Romania, Day 2

In the morning we went to a museum / park that has buildings moved in from different parts of Romania. There were many different types of houses, barns and artifacts from the early 1800's. There were several old churches that had been moved in also. The churches had paintings on the walls and some on the ceilings. Our hosts said it was ok to take pictures of them so I did in the first one, as I came out, I was getting ready to take another picture of the inside and a lady that worked there told me no, no. I think it is because they feel they are a sacred thing, even though it is a museum. All I could do at that time was say I'm sorry and move on.

Our hosts wanted to stop and get some coffee, so we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe, Bucharest. I ordered coffee, or at least I thought I did. It was the strongest most bitter thing I have ever tasted. Good thing I had water also.

We spent some time driving around seeing more of Bucharest and the surrounding area. It is amazing to see the transformation in the small part of the city from what Jane saw here 19 years ago, just after the fall of communism. Our hosts talk about the great opportunities people have here now that private enterprise is allowed, and it is very obvious when you look around. The amount of new cars on the streets is just one example. The Dacha, which was the government owned car company and produced very poorly made cars has partnered with Renault and is making very nice cars now. There are BMW's, Audi's, VW's, Toyota's, and other nice cars everywhere. The country of Romania is experiencing somewhat of an economic downturn as is the US and most of Europe, but it it is still far better than it was under Communism.

We had dinner with Ninel, Roxana and his parents in the evening. Ninel and his mother, Florica were the ones who helped Jane through our adoption process with Carri. It was a very emotional time for Florica and Jane especially to get together after all these years and see the beautiful young woman Carri has become. I only hope that we can adequately express how much it means to our family for the work she and Ninel did to help us. We are invited to Florica and her husband's house Sunday evening. It will be a privilege to spend more time with them.

More later