|
|
Testimonials
EuRo Eclipse 99
These are some testimonials from people who attended EuRo Eclipse 99,
Ovidiu's previous small business run from Canada in 1999 in collaboration
with SARM and Romantic Travel tour operator in Romania.
Dear Ovidiu:
I just wanted to send a note to you and let you know that Su and I
had a very interesting and unusual experience on the trip with your group - and I use those words in their positive conotations. I know that much of
the planning and organizing from Romantic Travel did not go properly, directions were poor, reservations lost or mixed up, etc., but we found
Florin and yourself to be so extremely polite, helpful, knowledgable and hard working that it made up for all that. The fact is, that Su
and I were expecting much poorer conditions, service and support than
was actually available, so in some ways we were pleasantly suprised. At
any rate, Romania was an interesting adventure for us, we had a good time. It wasn't a "relaxing vacation", but that's not what we were looking for.
Best Wishes
Jeffrey Pedersen (Germany)
Dear Mr. Vaduvescu
Thank you very much for the tour. I enjoyed the country, the people,
the sea, the weather and the eclipse. I do not exclude that once I will want to spend my vacation in Romania again!
I definitely enjoyed the eclipse! I decided to view the eclipse not
from the field near "May 2" village (with other group members), but
from the Mangalia town beach. It was fine! I had the crowd of people,
the music, the shops, the shelter, the sea, the food and beverages.
And I had the eclipse!
I felt the spirit of crowd and the spirit of the whole Europe because
the radio loud announced every 5-10 minutes that the eclipse began in
England, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, etc... When the eclipse
began in Mangalia all people at the beach shouted, cheered, whistled,
the town switched on the lights, and the ships in the port of Mangalia
started to beep. It was the spirit of a big stadium or a big theatre.
And the colors… The colors of the eclipse were fantastic! I didn't
see the stars, but I saw the Sun crown and the brilliant Venus to
the left hand from the Sun.
I met two SARM representatives: a girl (her name is Emma) and a
guy (I don't remember his name; he lives in Mangalia). They were nice
and friendly, answered my questions, provided me with my tourist portfolio
and solar glasses. Besides that they informed us about eye safety as well
as offered the explanation of solar eclipse phenomenon and effects.
At the departure day Emma accompanied us from Constantsa to Bucharest
and helped us not to lose the way in unknown country :-)
I definitely enjoyed the country, the people, the culture, the
cuisine (especially Timishoara beer), the sea, the weather, the nature
and the eclipse. People were friendly and always tried to help me when
they saw that I am a foreigner. The only minor problem was that the
majority of Romanians speak neither English nor Russian, but everything
ended up well :-)
Sincerely,
Konstantin Yakovlev (US, Russia)
P.S. I think that Europe is better than Africa, so it would be a good idea
to arrange the next total solar (year 2001) again in Romania :-) :-)
Dear Ovidiu:
All of us had a great time and immensely enjoyed the tour and, of
course, the Eclipse. It was very nice to finally meet you at the
SARM camp. I hope you had as good a view of the big event as we did from
Pitesti. Everyone learned a great deal about Romania, and a number of
us are anxious to return for another, more liesurely trip. The country was
beautiful and fascinating, with it's great range of landscapes, contrasts
of architecture and cultures, and friendly people. Thanks again, for all
your work in organizing and promoting these tours!
Dave & Toni Bell, and all our "Clan" (US)
Hi!
My first message to you.
The people, sights, food, tour guide, transportation, and all were most
memorable, even intelligent. If anything, it was almost too much to do,
which is fine. But one extra hour for sleep some nights when so many of
us were of the "gray-haired generation" (a very good sophisticated group,
by the way, perhaps because they were screened by having to use the web
to find you) would have given us more energy, too, but that's a quibble.
Been locating many Enescu CDs and giving a good listen. Wonderful! We
got to go to his museum the last day, as our plane was much later departure
than most of the others in our group.
You may be pleased to hear that my composite eclipse image, made in
collaboration with a good friend up in Rimnicu Vilcea, will be on the
cover of the next issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, their eclipse
round-up issue. I've posted some decent quality jpegs to my lengthy
eclipse web page.
Look near the bottom for a brief recent report. I'll expand it with
more tales of Romania when I come up for air in a few weeks. And I'll
take a look at your overview site shortly as well. I heard you intersected
with our old friend, Roger Tuthill. Good man. He's been at this even longer
that we have, although this was my 21st eclipse, 18th total... I think.
Wendy Carlos (US)
Dear Dr. Ovidiu Vaduvescu,
We came back to my home yesterday. Because it took about 18 hours from
Bucharest to Tokyo, we had slept for a long time yesterday.
First, I must thank you. We could see a wonderful total solar eclipse with
you. It was not the best one but my wife and I, and especially Mr. Yasuda
for whom it was the first experience, were very much moved. I will not forget
the two hours ran to Bucharest with the car. There are all of our wonderful
experiences thanks to you. I do a respect sincerely to members who completed
this plan. At Stefanesti I was helped by a lot of persons and I was deeply
impressed with the good work of the people. Four days in Romania were very
delightful to me. I think Romanian people are kind and gentle. I like
countryside rather than big city. I think that the countryside leaves
the past goodness.
There was only one thing with the regret of. We stayed at Hotel Ambassador
in Bucharest the last night in Romania. Early morning 12th, a hotel driver
took us to the airport with hotel car. When arriving at the airport, he
demanded 225 dollars to us! Of course I refused, but after all, he carried
away 100 dollars from me. I coudn't believe such a man works at 3 stars
hotel in the capital! But I am believing almost all Romanian people are
kind and gentle as at Stefanesti. As for me, the working begins again from
tomorrow. If our photographs were developed, I will contact you again. All
the best for you!
Osamu Ohgoe (Japan)
Dear Ovidiu,
It's good to hear from you! We really enjoyed our Romanian eclipse '99
visit and adventure, in spite of a few glitches. Thank you for all the
work you did in its preparation!
Thanks a lot also for providing all the pictures on the web just now.
Preparing the photos represents a lot of work. The photos you've posted
bring back fond memories of the events and the friends we've made, etc.
Classes here have been in session for two weeks now (we had less than
one week preparation after our return), so I haven't had much time to work
on our photos. I intend to co-add the video photos of the flash spectrum
to improve the signal/noise. I'll let the "world" (our mailing list) know
when I have the flash spectrum posted.
Keep in touch!
Donald and Victoria Collins (US)
Dear Ovidiu,
I will answer now to your questionary:
> 1. Accordingly with the tour agreement, how was the activity
of Romantic Travel at EuRo Eclipse 99?
[ Please fill in only your sincere thoughts here ] ...
I think that Romantic travel did not do too much.
Appart of booking a bus and booking the hotel rooms I don't see what
effort they brought to this trip. SARM people and all their friend did
much more in terms of activities and ideas. Our guide did his best to
help and confort the group but his power were apparently very limited...
> 2. What do you think about SARM's activity at EuRo Eclipse 99?
The preparation work done by SARM was obviously great:
Welcome, choice of sites, planning and timing, ideas of visits, and all
the people we met. Furthermore SARM people were always with the group to
socialise explain things and generally make this trip beeing much more
than a simple touristic tour in a country. We shall be extremely grateful
to Romanian and SARM people since their ressources are very low and they
have been most generous to us with their time and energy.
> 3. What do you think about TSE99's activity at EuRo Eclipse 99?
No comments [actually, Damien is one of my friends :) ]
> 4. Did you enjoy the eclipse?
Yes, of course very much so. It was worth all the time and kilometers in
the bus and more!
> 5. Did you enjoy your tour?
Yes very much so. It was a great adventure and
experience. This trip will be remebered for a long time and
I have now so many great things to tell everybody. Some do not
even believe what we have been doing!
> 6. What do you think about our people and country?
It is hard to say it in a few words but Great, great great. The
economical situation and the standard of leaving are to be improved:
Wake up Romania! but the country is extremely beautiful and the people
are most generous kind and charming. I'll be back at any time and do
great advertisement for Romania.
> 7. Would you like to return sometime to visit Romania?
Yes, yes, yes, I have many reasons for!!!!
> 8. Do you plan to see one of the next total Solar eclipses?
Maybe.
[ Only for the participants who attended the Camp, Meeting, Astro Art
actions or visited them in Targoviste ] :
> 9. How was the astronomical meeting and the camp in Targoviste?
Very interesting and well organised. The diversity of people makes it
very special and interesting. It is a great way to meet Romanian people
and really get to know them.
> 10. How was the astro-poetry festival and the astronomical showroom?
It is one of the most surprising event I have ever taken part of. Many
different people, cultures, countries, interests..... Long life to the
festival!
Damien Simon (France)
Dear Ovidiu,
It's great to be in contact with you again and I was so happy to meet you
at the camp and listen to the songs and poems. Everyone was having such a
good time and the anticipation of the Eclipse was tremendous. We were so
lucky to have had such a great day, for a while up there in the mountains
it was definately touch and go!!!
For me, my first eclipse was such an emotional experience and was fortunate
to share it with a great group of people. I have such tremendous memories of
Romania, the country, folklore,people, food and music and I shall definately
return one day.
I have never stopped thinking about my time there and have told so many
people about the country, it was definately the highlight of my Eastern
European Tour, and I am definately much richer for my experiences.
I especially would like to say how much I enjoyed the services of the
representative of SARM, Laurentiu Ezarcu. He was always so considerate,
kind and very professional and a great asset to the society.
We certainly covered the life of Vlad the Impaler from his beginnings to
end and it was a very good Dracula Tour. I really enjoyed the country side
of Romania and only wished we had more time to spend with the local people
especially in the fortressed villages and in the country, and more time
should be given to local folklore and photostops. We were also very close
to the famous painted monastries of Bucovina, but unfortunately a stop was
not planned. Everyone enjoyed their overnight stay with the families in
Arefu and I think that more of these should be included.
I enjoyed the hospitality and friendliness of all the people I met. The
country is so vibrant with the different styles of architecture, costumes,
culture and music. I will come back most certainly.
Thank you Valentin Grigore for everything that you did to make us most
welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed the astro-poetry festival and the astronomical
showroom and know it will recaive great enthusiasm here at the Port
Elizabeth Astronomical Observatory.
Well thank you again for arranging this most memorable trip and hope to
hear from you in the not to distant future. Wishing you a clear evening sky!
Best regards
Sandra Maguire (South Africa)
Hello, Ovidiu!
It was good to meet you at the Perseid camp during my eclipse trip
to Romania (I was with the Dracula tour group). Thank you for making
this wonderful experience possible.
A few comments:
Romantic Travel did a good job; our guide did a fine job, and Laurentiu
from SARM was quite helpful and good company as well. I especially
appreciate their efforts to allow members of our group access to the
roof of our hotel in Targu Mures on the night of the Perseids peak.
We were above most of the city lights, and in between cloudy periods we
saw quite a few bright Perseid meteors.
Of course our eclipse viewing was successful (a 60 km detour from
our selected viewing site was necessary due to clouds). Attached is a
photo I took of the eclipse; feel free to use it. Also a photo of
members of our group, happy after the eclipse.
Apart from our eclipse viewing, our touring schedule was fairly
ambitious, I believe. Personally, I might have preferred a little
less travel, and more time spent at each stop. But probably the
"average" tourist wants to see as many places as possible.
I want to return to Romania! I enjoyed most the Transylvanian
countryside. What a beautiful part of the world! I particularly
appreciated spending one night at a farm home in the village of
Arefu. I would enjoy spending more time in a village such as this,
with some "day trips" to surrounding areas.
Although I was also impressed with the high quality 4-star hotels
we stayed in, the country home hospitality was my favorite part of
the trip.
I also liked the SARM camp, although it appeared that the heat was
a real problem during the daytime. (I understand that it was cloudy
during the Perseid peak as well...did you have any successful meteor
viewing? I would be interested in Perseid 2000 information in the
future...
Thank you again for making this possible. It was a good trip.
James Rosenstock (US)
Dear Ovidiu,
Thanks for your email. You have an excellent set of pictures on
the website, showing not only the magnificent eclipse but capturing
some of the atmosphere of the tour!
Part of Kevin's video of the eclipse will be shown on BBC television
tomorrow. We will try to make a recording that we can copy to
members of the group outside the UK.
My wife and I are having a short holiday in Brittany next week.
Then back to the hectic start of term in the university. I have
filled in your questionnaire below.
With very best wishes and thanks for such a memorable trip to
Romania.
David Kennedy (UK)
|
|
|
