I have arrived in Romania!

Wow! It is completely different than anything back in the states from what I have encountered so far. Thank God for the GPS or I would have never gotten out of Bucharest. Drivers are crazy here and there is no regard for right-of-way at all; but I like it here. From Bucharest to Pitesti (93km) this afternoon I experienced how bad the roads really are. I was on HWY DN7 a main Hwy through Romania and it does not appear that they have resurfaced the road since before the 89 revolution; pot holes and ruts everywhere. You also see numerous ox-carts, bicycles and pedestrians that you have to share the 2 lane hwy with. Lots of stray dogs everywhere as well. This country is still a very rural and very aguarian society; things have not changed here for a very long time; that is what I kind of like about it. Attached are pictures of the drive to Pitesti today; tomorrow I will drive 140km to Sibiu and check into my apartment. The hotel I just checked into in Pitesti seems like it might be the type of hotel you bring, "ladies of the night" to. Price was good and in cool location with all kinds of things to do. Well I am off to grab some dinner and then I plan on getting some rest; I think I probably only slept about 3 hours on the flight from Newwark to Warsaw. The woman next to me on the plane was Anna Babeski, a Ukrainian woman in her late 60's who speaks very little English and seemed quite fond of me; she kept saying, "you are a good boy" .and kept calling me , "Tomak" apparently the Polish word for Thomas; she also made the sign of the cross about 20 times during the flight and kept saying, "Thank you God", she was a nice woman. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Tom