Bușteni 1

May 29 We have just got back home from a conference for Institute teachers in Bușteni, Romania. It took about 10 hours to get there and about 8.5 to get home again. Going out, we found out at the border that one needs to purchase insurance for Romania prior to entering, for a short term period. This added an extra hour at the border, because one still gets checked on both sides, Moldova and Romania. The good thing, everyone was having to unload their cars. We had travelled with the Cooleys and he told me to use my charm on the border patrol lady. I am not really sure what charm is, but we were the only vehicle not fully unloaded. I suspect it was because we were old harmless people, but maybe it was the charm. In any case, the country side was beautiful. We took the northern route there, thru Brașov and it  was breathtaking. First many old villages then hills and mountains, intermingled with fantastic crops on productive farmland. Bușteni is a resort town, 30 km south of Brașov on a busy narrow road. There are ski resorts there and it was a nice town, nice to visit and relax. We stayed in a Vila Cătălina, an unpretentious place for sure. It was a bed and breakfast without the breakfast or soap.But nice. I will explain further with pictures. Anyway our week was with a zone conference on Wednesday, teaching some lessons with the missionaries, lessons, a visit in Orhei and working like crazy on finalizing our English lessons for the missionaries. There has been many downpours all week, a lot of people getting sick and so far, we have avoided all . Okay, so the news in pics.

As we went thru some villages near Brașov, there were a number of storks and nests. The nests were all on top of poles and sometimes had a base provided to help them with support for the nest. 

This one is just starting a nest, all the poles around it were full of nests

One more picture of storks

Town sign of Bușteni, just down the street, yes, those are blue jeans after a long drive.

Notice the Honda driving down the sidewalk?

View just out of our bed and breakfast.

This place reminded us a bit of Banff, but also of Fernie, beautiful mountains. Elevation of the town was about 850 m, the mountains about 2500 m

Nice European type buildings, narrow highway. Main highway north and south, narrow two lane

Cross on the mountain above Bușteni

A nice old church down the road from where we were.

These were some wild donkeys up in the hills near Bușteni. Deb thought them cute, I thought them rather ugly.

The donkeys really need a shave
We went into an ecological park above the town, with a big sign that said no camping. Just like homein the Castle area, people ignore it and set up campers for the entire summer. People everywhere just like to ignore the law. Each trailer had to also have a fence, even if only string. This week will continue next blog.