ROMANIAN VACATION

Some photos from my stay in the Carpathian Mountain area of Romania in May, 2006. I have avoided photographing people, sometimes out of specific request, and out of courtesy. Following these are some photos taken in the city of Bucharest.

This is the place I stayed for nine days. The hostess was a wonderful woman and the staff was great. Only one staff member spoke English but fortunately she was the bartender and waitress.

This was taken standing in front of where I stayed. View is to the west.

Just a short walk up the road is the entrance to the national park. The following photos are from the two hour hike up the trail.

Much of the trail looked like this. There was a stream along the trail with many smaller streams feeding it.

A first glimpse of the peaks about an hour into the hike.

Here is a view of some of the cliffs about an hour and a half into the hike.

This was the view back to the east from the ridge after two hours of hiking. The lake in the background was another hike a day later.

This is the view to the west from the ridge.

This was taken behind Crustiu where I stayed. It is stacked hay and a very common site.

This is one of the houses and barns along the road up to Crustiu.

Livestock, particularly horses and cows, were quite common along the roads, grazing in the ditches and yards. Also chickens and ducks.

Also very common were horse-pulled carts like this one. From what I observed, horses are the most common way of plowing and cultivating farm lands.

Here is the previous horse and cart on the move.

This was either a cabin or a shed. Note the stick fence that is very common.

Here is another example of the common stick fence and rural farm home along the road.

This was taken on a short hike up the hill behind Crustiu. It is looking east and down the valley.

This was taken from the same point as the previous photo, only looking west toward the mountains. It was about 10 a.m.

Another view to the west. At mid morning clouds often still hung on the peaks.

• • •

BUCHAREST PHOTOS

My home for four days in Bucharest. The Ibis Nord hotel. Very nice. Food was outstanding.

I could have stayed across the street at this hotel. Hmmm....

This was the train station that I used for my trip to the mountains. It has a McDonalds inside.

Across the street from the Gara De Nord (train station) was this park. There are a lot of parks in Bucharest. They are a welcome relief from the congestion.

There was lots of interesting architecture in the most unlikely places.

This avenue is Nicolae Titulescu taken from Piata Victoriei. Lots of electric lines.

This is one side of the Piata Victoriei. Eight major avenues converge here.

There seems to be no parking restrictions and not enough spots. Parking on the sidewalks is common -- as well as double parking.

Don't pack too much if you have a car like this. But it is easy to park.

I didn't expect to find street markets like this one in the middle of Bucharest. Lots of flowers were for sale in may locations -- not just in street markets.

And thus ends this brief sample of my trip to Romania. Definitely a cultural experience that really requires one to speak the language to fully appreciate -- which is true of any culture. But don't let language barriers stop you from exploring. It is a humbling but enriching experience.