Blogs from Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 41

Voltamos à estação e pegamos o trem para BRASOV (pronuncia-se Bráchov, de novo aquele S com cedilha). A estação fica fora do centro histórico, então percebemos que não conseguiríamos ir a pé até o albergue como gostaríamos. Acabamos topando pegar um táxi que nos cobrou um preço absurdamente alto. Chegando na Kismet Dao Hostel (10 euros), o proprietário, que era um americano de origem coreana, perguntou-nos o preço da corrida e deu um esporro monumental no taxista. Enfim, o dinheiro já era. O albergue era razoável. Os quartos tinham muitos beliches (acho que nosso quarto comportava 10 pessoas) e havia poucos banheiros. Além disso, as meninas da recepção não eram as mais simpáticas. Mas eles davam uma hora de internet grátis em um local ali perto, então fomos até lá para mandar notícias para a família ... read more

Tuesday, January 4, 2005 Not to be redundant, but today started much as the rest have with a delicious breakfast provided by the beautiful Alina. Marius’ (Alina’s husband) mother made us traditional Romanian bread baked in an outside oven over a coal fire. This bread was so good. Our projects have gone so well that we had to go purchase more food and make additional food bags this morning. Unfortunately, the weather was working against us today. It was extremely cold, windy and rainy today. The first Gypsy group that we were to hand out food to was not able to make it out. We were forced to head to our next village. We had not planned to go here, but through some miscommunication we were able to reach this group too. We learned later that ... read more

Sunday, January 2, 2005 Today was probably the busiest day yet. It probably didn’t help that I woke up around 4:30 AM and stayed up until 7am. But even if I had a full night’s sleep, it still would have been a grueling day. We began with a church service at Nushfalau. It was the Gypsy Baptist Church where we went yesterday to hand out more food bags. The service was very enthusiastic and crowded - as all the gypsy churches seem to be. I ended up sitting right next to the accordion player (the church’s praise band consisted of the accordion, a violin, and an old roller rink organ), so my left ear is still ringing. :o) After that service we went to a more traditional Romanian Baptist Church - not gypsy. This church was ... read more

Friday, December 31, 2004 This is the website of the family that we are working with her in Romania. www.hopeforromania.com This was a full day and this entry is very, very long but I didn't want to miss anything! Today began just as the rest have here in Romania. We ate breakfast and loaded up the vans by 10:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. Orlando time). I think that Julia told you in the last journal that 3 of our Romanian friends drove 10 hours (one way) to Bucharest to purchase coats and boots on Tuesday and Wednesday. The reason was that they could purchase these items cheaper in the big city. They spent about $3,000 there and the same items would have cost about $5,000 here. Tony gave them strict orders to not come back with any ... read more

After 36 hours we FINALLY arrived at Tony’s house in Simleu Silvaniei, Romania. Orlando to Chicago . . . Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany . . . Frankfurt to Budapest, Hungry and then a 6 hour bus ride into Northwest Romania. None of us were expecting to be so very, very tired. Tired or not, we made it here without a hitch. 15 of us started in Orlando, 1 started in Baltimore and one in West Virginia (J. was stranded because of snow storms). We all met in Chicago. No delayed flights, good weather, very little turbulence, and NONE of us lost our luggage. We couldn’t have asked for a better trip. The best blessing of all was the border crossing from Hungry into Romania could have been a nightmare. The border guards choose who to search ... read more