Following the yellow brick road....

Back in Oz. Get it?

What a manic week, I have to say, the last couple of days have spent like in a coma - still recovering from serious jet lag, veerrrry tired and awake at strange times of the night.

Good flights home - Bucharest to UK, best airline food yet, curried chicken, yum! Just missed catching up with Jen at the airport, d'oh. Next time Miss Jen, next time!!

Overnight stopover in Singapore - met up with my amazing colleagues and friends from GSK Singapore. Dinner with Wendy was incredible - real noodles, rice and vegetables. I was a very happy lady!! (PS. The most AMAZING iced tea - tasted like butterscotch! and was homemade!)

 

Then went through a stroll through the neighbourhood and we discovered a Buddhist temple. It was an amazing experience where we were taught how to pray. I have been exposed to so many different religions, beliefs and ideologies - surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, each religion seems to follow a similar path on the most basic level. Live well, be kind to others, and pray - for peace, for friends, relatives, strangers, and to gain peace from the stress of every day living.

 

 

 

 

The following day started at GSK in Singapore where I met with Wendy and Xiu Ping and stole them away briefly so they could show me the local sites. I went to the Temple of White Tara and had my palm read - another irreplaceable experience. The reader knew about my failed marriage, my two children and my current charity work. How do they know these things?

 

I then dropped Wendy and Xiu Ping back at the office and went to the Singapore Flyer where I was able to watch the set up for the Singapore Grand Prix, the Harry Potter exhibition (yes, I am incredibly grown up) and then the Gardens by the Bay.

 

 

Then straight to the airport for my next trip to Sydney! Landed and got through customs easily - headed to Circular Quay for breakfast and to wait for a TC with work. Then off to the Romanian embassy for two hours. Still haven't resolved all the issues with my visa which is frustrating but I am told that it wont take long to rectify.

 

Back to the airport where I seriously could not keep my eyes open, I don't think I have ever felt so tired. I napped sporadically as our plane was delayed, my phone dying and messaging my sister to let her know what was happening. Landed in Brisbane - no phone, now dead. New pick up areas and no signage, so no sister. Seriously, the blood moon this night meant that nothing was going in our favour. After two and a half hours at the airport and considerable cost to us both, I ended up finding a taxi and heading to her place by this mode of transportation.

 

A quick exchange of gifts, and then sleeep.

 

A mixed array of crap from around the world.



Following day - a quick look through my sis' favourite shops then off to see my girls! Oh, how they have grown, they are taller, more mature in features, and just beautiful. Oh how I missed them.

Six hours train trip to my mum and dad in Bundaberg and then rest. It has such a gruelling trip, I think it will take a little time to recover, but I am definitely getting there!

Dani xxx

Some of the things I love about Romania (and some of the things that I don't love so much)...

Let's start with the not so lovely (in no particular order)...

1. Pride in workmanship - A photo is worth a thousand words in this instance. As a friend says to me, how many other places gives you the opportunity to garrote yourself as you walk?

This is in front of a friends building, the holes in the ground are so big
they have had to put boards over them. Voila! Job done. There are actual
building works next to this property but they seem non-plussed that they
are destroying the integrity of the surrounding buildings.

 

 

2. As above except with keyed locks. I have been told there is a "trick" with almost every lock as the locksmiths can't seem to cut a key to fit the lock correctly. This may mean that you need to leave the key slightly out so it will turn or only put it a little way in before trying to turn. I locked myself in the staff bathroom on the first day and had a slight panic to think that I may end up living in there as I didn't know the "trick". haha!

 

3. Having to look at head height when you walk on the paths so you don't accidentally hang yourself and having to look down so you don't end up knee deep in dog poo. Seriously, it is everywhere. Pilate's say, keep your head high when you walk. Do so at your own risk in Romania.

 

4. Taxis. This would have to top my list of dislikes for oh so many reasons. Don't go to a theme park if you want an adrenaline rush - just jump in a Bucharest Taxi. Firstly, the fare is based on a reverse bidding system. I have found that they tend to start at 50RON and you have to talk them down or walk. No seat belts and if you try to find and use one, the driver gets terribly offended and will turn to yell at you while they plough along, head first in oncoming traffic.

5. Some of the station platforms are extremely narrow. It is a little surprising to see a train pull up almost to the wall at some stations.

 

 

6. The poverty. There are many homeless, many beggars, it is hard just to ignore them, but you can end up quite poor if you give money to every one that you see. As a friend said, who knows what they are using the money for? Best to buy them a loaf of bread instead of cash.

 

 

7. The medical health system. For a foreigner with private health cover the health system is adequate, for those without it can be horrendous. I am grateful, as always to be working for Hospice Casa Sperantei who work towards palliative care and also education for medical testing before illness becomes terminal.

 

What I genuinely love about Romania

 

  

 

1. The people. Their kindness, their generosity of spirit and their welcoming manner especially with tourists and strangers. I have been hugged so many times since arriving, it was unusual at first, now I love it.

2. Their pride in their work. Our cleaner at work in Brasov emptied the washing machine that held my clothes, even though I said not to fuss about it and hung out, ironed and folded them. I was embarrassed that she went to so much trouble, but everyone here tries to go above and beyond expectation.

 

 

 

3. Looking after souls, all souls, including plants and animals. Nurses, doctors and volunteers looking after the patients. And then some people carry sachets of pet food in their bags for the stray dogs. One of my work mates salvaged a bonsai that had been thrown away and was caring for it in the hope that it would survive.








4. The beauty of the country. From the bustling cities and their amazing malls and parks, to the countrysides with their towering mountains and flowers everywhere. The architecture is also so amazing. You must visit this amazing place!



 

  

 

5. The public transport system. The metro trains are new, as are the buses. They are kept clean and the public are respectful of this property. It is very easy to navigate around Bucharest, even without knowing Romanian!

 

 

7. Cleanliness - watching the early morning cleaners with mops and scrapers cleaning the shop fronts with enthusiasm and pride.

 

8. The stray dogs - this is probably a surprising one, but most are not vicious, the locals and the dogs live harmoniously for the most part. The dogs play, run, sleep near humans and seem to be quite happy with their lifestyle.

 



9. Location, location!! Living so close to everything!! It is a hop skip and a jump across the border, you can fly, train it, bus it and even drive to a different country! Coming from a country surrounded by water, this is a physical impossibility at home!

 

10. Music, festivals, entertainment - being in the centre of things means the most amazing artists, bands visit here. In the last couple of months, Lady GaGa, Garbage, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Lenny Kravitz just to name a few!

 

11. The malls. Oh my goodness! The shopping! Love love love it here! And a visit to the cinemas are so cheap in comparison to home.

 





To wrap up, I have soooo much more to see, but Romania has so much to offer the humble tourist. I love it here. I am going to miss it when I leave, even for a short time. It already feels like home.

 

La revedere for now Romania,

 

Dani xxxx

Learning curve

This week I started training on the database and had to rethink my ways and adjust accordingly. I arranged my training materials and planned training as I have done in Australia not thinking about language barriers, current skill levels and making general assumptions on past experience. I could kick myself.

First day of training I conducted with the whole team, classroom style at their own desks, own computers. We had some technical issues and some ploughing ahead as they had a good competency with the database and some left behind. Ok. Rethink. First lesson - fail. Second lesson I held in a room with me in control and team watching. Yawns and general boredom. Second lesson - fail. Third lesson I planned one on ones and some with groups of two. Voila! Finally success! This worked much better as I could use patience and explain myself fully when language barriers became an issue and we could resolve technical issues without holding anyone else up and I could answer questions as they came up. End of the week most of the team trained. Phew! Now for implementation and daily use. Will have to archive old data for a second time as our first trial with keeping all data did not work. 35,000 contacts and no way to review? Let's use as a read only library and enter new contacts and financials. We will see how it goes.

Share point is moving along with amazing assistance of Gsk. Second meeting this week with agenda, brainstorming planning and implementation arranged. Everyone is slowly coming around to the idea and becoming more positive about the concept and what we could use it for. So happy.

Personally. Tired now. Lots of travel within and outside of Romania. But oh how I love this country. I will sincerely miss it and the people when I leave. I had a wonderful experience on the train this afternoon. I watched a family have to say goodbye to each other. Mother and daughter one way and father left on the platform. There was many tears from the daughter - I showed her a picture of my children and said I was sad too. The mother spoke to me in Romanian and I sadly replied that I don't understand as I am still language deficient. I did try but my pronunciation is atrocious and it is unfair to their beautiful language for me to keep torturing it the way I unwittingly do. I gave the daughter my copy of Marie Claire, the uk version I picked up in Paris thinking she would like the pictures. Well unbelievable. Both mother and daughter poured over the pages pointing at the fashion, both reading and rereading. As you can imagine, I told them to keep it - for five euro I can pick up another copy easily. I shared some of my perfume with them as they saw an advertisement in the magazine. They were still smelling their arms I left. I think of how much I take for granted, that something so simple can bring so much joy. (They were kind enough to feed me as a thank you! A banana which will make my family laugh as they know my complete aversion to the fruit. But I ate it to be polite. It hasn't changed my mind. Lol)

Returning to Australia next week to apply for my visa to return and see my family. I am so excited to see my children. I miss them desperately. They are packed already and ready for our adventure with my parents. Beach, family and friends. I feel that I will always be torn after this experience though, I already feel like I am leaving a home. How can you have an adventure like this one and not change utterly and totally forever more.

Signing off for now.

Dani.

Bonjour from Paris!

Ok, so this maybe my last trip for a little while as my savings have run dry and I have expenses in Aust when I return home next week.

Paris seemed like the place to be, with weather being fine and flights cheap. I flew in late on Friday night and struggled from the moment I landed.

The automatic ticketing machines do not accept Australian credit cards and of course there was one last train leaving in five mins!! An assistant there must have seen the look of horror on my face to think that I would be stuck in the airport overnight so gave me a free pass on the proviso that I bought a ticket when I got into the city. I thought, no problem. Wrong. Same issue in the city and no atms. Stress city. A lovely person swiped her card and let me on to the platform and I snuck through behind someone else on another. I felt awful but desperate times call for desperate measures! Made it to my station after three trains and just after 1am as my hotel was a fair distance out of the city. Luckily a cafe was open and an exasperated waiter sighed loudly and assisted with directions. Thankfully the hotel was only four blocks away and open when I finally arrived. I have to say, if you go to Paris and don't mind being on the outskirts of the city, the classic hotel is lovely and the staff are helpful. Their breakfast was divine which I was surprised about as I am not a huge fan of buffets but real, crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, mini toast and croissants topped off by juice and coffee. Magnifique!!



So first day's schedule was to the Eiffel tower then Disneyland. Found a cash machine close to my apartment so I had my two day travel pass and was set to go. Using my metro map - which I have found in every other country refers only to the underground trains threw me into a heightened state of confusion. The trains, buses and trams are all on the one map but not marked in any way to note differences between which or what you need to catch. Oh gawds. So one tram ride later I was stuck in a station with an arrow pointing to a small empty room and apparently marking where my bus would be. Hmmm. Asked info desk, unhelpful as they pointed to the empty room and said that it would be there. Asked someone else, unsure. Running late at this point so figured it would be quicker to walk. Still scratching my head about that one. Maybe it was French humour to have English speaking visitors running in circles. If you see me in YouTube let me know. So I walked halfway- twenty minutes and found a train station with a direct to the tower. 9.26am and I may make my appointment time of 9.30! Maybe. Get out at the station and ran. Made it at 9.32. Phew! Crowds weren't too bad at this stage and I was at the summit in ten minutes from arriving. Funnily it was mostly Australians in the tower, I winced as I heard one really laying the accent and slang on thick. It is nice to hear another Aussie, but really we don't all sound like Steve Irwin in reality, I promise. Lol.

Spoke to an Aussie couple at the bottom and compared travel tips. They, like me, loved Austria. They are on a long European trip seeing most of the continent. They believe they have seen enough churches to fill a lifetime.

On to Disneyland. After getting lost down several different streets trying to find the right station and fighting off the street hawkers and charlatans conning unsuspecting visitors out of their cash. There are a lot of them. Everywhere. There is warnings everywhere about pickpockets too. Something I am not used to as Romania has such a low crime rate.

Disneyland was cool. After getting over the homicidal feelings towards other people's screaming kids, I really started to enjoy the atmosphere. I missed my girls terribly but wandered around taking lots of pics and buying them presents. I wasn't able to go on many rides with the queues to most being over an hour and a half. I did go on the river boat ride, the haunted mansion, and all of the movie tours though which were all pretty cool. I missed out on big thunder railroad -again!! Stayed for the night show which was pretty amazing, the castle doubles as a huge projector screen and they use coordinated fireworks, projection and music. Amazing. Different to America that had the street parade instead.

Late night again getting home after 1am. Paris was still very much awake at this time, even more so than the daytime!! Cafes were bustling, bike riders everywhere and the atmosphere was buzzing. But i had to go home after a huge day. Went to the train station and of course, my two day pass had expired. Wtf? The lady on the information desk sighed loudly, but did not hang up from her phone call and fixed my card. I was getting used to people being frustrated with me at this stage! Haha

I enjoy the unplanned visits more than scheduled events - frustrated by having to be at designated areas at designated times. Much happier just playing a day by ear and seeing where fate takes me. This was my Sunday, and I loved it. the metro card worked with no issues, the weather was fine, perfect!



 

First stop I decided would be the Louvre. Didn't go in as I was happy just being outside in the sunshine. No queues from the metro entrance though! Do you know that there is 35,000 pieces of art work and if you saw each for only 30 seconds, it would still take you over three months to see everything!!! I mean wow! Ate more pastries, figure it may be a while before I have any like that again. :-).




Went to the Moulin Rouge, just to see where it is an check out the seedy neighbourhood (as described by people on trip advisor.) you know what? It is a really awesome area- sure it is dodgy but full of cool bohemian types, very relaxed. I liked it.

Went on to the Arc de Triumph, I didn't go up - I figure that I was doing things on the run. It was nice to see the places but limited time to spend at each. That might annoy some but I really don't mind the fly by visits.

Next stop - I wanted to see Notre Dame, I ended up changing my mind when I got to the river though and did a cruise instead - it was nice to sit in the sun on the water, take pictures and totally chill. Saw many bridges, I particularly liked the lock bridge which sparkles like it has been spray painted in gold. It is covered in padlocks from the lovers, signifying a seal on their love for ever. Saw where Marie Antoinette lived and died, saw Notre Dame of course, the Eiffel Tower and several other beautiful and key sites.

From here I went for a stroll through Paris, where I was asked by a street artist whether he could draw me for free - I declined, it always seems very dodgy to me and he said he would pray for me. I get that a lot, evil must simply seep from my pores. Lol.

Had comments from locals on my tattoos, very complimentary, not many European women get tattoos or so I have been told. I then headed to the airport, and shock horror, train was on time so I made my flight with plenty to spare.

Paris, although troublesome in terms of transportation, about 75% of the locals locals genuinely seem to hate tourists (get this, we help pay your wages and bring income to the city!!), and service is so slow in majority of the restaurants I visited, I liked it. I really did. It is a pretty city. Akin to Bucharest (as it is known as little Paris) it has different areas but all cool and unique in its own way. I still have so much to see and do, I hope I get the opportunity to return - I agree with a comment made from a friend, don't do it solo if you can help it, Paris is really a city to share.

(Oh and as a PS, I was waved over to the European line in border control when I returned to Bucharest. The guy raised his eyebrow when he saw all the stamps into the country, said 'you're enjoying our summer?', I replied 'I love it so much here, I am applying for my visa next week!' he then said 'welcome to Bucharest!' first time for everything! Aww, it's like my second home, it really made my weekend. :-D)