Friends and Family - Hello from Bucharest Romania.  I arrived here this afternoon at around 2 o'clock after a flight from Amsterdam.  Despite my worries, there was no problem with finding my way throuh the airport, into the city and from there to the hostel.  I did not have to ask for directions, because I had the help of a good Lonely Planet guide book.  Even if I had it would not have been a problem becuase people are friendly here and almost everybody speaks english as well as the native language Romanian.  Romanian is related to the Russian language, but is quite different actually.  There are alot of old buildings in the part of the city that I am based in, but alot of the old archeticture in other parts of the city was been replaced by communist archetecture inspired by Nicolae Ceasesu's trip to Bejiong in the 80's.  In 1989 the Romanian FSN (National Salvation Front) overthrough their despotic dictator Nicolae Ceasescu.  The city is full of very mellow street dogs that seem to be right at home in the city and blend in well.  Surprisingly there is no sign of dog poop, so I guess someone cleans that up.  People here are friendly to American tourists, and I was amazed by the amount of American chain stores here.  Thats all for now.

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