Underestimated

Ok so today was a sightseeing day for us. We got started at about 6:30 this morning... and I was up around 5 to catch the end of the All-Start game on my computer (AL comes out on top once again (AL is not a player.. its the league)). Anyway, for those who know me, I am not a morning person. It takes me a while to wake up and be fully alert.

Well, in my absentmindedness, I forgot to take my camera on a sightseeing trip! But thankfully, we are going back there before I leave, so I can show you all some pictures of the beautiful country of Romania.

Randy, Ade, Roxy, Flaviu, and I went East toward Cluj and deep into the Vladeasa Mountains. We took a single lane, rock road about 25 minutes into the heart of these mountains to a waterfall. For me, I have only really seen one other water fall so this was quite an experience for me. Roxy, Flaviu, and I climbed up the side of the waterfall where Randy and Ade met us to continue further up.

As we ascended the mountain, the stream that led into this majestic waterfall disappeared underground. There was a trail that led straight down to where all the water went underground. Flaviu and I made the short hike down to that point. We went about 30 yards down to get to this point, and in those 30 yards, the temperature dropped to about 50 degrees. It was quite neat to be able to see my breath a little bit in the middle of July.

After Flaviu and I had our time down there we continued up the mountain to our picnic spot, but it was only 10:45 so we went on a little hike to an old abandoned mine no more than twenty minutes away. After scrounging around in there for a bit, Flaviu and I headed off to hike up this mountain that had a partial rock face. We had to had to head in the valley between these two enormous, majestic mountains. From where we saw them, the hike looked pretty simple not to steep at all. We were wrong.

We made it about half way up before we started climbing almost vertically to get to the peak of this mountain. There was grass that came up to my shins that was rooted deeply in the rocks that we clung to in order to continue our climb. There were flies EVERYWHERE. And they weren't the little ones like back in America, the were big. But after about an hour and a half up, we finally made it, exhausted but delighted that we only had the trip down to get the food! Flaviu did take pictures on his phone that he will be sending to me, so I will post them in my next blog.