Here we go again

Dear Everyone,

Well here I am back in Romania. I will be here until at least Christmas - I hope.

I arrived last Thursday, but not through my usual route (Manchester to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Oslo, Oslo to Moscow, Moscow to Seoul, Seoul to Hydrabad, Hydrabad to Dubai and then Dubail Bucuresti) but this time I went direct from Luton. Yes Luton. And it was with Wizz Air, yes Wizz Air. Unfortunately the flight was at 7.55am so I had to stay overnight in Luton. Flying budget airline meant I was not going to spend a huge amount of money on a luxurious hotel, so I booked EasyHotel, yes EasyHotel. For 25 pounds I stayed in a windowless room with no wardrobes, cupboards or drawers and an orange pod in the corner of the room that was my shower/toilet/washbasin. Needless to say I could shower, shave and sh*t all at the same time! But it was exactly what I wanted for a few hours sleep and then be off on my travels.

Those of you who are familiar with my journals will know that I have a particular problem with Romanians travelling on airplanes. Nothing has changed. They still arrived with 23 pieces of hand baggage each - and were allowed on of course. That meant that security took 14 hours as each bag contained 20 litres of water, 1 tonne of creams and cosmetics and a kalashnikov. Each confiscation was greed with hysterical arguments, wailing and swearing. But eventually we got through to the departures gate.

Wizz Air operate a sit anywhere policy, so there is a mad rush to get to the front of the queue to board. I just happened to be by gate 20 when the Bucuresti flight was announced for gate 20! So I was second in the queue. Fantastic. Then they announced boarding would commence:
"People with mobility issues, families with small children and those who have paid for priority booking may now come forward to board".
Of course I was flattened in the stampede of able bodied, single Romanians with no priority boarding. The staff kept shouting that only those mentioned should come forward but the dam had broken. They were denied boarding, so guess what, they stayed where they stood i.e. IN FRONT OF ME!!! So I ended up boarding 396th and lying in one of the overhead luggage bins.

And my other pet dislike of the travelling Romanians, as soon as the plane touched down (after they had applauded), they are up out of their seats getting their luggage, switching their phones on and using them etc. Once again the cabin crew are screaming at them to sit down but evidently most Romanians have a severe hearing problem.

Finally I arrived in Bucuresti at about 14.00. Stepped outside into a wall of heat. As I will be here until Christmas I had brought winter clothes as well as lighter stuff, but of course being careful about the weight of my luggage (hold luggage was 22kgs and hand 14kgs so I was 6 kgs over but they didn't say anything) I was wearing a vest, T-shirt, shirt, jumper, fleece and coat, scarf and hat, thick trousers and books.......oh and a guttering system to take away the torrent of sweat.

By 18.00 I was standing in an air conditioned Perfumeria sipping Verve Clicquot champagne and eating blinis with red and black caviar on them. It was the opening of a new perfume house where the cheapest was 100 euros and it went up to 3,000 euros!! And guess what? The TV cameras were there and yes I've already appeared on TV when the news covered the opening of the boutique on their Sunday weekly round up. But that was not the end of it. By 20.00 that same day I was sipping Moet et Chandon champagne in the Throne Room of the Winter Palace at the launch of the Citroen C5 in Romanian. Just a normal day in Bucuresti!!

Things have calmed down and for Friday, Saturday and Sunday I just settled in and sorted things out. Although I did go to see Mamma Mia at the cinema at the weekend (they show all the films in their original language with Romanian subtitles) and enjoyed it immensely.

The weather here is abnormally warm. In fact I have not seen a cloud yet in the 5 days I have been here. Today is cooler at 34c (93f) - it was 37c (98f) yesterday!

Well that's about all for now. Hope you are all well.

Take care

Andrew x