Mackie's Back in Town

I'm pretty ashamed that I haven't posted to this blog in over 5 years...which means I only posted once during my Peace Corps service. In my defense, facebook kind of took over for picture showing to friends, nonetheless, here I am.

A little explanation of the title: my nickname growing up was "Mack". :)

So here I am, back in the little town of Târgu Ocna which I called home for 3 years as a Teaching English as a Foreign Language Peace Corps Volunteer. Of course I was picked up when I landed by Emilia and Adina, the two other English teachers at the middle school I taught at, both Romanians. Emilia was my Peace Corps "counterpart", my supervisor basically, and Adina was the school's other English teacher I collaborated with. Official titles aside,  I always tell people that I was lucky enough to make two of the best friends of my life while in the Peace Corps. Seeing my two besties at Otopeni airport was amazing, and I was so happy to pick up exactly where we left off two years ago. My friend Emilia's cousin and his wife were gracious enough to host us for the night in Bucharest. We were up bright and early to catch a train for the seaside that ended up being 40 minutes late (I love Romania).  All the excitement of riding the beloved CFR (Romanian Railway System) surged in me as I went to give the conductor my ticket:

Here's me with my friend Emilia

He's going to take the ticket...he's going to take the ticket!

Super happy to be getting my ticket validated

Looking like a boss on the train with Adina :)

5 hours of catching up later we were at the Black Seaside and in our villa. "When in Rome" is never more appropriate than when travelling in Romania. The place we stayed at was literally the equivalent $30 a night...total...for three people...not per person. I love Romania. 

It was so great to step back into the Black Sea after a day of rest :) Here's the trip in pictures

So pretty much every beach is a "private" beach, so they're coated with these lounge chairs that you have to pay to use...or else be hassled to leave. Needless to say, we were hassled alot ;)

And the So Cal girl had to dive right into the waves, those are my feet.

Swimming in the Black Sea

Hanging out with Emilia

The beach we were staying at is called "Eforie Nord". Here's what part of the main street looks like.

That doughnut place called "Gogoasa Infuriata" translates to "The angry doughnut"...loves it!

There are tons of booths and shops to check out, but none with a Steaua beach towel! Steaua is a soccer team from Romania that made it to the Europe Champions League this year! And no one had one, believe me, I asked EVERYONE!

Any trip I take is all about food. Those are some delicious glazed peanuts that I'm enjoying while us ladies shop.

This is me with Emilia and her cousin Mihaela. Mihaela and her husband Gabi met up with us on the second day we were at the seaside to enjoy some fun in the sun :)

Owning it outside of a grocery store

That next morning we headed to the mud baths and look at what we ran into on the walk there...

...the circus was in town!

So it costs the equivalent of $3 to enter the mud baths!!!

Emilia, Mihaela, and Gabi couldn't believe how happy I was to cover myself in mud, but it's soooooo relaxing!

Leaving the salty water after sunbathing to let the mud dry

Emilia, me, and Gabi :)

They segregate the beach into Women, Co-ed, and Men sections to allow for more complete mud bathing *ahem*...but it really makes no difference because once you swim out far enough in the water of the salt lake you can see everything....eeeeverything *shudder*

Behind us is the salt water lake that is SUPER salty. But once you mud bathe and wash off in the salt water your skin feels SO smooth

Walking back to the villa we ran into a promo truck for the circus (I really pray that the animals are treated ok)

And the next day we headed to a different beach for some more relaxing

And fun

Just to give you an idea of what the beach looks like

Look at who showed up on our door step that night!

I feel bad because the flash from my camera scared the little hedgehog...but look at how cute he is!

The owners of the villa say he shows up every night.

Then we decided to spend the day at Neptun beach...in Romania (I always sound like Yakov Smirnof) they have beaches named after planets in the solar system: Neptun, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter.

There were some pretty swans in the lake

I'm kind of bummed, but I forgot to get a pic with the corn they sold (I love food). They had boiled and roasted corn stands all over the place, SO delicious!

The waters at Neptun

Neptun beach...notice how the trash cans are the colors of the Romanian flag...awesome!

And that night look who we ran into walking the streets of Eforie Nord!

Our last day we headed up past Constanta (the big beach city and county capitol) and headed to Mamaia. Here's me and Gabi after enjoying a shaorma (fara carne (without meat) for me).

And Mihaela and I had to do our Coke ad too :)

Walking around Mamaia

Mihaela, Emilia, and I looking very pretty and lady like 

YARG! I'm trying to do a Captain Morgan pose

Looking like a bunch of bosses OWNING Mamaia :)

Adina, Mihaela, and me on a bridge

Goofing around

Before we set off on a 5 hour drive back to Târgu Ocna we stopped in a restaurant

 So that was my trip to the seaside. You should have seen me in the care jumping around like a 5 year old with excitement as we got closer and closer to Târgu Ocna! It was amazing to be back in town. This has been a really emotional trip so far, with lots of tears of joy, relief, and grief that had to be shed because of everything that has happened over the past two years. Going to the seaside surrounded by such supportive and loving friends is just the start to my trip that I needed.

And to close this post, a new song about the Black Seaside by Romania's pop princess: