On the day we left for our trip Dan downloaded a map for the GPS. Right before he was going to pay for it he realised that he was on the american site and so he quickly changed to the Canadian site- not noticing that he clicked on the wrong map when he paid. It worked great for Hungary but as soon as we crossed the boarder into Romania the screen went blank. Not the best situation for us as our navigation skills are kind of lacking. Anyways, we worked around it and very proudly made our way to the village of Valeni. We passed the town store, as our directions to our guest house pointed out, counted four houses down (check) we were on the road Strada Principal (check)...but no hostel. It was starting to get dark and we drove up and down the street WAY too many times. Finally we showed the address to some guys congregating outside a corner store, after a bunch of laughing, driving to the town mechanic and having no idea what was going on...we found out that we were on Strada Principal in Valeni not Valenii. We were over an hour in the wrong direction. We also found out there are four towns with almost the exact same name. Luckily a group of five guys decided to show us the way, we insisted that it was too far but they said "no problem we will go to the disco". We showed up very late, and had a wonderful sleep after our long journey. We woke up on Sunday morning and had some bread and jam and the kids colored outside in the morning sun. They loved fetching water from the well to fill up the basin for our sink. We had a nice walk around the village and visited a beautiful hilltop church and the kids had a much needed play on the playground. Lunch rolled around and we realised that the propane was out for the stove and we only had raw eggs and all the shops were closed. So, Dan decided to build a fire. He found a little grill and propped it up with some rocks and after a full box of matches and a roll of toilet paper -voila we had fire! We made scrambled farm eggs (our parting gift from Hungary) and grilled tortillas. I must admit I was very proud of my city boy, he has come along way! The kids loved sitting around the fire, we ate and giggled and I etched out this moment in my mind as a time I would like to remember. That night we had a delicious dinner with the owners of the hostel (a Gabor Gypsy family), and the kids were SO excited to have grapefruit pop out of fancy cups and watch TV with the other kids. The next morning we had an awesome outdoor shower and lazed around a bit enjoying the calmness of the village. After we said our goodbyes we headed off for Brașov- but not before downloading a Romania map, Gavin participating in a million selfies (with the girls who fell in love with him) and Elijah proudly leaving with a Bible in tow that they gave him. We hopped in Angelina and enjoyed a very scenic drive passing horse drawn carriages and quaint little towns.
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