At long last, Romania. Really good friends are people who pick you up from the train station at 3 in the morning when they haven't seen you for 6 years.
Craiova
Craiova is a medium-sized town near the Bulgarian border, and my first stop in Romania. In 1999, we met a man on the train to Brasov. His name is Dan Constantinescu, and we've been writing to him ever since. He and his parents and his brother Cristi live in an apartment in town. Their village is Teasc, about 20 km to the south. Dan works about 5 jobs, some of which don't really pay for themselves and none of which would enable one to survive in Silicon Valley. I don't know how the world manages. More pictures...
Busteni
Busteni is a slightly lower-rent mountain resort for the city dwellers to repair to and get out of the smog. More pictures...
Bucharest
The third Romanian connection for us is via Cupertino. Adam Bannister's friend Ann Arutiunova threatened for a couple of years to bring over her friends Radu and Andrei, and she finally did. Radu and Andrei were from Romania via a long stay in Vancouver; and they quickly introduced us to Tibi who had come via Montréal, and Bogdan, who came to California briefly with his parents and decided he would return to Bucharest. The conclusion you might draw from this is that you can tolerate Anglophone North America a lot better if you get used to it in Canada. If Cupertino is all you know of this place ... well! Bogdan now lives with his grandparents, who let me sleep in their TV room for two nights which is so far beyond the call of anything, especially since I was just getting a cold then and not too much fun. More pictures...
Iasi
Andrei and Radu live in Iasi. They go to University there --- actually I think Radu has got out already --- and have a party pad which never stops. More pictures...
