Day Off - Part 1

This story is going to take two days to tell because it was going to be a simple day traveling to the mountains and it turned out to be the adventure of our lives. Let me say at the onset, we were never in any physical danger and everything worked out in the end.

After working hard for the week, the 7 teachers (myself included) decided to take a train up to Bust an and hike in the mountains. Our troubles began early. We met at the train station at 8 in the morning and found out that our 8:30 train was booked solid so we had to hang out until the next one until 9:30. Getting on the train, we were joined by Bogdon, a Romanian who is working with Albert and Lavinia in the church plant.

When we got to Bustan, it was raining very hard. We went to a store so one of our teachers could buy a coat for the day. We then slowly strolled up to the cable-car station stopping along the way to eat some sweet-bread and use a bathroom. We got to the top of the mountain at around 12:30 and spent some time looking at the interesting rock formations at the top. These formations are said to had been carved and used by the druids many centuries ago. The one pictured here is called The Sphinx.

Around 1:00, we went into a lodge to eat some of the best Chorba I've ever had. Around 2:00, we headed off on our hike toward a giant metal cross that overlooks the valley that Bustan and Sania are in. The hike was a little difficult in some places but we made it there by 3:30. We stayed for 30 minutes and then headed back. When we got to the cable-car station, there was a sign on the door that said that the last tram car left at 3:00. We had forgotten to check on this little detail. I wasn't worried until Bogdon caught up and said that we were stuck. There would be NO car down the mountain until 9 the next morning.


At over 1000 meters in the air, no ride to the bottom of the mountain, and no tents or sleeping bag, we were potential trouble. This was one twist in the day we were not prepared for.

(To be continued... tomorrow)