Well it is Thursday night here, and I have basically completed my first full day.

It began about 4am. I did not sleep well. Someone called my cell about midnight, which is very strange, but that woke me up. Then about 4am someone's car alarm on the street started going off very loudly, and after that I couldn't go back to sleep. So I got about 5 hrs.

I took advantage of the Hotel Amzei's free breakfast this morning. It was a very nice compilation of random foods. A lot of meat and cheese, the usual bread and yogurts, and some sort of fish thing. The coffee mugs here are very small. I need to take a picture of one. They are like doll cups.

The cab ride to the Hard Rock Cafe this morning was pretty interesting. My driver spoke enough english that he was able to give me his opinion on almost every topic imaginable. Topics included: Romanians invented baseball, 2,000 years ago no less; Bucharest has the largest building in the world, not the Pentagon, which he said was "BS"; Romania is the only country left where you can see real animals (wolves, bears, lynxs) in the wild...apparently the US killed off the Buffalo, and now we have no more animals living in the wild - I didn't argue; He is sick and tired of people's misguided (apparently) views of Dracula, and is on a mission to set the record straight, starting with me. Little did he know that I know practically nothing about Dracula, myth or fact! He also told me an entertaining story about some Irish people he was driving around, and how they got very drunk and he had to take care of them on his own dime, much to his frustration.

All in all he was a good cab driver. I have found that a good way to get a feel for a city and its people is from its cab drivers. Thankfully the fare to and from the HRC is only about 15 RON (or Lei), which is about $4.30. Not bad.

When I arrived at the HRC, I was informed of the inevitable twist, the improbable yet always present catch - they were having a very big, important concert that night. The entire stage was set up for a concert, and the band would be doing sound check that morning. This was of course something I had no idea would be happening. So that changed things a lot, but thankfully I am not terrible at thinking on my feet. I think we made the best of it, and maybe got some good shots that we might not have otherwise. We'll see.

Around 1:30 I headed back to my hotel after finishing up what I could at the HRC. At this point I was pretty tired, so after talking to Kat for a little bit, I took a nap. It ended up being about 2.5 hrs of sleeping, and I am not even sure if I feel better. At this point my biological clock is ready to just give up. I plan on staying up as late as I can and then trying to sleep until 7am or so.

I had planned on going back to the HRC and getting some exterior shots of the building as it was getting dark (the exterior during the day is absolutely the ugliest thing I have ever seen), but the rain put a stop to that. Maybe if I had an umbrella I could pull it off, but I wasn't willing to risk it. Hopefully tomorrow night it won't be raining and I can attempt it again. If it is raining, I will just have to make it work somehow.

Instead I decided to take a quick stroll around the block and try to get something interesting. It proved a lot more difficult than I had hoped it would be. I really wish I had a lens hood for my prime lenses, and also having a professional weather sealed body would be nice too. I don't worry too much about my camera getting too wet, but any drops on the lens basically ruins the picture. I walked around with the camera under my coat, occasionally pulling it out for a very quick shot. Since it was cold, windy, and rainy, these pictures are very poor in quality, but at least its something to look at, and will give you an idea of what the area around my hotel looks like.

this is the rainy view out my window. Not very informative or helpful...think of it as "art" ;-)

a view of the very busy street close to my hotel

looking toward a large intersection

the entrance to my quaint Hotel Amzei

I didn't post all the pictures I took, you can see more of those here

Now I am off to find some dinner.

John