Congratulations!!!!

Finally.... Stefan and Irina did it!!! Stefan was my house mate, colleague and friend during my stay in Belgium. We passed through many ups and down together and shared a lot, so I was overwhelmed when I got a mail a year ago, saying that he finally proposed to Irina and that I am expected to attend his wedding in Romania.

So, after my trip to Sudan and then Ethiopia I headed of straight to attend my dear friend's wedding in Romania. The trip was almost cancelled due to the cancellation of flights by the airline, but it was soon sorted with the help of Stefan, Irina and the Airline!!! I spent the night in Rome, then headed off straight to Bucharest where I was picked up by a friend of Stefan's and later also discovered someone I had previously met on a conference in Canada and was whisked off to the mountains of Bran right under Dracula's castle.

Count Vlad Dracul's Castle right outside our hotel

I had visited Romania 2 1/2 years before when Stefan invited me for Christmas with his family. It was great to see the green mountain scenery of Romania during the 3hr drive from Bucharest to Bran. I finally made it in time to run to my room, shower get dressed and rush off just in time to see all the Romanian wedding Traditions and see Stefan meet his bride for the first time...... It was great to see those two again, and what was the most touching is that they were both so sincerely happy to have me there........I could feel my eyes watery.....

the beautiful bride looking pretty for the arrival of her groom

I'm sooooo happy!!!!! They're married!!!

The rest of the wedding was awesome!!!! We had a team reunion (all my team mates who were with me in Belgium where present).... reminisced the past, spoke about the future...... one is on the point of becoming Muslim so as to be able to marry his Moroccan girlfriend, the other is planning his wedding in August in France which I am also attending and the other has now moved to Sweden....... where he actually always wanted to be!!!!

I spent the night eating Romanian food, dancing, catching up with old Romanian friends and having the best night ever....

My Romanian friends..... Oana (far left) and me had been friends for ages.... she was finance in Romania when I was finance in Malta, she was President in Romania when I was President in Belgium, and she was my smoking buddie during the conference cigarette breaks

The next day most of us took the bus back to Bucharest, where I hung out with some friends from Belgium, enjoyed a nice dinner in town, and woke up the next day to catch my flight back to Libya.

It was like a dream...... though I know it was real as my feet still ache from the high heels and dancing.....

Next is Emmanuel and Eileen's wedding in France.... I can't wait......

Eileen and I, I'll be attending her wedding in France, where I will be part of her wedding Entourage... what fun!!!