Author archive
19 July 2025
Leaving Romania With an 1100 hotel check-out and 1230 bus, I had some spare time in the morning to review my standby flight options from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur. All options were starting to get worse so I booked the most expensive standby option on Qatar Airways as a further backup. I headed out to […]
18 July 2025
Getting to Iasi I made the 20 min walk from Cassandra Pension to Targu Neamt’s Flozampet Bus Station. It’s not a long walk but the surfaces of the sidewalks and roads were not smooth enough for a wheelie bag and that had slowed me down a little. The bus to Iasi left 5 mins early […]
18 July 2025
Getting to Agapia Today’s plan was to visit one or maybe two monasteries outside Targu Neamt. I had checked the bus schedule for Agapia Monastery at the station yesterday and also had an old timetable for Varatec Monastery. I walked to the bus station in time for the 0900 service to Agapia. The man who […]
16 July 2025
Getting to Targu Neamt Today I leave Suceava for the town of Targu Neamt, over an hour away by road. But there weren’t many buses available when I looked. I booked one leaving from the station at 0830. In my enquiries, it was possible to have a pickup from the carpark of a hotel near […]
15 July 2025
Bucovina’s painted monasteries Suceava is a good base for visiting the painted monasteries of the surrounding Bucovina area. But these monasteries are out of town and it is difficult to do with public transport. I was very fortunate to secure a tour at the last minute for a half-day tour that offered Humorului and Voronet […]
14 July 2025
Arriving in Suceava We landed at Suceava’s little airport at 0115. I love small airports like this an was out at the taxi rank in minutes. With the taxi not accepting card, it was only a short walk to the ATM in the departure hall to get cash. While waiting, a kind gentleman had called […]
13 July 2025
Final exploration of Rome I enjoyed my short stay in Rome. Temperatures were good day and night as long as I stayed out of the sun. But I felt that Rome was more expensive than Paris this time. I felt the sting with the strong Euro against the Kiwi dollar. After my short stay, I […]
12 July 2025
Vatican Museum E left around 0330 and I fell back asleep, waking around 0600. I thought I’d beat the crowd by heading out early, around 0700, after some muesli. Since I got into the Vatican Museum free last time, I thought it would be OK for me to go again and pay this time. And […]
11 July 2025
Minor errand A friend E arrived to stay with me, knocking on my door at 0130. His flight had been delayed by an hour but he made good time getting off the plane onto the last bus at 0030 to Termini. We slept in till 0900 and headed out around 1030 to the area around […]
10 July 2025
Departing Paris My flight from Paris Orly airport departs at 0905 and I had overnighted at the B&B Hotel Paris Italie Porte de Choisy because it is on a direct line to the airport, with relatively few stops. But with disruption to that line yesterday, I decided to wake at 0515 to allow time for […]