Oraş Zãrneşti

Arrived in Zarnesti exactly on time and were met at the station by Cheery chappy Pensione owner and a lightly fat, unsmiley taxi driver, who it turned out would drive us t least 6-7 times in the next few days, and was really helpful - but we never even asked his name.

Dropped at the Pensione where we spotted in the garen a large BBQ and undercover dining area - looked lovely, so after a quick frec=shen up we gathered in the garden in anticipation. Seemed slightly unusual that we would be eating with a man in a wheelchair and half a dozen other types, and the banners (We thought happy birthday but turned out to be the feast of Assumption) made us wonder.

We were duly shepherded into a soulles dining room for a meal of hearty soup (Standard first course in all places visited) followed by pork stew and some cake, all OK but not what was hoped,

We also had our first experience of Romanian waiting - your empty plate is whisked away as your last mountful touches your lips, and the next course put in front of you. As a result we had often finished our 7 pm meal at 7.20, leaving a long evening (with this case nothing to drink) to fill.

So we wondered into town and found a cafe/pizzeria selling excellent looking cakes, so I indulged, and we drank the place dry of their non-alcoloholic beer. A local matey did tell us we could get a drink about 40 yards away in a house, and we could see several yoofs hanging around outside, occasionally zipping around town on the world's noisiect motor bike.

We decided to save oursleves for the days ahead and retired.

Next morning we were joined for our breakfast of white bread, salami and cheese by our guide, Andrea, who it turned out was as good a guide as we could have hoped for.

Part time university lecturer in economics, fluent in English as well as a few other languages, and a dedicated outdoors type with a very good (English style) sense of humour.Les mer