Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006: 9:54pm

I figured it's about time I closed up this little adventure. Oh Sunday (Oct. 1) was such a long day. We were allowed to sleep in--at least, 7:45 was considered late in light of being up at 6:45 every day the previous week.

We left our hotel in Pitesti at 9am and arrived at our hotel in Sinaia at around 10:30pm. Yes, you are reading that correctly. 30KM my ass! Of course, we stopped along the way, but still being stuck in a tiny van for that long will drive anyone crazy. Our first stop was at a lovely memorial for Romanian heroes. It was on a bluff with gorgeous views; again, you had to pay for the photos. I didn't go inside. My pics from the steps were just fine. The next stop was Bran Castle, the residence (for a few years at least) of Vlad Tepes (Dracula). We walked around until about 2:30, then got back on the bus for shopping in Brasov and to visit the Black Church there, the largest Catholic church in Romania. Guess what, it was closed! Wish Alex had checked on these things. And the shopping wasn't that great. All touristy crap. I did pick up a nice watercolor of the church, though, which I intend to put in a equally colorful frame, and ice cream. Who knew how long it would be until we ate again. The traffic jam from hell happened on our way to Sinaia. We were stuck in this for about an hour before finally turning off to find a place to eat. Just about the best meal I had the entire trip: creamy tomato soup and breaded, pressed cheese. When we got back on the road around 8:30, the traffice was largely gone. The President of Romania was supposed to come on the same road the next day (Monday, Oct. 2), so all the roads were being closed off. Fanfuckingtastic, I thought! But all went well. He must have helicoptered in the next day because we didn't hit any jams. When we finally got to the turnoff for out hotel, the road was closed because of a music festival. Or as Alex called it the "Lovers and Shit Festival." Ended up having to walk about 1,500 meters to our hotel, luggage in tow. I'm sure the natives got a good laugh at this ragtag band of misfits looking all bedraggled. That's why Rebecca and I cracked open a bottle of wine we had left over. Went out wandering at the street fair also going on. But it was pretty ordinary. Only picked up this round sweetbread. Gabi, it had nuts and sugar and cinammon. What is it called? And can I get in anywhere local?

Monday, Oct. 2, went a lot better. Our gondola ride was the coolest, despite being packed in like sardines. The views from the top were phenomenal! Don't know why we even stayed in Sinaia, though. We weren't even there for 12 hours. From there, it was a short ride to Peles Castle. CLOSED! Of course, it was the best castle of them all. Home of King Ferdinand and Queen Elisabetta. But Alex ran up to the gate and made some sort of arrangement if the group went at once. Not everyone came, which I kind of liked. It was a smaller group (Carol and Dave; John; Me; Leona; and Alex). The tour guide only took us around the outside gardens, which was good enough. Took more lovely shots; even got one of the guard in the trees saluting. Finally purchased my post card from the mean lady who wouldn't let us into her shop. On our way to Bucharest, we stopped at some roadside stands. We made it to the Hotel Victoria in about two hours.

Shared a bottle of wine with Leona and Rebecca. There was a photo shoot going on for Adidas. At one point, the model had a cigarette in some shots. That's something you won't see in ads in America. At least, not anymore. Dinner was at 7:30. Dave gave the final speech to Val and gave her our card and (what turned out to be very bad) a bottle of champagne. Hey, Rebecca and I had a very small window and a large language barrier to overcome. We did our best. Woke up at 5:30am the next morning. Shared a 6am taxi with Lindsey and John. The hotel wanted to call a second cab because we all had VERY large bags. Hey, the clerk asked how many bags we had. The staff saw us all dragging them in; there were minivan cabs. Why, then, wasn't a larger cab called for? We weren't about to pay $40 for an extra cab. Squeezed in the backseat somehow.

Made it home all in one piece. Chris surprised me at JFK. Totally stupified when he tapped me on the shoulder at baggage claim. Took me longer than a second to realize who he was. Glad to get home and sleep in my own bed. As much as I love these Habitat trips, I don't like living out of a suitcase.

Stay tuned for my next adventure: Buenos Aires, Argentina in March 2008.

Thank you and good night!

Monday, Oct. 2, 2006: 6:45pm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Chris!

So, I believe I left off at Thursday. We had the partner family dinner tonight at a traditional Romanian restaurant, only the food wasn't so. We still waited two hours, so we subsisted on bread and wine for that long. I felt bad for the kids of the families we are building for; kids can't sit that long. But when we handed out the gifts to the children, their delight and smiles of excitement more than made up for everything. That was another late night. We got back to the hotel around 11:00.

Friday was ordinary.

Saturday was our last day on the site. It was a half-day. In the morning, we gave Christi a baby tub filled with baby gifts we had bought for him and his wife. She is due with their son any day now. Such a cute couple. He is 38, she is 25. We also gave gifts to the kids at the work site. So many toys and goodies left over from what we brought for the partner families. However, not all the kids were there, so everything was unevenly distributed (even the candy). The others eventually showed up, so it was a tough situation. I also gave away the rest of the candy I brought. Hershey's mostly.

Yeah, my shoes and work pants are staying behind. They just became too gross, especially being around all that dust and mud and gross water. So I left them in a plastic bag for the garbage. I donated another long-sleeve blue shirt. Don't need it; wore it for four days straight. It was all gross and grimy!

That's it from Romania. I'll blog about our last three days when I return stateside! See you soon.