Constanta

Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009--Constanta

I found an internet cafe in the suburban area, but it was filled with mosquitoes. They were buzzing around me the whole time I was there. How horrible!! There is another place downtown which I will try next time.

My room is fine. It has a good bed and a nice pillow. And I finally found CNN after using the menu to reprogram the TV. There are no mosquitoes in the room. It's because they have good screens on the window and because they use fabric and beads to cover the door to the outside during the daytime and close that door when it gets close to dusk.

I wandered the beaches here in Constanta today. They are not very nice. There is no way that Constanta can compete with Varna which is just down the coast in Bulgaria. Neither the town nor the beaches can. Varna is like a luxury resort compared to here. The Constanta beaches are either rather muddy (at at least packed sand) or pieces of shell. My sandals were covered with powder from shell fragments after my walk. Not many people were on the beaches either. I guess that most go north of here to Mamaia which is supposed to be the better place to visit for this area.

I bought supplies for dinner in my room tonight--a can of tuna in curried mayonnaise, brown bread, cake balls rolled in coconut, etc. I still had half a bottle of the wine I opened last night. It made a relaxing dinner while I watched TV.

When I got back to the room, I washed clothes--several shirts and my shorts. There is a clothesline outside, so I hung the clothes and left them. The guidebook mentioned that it is not easy to find places to do laundry in Romania.

There were guests in the other room. They were all on the patio visiting with the owners of the house in the evening. I stayed in my room watching the news. But the cigarette smoke from out there kept wafting through my window. Yuck!

I only have two books remaining after I finish the one I am reading now. I'll be in Copenhagen in just 2 weeks, so I should be fine until then. But I will be in Morocco for 10 days and Venezuela for 3 weeks before returning home in mid-October. I'll need to find some more books!

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009--Constanta

There was no water this morning. When I awoke, the large family was coming and going in their preparations for leaving for the day. After they left around 9:00, I went to the bathroom and the pipes were dry! I brushed my teeth using bottled water and skipped bathing and shaving.

In town, I saw a pastry shop with long lines near the market. I went to look, and their pastries did look great. But dealing with the lines would be a problem, since I do not speak the language and do not know what I would like to buy. I left and returned a couple of hours later. There were no lines. But within the 30 seconds it took me to look through the windows to see what they had, another 8 people had lined up! How frustrating. A few minutes later, after standing across the street watching, I returned and bought 3 pastries for later.

It was windy today. A high pressure system is covering Europe and bringing wind and heat to the continent. It is moving our way with the heat spell expected over the weekend.

My guidebook recommended the local Archeological Museum. I went there in the afternoon. It is amazing how many things have been found in this local area dating back to 1500 BC and earlier! And many of them are ceramic and glass items that easily could have broken over the years. In addition, there were gold items, sculptures, etc.

I returned to the restaurant where I was two days ago for a salad-filled sandwich with extra picante sauce. Ummm!

In the evening, I watched the movie Man Maid. I had never heard of it, but it had many of the actors who I've seen in other films made by Christopher Guest. It also seemed to be a bit like his films.

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009--Constanta

Someone next door had a party last night. They were drinking, singing, etc. I used my earplugs and went to bed. When I check about taking them out, it was 3:00 and the party was still going. That's a problem with resorts where people are on vacation and feel they can stay up all night.

I realized this morning that I needed to adjust my schedule. I probably should not have come to Constanta. But I wasn't aware of it at the time, since it is the train schedules that messed me up. I had to stay here longer and to plan to stay in Chisinau longer than I expected due to the fact that the train to Chisinau runs only 3 days per week. I read my guidebook and decided to cut my plans for visiting Iasi and Maramures. I can leave those for a future time when I visit the Ukraine and southern Poland which are countries I want to explore someday. Instead, I will head to Transylvania when I return from Chisinau in Moldova next week. I've spent much of this morning doing research for rooms to stay in the cities I will visit when I get to Transylvania.