Travel Location: Tulcea,Romania

Dad and I could do one of two things. We could either rent a car, drive north into the mountains, and see monasteries and the villages or take public transportation and explore the Danube River Delta and the Black Sea Coast. Visiting the villages is an attractive option, because in many parts of Romania the people still live as it were the Middle Ages. Some have never seen cars! It is how you imagine the American Amish horse-and-buggy lifestyle but with less modernization and outside influences. Because Dad enjoys water, we decided to hit the coast. When I was a child, I spent countless summers on the Tennessee River with my Dad. We did everything on the river: camping, drinking, riding in the boat to other cities, waterskiing, fishing, knee-boarding, barefoot and trick skiing (making human pyramids while skiing), intertubing, parasailing, and banana-riding. We have done it all on the water, so it only makes since that we will take a boat ride down the Danube River to the Black Sea. We spent the whole day on buses and trains getting to the gateway of the Danube Delta, the city of Tulcea. Here Dad splurged on the 3-star Hotel Delta with a view of the mighty Danube. I am in heaven compared to the places I have been sleeping. Thanks, Dad!

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• Dublin-Bucharest flights
  Departing Kilkenny at 8.30am, 30 of us set off for Dublin airport, excited about our walking trip. I was travelling with 2 friends and knew nobody else but wasn't too worried about that. After a day ...

Travel Location: Sinaia,Romania

Departing Kilkenny at 8.30am, 30 of us set off for Dublin airport, excited about our walking trip. I was travelling with 2 friends and knew nobody else but wasn’t too worried about that. After a day or two I reckoned everyone would be chatting like old friends. however, little did we know what awaited us in the airport!!!!

We arrived to Aer Lingus Check-in, ready to off-load our bags to be told that there was NO record of any of us on the system, despite the tour leader having the confirmation sheets with all our names and details in his hand!! Needless to say we were not impressed by Aer Lingus and I have to say they were awful to deal with. They just kept shrugging their shoulders, trying to fob it off to the Aer Lingus booking group instead, which happened to be closed for the long weekend and wouldn’t be able to help us til Tueday (It was a Saturday now!). The only option they suggested was to re-buy our flights (At last minute prices too!!) and try to sort it all out when we got back home.

FLIGHTS CONFIRMED… or so we thought!

OK… so we could do that I suppose until we were told that now there wasn’t enough seats on the plane for us all – there were only 15 seats left (Enough for half the group!) Yet more panic and confusion as to what we could do and I honestly thought I would be getting the next bus back to Kilkenny!

Anyway, long story short – we re-bought 15 flights and picked random names to fly direct to Bucharest where a bus would be waiting to drive us the extra 2hrs to our hotel in Sinaia.

Luckily, I was on the direct flight, but with all the mess and uncertainty we now had to run through the airport to make the gate on time. I used to often wonder how people used to be running for flights – why didn’t they just leave a little earlier and have a relaxed time in the airport. Little did I think that I’d be one of them, despite leaving in plenty of time. However, my two friends were not on the direct flight, so there I was running through the airport with 14 other strangers, wondering would I be seeing them at all in Romania or would I be meeting them the following week at home telling them all about my trip!

Anyhow, the flight was uneventful (as they usually are) and we arrived safely and on time to our hotel, where the staff expected 30 but only got 15 of us!! After a drink or two we retired to our rooms, glad that we had made it but worried about the rest of the group -hoping they were making their way to us without any further complications.

It turned out that the rest of the group had to buy tickets to fly to BUDAPEST (which isn’t in Romania!) and try to catch an over-night train to Romania, hopefully arriving at the hotel the following morning but I didn’t know this until I got to our hotel.

What a way to start a relaxing walking holiday!!!!!!!

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• Hurry Up and Wait
  Dad and I could do one of two things. We could either rent a car, drive north into the mountains, and see monasteries and the villages or take public transportation and explore the Danube River Delta...