On the way to Sibiu!

Well I get to the airport in Portland and I pass the luggage test (I made sure my bags were under 50 pounds the night before), get my ticket but no seat assignment (great, now I have to hurry to the gate so I can get a good seat). I hurry to security (one stop to get a travel pillow since I forgot mine at home) and make it to the gate way before our flight leaves. I ask for a window seat and he gives me a exit row seat toward the back. I walk around till it was closer to our time to leave. While we were all waiting they annouce that Lufthansa is giving away free magazines in english and german and everyone runs to the shelf. Man you think they were giving away free food.

I get to my seat and it's a great seat. Next to the window and the door. Plenty of leg room. I was sitting next to a lady from Austria who was visiting her daugher in Eugene. Across from us was a couple who had a 6 month old baby and she did not stop crying till we were well off in the air, but at least she slept most of the time. I slept great, got to see a couple of great movies (Goal 2, and Catch and Release), and ate some OK food. It was a pretty good flight given the fact that it was 10 hours long.

We got to Frankfurt in time. I had about 1.5 hours to wait for my next flight. I tried to call my friend but she wasn't home and her mom gave me her number but she didn't answer. I waited to get in to the gate area because once you pass the security there are no bathroom on the other side and there are plenty of people I didn't want to deal with. Once I decided to go in I forgot I had water in my bag so I drank it all before crossing over. Clear. Oh, now I have to find a seat between all these people. I decide to go and check to see what seat I have (hopefully it's a window). Plane leaves at 10:15am, it's 9:45 and there is no one at the counter. Oh, this is a great start. Someone finally comes, everyone comes to the front (remember romanians don't know what a line is). She confirms that my seat is indeed a window seat. I stand to the side, closer to the door to the bus that will take us to the plane. The lady behind the counter yells at a few people to stand in line she also says that only if they dont' have tickets they should be in line since she needs to start boarding (remember plane leaves at 10:15 and it's now 10am). A few more minutes she starts the boarding process, and again people rush to the gate. Crazy people, why can't they wait nicely in line? We're all going to the same plane and we have assigned seats so no one will miss the plane.

We get on the crowded bus to the plane. I meet a man who is going to Romania and will be going on a cruise on the Danube. His wife is sick from the plane food. I ofer a pill that I also took and I feel great. He didn't think she would take so, oh well. We get to the plane and I again have an exit seat, but there is an empty space between my seat and the window. I tried to sleep the whole flight so I can be awake on the ride from Bucharest to Sibiu. We're finally here. I pass passport control, get my luggage and I am out with no problem. I wait and wait. I see someone famous and everyone with cameras and videos run after him, I think it's a soccer player.

Iulian, our driver finally arrives, we find the team, and off we go to the "oven" van. He nicely offered us some water, but guess what it was nice and hot. Oh, well. We drove over to the hotel to get the trailer. I got to see Jill, my old leader. She gave me some encouraging words and off we went on our 6 hour drive to Sibiu.

It took us about 2 hours to get through Bucharest through all the traffic and crazy people who apperantly don't care if they may get hit. So many cars, and in this heat. I think it was about 107 degrees at the time. Remember we had no AC. We were sweating from head to toe. Even the seats were wet.

We stopped in Pitesti at McDonalds, where I managed to eat a salad. Not too bad. I slept a little on the way, but after so many hours we were in Sibiu where I was taken to my cousin's house.

More later.