(Or would that be ‘doofi’?) I have a dirty little secret. Every time I fly in or out of Italy or Romania, I’m scared shitless. Actually, when I fly into either of these countries, I’m merely very concerned that I won’t see my luggage for a week. Inconvenient, yes, but…

The return to my unintended second home – Iasi, Romania – has been filled with equal parts business-as-usual and unlikely surprises. The overnight train ride from Bucharest to Iasi was pure Romania:  The train was full to bursting.  My compartment was all men.  On that note, why am I always…

Guess what?  I’m going to Romania next week. Don’t worry, I’m not staying for long.  I’m not completely backing down from the vow I announced in August, made at the urging of my lawyer, psychotherapy team and concerned parties at the American Embassy in Bucharest.  Also, my dietitian said I…

Mission Control, Space Cadet First Class Pettersen here kindly informing you that at exactly noon Eastern European Time on Thursday August 31st, I will permanently abandon my post here in Iasi, Romania, merrily leaving this accursed, gasping laptop behind to drag someone else’s potential productivity to a crawl. Seven days…

When I first stepped into my current apartment last August with the rental agent, two things struck me immediately; first, it was by far the least decrepit place she’d shown me and second the odor of cat piss was so overwhelming that I had to steady myself against a wall. …

The summer cook off calibre heat has finally reached Iasi.  Who wants some well-done travel writer?  White meat?  I’m Norwegian, that’s all I got.  The breasts are OK, but if you want a real treat go for the rump. We’ve had a full week of this heat now.  My old…

I’ve been meaning to start a list like this for a while now.  Each country has it’s own little oddities that aren’t necessarily going to thrill anthropologists, but are still intriguing. Here’s the start of a ongoing collection of my favourites from Romania: Mobile (cell phone) ‘beeps’ – Even if…

‘Not my problem’.  Over the past year, I’ve slowly come to realize that this is the Romanian mantra, seemingly uttered with a frequency that most people reserve for ‘how are you?’ and in some cases ‘dude, I’m so wasted’.  This is particularly true with the over-40 Romanian age group, who…

I’m suffering on several fronts at the moment.  After the unremitting exhaustion, panic and exhilaration of my final three weeks on the LP write-up, the past two weeks have been a bit of a bummer.  I’ve been slowly poking at two non-travel articles on Sarajevo and Bratislava for Global Traveler,…

Well, thats the headline I would have written.  Got you to click on the link, didnt I? Instead the BBC chose a more tactful line:  “Europe under ‘rendition’ cloud”, an uninspired title that I wouldnt  have clicked in a million years if it werent accompanied by a naked photo of Salma…