Oxford 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 w&#305;th the help of a local farmer had disassembled the 50cc engine and removed the cylinder and piston.  <br><br>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<br><br>Golden Sands (Bulgaria) to Constanta (Romania)<br><br>Sunny periods 29 degrees<br><br>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 ...

... us we could actually go inside the wall and walk 360 degrees through it. So of course we did that. There are no lights, just the open windows that let in the sunlight, so it is quite dark in the walls. I thought it was pretty fun.<br><br>After Prejmer all we had to do was drive for a long, long time. We were heading to Constanta and it isn't that far (about 300km) but the roads here suck and so does the traffic so it took all afternoon to get there ...

... went by and we boarded the bus. I was the only 'foreign' one on board, the rest were either turks or gypsies. Once the bus took off everybody lit up their cigarettes and started smoking. I couldn't wait for this trip to be over with. Had our passports checked at my first Passport Control and then we were over the border into Bulgaria.

... the Brits are starting to discover the place and are everywhere. I didn't get my feet into the Black Sea this time, but they have been there before. I rarely swim in California coz I don't like not being able to see what is beneath me, but since there are no harmful fish in the Black...and no tides, I like swimming there. The water temp was just 19 tho, too cold.

... a n b u l! Marcin said to me: "Bogna, it`s a sign, we m u s t go there!" "But... but the group, but the costs, but we didn`t plan it! What are we gonna do with the group? Leave them?!?!"- my head was about to explode. Marcin looked at me with that face of a beggar, his eyes were literally sparkling, first time since I`d met him, and Zajac changed that face of a beggar into words: "I beg you, come along with us..." What was I supposed to do? "Ok Marcin, we`re going to ...

... 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 ...

... told later by the port authorities that in Constanta there are no "plainclothes policemen" and they are always in marked police cars. We also heard 5 other pickpocket stories that day. So I'm afraid Constanta will always be a place I remember for the wrong reasons. If you travel there please be aware of the possibilitea and be street smart. PS we were able to claim $200 on our Travel Insurance so there was a happy ending.

... 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.