Hotel Voila Constanta

... 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 ...

... booking so that was our first priority. We found one fairly soon which is fairly new and not too far from the sights. Unfortunately the sights are pretty ordinary with only a few interesting buildings. Constanta has a huge port but it did not seem to be very busy. The city seems very run down and neglected and in also fairly expensive for accommodation. It is right on the ocean and there is quite a large beach (not very picturesque though) near our hotel.

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 ...

... to the boarder. On the Bulgarian side we were controlled once. On the Turkish side we were controlled... 3 times. The gypsies gave us a wagon of cigarettes for each of us, in order to help to get them through the boarder. Continuing our "friendship" mission, we agreed to do that. I paid 10 Euros for a Turkish visa - a stamp that would let me stay in the country for a month, and when it was well after 1 am, the coach moved forward. At 6 am we were already in Istanbul there...

After a few days we managed to get to Internet and bring you all up to date what we've been up to (well most of it anyway :-) ). It was unbelievably hard to get an Internet cafe with CD ROMs in this city. Roxy's home town was heaps good - it's like we are on a different planet here. From Sunday lunch time we have been on the seaside here in Romania (Black Sea). The weather has been very warm (even hot). I don't want to rub it in to all those in ...

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 ...

... things into words, and this bloody hangover isn't exactly helping, so I'll give this a go. Think back to an experience which turly stirred your blood, which caused you to question and reflect upon everything you ever thought you believed, which offered some precious clarity and clairvoyance into the massive web of life found in this world, your place in it, and at the moment of climax, the feint whisper of a better tomorrow and a better future. Deep ****, I know. But I ...

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.