Urcand Pe Munte

Here's another little Romanian lesson for my readers back home. 'Urcand pe munte' means 'climbing mountains.' This past weekend, I went hiking in the Bucegi Mountains (pronounced Boo-che-jeh) with my new friend, Irina. When we arranged to go hiking, I guess I expected something more like hiking in Indiana. Beautiful scenary, a few hills, but really not much different from a long walk in the woods. Was I ever wrong. The phrase that Romanians translate as "to hike" is "a merge pe munte." Translated literally, it means "to go on the mountains," and I think that somthing gets lost in the translation to "hiking." This weekend I found out that a merge pe munte in Romania, is something of a cross between hiking and amatuer mountain climbing. On Saturday, we hiked up to an altitude of 2505 meters (8219 feet) and spent the night in a very rustic cabin on the top of Omu Peak. On Sunday morning, we packed up and hiked all the way back down to catch our train back to the city. The scenary was amazing, and I took a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, the weather didn't always cooperate, and we spent two hours hiking in the cold rain near Omu Peak. I was exhausted by the end of the trip, but it was completely worth it! My legs are still a bit sore, but I can't wait to get out there again. Enjoy the pictures:


Here's me standing awkwardly in front of a waterfall at the trail head. (As you can see, I hate posing alone in front of tourist attractions and other things like that.)


...mountains...


Here's Irina a few steps behind me on the trail. I don't have any action shots of myself climbing, so you'll have to imagine it.


Irina and some of our fellow hikers crossing a stream and making their way up the trail.


...mountains...


...more mountains...


Some more of our compatriots on the trail ahead of me.


A waterfall.


Onward and upward.


...some more mountains...


...you get the idea.


The rock formation "Babele," or "The old women," is so called because it is said to resemble a group of old women standing around and gossiping.


These are the beds that we slept in at Cabina Omu. It was a very uncomfortable night, because they pack people into these bunks, so that you're sleeping next to some stranger. And on top of that, there were about 25 people in the room, at least 4 of whom snored LOUDLY.


Here's me on day two of the hike. I'm bundled up because it's cold on top of the mountain, and my hair is wet because we had been hiking in a dense fog all morning. I was trying to get a great mountain background here, but I didn't quite succeed.