Romania—First Week

It's a week and it feels like a month already. Since my arrival, I managed to find accommodation, work and some fun people around. I left Kúty with my car, went through Hungary (Budapest, Szeged) and Romania (Arad, Sibiu, Râmnicu Vălcea, București) and arrived in Constanța, on Saturday, 16.06.2012.

The Valley of the Olt river

Thanks to couchsurfing.org, I spend first three days at a couch of Lavinia Lavinic. Now the mission was to find some permanent accommodation. I went to ask in the student dorms, met a nice guy in charge there, with name Andone, who, after hearing my story, told me that he would help me.

Lavinia—my first ever couchsurfing host

In between I bought newspaper Telegraf Constanța and called to all the numbers from reality estate advertisements that were promising a place for something below 200 euro. So many times I heard "Ofertă nu mai e valabilă" ("The offer is not valid anymore"), that I will never forget that phrase. I stopped at dorms again and they told me, the price will be 250. Luckily, it was in lei, not in euro (1 euro =~ 4,4 lei; 1 leu =~ 6 Czech crowns), as I originally thought it had been. I could have saved myself some phone calls, oh, but well, I had more choices in the end. I could choose between flat on my own with three rooms for 250 euro per month, or student dorms, where I share one bedroom with 4 people, but for 60 euros. I chose the dorms, it will save me some money and I can socialize more. The more I speak, the faster I improve.

The day I was to leave Lavinia's flat, I still did not have a place to go. The god of good luck wanted it that a Czech girl, Markéta, living here with her Czech boyfriend Honza wrote me via couchsurfing. I stayed with them overnight, they had a beautiful flat with a view on the sea. We talked about all sorts of things before we were too tired to do anything but sleep.

Honza from Constanța, the grillmaster 

Markéta with all the goodies that we made

Finally I moved to my room in the dorms. In between, I found out that the boss of the only place I left my CV at, a photo-center, wants to talk to me. I got a job! And again, it will have the smell of hot concrete and chlorine. I am now a photographer at the local water park, Aqua Magic. Take pictures of people for money, some pictures also go to the park for their facebook page. For 40 lei a day. Not much, but my boss does not know that he is actually paying me for a language course.

My boss Alex, with his son Andrei at the photo-center

Lazy River in Aqua Magic

Aqua Magic water park, my new workplace

I bought sci-fi novels in Romanian (only for 10 lei!) and a textbook of Romanian. At 8:00 I go to work, I am there until 16:00 or so. During the breaks, I go for the water slides. After work, I usually go to swim in the Black Sea. Then, I read, or talk to the guys here at dorms, or go out with some couchsurfers. This is how my days pass now.

Beach at Mamaia, near Cazino Mamia

Beach at Mamaia. Task: Find a Slovak

So much for the first week, see you with reports of my progress in Romanian.