From Suceava I went on a tour of the Painted Monasteries of Bucovina.  From our guide Monika I have learned a lot about the Eastern Orthodox religion as well as about the monasteries.  Talking with a people who are so proud of their heritage made the trip more like with friends and much less commercial.  

I also got another gift there---a bad cold.  Starting on the train to Brasov, I was sneezing and coughing all the time.  I used to scoff at people who whined about their colds and headaches on their blogs.  But now I understood exactly how they must have felt ! 

Fortunatley I bumped into a Swiss backpacker who was also having a cold.  She told me to get Vervex, which treats the common cold, from the pharmacy.  The local pharmacist took one look at me and sold me a whole box, which was three days worth of it.

For two days I did nothing but lying still in bed, except to get up and take Vervex.  When I was finally better, I woke up and found my neck and face covered with flea bites.  I had forgotten to spray myself with insect repellent before I went to sleep .

The cleaning lady knocked on my door and said that I had to change roomes, because they have to clean the mattresses to get rid of the fleas. 

Huh, don't I know it !

(Actually, the bites I got were nothing compared to 120-plus bites that I got from a Hungarian hostel in a previous trip.  But then again, it's still early in this one...)