We started the day by heading off to explore more of Bucharest, Cosmo and Wilfred enjoyed the views of the city. We went and visited the Palace of Parliament (the seat of the parliament of Romania), Cosmo and Wilfred had a great time even posing for a photo.
Cosmo & Wilfred enjoying Bucharest
After heading back to the hotel we got suited up in full uniform ready to give our presentation to the Ambassador, Cosmo and Wilfred were getting even more nervous as the presentation drew closer.
The presentation went well, though Cosmo were to shy to speak. After finishing up with our presentation we got some time to introduce the Ambassador to Cosmo and Wilfred.
That is us now finally finished up our trip, tomorrow we will be heading to the airport to get on a plane to Glasgow. It has been a journey of a lifetime and something we will never forget.
After an early morning packing away our kit we headed off in the bus to Bucharest, Cosmo and Wilfred were rather tried so fell asleep on the bus.
After a short break half way through our journey we finally arrived in Bucharest. As soon as we entered the hotel Cosmo and Wilfred hopped straight into their beds catching a good few minutes of rest before entering the city.
Cosmo & Wilfred enjoying the hotel
After arriving in the city we decided to head out and see some of the views it had to offer, though sadly we were yet again greeted by some lovely scottish weather to prepare us for heading home in a few days.
Bucharest
We then headed to the Hard Rock cafe to have some dinner with all the teams taking part in the explorer belt. Cosmo and Wilfred had a great time, enjoying the music and forcing us to take a photo of them with the sign outside.
Tomorrow we will be heading back into Bucharest to explorer more of the city; as well as heading to the ambassadors to give our final presentation, though Cosmo and Wilfred have become very nervous of giving their presentation in front of the ambassador.
After finishing up our final preparations yesterday, we were finally ready to show off our presentation. Before giving our presentation we had one final run through to make sure we had everything covered, and knew what to say.
Cosmo & Wilfred preparing for the presentation
Cosmo and Wilfred had everything prepared and ready to go for the big presentation, and we even managed to get some stuff prepared as well.
Our presentation was first, though right before starting Cosmo and Wilfred became too nervous to present. We tried to convince Cosmo and Wilfred to talk, though they weren’t having it, so we had to read their parts for them.
All the presentations went well, with all teams delivering and exceeding what we had expected. After our presentation we sat nervously waiting to find out if we had earned our explorer belts, thankfully all teams managed to earn their explorer belts. Even Cosmo and Wilfred got theirs.
Cosmo & Wilfred with their explorer belts
After receiving our awards we headed off to have a bbq, we were even treated to some lovely rain to remind us of home. We were joined some of the scouts we had met along our journey, and shared a really enjoyable evening together to celebrate receiving our awards and spending our last day in Rasnov.
Tomorrow we will be heading off to Bucharest, where we will get the chance to finally visit the capitol city of Romania.
Today was a very relaxing day, compared to what we have been doing for the last 10 days anway. We meet with the leaders, and made our final preparations for the presentation tomorrow, Cosmo even gave us a hand with finishing some of the slides.
Cosmo helping with the presentation
We now have everything ready for our presentation tomorrow; although Cosmo and Wilfred have become very nervous of speaking in front of the leadership team, especially James.
After giving our presentation tomorrow we will have finally completed the final part of our explorer belt; it has been a long journey, with our first training event happening in February and preparations starting even earlier.
After 9 days packed full of adventure and fun, we have finally reached our final day. We started the day packing away all our kit and heading off to the bus station to catch the final bus of the expedition, taking us back to Rasnov.
As soon as we arrived back in Rasnov we met up with Eddie, who was bursting with excitement in anticipation of visiting the dino park. It was only a short walk and trip on the vehicular to the dino park, though Eddie couldn’t hold in his excitement any longer and Cosmo and Wilfred weren’t faring much better.
Once we finally arrived the dino park proved even more exciting than we had initially thought. Cosmo, Wilfred and Eddie all bursting with excitement sprinted into the dino park leaving us to catch up with them.
They all really enjoyed the dino park; though Eddie definitely enjoyed it more than anyone else, even more than most of the kids visiting the park.
We then headed off to the Rasnov citadel, where Cosmo & Wilfred had a great time.
This brings us to the end of our explorer belt. We have had the journey of a lifetime, taking us all over Romania. This experience is one that will last a lifetime, and we can only encourage more people to take part in the future.
We now have a few days to prepare our presentation, which could possibly be presented to the ambassador.
Cosmo and Wilfred had enjoyed the warmth of the pods so much that they were refusing to get up this morning, saying they would rather stay and enjoy the warmth. This is becoming a rather common theme with these two, good thing we only have one more morning we need to convince them to get out of bed for.
Cosmo & Wilfred enjoying their beds
We finally managed to get them out of bed, only by promising them a few games of whist and karma. Wilfred mostly won of course, with Cosmo taking second most times. This caused a bit of feud between the two, though it was instantly forgot after the game had ended.
Cosmo & Wilfred playing cards
We then headed off to Tampa, this time taking the cable car to complete another one of our minor projects. This being Cosmo’s first time ever riding in a cable car he was terrified; but luckily Wilfred managed to convince Cosmo to give it a try, though it really did take some convincing. After finally getting onto the cable car Cosmo really did enjoy himself, wanting to instantly ride it again.
The views from the top in the day were stunning, though did not compare to those of the sunset we had seen a couple days prior.
After heading back down we went in search of some postcards to complete our final minor projects. They proved more difficult to find than you would expect, taking us at least an hour to find any. Then the search moved to finding a post box, this proved a lot easier than the postcards only taking us a two minute walk from our hostel.
Cosmo sending the postcards
We then headed off to a local shopping center for some supplies. While trying to locate the supermarket inside Cosom got distracted by a pool hall, where of course we had to stop and play a few games.
Cosmo takes a shot
We then headed back to get pack away our kit and prepare for the final day of our expedition. With all of our minor projects completed and our major project well under way, we have now started preparations for our presentation.
Cosmo helping with the presentation
Tomorrow we are making our way back to Rasnov, where our expedition started. While there we are hoping to visit the citadel and will be taking Eddie to the dino park, which he has not stopped talking about since arriving in Rasnov.
We started the by sharing breakfast with our neighbours in the hostel, then heading off to Sinaia for the afternoon. It was an easy journey, compared to the four hour train from yesterday, only lasting about an hour.
Cosmo & Wilfred taking the train
After arriving in Sinaia we headed straight to Peleș Castle, and the monastery. The views were incredible and Cosmo and Wilfred thoroughly enjoyed them selves, forcing us to take photos all along the way.
After spending most of the morning and afternoon at Sinaia we headed back to Brasov to grab something to eat. After finishing up some delicious pizza we went to the fountain in the council square to meet up with team 3. It was good to see team 3 as we had not met up with them since the first day of our expedition.
Cosmo & Wilfred enjoying the fountain
After saying our goodbyes to team 3 we met up with the leaders, filling them in on how our explorer belt had been going.
Australian James
We now only have two days left of our expedition, where has the time gone. over the next two days we will be staying in Brasov, hopefully heading up the cable car, visiting some more of the local attractions and finishing up all of our minor projects.
We started off the day by exploring the rest of Sibiu, and getting some lunch while we waited for our train to Brasov. The journey was long, almost four hours, though Cosmo and Wilfred still seemed to enjoy it.
After arriving we headed straight to our hostel, though it wasn’t your typical hostel as you can see.
After grabbing some dinner we headed to Mount Tampa. It was quite the climb leaving Cosmo and Wilfred rather tired, though the view from the top was defiantly worth it.
Cosmo and Wilfred really enjoyed the view almost refusing to leave when we told them it was getting dark, though the promise of food helped to convince them.
Cosmo & Wilfred enjoying the view.
Whilst heading back down Mount Tampa we ran into team 1, it was good to see them. The last time we had met up was on day 2 of the expedition. That is the first week of the expedition done, only three days to go.
Tomorrow we will be heading out to Sinaia for the day, then returning back to Brasov to finish up exploring the last parts of the city.
After the long day yesterday we had an early start this morning, heading straight to the bus station in Turda to catch the 6:30am bus to Sibiu. The bus took three and a half hours giving us plenty of time to catch up on some much needed sleep while Cosmo and Wilfred enjoyed the beautiful views from the bus window.
Cosmo & Wilfred enjoying the view
After arriving in Sibiu we were greeted by some very friendly Romanian scouts who showed us around the city and helped us to find our hostel. Cosmo and Wilfred we extremely excited to make friends with the Romanian scouts and to explore the beautiful city of Sibiu. Though the dino park may have proved a little to exciting for Wilfred.
After having lunch with the Romania scouts we parted ways, for now, so that we could get settled down in our hostel.
We later met up with the scouts again, and some more of their group. After exchanging neckies and getting to know each other a bit better; they taught us how to play a new game, that involved running, holding hands, making seats out of people and even aeroplanes. Cosmo and Wilfred were very tired from all the traveling, so decided not to take part.
After a very busy day we finally headed back to the hostel to rest. Tomorrow we will be exploring the city more and heading back out to Brasov to continue our expedition.
Big thanks to the Romanian scouts for taking us around the city and being so helpful and friendly.
After an early morning and an “interesting” bus ride, we finally mad it to Turda the halfway point of our expedition. On arrival we were again greeted with swelteringly hot temperatures, making the 30 minute walk to get to our accommodation somewhat less than pleasant.
Though spirits were high as we would soon be heading off to visit Salina Turda, a place we had been planning on visiting since our first training camp. On our way to Salina Turda we decided to explore what the city had to offer.
After hyping up Salina Turda in our minds for so long we feared it would not be as good as we had originally thought, but boy did it deliver. It easily surpassed our expectations and became one of our favourite moments from the whole trip, even Cosmo and Wilfred had a great time.
Tomorrow it’s another early morning for us, catching the bus to Sibiu where we will be meeting a Romanian scout group, and hopefully getting to explore the city a bit as well.
South West Scotland Explorer Belt Romania 2019 