Busteni is a slightly lower-rent mountain resort for the city dwellers to repair to and get out of the smog.

The morning of November 5, Edy (Dan's cousin) showed up before dawn at Laura's house (where I was staying) and drove us all in a car of more conventional fueling, to the Carpathian resort of Busteni. The sun rose as we drove northeast. This is what we all believe Eastern Europe looks like.

Edy's grandmother, in a village near the town of Câmpulung. Her husband was murdered by the Communists in 1950 and she has lived a widow since. All her children but one are in the same village.

Next door, Edy's uncle at work.

A table saw.

The well.

Nice water.

Edy's relatives.

Uncle.

The brandy came from his grandmother.

A monastery in Câmpulung.

A war memorial. You see a lot of these when you are on vacation. I don't know where the ones around California are hiding, maybe I just don't notice them any more.

View from the memorial.

I don't know what this represented. George Segal comes to Transylvania. We stopped so that Edy could show me something for sale across the street, but two months later I don't remember what it was. Such is the dreamlike experience of travel.

I believe Peles Castle is Laura's favorite castle, she couldn't stop posing in front of it. Of course it was closed, either we were too late or it was under renovation — it's the same story. The Truman Show was right, there isn't actually anything out there.

Haystacks in the shape of Cousin Itt. Google "hay in art".

Maybe we can get Johnny Depp to play him in the movie.

Laura eclipsing Dan.

Cristi.

Dan Constantinescu on somebody's cell phone.

The next day we went up to Babele. This is the line for the tram at Busteni.

These are the little cars in which we're expected to ride 1500 m up onto the mountain.

Waiting to board.

Leaving the station.

Shadow of the car approaching a waterfall.

Coming up to a cliff. This is where you really hope the Romanians aren't allowing the US Air Force to train anywhere nearby.

Babele, a karst formation that is the main tourist attraction when ski season is not in session.

More mushroom formations. Eroded limestone is the Stupid Design version of their etiology.

It's funny how the sun is warm even when it's cold. If everything weren't dead, it could be springtime.

More karst.

Cristi, Laura, and Dan.

In back of us is a rock called Sfinxul.

Snowball fight!

Somebody fell off a mountain before he had a chance to unite Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania and instead of a horse in a town square he gets a little brass plaque nailed to a rock. And after a while, nothing, except traces you can't even see, such as are left in our personal history by some archaeopteryx who either strived or failed to strive against a contemporary looming catastrophe.

These wind-eroded snow crystals are not easy to model but they are pretty.

The tower that carries the air-car.

A dog. One leg off the ground means he is walking.

We are trying not to end up on a brass plaque.

Long shot.

Here comes the car to get us.

The cable. Steel sure is strong.

The trip down. There were some mountain goats but they were in the shadow and the pictures didn't come out ...

... see what I mean?

On to Bucharest