Applebees of the East

For a change of pace today, we dove for no more than two hours all day. This drive was not seperated at all though, and we had two hour long stretches with just a break for a snack around noon. Before we left, we ran into the square of Baia Mare and found bathroom mats and a real hat for me, a nice brown rabbit fur hat. It is a million times better than yesterday's, but that was just for the experience. We arrived into our town very early in the day, around two, and checked into my tiny room in a quaint little hotel. I have a little room with a single bed, bathroom and little more floor space than my bag takes up. The nice part is that there is a little terrace with tables and an awning for when it rains, which it is now, almost as lound as a rock concert. There is also a little food area with a coffee machine, microwave, fridge, sink and a table for people who just want to chill out with a nice snack. It's very nice actually. We all walked down to the square and ran into the same band from a few days ago playing outside the little art accademy in town. We walked around and enjoyed the impressive display of buildings from every century since the 1400s. The little cobbled square has a roman street excavation and many statues made from recuclable trash, which was all recovered and put to use. We stopped in for a snack and ordered a "chocolate shake" which turned out to be chocolate syrup in milk with ready whip on top, with two bendy straws. It was refreshing, if not what I expected to find in a European bar, and being only a dollar, it wasn't that big of a dissappointment. We then ventured into the city's botanical garden, just up the street from out hotel, and found the natural forest to be relaxing, even with a simple Japonese garden in the middle of it all. We went back, cleaned up, watched Wimbledon for a little while and then waited for the rain to stop for about 45 minutes. We had our dinner in a large resteraunt with an open room on top with just a roof over it, and about 50 tables, whos chairs were covered in brand new Heineken beer cushions. We all ordered reasonable dishes, which were tasty, but far too sweet, and apparently Bev and Buz's wine was horrible, with "too much barnyard," never trust organic wine apparently. The whole place had the feeling of a chain resteraunt, with premade feel all over it, and having three in the city does not help that feeling. After trudging through another gale to our hotel, our day is now over, and the rain is not.