Eurojournal - 28 July 2006 (roadtrip-Black Sea)

28 July: I woke up at sunrise to pee. Bathrooms at the campgrounds so far in Romania are pretty bad. I check out the beach. The campground is quiet. Everyone is asleep. I could watch the sunrise if I stay up longer. I go back to see if James is awake. He and Byron had puppy duty last night so I knew they were exhausted. He was up, the kids were all asleep. We check out the beach. It’s cool with overcast. I realize I am there either a bit too early to see the sunrise or the clouds are too heavy. It is pretty cool to be at the Black Sea and maybe see the sunrise on my birthday. I’m pretty tired and decide I didn’t want to wait longer for the sunrise. We go back and sleep a few more hours. I wake up and James took the kids to the each. Byron and the pups are still asleep. It looks like rain soon so I hurry to the beach to get a little sand. We wait out the rain in the tent and go back to the water. After a few hours Liam went in far and loved the water. It was shallow and warm. Not blue like Jamaica or the Mediterranean. Luna loved the water. It is time to get lunch and leave. We were heading to the real Dracula’s (Vlad Tepes) castle tomorrow and the Transfagaras road.
I am pretty tired of driving at this point as it is so much work here. There are patches of freeway from the coast to Buchuresti. They only have one short freeway in the country and are working on another here. As a child I never understood what life could have been like without freeways when I learned about Eisenhower and his interstate project. Here it was. Patches of new freeway. We can drive on it without the lines. New rest stops with signs. The signs have areas for potential businesses to advertise. We stop at one rest area and that was the most surreal experience ever. They advertise a WC (bathroom) on the sign along the freeway. The kids have to go bad. The doors are locked and there is a bed next to one of the locked doors with cloths, blanket, newspaper and baseball bat. There is a man inside one of the doors. Maybe he is building this? Maybe he is a guard? He comes out and I ask in Romanian if we can use the WC. He says NO! Okay. Hmmm… now what? I wait to see what other drivers are doing. They walk to the back of the building. I follow. Maybe that is where the bathroom is? After driving I decide it would not surprise me as just about anything goes here. Uh well yes anything DOES go here! The bathroom is the area behind the building. I walk back to the car knowing it’s along way to Buchuresti and there are no other stops.