Serban Chinole

A week ago, I arrived in 2 Mai with a bad back and hopes for sun, relaxation and some fresh fish. My back pain was something that reminded me about my age, minutes spent walking or working out, and many other personal failures in the sport arena.

Weather was hot, so we went to the beach and had the usual procedure, sun bath, water, beer etc. In all this usual and repetitive ritual Mihai was the breakthrough. First he fixed my back suggesting some water exercises, later he cooked some stir fry with unique ginger sauce, secret recipe that I am not sharing, BTW this is not a how to blog:)

Today I woke up at 5:30 being prepared for a double action, fish acquisition and massage in Siemens hotel. We accomplished only the fishing part, you can see the witness pictures.

The turbot we found was around 6 pounds, so we bought 4 and reserved 3 more, the Master cook worked for almost 2 hours to cut the pieces for different dishes.

I can only say this: if you have a bad back and want to eat fusion, look for Mihai, he is the One.

There are many good things to mention about this holiday. Meeting my family from abroad is one of them, my nephew gets bigger every day and challenges my sense of humor.

Ebro Delta was that ”new” thing, unexpected, good example of a Nature 2000 area, well preserved, clean, attractive, smaller than our famous Danube Delta.

We choose this place, close to Barcelona, hoping to get some taste of Catalunya, the first impression on the local services was as low as it can get. Many tourists mean for people working there, at car rentals, villas etc, just a flow of income, nothing from treating customers, hospitality and other fairy tales.

Perhaps we get used too much with Turkey, Greece or more recent Bulgaria, make sure you go in Spain to enjoy the wines, food and places, about service, choose a different place.

Am I too demanding? Not at all, the only smile and welcome I heard was in a gas station run by Romanians, so, we can!

Monica Popovici

Monica is sharing authentic bread

This post is less turistic as you may think. It is about people, spirit and connection. Let me explain, back in 1998 when I was still working for a multinational, I had a 2 weeks holiday in Paris. At that time, my impressions where linked to the time spent with my cousin and less about museums or buildings.

Actually I do remember that I felt more interested in watching the recent awarded movies from Oscar than visiting Versailles for instance.

We arrived Tuesday night in a cold Paris, the hotel did not make us the  best impression, the intensity of mold smell combined with lack of heat gave us a false start. The first morning started with a strong coffee and hopes, however the wind made us wonder what is this seasons discussion, we felt like in a late fall. The destinations chosen made us appreciate more the Romanian hospitality, customer service is a foreign language in Montmartre restaurants.

Why do we always have high expectations? Because we visited  other cities like Barcelona and felt much better treated. Slowly we came back in Denfert and found many good restaurants with different people. Tony, for example our neighbor Bistro, was very friendly and explained that they all know each other, I saw them eating together Saturday, even taking a snack on a car of one of the regular clients.

So what is the lesson here?

We belong to communities and when travel is better to lower the expectations and look for normal places, without flashy marketing or intense traffic. If Paris can be number 1 in the world, I wonder if we as Romanians can invite friends from abroad and show them our way.

Just an idea, the action behind this will follow soon in Meschendorf.

Just returned from a ski trip in Cervino, Italy and wanted badly to share a couple of comments and findings.

First one is about the beauty of Western Alps, magnificent, incredible infrastructure for winter sports, traveling and site seeing. Matterhorn and the surroundings brings you closer to your own reflections about life, purity, making you wonder about many things.

Now, how are people here, well, I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that I felt strange in the small family hotel we have been accommodated. I thought is just me and my high expectations raised somehow last year in Ischgl, Austria, however after a week of mistreatment I decided to share, starting with a ridiculous poor breakfast, and stopping the heath during night and last but not least never smiling and being polite with guests.

We say that Romania is a warm country with tourists, based of course on their feedback, I would say that I felt frozen in Valtournenche and do not recommend this area for  people used with normal customer service.

My final remark is again related to the mountains, in such a breathtaking environment it is a shame that the local people behave this way, in other words beautiful place, bad inhabitants.