Royal Plaza Hotel Timisoara

... most prestige award in international football, played by the US and Brazil national team, in which US almost won but eventually lost by 2 to 3 (I bet most of you didn&#8217;t know this event). <br><br>So this was how I enjoyed my first day in Romania. It is right next to Ukraine but I was too busy going to Poland and Hungary and Crimea and Switzerland to visit it until now, and like they say, better late than never.

The title says it all for this entry.<br><br>The berths on our train out of Sighetu had eight seat numbers. We thought that surely the seats would not be filled since it looked as though they had been built for that number of elementery schoolchildren. Alas, after a short time, six very noisy adults came crowding into the birth. They had ...

... his moments and so when he said turn right and board ferry we saw the funny side. We decided the bridge would be the faster option. We travelled through some rustic towns and past large flat field with crops of corn, barley and lucerne. We arrived at the border and paid the compulsory Romanian Road Tax of 9 Euro for a month and then passed through the Romanian checkpoint without too much delay. We arrived at ...

Im in Timisoara the second city in World to start using street lights ..... take a guess at the year?.................. I dont know either . late 1800's. What a true wonderful experience the last 24 hours. I have been staying with a Romanian , Dana. She speaks perfect English and cooks even better. She has made me traditional dishes : rice and pork wrapped in grape leaves topped with yogurt and dill 2) spinach sauce with two eggs ...

Nos despedimos de Belgrado para volver a Timisoara y desde allí coger el avión de vuelta a Valencia. Tras la huella del Danubio: El sol se oculta detrás de los frondosos bosques rumanos, el tren silba, los raíles chirrían y dejamos algo más que nuestra estancia en Belgrado. Cada regreso es una armónica melancólica, cada vuelta a casa es una nube de nostalgia. La imagen de la capital serbia al cerrar los ojos. Al acabar un viaje se empieza uno en la antesala del subconsciente.

Llegamos sobre las 3 de la madrugada al aeropuerto de Timisoara. Allí cogemos un taxi para ir a la estación de tren, donde tenemos que coger el tren hacia Belgrado. Después de los 17 euros que nos sabla el taxista, cambiamos algo de dinero rumano (RON) para poder comprar los billetes. Esperamos dos horas en el hall de la estación con algunos indigentes rumanos. A las 6 de la madrugada sale nuestro tren.

We spent a typical European day in the university border town of Timisoara. The town square is absolutely beautiful - one of the nicest we have seen. The opera house is showing My Fair Lady in a few days, and I am so sad we won´t be able to see it! The 1989 revolution started here, and you can still feel a bit of the revolutionary spirit walking through the town. After a yummy lunch in the square, we took a self-guided walking tour to see the famous buildings ...

... still a struggling economy, rural villages are far apart, bus service is poor, and gas costs about twice what it does in the US. Yet the transportation dollars are spent on commerce and the driving elite. It's an unfortunate disservice to settle for pavement improvements when what this country needs is transportation improvements. Hmmmmmm, that sounds like a refrain from a previous life......

... with the previous time I entered the country, when I had to queue up each time to get a visa at the border, never an easy process. Things have changed and I wondered how much more would have, so am very much looking forward to the 11 days in Romania. I am not sure if I am being biast but the Romanians seem very friendly, lots waved at us when we cycled through the towns today, something we had not experienced as much in Hungary. Maybe they just look at ...

... 9 instead - just a little miscalculation by our tour company, possible not taking into account the two lane highways! But the most important thing is we arrived in time for a rehearsal with our host choir, the Corala Memorial - they were a choir of about 35, ranging in age from early 20's to 50's - volunteer community members like us, but only having started in 2003. They were very happy to see us, and brought in a big crowd for our concert together. The ...