It all started on a Tuesday. One of those Tuesdays when actually nothing ever happens - but on this particular Tuesday everything was going to be different. But because this Tuesday started off like all those other useless Tuesdays, I decided to combat my Tuesday Blues by chatting online with Andi Ban. Andi Ban is Oana Ban's sister (who is a gymnast of the Romanian national team and whom we will meet later) and... apart from that the nicest Andi I know. Not only in Romania. Anyway, shortly before this Tuesday threatened to turn into a Wednesday, Andi said: "Why don't you simply come on over to Romania?" And I answered: "Yeah, why the hell not?" Said. Done. The next morning I was in the travel agency booking my ticket to Romania, under the suspicious gaze of the clerk... Mikel goes Romania!

After spending 12 hours in planes and on airports I landed in Bucharest. And first lesson I had to learn was: yes, it’s very cold down in Romania! The thermometer showed only a couple of degrees below zero. Andi was everything I hoped for and her parents too. She and her uncle Viktor were waiting for me at the Bucharest airport. Everybody was very friendly, nice and helpful. What followed was the craziest ride of my life. Traffic in Bucharest is pure madness. Almost no traffic signs and nobody who knows the rules. I’ve seen things you can’t imagine! After 40 minutes we arrived at her uncle’s apartment. I spent the night there on a couch. One day and 800 km later we arrived in Cluij, the hometown of Andi and Oana Ban where I stayed the next seven days and made my first experiences in great Romanian hospitality...

Meeting Ioana Bondor...

On Xmas day we got a visit from Ioana Bondor. You remember? Ioana was listed as the number one junior in 1997. Until the 98 Nationals. There she fell off beam numerous times and Belu was so angry about that that he kicked her off the national team. I’ve always wondered what had become of her. And now she lived just across the street with her parents and brother. Funny!

Ioana invited us over to her house. I was quite surprised that she spontaneously started talking about all kinds of things. Though she talked in Romanian mostly I had little or no trouble understanding what she was talking about. She’s doing Athletics now (100m and long jump) and is in her final year of high school

She showed us a little book where she wrote down everything from her gymnastics period. Details like how much she weighs from day to day, what she ate, which exercise she did on that day, but also information about her teammates (name, birthday, hobbies - like a friends book). Andi said that all the gymnast keep such a book. Her mom brought us cookies and red wine. We looked at some pics, laughed a lot and got to know each other better.

Read how Mikels tour went on - when visiting Alexandra Barac in Sibiu...