Margaritaville following a....nice hike

I was thinking of a title to show that we were relaxing for a day or two....Margaritaville came to mind (I've also been cruising the Sirius stations...and that was one....).

I would like to thank everyone who has been keeping up on this blog.....it makes it a little more fun to type when you know that others are reading along. It also shows what a wonderful, supportive community (in the sense of all the people I have.......I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have so many great folks who care about me....love you all. Ok...getting homesick and a little teary...must move on.

Kevin and Cory......you must e-mail us and let us know how the rest of your trip was....Kevin...how was your route home via London (we may have to resort to that if running behind time-wise following Taize). And.....Kevin....my mom said no picture CD yet....slacker.

We had quite the adventure yesterday. A hike in the Bucegi mountains was the plan for the day...with some possible camping at the top...sounds nice, eh? (It was...but....crazy at times). The peak is 2000m. The cable car options are 1400m or the top...2000m. The cable car ticket-seller didn't speak much english, but a guy in line did....so....we asked him about our options (it is often the case that someone in the same line as us ends up doing some translating for us). He was soft-spoken and kinda shy of his english, but he tried. He said that there was camping by a hotel at 1400m, but then as straight as could be added, "but, sometimes there are bears". Possibly the language barrier.....possibly his shyness...but...it wasn't delivered in the manner I would expect. "but, sometimes there are bears" came out the same as......"there may be some traffic on the interstate today". The rest of what he said was definitely a blur, since in my mind I was just thinking, "oh my God....bears....." (the only thing he might have said that was worse for me would be snakes......maybe panthers....or poisonous bears). But...I do remember him commenting about the low trees at 2000m, so that it would be bad for camping. So...what did we do? Of course...take the cable car to 1400m....hike through bear country up to the bad camping area....a no-brainer. Brains in the off-position at that moment...... So.....we arrived at 1400m and started hiking....brains still in the off-position, because we just kept hiking and hiking. All in all....we hiked for about 3 hours through fog that made it possible to see about 20 yards in front of us....no further....oh ya...the incline was about 40 degrees...and I have thought that out to prevent distorting it....a good 40 degree incline. It got colder the higher we hiked....but was only a cool breeze at the top.....

After the grueling hike, we found a short respite at Cabana Miorita....there is a system of Cabanas along the Bucegi Mts....this one was described as the "Queen of the System" by my book. We chilled downstairs in an out-of-the-way portion of the bar for a couple hours. The mts. are in low-season, because it is primarily a skiing region. It seems that in the low-season...the workers just sit around and get drunk and pester would-be guests. We ventured upstairs to the restaurant to check out the menu when we were "greeted" by a drunk man with one gold tooth. (I will take a quick aside to say that the folks we have met along the way during our trip have been extremely nice and helpful. Sometimes when we are lost....we don't even have to ask for help.....people just approach us to offer advice). There's the aside.....this guy was an a**hole. We tried to ask what time the restaurant closed......he started jabbering in Romanian and started leading the way somewhere....we thought "maybe he's leading us to a sign with the hours on it"....NO....leading us outside...where he continued to mumble in Romanian....we are guessing he said something along the lines of "this is not a museum...it is a place to eat and drink beer...." He then left with the door closing behind us. Customer service at its finest I'd say.... So....we had been kicked out of the "Queen of the Cabanas"....an undeserving title it seems. Again...brains were off. We started walking to another cabana of unknown distance or location (and it was now pretty chilly) when we heard some voracious barking in the distance (again....fog like pea soup...couldn't see at all)....a nice pack of wild dogs...then one coming up behind us. I've watched that crazy dog-talker dude...so...I established dominance. It is amazing what a couple of explicit words directed at a canine and his canine mother will do to stop some barking. So...the two dogs that made it through the fog realized I was the king of the Carpathians...they followed awhile...until I told them not to and called them some more choice words. We were heading back to the a-hole at the cabana to try to get a bed.

A nice bed for the night.....but alas...another drunk worker. Our books said that the 12-room cabana was about 15000 lei....5 bucks. Oh no......only 2-bed dorm available for 2 million (60 USDish). Nice. After pretending to leave twice...then getting out our guidebook, we were down to 200,000 lei....which is about 6 or 7 USD/person.....alright. We were the only two in the 12-bed dorm....which was fairly comfortable. But...it was about 8 o'clock, so we headed to the bar to play pool (about 1.50/hour) coupled with a pair of Carlsberg's (my new fav. beer) for about 2 dollars each. That was fun. We played pool for about 2.5 hours on our one-hour's pay.....but the place was dead, so I doubt that mattered much. There was a group of drinking workers in the corner...but..we were the only guests for the night. We are terrible pool players...but....thus equally matched. To end the fun, our drunk asshole friend came over...babbled in Romanian.....tapped his watch.....made a sleeping gesture.....then stomped off. Somewhere along the lines of....time to go to bed? Need to pay for more pool? I dunno.....we plopped the supplies and our empty beers down on the table next to him and headed to our dorm. During this internet time, I plan on badmouthing Cabana Miorita in all possible venues. I'm glad we didn't try to camp.....'twas cold. Since we were the only ones in the 12-bunk dorm....we stocked up on blankets from other beds and bundled up. Read before bed.....I am now on "The Life of Pi".....it's a page-turner for sure.

Woke up around noon with hopes of an easier downhill hike......but no. We got off our path.....and found a.....steeper...more rocky path. I don't know how to describe the good portion of this path....but......steeply downhill......5 foot drops every 10 yards or so. It was pretty rough...and then.....a good 15 foot drop.....it was do-able without packs....but...keep in mind...this whole story takes place with our 35-40 pound packs tethered to our bodies. So....we made it over to a similarly steep....almost straight down path....but it was covered in grass. We went down backwards by grabbing handfulls of grass for support. From there....we got back on the path....back down to the 1400m cable car...and back to the city, but....it was a good hike....some fun pool.....a warm bed in the midst of a cold mountain night....and a hike both ways that I wouldn't have predicted we could pull off, but did.

After that fun...we have decided to chill in Sinaia a few more days before moving on to Greece. We were on our way to our first pension when an old couple that was walking next to us (not for the purpose of bothering us....just coming back from the market) offered us a room. We now have a room for the next 3 nights for about 7 USD/person/night....not a bad deal. We also have cable to catch the two world cup games coming up tomorrow and Wed. I was sad to see England and Brazil lose (my picks for the cup).....now....I'm buying on France...they looked very good.

We priced out the trip to Greece....we have to pay, because our pass is not good in Bulgaria....and we will save rail days. It's not terrible....we will head to Bucharest (close to here...so...only a few dollars). Bucharest to Sofia (capital of Bulgaria) is like 40.....Sofia to Thessaloniki (Greece) is around 30. Seventy dollars to experience Greece....not too shabby. From Greece...a ferry to Italy....but...that's getting too far ahead of myself.

Thanks to all in my blogging audience. Here are some things that I miss and you should definitely take time to appreciate while in Indiana......fresh cantaloupe, juicy watermelon, corn on the cob, ice in your drinks, good air-conditioning, Christ Church, and all the wonderful folks that I love.