Romania! What a Wonderful Country! :)

I know I know I've been a bad bad blogger, but I just needed time to reflect on the trip so I could show more of the meaningful pictures on here rather than all the touristy photos! So here is the rest of our trip... :)

Day 6: Thursday, June 24th 2010 Bucharest, Romania

We arrived very early in the morning to Bucharest and since we had had practically no sleep on the tiny plane we wandered around Buch until Phil finally got a hold of the Matea Family to let us rest at their house for a couple hours, after we woke Uilian the son, took us around Bucharest. Here are the photos after our nap:

This was in Cigmigiu park on a paddle boat near the fountain. This is where Romania was dedicated as a country, not specifically where this photo shows but in this park. It was cool to see how nice of a park they had for being a 3rd world country, I had no idea how rough Romanians had it until I visited!

This is Phil and Iulian Matei He played our tour guide, not that Phil didn't know his way around but it was very nice of him. It was his family that let us stay with them while we were in Bucharest. They were such nice people, his mother, Vaselica, cooked us the MOST AWESOME Sarmale ever!!! Phil has cooked it for me in the states before but hers.... OH MAN SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOO GOOD! :D

This was my first 'inghetata' or ice cream in Romania, and the only reason I got it was because I had to use the restroom and you have to buy something at McDonald's to use their restroom. They have a code for their bathroom that shows up on the receipt, it was interesting!

This was my first encounter with Phil's favorite Romanian food of all time, the Saroma. I wasn't a huge fan at first but I did crave it afterwords! After this Marian, the dad to Iulian, took us to visit more people, I was very tired but did get some more ice cream out of it! :) They spoke lots of Romanian and I spoke so little at this point, every now and then I would hear words I understood but not very often!

Day 7: Friday, June 25th 2010 Constanta, RO

We took a train today to Constanta to meet Florin, who spoke EXCELLENT English. I was so excited to talk to a Romanian finally who could actually understand me. I asked him lots of questions and got many answers. He got us an awesome little apartment to stay in for the 2 nights we were in Constanta. I was sad that I didn't get photos of him I just wasn't in a photo mood that day I guess! :(

This is the FANTASTIC Italian Pizza Place! The pizza was AMAZING! They don't have tomato sauce so they use this sweet ketchup that is so super yummy! I wish we had brought some of that home! They also gave me fresh apple juice, it was really really yummy and even when it was mixed with some of Phil's Sprite it was pretty good too. (Sprite needs a new flavor that has apple in it! ;)

this is the train we rode in to get to Constanta

This is a photo of us in the Gondola, or air taxi in Mameya It was a lot like a ski lift only it was in a room. We would have loved to go swimming at the cool water park there but it was raining and the next day we had plans.

Day 8: Saturday, June 26th 2010 Constanta, RO

This is the Photo taken at the 20 year anniversary of Missionaries serving in RO! This is Carol VanWagner doing a caricature of Phil. They had a little Open House to celebrate in their LDS Villa.

This is the Mosque in Constanta, I think this is a pretty cool picture of it so I'm sharing! :)

Phil, Carol, and Dave with the view of the Black Sea and the "Jacks" that ease the tide as it comes in. I loved this city!

And this is the RO temple... j/k it is a CASINO! crazy huh!? For a Casino I thought it was really cool and I think this photo should be a postcard! lol!

This is at dinner where we had a Turkish meal with, Phil, Tibi (Phil baptized him while on his mission), Mariana and her husband, the Branch President. We were also seated with Dave and Carol and I took this photo.

Day 9: Sunday, June 27th 2010 Constanta, Tolcea, & Galati, RO

We were able to attend church while there in Constanta, it was very awesome and I KNOW that I am part of the true church because I felt the spirit so strongly there. I even cried to one of the investigators when she was asking what I thought of Romania, I was trying to say that I felt bad for all the things I take for granted that they don't even realize they are missing. Carol helped me to explain this as my tears were not making sense to this Romanian woman. I think that Carol explained it best, "God said now there is a weak one (herself and I) send her to America and this one (the Romanian girl) is tough send her to Romania."