Does anyone else have perma-smell associations for whole countries? One scent that transports your brain to a specific country, drops you on a random street and makes you dreamily reminisce about the life you could have had with the achingly cute girl that worked at the ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
My Bloody Romania with Leif Pettersen
My Bloody Romania: A return to the American Dream - minus gainful employment and money
Does anyone else have perma-smell associations for whole countries? One scent that transports your brain to a specific country, drops you on a random street and makes you dreamily reminisce about the life you could have had with the achingly cute girl that worked at the ...My Bloody (Drunk) Romania: Beyond the moonshine
People are often taken off guard when I tell them that I've spent about 17 cumulative months in Romania. Inevitably, wooden stake at the ready, they start digging about what the hell kept me here so long.
Is it the low cost of living? Initially yes, but with the US dollar ...My Bloody Romania: Cabbage never tasted so good
Before you read another word, click over to yellowpages.com and locate the Romanian restaurant nearest to your home (if you are actually in Romania, you are not eligible for this exercise).
So, how far away is the restaurant? Depending on your continent, it's anywhere from ...My Bloody Romania: The Royal (Mud) Treatment
Dateline: A mud puddle the size of Delaware in Southern Bucovina
There's a hardcore subset of people wandering around Southern Bucovina visiting all the monasteries by foot - backpacks piled high with camping gear, all-weather clothing, muesli and vampire bat spray. I'm not ...My Bloody Romania: One serving of Suceava - hold the syndrome
Dateline: Suceava, Romania
Suceava gets a bad rap, primarily from elitist dorks lacking an appreciation for the delicate art of Cement Feng Shui.
OK, there's no exoticizing it, Suceava is largely a butt-fugly series of gray streets, buildings and plazas. The city was one ...My Bloody Romania: The Painted Monasteries of Southern Bucovina
Dateline: Suceava, Romania
First, a quick geography lesson. Don't go looking for 'Southern Bucovina' in the south on your map of Romania. It is, in fact, in the north. Like many parts of Europe, land was grabbed and dealt during WWI and WWII without regard for historical ...My Bloody Romania: First stab at medical tourism
Being a homeless, shameless, godless freelance travel writer isn't all glamour, Nike endorsement deals and Friday nights at the Viper Room canoodling with Natalie Portman. There are innumerable indignities associated with this lifestyle, including the startling, nay ...My Bloody Romania: The hitchhiker's guide to Romania
One of the things that I love about Romania is that there's still a sweet naivety in many aspects of life. The largest peasant society in Europe still thrives in the northern Maramure? region (though EU membership seems destined to squash it), even the die-hardiest urban ...My Bloody Romania: Bucegi Mountains (of garbage)
Dateline: Bucegi Mountains, Romania
If you're a regular reader over at my laugh-riot, almost-award-winning blog, Killing Batteries (and if not, why exactly?), you'll know that I do my share of complaining. It's my way. I must complain to vent pent up rage or I'd have gone ...My Bloody Romania: Bra?ovywood - Give me a sign! Any sign!!
Dateline: Bra?ov, Romania
Why is it that the top two tourist destinations in Romania have virtually no signage to assist the, you know, tourists? Seriously, this mystery has kept me up at night and driving in maddening circles during the day, cursing the mothers of city ...My Bloody Romania: The real Dracula's Castle
Dateline: Dracula's Castle, Romania
Wake up people, Leif's Un-Authorized, Tell-All, Myth-Busting, Ass-Kicking, Hyphenation-Extravaganza is about to begin.
I'm about to provide you with priceless information that will make you a star at your pub's next video trivia game ...My Bloody Romania: Not your ordinary Arge?
Dateline: Curtea de Arge?, Romania
Do you ever have that dream where you're just traveling along from town to town for weeks on end, meeting people, visiting arresting sights and all of a sudden you realize that you forgot to put on pants before you left America? And when ...My Bloody Romania: The Transf?g?r??an Road
Dateline: Tooling around the Transf?g?r??an Road, Romania
Nicolae Ceau?escu, Romanian dictator for 25 years, was a clown at best and a cruel, brutal sonofabitch at worst. His homely wife Elena was just the same, with the additional failing of being dumber than goose ca-ca. ...My Bloody Romania: Sibiu, slippery when wet
Dateline: Sibiu, Romania
Sun, warmth and temperature perfection; that pretty much sums up the first 48 hours of my Vladling road trip in Transylvania. At exactly 48 hours, one minute and 15 seconds, Romania suffered a freak, only-when-it's-me, inclement weather zap. The ...My Bloody Romania: 'Vladling' in Transylvania
Dateline: Târgu Mure?, Romania
The first incarnation of my online blogging presence was called Every Notable Patch of Grass in Romania. The title was apt, as I had already lived and traveled in Romania for nearly a year and was about to embark on my Lonely Planet ...My Bloody Romania: Ia?i - some things don't change
Dateline: Ia?i, Romania
Further to my short list of conspicuous changes that have taken hold in Ia?i in the past 12 months, equally some things haven't changed at all. Things that you'd kinda wished they'd prioritized. Like the city works.
I'm staying in a private ...My Bloody Romania: Ia?i - things change
Dateline: Ia?i, Romania
Having finally found the strength to leave the house for a good wander around the city center, I slipped into a phone booth and switched into my alter ego, Travel Writer Man.
Travel Writer Man has a lot of crap that he likes to haul around: Palm ...My Bloody Romania: In which the author finally reaches Iasi after 49 hours of continuous travel and refuses to get out of bed for two days, but blogs anyway
Dateline: Iasi, Romania
Hello again. It is I, your intrepid hero/sex symbol, finally writing to you from Iasi, Romania. Despite Delta Airlines' best efforts at the contrary, I ultimately arrived in Madrid with enough time to travel the roughly six miles from my arriving ...My Bloody Romania: JFK unintended layover (part two) - further adventures into indignant curse words and wholly fact-based libel
Dateline: JFK Airport (yes, still)
Previously on My Bloody Romania: We re-lived, at length, how my four hour late flight 'serviced' by North-motherf*cking-west on behalf of Del-$hiteating-ta had delivered me to JFK four hours late. I had been brushed off by JFK's ...My Bloody Romania: JFK unintended layover (part one) - Northwest/Delta policy: 'Everything is God's fault'
Dateline: JFK Airport
I'm an hour away from Try Number Two of getting the hell out of the United States.
In a dizzying succession of tag team worthlessness, Northwest (heretofore, because I'm bitter, referred to as 'North-motherf*cking-west') and Delta (A.K.A. ...
