Okay new plan.

Remember that last post?

Yeah nothing actually happened the way we planned today. This is where the lesson "always check twice, or thrice, or just be really really sure" comes to use. 

For the first time in two months, we missed our ride. Now that's technically not that bad of a record. But for us? Yeah, that was about the last straw. As we finally get back on our feet, ready to finish this trip after almost booking a flight home...then missing the bus to Budapest that only leaves every three days or so.

We were waiting for an hour, totally on time. Just at the wrong stupid bus stop a half mile away from the correct stupid bus stop. So we slunk back to the hotel lobby from the night before, since it had wifi. I might have cried a little. In frustration. I was so ready for that 11 hour bus ride that would get us out of the silly transport town of Targu Mures. 

By the way you should google maps that really quick, for some perspective. Targu Mures, Romania -- Budapest, Hungary. (And how far away we are from the rest of the world.)

After making a list of options:

Finally we got out wits about us, and checked in for another night here at Hotel Darina, because we decided there wasn't a way to leave the city today.

*fast forward through about 10 different plans*

Wow, Targu Mures does fly to Budapest. Awesome. It's five times as expensive, but there's a flight tomorrow. *book* It's amazing, all over Europe you can just buy an air ticket somewhere the day before, pretty much no problem. This was a budget airline, sure, but the flight wasn't even full.

We are out of Romania now. Technically we were there three months of the year, 6-29 to 8-1. ;) I'll really miss it there.

Okay moving on. Hungary! (And a new currency for two days. That's always fun to work with.)

Where do we go, from here?

I guess we are feeling a little like Buffy and the Scooby gang right now. Though dancing and singing hasn't been our top priority on the farm, we've gone through quite the mid-trip-crisis.

Goodbye, Ferma Indianlui; till the next time we come back to visit beautiful Romania. We are on our way to Budapest now, only an 11 hour bus ride...fun stuff, that. 

I guess I better start from the beginning, this past week. In my last post, I believe I mentioned I was sick. Well I didn't actually end up recovering until yesterday, after a trip to the hospital and some antibiotics. I relapsed into some worse kind of bug, and we still aren't sure what it was, but I threw up for the first time in seven years, so that sucked. In fact, I was sick so much my stomach wouldn't really uncramp, hence the hospital visit. 

Krishan knew someone at the hospital so I didn't had to wait in the waiting room very long, and after an ultrasound to look at all my insides, they gave me an IV drip with some muscle relaxants and glucose to rehydrate me. I had never been to a hospital before so I had a slight panic attack (um needles.) but Daciana and Tessa kept talking to me and I made it pretty well. Honestly I don't remember much of it. 

At this point I felt the worse I've ever felt before, and Tessa and I had a little melt down a long time coming...we were hours away from changing our tickets home to next week. Honestly, 60 days in, we are both completely burnt out from traveling and just really want to go back to the monotonous routine of every day life. This morning though, we felt a tiny bit better (and after finding out how much it would take to get home early, um ouch.) we decided to continue almost as we planned originally. Even though we are both really homesick. 

To vent, here is what I am missing right now:

Ice cubes

Yoga

A different shirt than the four I have

Not having to shop every day for each meal

TV (if I'm being really honest here.)

Oh, I forgot I owned a laptop.

Any paper book

Shampoo

A/C

Mexican food

My kitties

But I'll get them all back in about 40 days. Not that we are counting down or anything.

Since we decided to stay, as Calvin's dad would say, it builds character.

Doesn't make it any easier.

One more week of Romania

It finally happened. I got sick.

I was crossing my fingers for a completely sick-free trip, but it was inevitable for the length of my trip. I'm better now after two days of fever, four heads of garlic, and lots of mint tea. One of the workers was sick too, and then Bernardo, another volunteer, got sick just after I did, so we figured it was some sort of influenza going around. 

It was the worst week I've had in recent memory. I literally felt like I was going to die. It's bad enough getting sick away from home, but then factor in the whole: Transylvania. Farm. Closest village 40 mins away. Maybe a doctor. Probably not English speaking. 

Okay enough depressing news.

Well Philippe left, so that is depressing; I lied. He has been out one friend we made on this trip so far, since we've been so busy hopping from place to place, and every hostel we've been in anyway has been empty. Tessa puts it best, "It's like summer camp is ending and we have to say goodbye to everybody." Considering it was just the three of us though...everybody consists of  Philippe. He is in Budapest now actually, where we are heading next. 

A new volunteer arrived soon after he left, to fill the whole. Tessa was beginning to go stir crazy without someone to tease and mess with. Thankfully Daciana is perfect for that, and has lots of working energy. 

~~

Yesterday I finally saw the cheese making process! Unfortunately I forgot to grab my camera since it was a last minute discovery, but I'll try to see it again in the next week.

(Sorry, no picture here.)

Two days ago a van arrived and this is what we did: 

"It's a white van. With a body bag on top."

Okay so once it got here, the body bag turned into a blue canoe, but I think it's easy to see how similar they look from half a mile away.

This old couple, Helena and Nick, are from the Incredible Farm. (Incredible Edible) From what I understand, this Incredible farm is outside Yorkshire, and is like a self sustaining community with educational courses on farming and natural things of all sorts. 

Helena and Nick are on a trip around Romania, kind of an annual thing. They are full of knowledge and are currently talking with Krishan about ways to improve the farm. I think they're very nice and unique people in general, and share fun stories with us.

This is a blog post Nick recently wrote, and I encourage you to take a look; it's a beautiful little story.

http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/blogs/viscri-comes-home-a-true-farytale

The gypsies in some places are known for their bowl carving, and Helena made sure to buy a whole bunch of them this year. Tessa helped her oil some.

~

Cathryn made some ice cream with the Buffalo milk: walnut cinnamon. We didn't have the patience to seperate cream for it for now, so it's more ice than cream, but still tasty! Buffalo milk is significantly higher in fat than cows milk so that helps. And it's fresh/raw, so whole milk.

~

Today we got back to hard working in the field. I stay wayyy away from Tessa and her scythe.

And the rest of us are left with these tiny things for detail weed-annihilation. 

(I think I posted a pic before.)

They're still wicked fun to use. :)

The problem with the food forest is the thistles and other nasties are getting way out of control, and we are trying to convert the land from...wait I can remember this...bacterial to fungal? From weeds and grasses and flowers, to soil...stuff. Okay Tessa understands this much better than me.

Pretty much we have to chop down everything to let the trees and bushes grow. And over the past few weeks summer has done her job and everything we don't want alive, is waist high! Not good!

It's getting better now. Lets have another pic of Tessa's badassery.

Excuse the crookedness. This is candid, so sneakiness was involved.

~

We have one more week here! About. We leave August 1st or 2nd. And one way or another, we will get to Budapest...still working that part out.

Two thirds of this trip is over! And I'm-dare I say it?- ready to go home now...but I'm sure this will change once we get on the road again. It will be weird since this has been our home for the whole month.

Tessa and I will definitely come back someday. In the very least, we need to get some gypsy bowls.