This is about 1 month overdue, but better late than never.
I went to the Black Sea with my counterpart. The city of Constanta is the tourist spot and THE vacation spot.
Actually I spent my time tanning on Mangalia (south of Constanta, and it's not Mongolia (which I kept pronouncing)).
So my landlord has family there, and her sister is working on building her dream mansion. So we stayed there. It has 3 stories, and I had my own room.
Most homes in Romania have an indoor kitchen and outdoor, and while I see that this is true in the villages, I didn't expect it to be so in these kind of houses too, but as you can see:
Behind me, in this next picture, is her garden. She has a garden just like people in the village do because she likes her food fresh, so she has a house for chickens next door (like a shack), and tomatoes, and peppers, eggplants, etc... (Most every garden I've seen, including my own have: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, spicy peppers, maybe onion, garlic, cucumbers, some melons, and wine (grapes to make wine) I don't know what's in a typical American garden or Chinese garden, but this typical for what I've seen in the Moldavian area and I've seen in the Transylvanian area).
A man who had drunken a bit wanted to teach me to dance Romanian, and he said I was a hopeless cause and I had didn't get the Romanian rhythm. Hey, I tried! I was nice because I was the guest to his house, and I trusted his wife and my travel mates. We had dinner outside on the terrance, and there were mosquitoes, but I had repellent. muahaha!
We stayed overnight for 3 nights, and Every night! I thought we were leaving to spend the night somewhere else, so every night I had my stuff packed and ready to go, but I ended up going back to my room and unpacking again.
On night, my host's son-in-law took me out to see the night life in Constanta.
I learned that Constanta is kind of like New York in that there are 5 different cultures in that city together. They had culture wars, and there are 5 churches standing in the city as of now. I know they were: Turkish, Roman, and Romanian, and I forget the other 2.
Here is Mamaya, the super hottest tourist spot by the sea at the moment. The hottest clubs, the best and most expensive restaurants (like places in LA), and all the celebrities go there.
They had a "boardwalk" there, and I saw this stand and I had to take a picture. Mexican food is apparently french fries (or cartofi prajiti [k-hart-off prrrr-ah-gee-zha]) in an upside down hat. =) Not that Taco bell is any closer I suppose.
Casinos too, and "gentlemens' clubs" and Giant Discotecas!! (Dance clubs)
The dance club in the pic wasn't at Mamaya, I got the full tour almost of the sea side by night. I was driven to "the beach for the youth" by the son-in-law and a family of his friends and we walked around in this HUGE beach area for the teenagers with money in Romania. It was like....a large amusement part/carnival/boardwalk with lots of discotecas, and lots of people under 20 years old, and loud music. There were some families there too.
Weird thing: I ran into (face to face) with my neighbor there. That was a huge statiscal chance right there.
Here is a guy selling boiled corn (pulumb fierbe [pull-loomb fee-ear-bay]) and grilled corn pulumb copt [pull-lomb kopt]).
I went to the Black Sea with my counterpart. The city of Constanta is the tourist spot and THE vacation spot.
Actually I spent my time tanning on Mangalia (south of Constanta, and it's not Mongolia (which I kept pronouncing)).
So my landlord has family there, and her sister is working on building her dream mansion. So we stayed there. It has 3 stories, and I had my own room.
Most homes in Romania have an indoor kitchen and outdoor, and while I see that this is true in the villages, I didn't expect it to be so in these kind of houses too, but as you can see:
Behind me, in this next picture, is her garden. She has a garden just like people in the village do because she likes her food fresh, so she has a house for chickens next door (like a shack), and tomatoes, and peppers, eggplants, etc... (Most every garden I've seen, including my own have: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, spicy peppers, maybe onion, garlic, cucumbers, some melons, and wine (grapes to make wine) I don't know what's in a typical American garden or Chinese garden, but this typical for what I've seen in the Moldavian area and I've seen in the Transylvanian area).
A man who had drunken a bit wanted to teach me to dance Romanian, and he said I was a hopeless cause and I had didn't get the Romanian rhythm. Hey, I tried! I was nice because I was the guest to his house, and I trusted his wife and my travel mates. We had dinner outside on the terrance, and there were mosquitoes, but I had repellent. muahaha!
We stayed overnight for 3 nights, and Every night! I thought we were leaving to spend the night somewhere else, so every night I had my stuff packed and ready to go, but I ended up going back to my room and unpacking again.
On night, my host's son-in-law took me out to see the night life in Constanta.
I learned that Constanta is kind of like New York in that there are 5 different cultures in that city together. They had culture wars, and there are 5 churches standing in the city as of now. I know they were: Turkish, Roman, and Romanian, and I forget the other 2.
Here is Mamaya, the super hottest tourist spot by the sea at the moment. The hottest clubs, the best and most expensive restaurants (like places in LA), and all the celebrities go there.
They had a "boardwalk" there, and I saw this stand and I had to take a picture. Mexican food is apparently french fries (or cartofi prajiti [k-hart-off prrrr-ah-gee-zha]) in an upside down hat. =) Not that Taco bell is any closer I suppose.
Casinos too, and "gentlemens' clubs" and Giant Discotecas!! (Dance clubs)
The dance club in the pic wasn't at Mamaya, I got the full tour almost of the sea side by night. I was driven to "the beach for the youth" by the son-in-law and a family of his friends and we walked around in this HUGE beach area for the teenagers with money in Romania. It was like....a large amusement part/carnival/boardwalk with lots of discotecas, and lots of people under 20 years old, and loud music. There were some families there too.
Weird thing: I ran into (face to face) with my neighbor there. That was a huge statiscal chance right there.
Here is a guy selling boiled corn (pulumb fierbe [pull-loomb fee-ear-bay]) and grilled corn pulumb copt [pull-lomb kopt]).
Next I went to the beach Actually in Constanta, I was at a lot of other beaches: Mangalia, Mamaya, Neptune, Olympia, beaches of the youth, so then Constanta [Kon-stawn-zhah]. There's a casino, which is sinking, so it's an aquarium, but when it stops sinking, it will be remodelled to be a restuarant. It's beautiful from the outside.
Here was $300,000 worth of Romania money to make the bridge near Constanta to be: red, white, and blue for Bush's trip to Constanta during the Nato summit. He was at Neptune on his visit to this country.
Next entry: my DAY at the beach. Here's a picture I took of my travel mates =) Isn't the beach just vividly colorful?!
Here was $300,000 worth of Romania money to make the bridge near Constanta to be: red, white, and blue for Bush's trip to Constanta during the Nato summit. He was at Neptune on his visit to this country.
Next entry: my DAY at the beach. Here's a picture I took of my travel mates =) Isn't the beach just vividly colorful?!
