Blogs from Timis, Banat, Romania, Europe - page 2

I met Peter on-line through the Ro-Maniacs Yahoo Group. There was a meeting of the minds on a number of issues and we decided to meet on my arrival. After a couple days of connections with Romanian friends I wanted to see a little of my host Peter (and his family's) work. They have been most gracious to me. They are independent Baptist missionaries, sponsored by a church in mid-Pennsylvania for almost 10 years. I hoped to expand my experience and not be a hinderence to them. The day was a non-stop whirlwind of ministerial activity. First stop he was essentially the warm-up for the main worship activity at a church in the city. After a liitle chit-chat with the church members we were off to a gypsy village on the other side of Lugoj. The ... read more

Friday I met up with two friends individually. Monika worksd at the McD and is studying to be a psychologist/family conselor. She and her boyfriend are going to be carnies in the States this summer. She got me a daypass on the transit system and took me on a tour of several parks, a few churches, some of her favorite markets and shops. We dropped by her apartment and when I couldn't set up the timer on my camera she suggested just using her webcam to make a photo together. Seeing our image on the laptop I tried to straighten out my hair and chided her for letting me walk around with it sticking out. She answerd "Nobody was looking at you, you're old!" Ouch. I'm glad I decided at the last minute to bring a ... read more

My host in Timisoara did not give me a number or an address and so when I got there just after lunch, I had no idea where I was or if I had a place to stay that night. The lady behind the info counter at the train station was nice enough to let me into her cubicle and search for the train timetable for my next destination but couldn't tell me anything else since she didn't speak English. I later found out that it was atypical behaviour and probably because I was a tourist. *shrug* eh, at least there's a perk to this tourist thing. I wandered around for a bit but couldn't figure it out so I stopped a guy who was speaking on the phone in English (after he hung up, of course) ... read more

Wo findet man pampiges Essen? Wo findet man zu süßes Eis? Und wo findet man gratis W-LAN? Bei McDonalds! Ansonsten gibbet hier auch was ordentliches zu sehen: Den Platz des Sieges, O-Busse und natürlich ebenejene McD Filiale.... die hiesigen Hamburger schmecken genauso wie bei uns, kosten aber weniger! Die Fahrt heut war recht langweilig - ewig Autobahn durch Ungarn, mittags ein Stop in einem unaussprechlichen Ort mit großer Tesco-Filiale und mehreren undefinierbaren Kirchen. Unser Navigationsgerät, die liebe Gertrude, hat heute das erste Mal leichte Aussetzer gehabt, und Dennis ist in der Vergewaltigung der Gangschaltung besonders erfolgreich. Unser Campingplatz ist ganz lustig, zumal die geschätzt sozialistische Platzwärtin astrein deutsch spricht ;-) Auf dem Weg in die Stadt mussten wir nichtmal Bustickets kaufen, sondern sind so mitgekommen... Dummer-Touri-Bonus. Es ü... read more

As I write this, we are somewhere in Romania but we're not actually sure where. We left our homes Tues. morning around 9:30 a.m. and arrived at our first night's lodging Wed. afternoon around 3:00 which is about 1:30 a.m. local time. Don't ask what day cause right now I'm not sure what day it is. I do know that it is about 8:00 a.m. now and 10:00 p.m. home time. We feel much better now with a little bit of sleep. Our sentences make more sense now and we are not quite so quick to laugh at things that really weren't all that funny. Our flights were all good. Traveling was very easy thanks to Uncle Matt. Uncle Matt & Brian (his grandson) actually pulled in right behind us at Sea-Tac when we were unloading ... read more