Day 11- Sunday, June 25. Radauti, Romania to BucharestTravel Day

After a long night of packing and final team announcements, we awoke at 3:00 a.m., and left at 3:30 a.m. for our journey, which started at the train station in Suceava. Suceava is about 30 minutes from Radauti. We were in culture shock at the condition of the train station, with many people sleeping on the floor in a dimly-lit station. Our group proceeded quickly to the train, and without a Romanian-speaking guide, struggled to find our train and seats.

On the train, the conductor was not pleased with the amount of baggage that we were carrying. Ours was spilling over into the hallway of the train, and he charged us 80 RON (about 40 dollars) for the overage. With the language barrier, we really did not know what was going on, but an English-speaking passenger was found and helped clarify. The remainder of the ride was uneventful, and we enjoyed a beautiful morning watching the Romanian countryside pass by. One surprise was Brian presenting us with jam and chocolate pancakes, made earlier at the hotel. This was our favorite treat during the week!

We arrived in Bucharest around noon, much earlier than we had originally expected. James left us at this time, as he was planning to fly to Prague to meet his wife. The remainder of the team proceeded to the hotel to finish our stay, where we later said goodbye to Sarah and Brian.

The afternoon was spent on a walking tour of Bucharest, until we were traumatized by the heat. We were able to see the "Peoples Palace", which is the second largest building in the world, next to the Pentagon, as well as devouring a lunch at a McDonalds, our first hamburgers since leaving home!!

Don