An Enthusiastic Traveller

The journey begins with an unexpected and pleasant meeting with a friend from university. She and her friend were also going to Budapest. Hurray! I will have some company in this foreign and mysterious city. It's the first time I travel with a twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional airliner (ATR 42-500). It's the smallest plane I have flown with. That's why the flight is taking more, the maximum speed is 500km/h, and highest altitude ~6000m. The landing was weird. Well.. We've landed safe and sound. To get in the city there is one bus (200E) with connection to metro line M3. The ticket is 350HUF (1.15€). I went to do the check in and after that I met with Alexandra and Mădălina near the city center to have lunch. Sometimes it happens to have in mind an image about the food you order and when they bring you the plate you are disappointed about the look and taste. This happened to me when I ordered paprika chicken with noodles. Well.. It happens. Afterwards ...

"Magia baloanelor" is what brought me here. I volunteered at the festival. This way I got to meet Raluca, the person behind this beautiful initiative. "Magia baloanelor" is a festival with hot air balloons, the only event of this type in Romania. This year is the second edition. The festival is held in Razboieni, a village near Iasi. Yesterday after the meeting with all volunteers I had the chance to talk over a coffee cup with Raluca. My first question was: How did you come up with this idea? And she said: "Two years ago some friends came back from their holiday from Cappadocia and shared their experience with hot air balloons. I was in maternity leave at that time and I couldn't travel abroad with small children to experience that. And then it hit me: If I can't go to a hot air balloons festival, let's have one here". It's not easy to organize this kind of festival, but this doesn't stop her. The weather here is not very favorable f...