The Dark Side of the Moon ... a bit of fun!

[Greg Ross]

Salutations gentle folk

Ann and I are travelling on to Bucharest and then doing a Dracula Tour, which includes a dinner at the Count's castle. It will be a four day, Bucharest to Bucharest private tour, with a driver / guide and itinerary to suit us. We will fly / train / drive out of Krakow to Bucharest on Monday 9th August, then probably spend a day or two in beautiful Bucharest, before heading into vampire lore, back to Bucharest on either the Saturday or Sunday (we're still working it out with the company as to what is best. We're then flying out to Düsseldorf. The price (meals, accommodation and entry fees) is looking reasonable, about one thousand euros per person (as a working figure), but I'm very sure it will be less than that - I'm working on getting it to around $1,000AU, ($900US - E620) - 'll be able to give an exact price in the next few days,

Anyhow, it occurs that some of our friends here might like to join in for a mad finish to the Forum meeting, in which case, you'd be wonderfully welcome - I shall be wearing my 'Blood lust' cape and Tux for ze dinner with the Count!

[Carmen]

Salutations gentle folk

Ann and I are travelling on to Bucharest and then doing a Dracula Tour, which includes a dinner at the Count's castle. It will be a four day, Bucharest to Bucharest private tour, with a driver / guide and itinerary to suit us. We will fly / train / drive out of Krakow to Bucharest on Monday 9th August, then probably spend a day or two in beautiful Bucharest, before heading into vampire lore, back to Bucharest on either the Saturday or Sunday (we're still working it out with the company as to what is best.

I'm glad you decided to come over. This means we could be flying back to Bucharest (or, to please Laura, "Bucuresti") together. I'll think of several things to do in between your pre-set itinerary. A stop in a pub or restaurant is compulsory - and I'll think of some of my favourite places. Do you know anything about the hotel you're booked in - which one is it?
I'm waiting for more details from you - we have to celebrate your visit here!

Carmen

[Greg Ross]

Hi Carmen, lovely to hear from you and thank you for the warm salutation.

In krakow, we're staying at the Hotel Ester, (from Thursday 5th to the morning of Monday 9th August). And yes, info on who best to fly with and a friend / guide for Bucharest would be absolutley wonderful thank you!

[Womanfromaroom]

Carmen,

yes, lovely to hear from you, and thanks for the kind offer of showing us around a little! I would love to be made familiar with your favourite places...
By the way, if you mean which hotel we are going to stay at in Bucharest, no, we don't know yet, really... But I think something can, and will, be found in due time! If you have got any specific advice, please let us know; otherwise, we will just give you our details as soon as we know where we are going to stay! How about that?!

[Laura]

Yupee, that's really great, finally we get more far-away visitors! Unfortunately I have no idea where I'll be in august, I don't even know if I can make it to Krakow (but I'll try, no matter what!). I hope we can meet. If you need any kind of infomations, please ask me; I don't have much guide qualifications, but I'll do my best.
Of course, I don't want to spoil your fun, but I hope you know Bram Stoker was irish and his story has nothing to do with Romania and romanian history. (and if that guy wasn't dead already, I'd kill him myself! Oh yeah, I think everyone knows my opinion on the matter...)Well, what you might get are beautiful places and a mysterious-enough atmosphere, and I think those are worth the trip. And I honestly hope you'll see we're not all about darkness around here.

Laura

PS: Greg, now I'm worried about something. Is your accent as impossible to understand as the australian accent has the fame to be? (sorry, but I'm taking some advanced english classes now, and even the teacher warned us that australians are incomprehensible! They can only be surpassed by the scottish...)

[Greg Ross]

Hey there lovely Laura

Fear not, I know full well that Drac is Irish Bram's crazy little dream, however, I'm not sure about the possible nightmare of my Australian accent!

So, you can either ask, Ann, Mutti, Ladi Di, Lizzytish, Mary B, Kelsey or Roman (they've all had the misfortune to meet me) and here, perhaps I should add that I am a Kiwi by birth - I didn't move to Oz until my mid 20s. Or ...

... here's a video clip of my doing a broad Aussi accent on stage, as an actor in the role of a bikie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4cYTNo_LI


... and here's a video clip of me, being ... me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IlD3k17sAM

[Carmen]

Laura, I was kind of hoping you'd be around... but if you're not here in August, I'll do my best to help our friends enjoy Bucharest.

As for local hotels, Ann and Greg, it very much depends on your required standards - from 5 stars down. I'll check and tell you a few variants.
The weather is usually warm (even hot) in August, and the city is full of open air cafes. Lots to do, too. But we'll have enough time to talk things over.

Carmen

[mutti]

As requested by Greg I am writing to comment on his accent! I personally happen to love the Australian and New Zealand accent and one of the things about meeting Greg in person..even though it was very short was I loved his voice and the sounds coming out of his mouth.
I did understand everything he said...and his personality is so exuberant and kind you just fall in 'love' with him from the minute you meet him...now not in the way Ann K has...
I think you will have no problem as he is intelligent enough or so they say Ha Ha and speaks quite eloquently...
so no worries!
Love Mutti

[Womanfromaroom]

Laura, I also think Greg has been asking for compliments (as you know, the one thing he is not is English, so I don't think he would really do understatement as such!), so he will definitely have to take them now: I second every word Mutti has said there; and if meeting Greg has been one of the "misfortunes" in life, as he himself has put it in apparent modesty, I don't know what luck is, then! Personally, I would always go for that "misfortune" again...
You mention the Scottish, Laura; funnily enough, Greg's ancestors were Sccottish (the "Ross Clan"; cf. the crest below), but that really, really does not show in his accent! If you want to listen to him and his great voice, you might want to look at another Youtube video of him, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xujVmKl8qEU . Understandable enough, don't you think? Talking to Greg's son Gordon is a slightly different matter, though...

[MaryB]

Laura,

Ditto on everything that Leslie and Ann have said about Greg. As you can see from the interview video that Ann has posted, I think he is easily understandable and if you do have the good fortune to meet him, you will discover what a lovely man he is.

Best regards,
Mary

[Laura]

Ha ha, Greg, it looks like you're getting yourself a fan club here! Ok, I must admit, you don't sound so bad... as long as you don't decide to try your aussie accent on me, I think we will be fine.

Ann-Kristin: and someone told me young people are actually easier to understand in Australia! Oh well...

Laura

[Greg Ross]

Struth! As anybody who knows me will tell you, I'm not at ease with praise, but won't deny it is quite lovely to find one's friends think this way - thank you all. It's lovely to think that so many of us will break bread and savour good wine for several days. And Laura, dear lady it occurs that perhaps I should save my best Bela Lugosi (yes, i know, Hungarian) accent for you!

[ladydi]

Hi Laura,

I'll add my 2 cents worth in here also! Agree with everyone else that Greg is very easy to understand, and you shouldn't find any problem, even if he does have this Dracula obsession

Several years ago I saw this British comedy "The Full Monty". Well, I didn't understand a word they said...and they were speaking English! And last year a friend lent me a dvd called "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by Nick Park (he's done the "Wallace and Grommit" series of claymation characters). It was a group of animals all singing the "12 Days" song and very clever but once again it was like they were speaking Swahili . Then, I found the solution!! I clicked on "close-captioning" for the deaf and got sub-titles. Hooray! I could understand English!

So perhaps if there are any difficulties understanding each other, we can always resort to sign language!

[Carmen]

The first choice for a coffee-shop/restaurant in downtown (uptown?) Bucharest, on one of the poshest streets - where both the manager and his wife are big Cohen fans. Cohen music by request for hours! It's called "Dorde".

Carmen

[Carmen]

... and free use of language variants welcome, of course!


Carmen