Day 24, Tuesday, July 14, 2015

I bid farewell to the beautiful Inna and the very adorable Masha, who drove me to the airport. And on to Romania, another new country for me. When I got on the plane I felt exhausted and was ready to go “home,” but Oana and Gaspar picked me up at the Bucharest airport and immediately swept me away on a 3 hour drive into the Transylvanian Alps to the beautiful Piatra Craiului National Park.

There we hiked up a steep trail 2½ more hours, getting a bit lost at one point, to a rustic cabin in the middle of the mountains in the middle of nowhere and got there just before dark.

We had a late, light soup dinner and slept in a room with at least 5 other people, no running water and a funky outhouse about 50 yards from the cabin.

I woke up with a start at 1:30 AM as my cell phone rang —I’m sure also waking up everyone in the place, except Oana and Gaspar (I found out later). I was so embarrassed as I fumbled to find my phone and turn it off as quickly as possible. I hadn’t gotten a call that I knew of from anyone since I’d left, and to have it happen now!