Romanian Beach Party

A team from Romania called the ParaMongols, the Undercover Paramedics for Mongolia, used social networking to great effect and put on a blast of a beach party. Vama Veche is a well known, at least in these parts, hippie beach just north of the border with Bulgaria. Over the years, like so many hippie enclaves, the regular tourists are muscling in. But for now it retains the sense of free spirited on-the-beach camping, optional swimsuits and do as you like as long as you’re cool-ness. The ParaMongols went all out. A team of five students, none of whom are paramedics incidentally, pulled together a full stage show with lighting, two bands (that we remembered), disco interludes, a secured campsite and free showers for any of the Rallyists that turned up. In the end we were about 20-odd cars and a half dozen motorcycles, along with 40-50 of the ParaMongols’ support party and a bunch of other holiday makers. The bar was serving beer at 5 Lei a pint (that’s about $1.50 US) and we cemented friendships with a few of the teams we’d met at the Czech out party. Aside from being over 50, attached, and pretty knackered after the early start, we were all set to have a good time. By the looks of things if we’d been half our ages, unattached and a little more with it we would probably still be there. By midnight and a couple shots of Triple Sec and Stroh’s 80 rum more than we should have had, we crashed into our tents and slept until the sun baked us out again. A skinny dip in the Black Sea (hey, when in Romania, do as they do), followed by a shower and a big breakfast we were ready to hit the road for Odessa. Or so we thought…