Marami Hotel Sinaia

... in Sinaia. Sinaia is about an<br>hour away from Brasov by train. We caught the train right before it left at<br>nine in the morning. There were other trainees who came along too, there were<br>from Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. They were really fun; we went on the train<br>and played some games. I taught them how to count in Chinese and they taught me<br>bad words in Russian. There were also three AIESECers from Brasov who came too.<br>We took many pictures and ...

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The last morning came all too soon. I had made arrangements with Andrei to dive me into Bucharest rather than risk bus or train as the traffic is something from another world. Either way, i got up at about 8:00 and went downstairs for my last breakfast.. i thanked everyone for their great hospitality and went for one last walk through the city center ...

... Barbie knock-offs (what the latter two were doing in souvenir stalls, I do not know) we did manage to find some nice things to take home with us. We also purchased a 400 gram pastry rolled in nuts. These things are so popular that we stood in line for half an hour to get one (many people bought five or six for all their friends) Once obtained, ours was very hot and sweet and good...at least at first. Four hundred grams is a lot of sugar and fat, even when ...

... pedestrians or galloped on by horses pulling wagons. Huge expressways are being built. Eager Slovakians and Romanians learn English and lose culture to work for international corporations from the West. Romania is now a member of the European Union. Its shepherds are now supposed to feed their sheep only milk treated with the proper chemicals. And, for the first time, beginning the year after Mihai's sister will begin university, university won't be ...

... too much snow for that (and I only had my $25 Adidas Costco shoes on). Anyways, I found this old abandoned cabin in a sunny clearing where the trail apparently ended, so I pulled out the iPod and listened to a sermon, then headed back down. Just a really nice, relaxing hike in the crisp mountain air. Let me tell ya, hiking is great for two reasons: I really enjoy myself while doing it, and it is really cheap. So, thank-you Sparkles. Due to your lame attitude, I had a great day.

At the main train station in Brasov (where the mini-bus dropped us) there's a representative of our hostel sitting around in a booth. He helped us get a taxi (yeah we splurged 12 RON) to our hostel rather than take the buses. Everyone says that there are plenty of thieves hereabouts. It's also probably a good thing we took a taxi because the hostel is in a strange location that, knowing our penchant for walking in circles, we'd have screwed up. We ended up ...

... had learned in his youth as a prisoner of the Turks. His method of torture - a horse attached to each of the victim's legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The end of the stake was usually oiled and care was taken that the stake not be too sharp, else the victim might die too rapidly from shock. Normally the stake was inserted into the body through the anus (helloooo) and was often forced through the body until it ...

... landlord) even delivered us to the train station at the end of our stay in Sinaia. Cannot get over how helpful the people are in Romania - bending over backwards to assist. Next - night train to Budapest, one more night there, a visit to Statue Park, then a taste of the no frills airline Easy Jet to London then to Glasgow. Time is clicking on - more than ½ of our 11 months away is done.

... framed comic strips of monks sharing enlightments with humorous twists. Dracula (real name Vlad Tepes) did not actually live in the Bran castle. But they claim that he lived in it for one night. The castle he actually lived in is very plain so it is not much of a tourist attraction. According to the guide, a princess who used to live in the castle killed 600 virgins because she believed by drinking their blood, she would remain young. Ironically, she later died in the ...