everything here costs 2 lei ...

... markets and rides. You can compare it to Thredbo (where everything is alive in winter) but here it is the case in summer. It was some experience. So after going to sleep around 1am on Sunday morning, then waking up at 4 to leave for seaside, we were totally wasted and went to bed about 11pm. On Monday we caught up with some friends from Roxy's home town. We were together at the beach. It was pretty much a bludge day where we lazed around. Here we ...

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 ...

Well, there isn't much to say about Romania. There also wasn't much for us to do. So what we did end up doing is just headed to the beach on the Black Sea, and snap a photo or two. Constanta was kinda odd, it seemed like it was trying to fit into the rest of Europe, but wasn't doing too good of a job at it.