Greetings from Romania!

[nikki]

Hey everyone - just wanted to say hi from a couple thousand miles away! It's 6:30 pm here and I'm in some smokey internet cafe with bad Romanian dance music playing. Next up is a night of Scattegories with my step-sis and hubby and some of their Peace Corps friends.

To sum it up the trip here was okay (wow landing in Milan right over the Alps was breathtaking - pictures soon to follow!) until I arrived in the Romanian capital (Bucharest) then the trip turned into the trip from hell. First my plane landed late then the luggage was at least an hour delayed. Then I meet Manna & Tony and they forgot to bring their international phone card so I can call home and tell them I made it okay as I told them I would. So we went on a mission to buy a phone card then we couldn't get it to work. Then we bought another card and tried like hell again with no luck (although Red said we did successfully ring the home phone once but then got disconnected).

So in the meanwhile we missed the bus back to Manna & Tony's city (Sibiu) which is a 5-6 hour ride. Then we went to take a maxi taxi (van/bus like thing) and went to the wrong station and missed that too. So we finally got on a maxi taxi at 9:00 pm and began the ride from hell. The driver went as fast as possible zipping through mountains and traffic and cutting people off and hitting every pothole along the way. Not to mention the van was packed and HORRIBLE gypsy dance music with the same freakin beat every song was full blast. I did all I could not to throw up and it was horrible. By the time we arrived at Sibiu at 2:00 am I was stripped down to a tee shirt (it's Chicago like weather here) and totally nauseated.

Welcome to Romania! :)

Today was better - I slept in and we went and toured Sibiu a little bit. Sibiu is an awesome city which dates back to the 1000's! We tore up some people on the bumper cars at the Christmas carnival/fest so that was fun. It was funny we were watching and the Romaniana will ride in the bumper cars and avoid each other so we needed to show em how it's done. :) I also can't get over how cheap stuff is here - a French Vanilla cappacino was $.30 at the fest and a hot dog was $.40! The dollar definately goes far here.


When I get home - I can't wait to post my picture of a "turkish toilet" :uh:

 

[bsmith]

:thumb:

 

[Treejumper]

So its been a fun trip? :) Glad to hear you made it there safely Nik! Have fun and cant wait to see pics.

Just so it feels like chat.

Treejumper thinks he knows what a turkish toliet looks like.

 

[rickyd]

Have fun , be safe :thumb:

 

[biglou]

[BigLou]: *BigLou wants to see the turkish toilet...

[BigLou]: *BigLou wonders if the monkey phone has service to romania? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

 

[Senior KX Rider]

Have fun Nik :yeehaw:

 

[Tony Eeds]

Have a great and safe trip and bring back lots of pictures.

I'm with Lou, I can't wait to the the Loo. :confused:

 

[GETMETOCA]

Hey Nik-dog and Red-dog! Can't wait to hear more stories of Romania! So Red's getting some culture in Eastern Europe...hmmmmmmmm. Can't wait to hear his version too!

Natty

 

[XRpredator]

Romania . . . time difference . . . monkeys . . .

purple future monkeys? :eek:

Enjoy your stay, come home safe!

 

[Kav]

Very cool! Stay safe and have fun. :)

 

[jeffd]

Nikki! Cool to hear that you are survivng over there. It seems as if this DRN crew is fast becoming a group of jet-setters bouncing all over the globe :)

-jeffd

 

[CaptainObvious]

Be warned, Jeffd and I found a purple future monkey carrying luggage at Harrods in London.

Have a great trip!

 

[bratt]

LOL!! "Turkish toilets" That's good stuff right there. Don't get any on your shoes Nik! :uh:
Have fun!

 

[blackhawk468]

Sounds like FUN! :)

 

[jeffd]

If the Turkish toilets are anything like the Asian ones... I know what you are talking about! It is basically a ceramic hole in the ground in which you squat over (or if you are a a guy and doing a #1 just just turn around and the rest is a natural occurance)... The squating thing is tough though. Kinda made me realize that I needed to work on strengthening my quadracepts! :uh:

Have fun and be careful over there Nikki!

-jeffd

 

[biglou]

Ah, a "straddle trench". It's even better when you have to dig your own first. Must be so wide by so deep by so long (whatever the manual says). Then ya gets to cover it up when yer done. Nothing like taking 45 minutes to take a dump in the field... :uh:

 

[CAL]

Hey Nikki,!  That's pretty cool.  We have some missionaries from Romania in the states right now.  They're heading back in January.  My wife and I may actually be going to Romania in June or July of next year.  We'll be flying into Bucharest and then riding a train to Yosh.

You have to ride a train while you're out there!  And use the toilet! Let us know how that goes! :laugh:

 

 

[dirty~d~]

It's great to hear that you made it in one piece, Nik. I hope you are able to enjoy the sites and the culture. I can't wait to see the pictures. Have a safe trip home. :thumb:

 

[nikki]

Hi again everyone!! Nice to hear from you guys :) Just another update from Romania - it's Tuesday 2:30 pm here at 6:30 am back in Chicago.

So I guess turkish toliets aren't new to all of you but the funniest thing about the ones here is the foot prints that you're supposed to stand on ;)

Cal - we'll be on the train Thursday - I have heard about the bathroom system - I can't wait to snap a picture if it's safe to go near there.

Natty - no Reddog I went solo on this trip - nothing like an adventure across the world by yourself! I wish Red was along for the fun!

I have decided that the food sucks! It may be dirt cheap but I can't wait to get home and eat a real meal. My sis and hubby live off of french fries and pastries. Barf!

It's actually very Americanized here. I've went to 2 days of classes with Manna and Tony (between 7th and 12th grade) and the students know awesome English! The 7th graders were telling me about their current course load which includes FIFTEEN subjects - English, Romanian, either French or German, Math (Algebra and Geometry), Latin, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, Writing, Music, Art, PE, and Religion I think. Most students know 3-5 languages pretty well! I have been Christmas carrolled in Romanian, English, French, German, and Spanish! Pretty impressive!

I also brought in a Racer X and some of my motocross photos and they were all very interested! Some students knew of guys like Pichon, Everts, and Smets so that was pretty neat. They knew about freestyle too - but not much of guys like RC or MC.

Last night we shot some pool with a few high school students and had a good time. Of course the high school students had to help me brush up on my Romanian swear words. The bar music was all American - so that was kinda fun. Lots of places play American music - mainly rock, hip hop, R&B. Most all of the TV stations are all in English as well just with Romanian subtitles. So I've watched a few movies on HBO like Gladiator and some funny Miami something or other movie. MTV and VH1 is cool over here too. Married with Children is one of their favorite shows! American Wedding (American Pie 3) is in the movies as well and it's like $1.50 for a movie and another $1.50 for pop/popcorn. We went to "Big Momma's" for a snack the other day - there is a lady who looks like Aunt Jemima on their sign. It's kinda funny because there are no black people in the city (or Romania I think?) but they got Big Momma's :)

Thursday we start a day voyage back to the capital and will be stopping in Brasov and Sinaia on the way. Sibui, Brasov, and Sinaia are all in the heart of Transylvania and Brasov is home of Dracula's castle. So that will be a fun tourist attraction! Then back to the craphole capital - Bucharest (2 million people).


I'll be home and jetlagged on Sunday!

 

[Okiewan]

Sounds like a great trip Nikki ... pics!

 

[CaptainObvious]

Well your second reports sounds a lot better than your first! I'm really surprised to hear how Americanized their culture is.

Enjoy the rest of the trip and have a same journey home.

 

[Papakeith]

Sounds like a great trip so far nikki. Stay safe, have fun, pictures, pictures pictures! :)

 

[Treejumper]

Yeah, have fun and besure to "poop" on the tracks. :)

 

[GETMETOCA]

Sounds like fun, Nik!! If Tony and Manna weren't there, would you have trouble gettng around on your own? ARe the signs easy to read and figure out? So do they have dirtbike shops in Romania? Can you teach us Romanian swear words too? :)

 

[Philip]

:thumb: Cool Nik. Come home safe!!!