American's have 'American cheese'. Romanians have 'Cascaval'.  Cascaval is a common, affordable, and ubiquitous cheese here. If you order a cheese sandwich - Cascaval.  Burrito? Cascaval all over it. Cheesburger? Cascaval again. This is great if you enjoy the flavor but a lot of times I don't. The tricky thing with this cheese is that there are a lot of variations that look exactly the same but taste different (see...

A few weeks ago my friend Mike pulled into Gara de Nord on a midnight train, officially ending his Trans-Siberian journey in Bucharest, Romania. I was determined to get him outside the city and had a weekend trip planned. Mike, Catalin and I drove north through the Carpathian Mountains on the Transalpina highway. This is a road similar to the Transfagarasan in that it goes through the mountains but unlike the aforementioned, it...

Great friend of mine is in town after traveling the Trans-Siberian. His visit gave me the kick I needed to get some decorating projects done. Look what I made! All hand stitched- unfortunately I don't have a sewing machine (yet). Below: After & Before. Ahhh much better I'd say. ...