gistfile1.txt

Well, I can't say it was a smooth trip but we are finally here in Constanta, Romania, and its really
beautiful (and that's having only seen it in the dark!). Things started to go wrong at Amsterdam 
Schiphol, when we realized that the transfer desk for our flight to Romania, which we need to go to 
to get our boarding pass, was on the far side of immigration and security.  

Worse, the hotel we had booked a room in to get a few hours sleep during our 5 hour layover was on 
the *other* side of security, and because of that, and one or two other screwups we ended up having 
to go through immigration and security 4 times during our 5 hour layover!  Airport layout fail!  

Then we were told by airport staff that we could bring water through security if it was in a 
sealed container, so we bought two bottles €3 each, only to have to throw them out when we 
actually tried to go through with them!  Schiphol we hate you.

Then we had our flight to Romania which was fine, until we got there and discovered that Schiphol 
had one more surprise in store for us, they hadn't put our checkin bags on our plane!

Fortunately things picked up from there.  They said they could deliver our bags to us tomorrow, 
and the owner of the apartment we're staying in, who was also driving us there, was extremely 
nice and helpful.  During the 2 hour drive we had a great chat despite our jetlag, and he even 
helped us with some basic Romanian phrases (which I've promptly forgotten).

Better still, the apartment is absolutely amazing, as is the location, sandwiched between the 
Black Sea and a lake.  Can't wait to see it in daylight.