Day 12 - Monday, June 26, 2006. Day Trip to Constanza, Romania and the Black Sea

We have parted with all team members, except for David Gregg, Debi Brace, and myself. The three of us determined that we would go to the Black Sea for a day, regardless of the fact that we just spent most of the previous day on a train from Radauti to Bucharest.

The train ride to Constanza is about 4 hours and 250 miles. The city is a resort community on the Black Sea. We were up at 4:30 for our long journey to the sea!! Upon arriving, we were deluged with taxi drivers and hawkers hoping to sell hotel rooms, however we thought it would be more fun to figure out the city bus system. We met a boy, Adrian, who did not speak English, but was able to help us find the right bus, but then decided that he would ride with us. He got us where we were going, only to find out that he was another room hawker hoping to guide us for the day and then sell us a hotel room. We informed him that we were day-trippers and sent him on his way with a small tip for his trouble.

The Black Sea is beautiful, but looks grey, and is not very clean (in case you were wondering), with lots of algae. We took a walk in the waves, then spent the remainder of the day in a historical and archeological museum. Deb and I then split ways with Dave, expecting to meet him at the train station before it left. Unfortunately, our bus did not go the way we expected, and after a 20 minute ride to the wrong side of town, everyone got off the bus and the driver shut the bus down!!! We panicked a little, since we did not know where we were and did not have anyone with us that spoke Romanian. After lots of hand signals and broken Romanian and English, we realized that the driver was taking a break, and that the bus would leave soon. Such was the case, and eventually bus 43 got us to the train in time, but not after a worrysome hour on the bus. Chalk it up as another exciting travel story.

The ride back to Bucharest was relaxing and rewarding, with beautiful views of the country. Today was David Gregg's birthday, and we topped the day off with two rounds of pool (I lost) and final packing for our trip home on Tuesday.