I finally got the map changed now that I'll be leaving Romania - it wouldn't let me change it the last time I tried. But if anyone is curious, I flew into Targu Mures, stopped in a small town called Sighisoara about an hour south of there, I'm in Brasov now (the heart of Transylvania), and will be heading to Bucharest tomorrow.

I just booked a two week flight to Spain - I'm flying into Barcelona and out of Valencia. SOOO EXCITED. The promise of warmer weather and beaches . . . although with my luck, by the time I get there the weather will probably be crap. I can't imagine it will be colder there than it is here though. Right now it's 27 and snowing. I don't think I'm even going to go outside. I was supposed to leave Brasov today, but I got the flu or food poisoning or something disgusting . . . anyway my stomach is all messed up so I'm staying till tomorrow. My flight to Barcelona isn't until the 14th, so I still have 2 more weeks in Eastern Europe. I'm going to get this Balkan Flexipass, which allows 5 days of train travel within a month for only $75. My flights are in and out of Sofia, Bulgaria, so my new game plan is to go Bucharest, Romania to Belgrade, Serbia, then Serbia to Montenegro, Montenegro to Macedonia, Macedonia to Sofia, do Spain, and then I can use my last day of travel to get to Istanbul just in time to do some Christmas shopping and fly home. Wow. Where did the time go? I only have 4 weeks left until I'm back in Istanbul. And I have a feeling the two weeks in Spain are going to go way too quickly. Noooooooooooo. It's disappointing, because it took about a month to really get acclimated to this whole travel deal, and now that I'm really in the swing of things, I have to go home. The good thing is, I think I'll have visited everywhere I wanted to go for the most part. I'm not sure if I'll get over to the Adriatic coast, but I'm really not too bummed since I'll be on the Mediterranean, where it's sure to be warmer anyway.

It's been so peaceful being in Brasov these past couple of days. The town is extremely pretty, nestled at the base of the mountains, and the piney, fresh air is great after being in so many cities. There's a hill to the east of town that has a giant sign at the top a la the Hollywood sign, except it says Brasov obviously. How funny is that? Another example of Eastern Europeans blatantly failing in an attempt to be Western. There isn't too much to do in Brasov, but it's been good to be able to relax in such a laid back place. Unfortunately, I've had bad experiences all three times I've eaten out; I'm not looking fondly upon Romanian food at the moment. Yesterday, I ordered pork stew; it took 45 minutes to come, and when it finally did, not only was it barely warm, it was just pork in sauce. As far as I've known, pork usually means vegetables as well as meat, but the Romanians seem to just favor the meat/heavy sauce entrees.

My time here was slightly marred by this god-awful, older Romanian man who has occupied the bunk beneath me the past few days. Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, he left this morning. I was about to poison his stale beer that he kept leaving open on the floor next to our bunk. This guy had been working abroad for the past five years and had decided to take a holiday here in Brasov. At a youth hostel. He smelled awful, and our entire dorm room stank because of it. He didn't do anything all day, except watch TV and make opinionated comments about everyone else's countries. One night, he tried to tell me and this other American guy that it was our fault that Romania was in such bad shape, and that Romanian had been struggling since 1929 when the stock market crashed, blah, blah, blah. It was awful having him in the bunk beneath me, and he kept leaving all his stuff on the floor in front of my locker, including open cans of beer and cups of tea, which I proceeded to knock over several times. Learn how to clean up after yourself dude, you're like 45 and staying in a shared sleeping space.

While the hostels in Eastern Europe have all been really great, I've found that none of them seem to have a dryer - a major disadvantage when it's freezing outside and things do not air dry. I haven't done a wash in almost two weeks, but I really didn't feel like wearing the same thing for three days straight while I waited for everything to air dry in the frigid mountain air, especially for $6. So I'm crossing my fingers that the hostel I'm staying at tomorrow in Bucharest has not only heard of a dryer, but owns one as well, because NOTHING I have is clean. I haven't worn underwear in about a week and I'm now wearing the same two shirts for the third day in a row and the same leggings for about the sixth day in a row. It will be so nice to be in Spain and not have to wear half the clothes I own at one time because it's so cold. What will be REALLY nice is when I have more than five pairs of underwear, one pair of actual pants, and a variety of clothes with holes in them. Did I ever mention that I had to cut my jeans into jean shorts to fit them in my bag? Or that I had to throw out my other pair of cargo pants? Let me tell you - I'm pretty stylish with my jean shorts of tights deal, especially when I wear my magenta stockings.

The song "Box of Rain" by the Grateful Dead just came up on my iPod, and it reminded me so much of home, but for the first time, instead of getting a wave of homesickness, I actually felt the opposite. Now that I only have 4 weeks left, I'm starting to panic about going home. No money, no job, a shit car, cold weather, living at home, ten pounds heavier, nicotine ridden lungs, out of shape . . . wow. Now I just made myself super depressed. Man, I planned on writing a lot more, but now I just feel like wallowing in my own self-despair. What a downer.