Breakfast today was a light affair of egg, salami, bread, cheese and radish. On our way to Select, while it was pouring with rain, we noticed May bugs forlornly crawling across the pavement. We saved one from the pavement as many of its friends had been trodden on already. It seemed like such a strange occurence as we came across more and more as we were walking! Back to the apartment for a rest and a nap (since we'd had such a hard day already). Laszlo came fo...

Breakfast at 9am which presented us with the delights of polenta and layers of melted cheese. Certainly the way to start the day! Laszlo picked us up at the apartment and drove us to the long grass field with snails (the same one we visited on the second day). The field was once used as a football field but was abandoned. The land now belongs to the council but Laszlo's organisation, AGORA, are working on the field for free. Which is what we were to do today! Ou...

Breakfast was at the usual restaurant of Select, where we had sausages with mustard. This particular dish gave me sausage burps for the rest of the day! After breakfast, Laszlo drove us to a forest which wasn't too far out of town. On the way, we saw the city mayor who was doing his rounds for election this year. Naturally he had a big grin on his face for everybody he met! As we entered the forest, I noticed that most of it consisted of beech trees with silver ...

Feeling a little delicate, we got up early to start the day at Select for breakfast. On the agenda for today was a visit to a well, where natural waters bubbled up to the surface. It was located about two miles out of town, so Laszlo drove us over so that we could have our first taste of Romanian spring water. And what a taste it was! We could easily have mistaken ourselves for being next to a petrol station - the water smelt exactly like petrol and didn't taste ...

Our arrival at Cluj-Napoca was filled with excitement and anticipation. None of us knew what to expect from this TCV conservation holiday to Romania, particularly as we had all met for the first time the night before, when we spent one night at the Travelodge in Luton to get to know each other. Our Romanian-Hungarian guide, Laszlo, met us at the airport and welcomed us to the country. The first thing we did was drive into the town of Cluj to grab some lunch and ...