Last day in Odorheiu! The time had come to leave the town and venture into rural village life. We had our last breakfast at Select, where Laszlo met us to take us into the countryside.

Our destination was Meresti, where we would spend the last 10 days of our trip. Before hitting the road, we stopped at the supermarket to buy breakfast foods and gifts for our host families.

The drive was bumpy and long, through Romanian countryside. The scenery was beautiful, with lush green fields fading out into the distance, rolling hills and villages tucked away among the river valleys. Most of the roads we took were unpaved, which was why it was so bumpy! Laszlo was constantly having to swerve the car to avoid potholes and ditches, which made for an entertaining ride.

Eventually we arrived at Meresti and drove into the centre of the village, down more unpaved roads. We pulled up to a house which had a large, closed gate. Once unloading the car, Kate and I crept through the gate. Laszlo introduced us to Ibolya, the wife of the family who will be hosting us. She didn't speak a lot of English but her body language was extremely welcoming. We all sat politely around the table (including the boys) to have tea and coffee. It was very strange to think that we were to stay there for the next 10 days as it was effectively a stranger's house!

Onto Simon's host family next, where we only stayed long enough for Simon to introduce himself. He was lucky enough to be living right next to the only bar in the village! Not to mention that his family owned their own bar inside the house. He was sorted!

The last stop was Michael's house. We spent quite a bit of time there as Laszlo and the husband Attila chatted the hours away. The house was lovely, full of nooks and crannies. The young daughter brought her pet hamster out to show us. He entertained us for ages, along with beer, cats and the family dog. Attila had an impressive sound system upstairs, with huge speakers and tonnes of music. We all made the most of that! What captured my attention however was the pond outside in the garden. There were no fish, which was perfect for the newts living in it. They were huge! Too fast to identify them unfortunately.

A few beers later, we drove back to Ibolya's house. She had kindly made us all lunch in the outhouse with more beer. Lunch was home-made, really meaty sausages and delicious mashed potato. We also had yummy vegetable soup to start! So far, we were all very impressed with the freshly homemade food.

We spent the afternoon in a barn which AGORA and TCV had built and maintained for the past six years. It was very dirty inside as Laszlo had not been back for a year. Kate and I cleaned it up while the boys extended the French drain outside. It was sweltering work - temperatures hit 30'C again. We pruned the fruit trees while talking to a local Romania lad. He was very interested in where we were from and what we were doing here. He was well aware of the AGORA project though as his house was just next door.

On the way back to the house, Kate and I saw a peculiar thing: a butterfly chased a Swallow while it was trying to build its nest. It would chase the Swallow then sit on the bird's tail once it landed on the nest! This carried on for about 10 minutes so it was no fluke. Laszlo later told us that it was possibly a case of the Swallow having eaten the butterfly's mate, which angered the insect, causing it to attack. Bizarre!

Dinner took place in Ibolya's kitchen. She served us cherry soup to start, which was nothing like what Kate and I had ever had! The liquid tasted of a slightly sour cherry yoghurt, which was complimented well by last year's sweet whole cherries in the soup itself. It was very good! The main course consisted of delicious meatballs, mashed potato and vegetables in mushroom sauce. We were both in food heaven.

The evening was spent at the local bar (next door to Simon) with Laszlo. We had some amusing conversations before heading home in the pitch black. Lots of barking dogs tried to scare me and Kate, which seemed to roam the streets as they pleased.