The Romanian Leg

Sorry for the delays for updates but things happen.
We caught up with Tania's Romanian cousins in Cassano d'Adda, Trezzo sur d'Adda and Crema - all near Bergamo. Found out that Pelligrino mineral water is bottled here as well! I knew I liked it.
We donated our bikes to the cousins and mine was already in use by the time we left for Romania. Bike riding is much more of a way of life here than in Australia and rain, hail, shine as well. The roads are probably not as good in Italy as the general roads in Australia either but the drivers are very forgiving and just wait if they have to in order to pass bike riders on the narrower roads. We were very impressed.
The other thing to note about Italians is how hard they work compared to home. A typical day is 7am to 7pm with a half hour break. Often its 6 days per week and they get 2 weeks annual leave. We have it pretty good at home really.
We (eventually!) flew on to Romania with WizzAir - can't really recommend them if anyone is thinking of travelling cheaply around Europe. We had two flights booked with them - one was delayed for three hours and the other was cancelled due to a pilot strike! Anyway, we flew to Cluj Napoca and hired a car and drove the 339km (which took nearly 9 hours such are the state of the roads BTW) to Tania's Aunts/Uncles in Bogota in Eastern Romania.

From Berlin to Milan

This was an emotional time for me as I hadn't been there since 1987 ie. before Ceaucescu was toppled. It was great to see the freedom and general sense of well-being now though there is a vast lack of 18-40 year olds in Romania as they have mostly left to other EU countries for the higher wages. Cluj Napoca though was a university city and was very vibrant and alive though many still said that they would be seeking work in other EU countries when they were finished study.

From Berlin to Milan

We rebooked flights out of Cluj Napoca with Tarom Air since our WizzAir flight was cancelled and had a dream flight back to Milan and onto Paris via Zurich. Unfortunately Ben and I had picked up food poisoning - our own fault really I suppose - we were drinking and enjoying lapte (milk) straight from the milked cow until it caught up with us and we are still recovering even now some weeks later.