Words

Every day is a good day.

Eight of us (the aforementioned party of six, with newly acquired Canadian, Rich, and sometimes-companion Lori of Scotland) took two cars to the site of the tomb of Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Vlad III the Impaler, a.k.a. Vladislav Dracula, a.k.a. Count Dracula). Getting to the church required forty minutes of hard rowing across a Romanian lake – hard because of my ineptitude, not because the conditions were particularly bad. In fact, one couldn’t really ask any more from a spring day; warmth, sunshine and a complete absence of rain. T-shirt weather.

After we got back to Bucharest, we hit a vegetable market and made dinner. I cooked stuffed aubergines and a lemon risotto. Kate put together a shopska-ish salad and some garlic bread. Between us we fed eight people rather impressively for about 10 lei ($5AUD) per serving. Not standard backpacker fare. Dessert consisted of a bar of chocolate and a cigar. Bliss.

I seem to have a talent for alphabets. I can read Greek and Cyrillic pretty well after only a short period of immersion. This has inspired me to resume my study of Japanese when I’m done travelling, after my six-year hiatus. The JET program would be absolutely awesome, after I’ve got a degree.

Romania is pleasant enough, but occasionally Paul pops out a “Why can’t we go back to Bulgaria?”. Heading to Braşov tomorrow. Can’t wait to get into a slightly smaller town.