Villa Anemona Mangalia

... the plain and lands dominated by man for some 300-treeless kılometres.

Constanza is a busy sea port and tourist destination.  A kebab shop worker advised me to be careful as the city has a few very rich who drıve around flaunting their wealth and a lot of very poor of whom a few aspired at any cost to have what the rich have.  Thus with his advice taken and his kebab making its way into my lower intestine I slept out ...

... 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.

... hotel and booked coffee body wrap treatments for today.

This morning it was hot and foggy when we got up. We walked down the beach strip and found some fun little shops and most importantly gelato. There is also a gondola that runs the length of the strip and beyond; we aren't entirely sure where it ends.

I went for my treatment today and was let down. They didn't have any coffee and I didn't have much else to choose from so I took a ...

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 ...

Tavi's coursin Mihnea took us on a whirlwind weekend to Vama Veche after several hours of adventurous driving through small villages in the middle of nowhere, swerving around stray dogs and horse carts in the dark. Vama Veche used to be a sleepy and rugged fishermen's village on the Black Sea close to the Bulgarian border only 10 years ago, but now it has transformed itself ...

... 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.

... got a place to set our tents thank to Zajac, that had found Ms Emilia, a woman she`d randomly met a year before. She gave us a pretty big lawn area for use, behind a locked gate, right next to a beach. It was a horribly windy night and it seemed like it was going to rain, so we set our tents properly. We left our pasture after 8 am and took a bus to Constanza. We were allowed to leave our luggage at museum, after paying 2 lei per ticket. Everything here costs 2 lei ...

... 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.

... ethos)and generally drove us a bit crazy. The good thing was that he found our Aussie buddies from Romania; James, Mike and Mark, and told them where we were staying. Sanity restored. So with Aussie lads in tow we wreaked havoc in the Constinesti nightlife. We decided that the vodka being served at the cheesy disco was in fact ethanol - it smelt like metho and sputtered a bit when we tried to light it - so after a quick turn on the dancefloor to Kylie (with ...