Intrepid Begin's

(The trip layout for those who care)

So my trip has started. There is a group of 9 including the leader. I am surrounded by Aussie's and one American. All of whom seem to be okay, though mock and hassle me on my accent and speech all the time. I have really hit it off with Hannah who is the same age as me. We both appear to be bff's and are constantly talking and doing dumb stuff together. Yesterday for example, we took over a train cabin and were singing and dancing to lame 80's music on her Ipod. Strange I know but we had been on the train for over 6 hours and awake since 4am.

Hungary

Well we only spent one night in the country before heading off to Romania. It however was a cool experience. Managed to go into underground cellar that was created in the 15th century. It is 122km long. The really cool part about this all was that we were there the one night a year where there is wine tasting!!! While some of the wine I would rather not to have touched my lips overall they were really nice. Especially when the whole tour cost around NZ$8. It is fair to say that i was feeling a little under the weather that night after already going out to other local cellars trying every wine that was on their menu which included the famous bulls blood.

Romania

The difference between this country and Hungary was obvious right from the boarder which we crossed on the train. The scenery instantly changed. The buildings were different, as were the modes of transport, the appearance of the locals. Its hard to explain, I hope the pictures may help.

My first two nights in Romania were spent in a home stay. This I thought was going to be roughing it which I was fine about. Instead it was in a large newly built house. Every room had their own TV and bathroom. It is fair to say that I had the best feed on the trip here. I have become in love with this eggplant dip that they have here!

In my time here so far, here are some of the things I have noticed about the place.

The country is more into yellow than Hungary. So many of the buildings here are yellow as are the outfits people wear. I say people as guys also dress in yellow. Not just the top half or bottom half but the whole outfit.

Wearing socks under sandals is common place by all generations

Locals are very good at steering at you if you are doing any sort of exercise more than running.

Most television is in English with translation. This is how many of the locals learn to speak the language

Using horse and cart as means of transport is common here and they even have their own street sign.

Agriculture is big here. It is strange seeing it all being done by hand, especially hay making which is in season at the moment. The people do about 4 stacks a day. Due to it being done by hand I am finding myself having to get use to seeing people walking around towns/cities with large blades as they go off to the fields.

Due to the Roman influence here there is a large number of Italian restaurants serving pizza and pasta.

Women start wearing scarves over their head from the age of 40. At this time they also start wearing knitted jerseys all year road, long dark skirts and appear to put on about 30kgs.

Socialising here is all about the park bench. There are outside nearly every second house in villages and towns are filled with them. At night everyone comes out and sits out on them to meet up with friends and family and also to simply watch the world go by.