Terra Mythica Ighiu

... of all, a memorial to the Unification of the 3 Romanian countries - Vallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, made by Michael the Great in 1600 in Alba Iulia. In this Cathedral was crowned as king of Romania Ferdinand.

The Cathedral is enormous, might be the biggest in Romania.

The next day, after a very early coffee, we visited the Unification Museum and the Roman site in the city

But Alba Iulia really imposed itself as a ...

... isolated on the top of a mountain, in the forest, so I can easily imagine how hard it was for the Romans to conquer it.

In fact, Dacia had a chain of fortresses in these mountains and if we had a couple more days we could also visit that ones - unfortunately they are accesible only by walking as roads have never been done.

We wanted to spent the night by camping near the fortress, but in 4 hours we've seen only 4 other ...

... translation. I have to write about the things that keep turning over and over in mind so I promise Ill have something more interesting on the next one. Its currently 1am and I have to stay up til 3am to catch a train to the capital and then the Black Sea (Constanta). Its going to be a long ride with a seat that does not recline. Salut and Koroc ....... cheers and health jab

Mike Last day of the conference and our appearance. We were all ready to go at 0900 for an appearance at around 1000 at the conference. Conference started about half an hour late. We had our slides prepared - very much at the eleventh hour, leaving some of us with a little stress!! Conference is being run almost single-handedly by Ovidiu and Amelia - they are doing a wonderful job - but have worked themselves into ground. We eventually ...

Entry by Oonagh Day 25 Today was the second day of the conference. The highlight was getting a message at 1.45pm, to say our formal GSE presentation was due in 20 minutes, at the Cultural Centre,10 minutes away; and we were all quite under-prepared and very under-dressed. But bite the bullet we did and we were in a cab in less than 10 minutes. Marco then got a telephone call from his Host ...

... and "4 little Dacia Logan models". Priceless. Five people inside our Logan, Twelve Bags. Five Hours driving. Sixty different sweets. Ten liters of PALINCA, fifteen sandwiches, six apples. We pick up Oonagh at Brenda's House and we are ready to go. The children at Brenda's house are incredible and make us want to stay there more to make them smile and play again and again, but the trip is long and ...

Kimby took off for home and continued on my way north out of Sofia. Back to travelling on my own again, that transition is always hard. So, I went up to the Bulgarian border at Vidin and had to spend the night (pouring rain!) and tried my best to get info about going into romania, noone seemed to know anything. So in the morning I caught a cab to the car ferry and got dropped off at a guard gate in a no mans land full of fences ...

sighisoara rocks. there's not much to do, or really much to see, other than an absolutely beautiful old town. it's the town of vlad dracul's birth. we went and got cappuccinos in his house, and they were playing 'my heart will go on' by celine dion, which seemed appropriate because vampires are basically immortal. we're staying in a beautiful hostel, and we have our own ...

... quite neat, although not even as well preserved as the cobblestone in Rome, which is much older. I just had a couple cappucinos on the terrace of Dracula's house. Upon entering the house, the first thing I heard was Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. Interesting, I thought. Vlad the Impaler and Celine Dion. Maybe that makes sense in some strange, distant way that I haven't quite put my finger on yet. I'll contemplate that for a while.

... waiter was standing right next to our table! While wondering later on, we came across a house where the occupants had posted signs offering homemade wine and tsuica (brandy). We were led into a cellar filled with bottles, and we each bought some as we thought they would make great gifts. They probably would have, except that in the following 12 hours, all but one of the bottles spontaneously opened and sent corks flying. Ah well, it was a neat experience anyway! We ...