Top of the world

In the morning we went to the shop and one of our students had a bad experience with a woman begging her for money and then a man cycling into her, bless her. There was also a strange woman with one nappy.

We got on the bus and after 30 seconds I realised I'd forgotten my camera and we had to go back. Oops. I checked I had locked the front door about 1o times but still had a nervous feeling most of the morning, luckily it was fine though.

I was thinking about my Dad on the bus and how much he would like the eskimo puzzle but how he can't do it now he's lost his sight. I got sad although on this trip there wasn't time to dwell on it. N neni and I ate the odd kiwi jam filled Tunnock's teacake type thing, Tunnock''s are better! As we drove along I saw a huge bird, I'm guessing an eagle doing a fantastic air gymnastics display. We also stopped at the honey city where there are lots of stalls selling different kinds of honey and a great view point. All of the free samples gave me a sugar high.

We then stopped at Bicaz Canyon where we walked along the twisty road in the canyon carved by the river. The rock faces were huge and incredible. It was a nice walk, some of the road signs were amusing and I thought of my Mum for some reason when I saw some interesting scaffolding. I also got my first view of the mountain we were going to climb and regretted slightly agreeing to it. The fast flowing river and waterfalls did make us all a bit desperate for the loo though. Sorry to mention it but it was yet another thing that bonded us on this trip. Once we got to the other end we then drove back along it to the foot of Kis-Cohard, our mountain. Those that were going to climb got off the bus and started making our way up. At first it was fine, a gentle serpentine off road track, then it became a steep path but then the fun scrambling up rocks part came. I did feel a bit like I wasn't going to make it but after a short break to wait for others to catch up, we were told that there was only another 10 minutes to go. Boy,was it worth it when we got to the top. I have never seen such a spectacular view. This photo doesn't do it justice but it does prove that I was there. The lake was formed when a huge landslide from the mountain on the left formed a dam in 1837. We had some snacks from the magic box, a drink and took lots of photos and made our way back down. My seaside childhood obviously gave me an advantage as I easily jumped down the rocks. Some of the boys had great fun pretending to be superheroes with N neni's scarf and we sang a lot. We had to options half way down the mountain and myself and the students went for the 'off-road' option and had lots of fun sliding down on our bums. I forgot to say that on our trip up the mountain we again had a dog accompanying us and met another at the top. The one at the peak was a stumpy wee thing that I felt even more sorry for.

We then walked over to the Red Lake (the one in the photo) and walked the 4km round it. It's really cool as it's full of tree stumps and again there were lots of flowers and things to look at. The stumps give the place quite a spooky look. You can see how much the lake has shrunk and the sediment which is still filling it up. We then hired a boat and went for a trip on the lake, it was so good to sit down after walking constantly for about 4 hours. I was just thinking how we'd seen the lake from above, the banks, on it and who would see it from in it when a student pretended to almost fall over board!

Back on shore we had 30 minutes to go and get some famous barbecued trout, which was delicious and I know it's bad, another beer. It was a new one, brown Ursus. I was very curious about the man who was blowing the food with a hairdryer.

We went back for dinner and I was the only one who was happy with the large amount of vegetables in the soup. Again we went to the shop and I bought an ice cream called Kiss Me. It was a bit like a small Vienetta which fell off its stick very quickly. N neni decided that it's called Kiss Me as you have to suck it off the wrapper. One of the other teachers gave me a traditional Romanian sweet that is similar to Turkish delight.

We had a nice evening playing cards, chatting, listening to music and I had my first taste of the local blueberry palinka.

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It was really hard to choose a photo for today as lots were better but this makes me happy.