Blogs from Romania, Europe - page 94

Still bumping around Romania. Seeing a lot of old friends. Weather is stifling hot, over 100F. Most cars and buildings here have no A/C, so it’s a sauna. Bucharest has changed a lot since I was here 3 years ago. They join the EU on January 1, and there is a sense of excitement. New construction is going on everywhere and lots of business opportunities. The country has been occupied so often recently, first by the Germans, then the Russians, and the revolution was less than 20 years ago, but you can definitely see how things get better and better. You can still see the bullet holes in some of the buildings from the revolution. They tell me the government is still corrupt, but under pressure from the EU, reforms are in progress. Still one of ... read more

Travel delays, so only spent 12 hours in Vienna, and spent all of it sleeping. Bummer- but what to do? My German stinks anyway. Had mixed feelings about leaving Prague this time. 5 years ago when I was there it was mysterious and exotic and had a little air of danger about it. Now there is a McDonalds on every corner and EVERYONE speaks English and watches NYPD Blue. Prices have tripled since I was last there. Cab driver told me that you have to leave the city to find the real Czechs and the real prices, but one look at Cheb was enough for me. Once I saw the 70 year old couple from Chicago checking in at the hotel, I was done with Prague. they have turned it into London East and made it ... read more

We have now finished our tour in Romania but this last week has been full of calamities. It all started about four days ago when Dina, Karoline, and I were sharing a room and were attacked by a massive swarm of mosquitos. I was trying to fall asleep when I started hearing a buzzing sound in my ear. I was really tired so I tried to ignore it and just sleep. Then after about an hour I had had enough and woke up Karoline to ask for some OFF. When Dina heard me she said she had not been able to sleep either because of the buzzing by her ear. We decided to turn on the lights and kill all the mosquitos. When we turned the lights on we saw there were at least 30 of ... read more

This city has a bad rap. I took a night train here, got woken up for two hours by the border guards, arrived at 6:30 in the morning. I had read and heard from other backpackers how bad the taxis are, so when a guy came up to me I was cautious: (Romanian accent) "Where are you staying?" "Oh, I already got a place." "My place is really nice, I drive you straight there, Butterfly Hostel." Now, I knew some people who had stayed there, and they really liked it, but I bet that he didn't work for them. "No, it's alright." After a while he left me alone, I wandered around looking for an ATM. "Where are you going? Are you sure you don't want to go?" "Yes, I'm fine, do you know where an ... read more

I was goıng to wrıte about our week at a kıd's camp in Romania, a la "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda". The entry was already started ın my mınd- ıt was goıng to be a sort of letter home full of the funny thıngs kıds do and say. It was goıng to capitalize on the campy aspects of our experience, thıngs lıke bunk beds and funny food... but then I realızed that the beds we were sleepıng ın were much nıcer than most of the beds we have been sleepıng ın the past fıve months and the kıtchen was a mıllıon tımes more sanitary than what we have been eatıng from- the food was actually pretty good too. There were lots of goofy thıngs that the campers dıd but more than entertain us, they broke us. ... read more