"I hate goodbyes!"

The Beautiful city of Budapest!
The lads in Budapest!!!

Us in Budapest!

Carl with Emi and Dina! Legends!

Joel with Emi and Dina! Legends!

Hello and thanks for checking out the last ever Romania blog!!!

We're now in Budapest and just waiting in our hostel to leave to travel to the airport! The last few days have been awesome with Sir Petey Woo! or as he has now became known as 'Belly Button' ;) We arrived here on Tuesday after a 5 or 6 hour car journey from Zalau! That day we just took a bit of time to see the city, and chillaxed in the park watching the skaters. Then we had tea and then heading back to chill at the hostel, where we met two hilarious guys... They were like Seth and Evan from Superbad! Uncool but hilarious! :)

On Wednesday, we walked up to the Castle in Buda to see around the sites there. There was awesome views as you can see from the photos! After that we went to a Turkish Bath, which was beast! Pretty disturbing as a lot of the old Hungarian dudes brewed about naked... But aside from that, it was a good experience! We also got a massage there!!! Which you might think sounds a little wierd, and you would be right! Walking into the room, i could have thought of many people i would rather take a massage from, but the bald guy was surprisingly gentle!!! :) Jokes. but not really. They were awesome massages in all seriousness! Then we chilled in the hostel before heading out for dinner! Was a pretty full day, and was great to see the city!

Today, we had a bit of a lie in and then spent some time reflecting on the last month, before dandering about the city again. Thinking about the last month, its been IMMENSE! We'd like to thank you for all your support, prayers and coming with us on the journey! The blogs been good fun for us to do, and i hope its been fun for you guys to read :) God has really moved while we've been here, and we cant wait to tell you more about all that has happened!

See you all soon! God Bless <3

"I hate goodbyes!"

"I got a cousin, he'll wear a manhole cover if he can get a big enough chain"

Nelu, Georgina and their family! Thanks for a great weekend!!!

Us and Mircea at the waterfall!!!
Carlo at the waterfall!!!

Joelsy at the waterfall!!!

Us and our good friend Dana!!!

Alright everyone! :)

We're back with another update on hows it all going here in Romania! This will probably be our penultimate blog!!! :( But first off, Laura Dickson needs a shout out, for being a total LEGEND!!! I've nobody to do random dances with in the middle of the street!!! Peace LD :) And second moment of dedication goes to big Josh Walker, who in his own words is "a Class A Gangster"!!! :D

So on Saturday we travelled to a village in the mountains called Scrind with Mircea. The village itself is over 750 metres above sea level! He then took us way higher up to a local waterfall! It's unreal as you can see from the photos!!! We spent over an hour there just taking pictures and looking about the mountain in awe!

After that, we went to Nelu and Georgina's house in Scrind. They were the couple who were hosting us over the weekend... And two legends!!! We had a great time getting to know them a bit more, and spending time with their family! The food was unreal, and it was also particularly nice to have a warm shower for once!!! That night we all watched Black Knight, which was hilarious! Shout out to Martin Lawrence!!! :) Boom!

Today we went to two church services in local villages surrounding Scrind. The first was a very small room, and only had 2 people other than Nelu, Georgina and us. Joel preached about the calling of the First Disciples in Luke 5 v 1 - 11. He was relieved there was only 5 people in the room to preach to! Phew! :) Carl also gave his testimony! Then we went back to the house for lunch, before going to a different church in a different village. At this service there was again only 3 people plus us and Nelu! This time, both of us gave our testimonies which seemed to be a huge encouragement to those who were there! Slava Domnului! :) (Praise the Lord, for those who don't speak Romanian)!!!

After the service, we travelled back to Zalau. Tonight we're hanging out with our friends again, and tomorrow is our last day in Zalau :( On Tuesday we travel to Budapest to meet big Petey Woo!!! Gutted to be leaving here, but looking forward to seeing Budapest, and of course, Big Waugh <3

Hopefully we'll get our last blog up in Budapest! So stay tuned! And thanks to all those who have been following our journey in Romania :D Peace out!

"Well lots of brothers wear medallions. I got a cousin, he'll wear a manhole cover if he can get a big enough chain. Got to put some bling bling on it though"

"Slinky Slinky, everyone loves a Slinky! GO SLINKY GO!"

Us with Pastor Dan from Simleu!
Above and Below - The janitor from Simleu, aka. The Hugger!

Us with Piano Man! BIG love!

And below - Us with Pastor Peter! LEGEND!

Salut everyone :) Its us again!

So this week has been a real practical week for us! We've been working hard and we're totally shattered! But before we get onto telling you's all about what we've been doing, we have a few really important things that we've got to get out of the way: First we want to give a BIG shout out to Emma Rea and Amy Evans - aka. EmDawg and AmDawg!!! They are LEGENDS and we miss them lots! Yall want a shout out people - just ask - thats how you do it! :)

So on Tuesday, we had a table talk with a local pastor. Basically, its just a Bible Study together, and it was banter! The Pastor was called Peter and is an absolute LEGEND! Always cracking jokes, which would be funnier if they were in english, but still hilarious! :) After, we got stuck into some more work on the house. We had to fix up the garden a bit again, because the weeds were already growing back... Lol. So after we got that out of the way, we had a Pizza King for lunch! BOOM! We ate so much we actually felt so sick :P That night we headed to our friends house as usual, and hung out with them and our good friend Piano Man... (Ionut)... (John)... lol. What a man <3

On Wednesday, we had to get rid of the massive pile of sand at the side of our house. So we had to bag it, and move it! Doesnt sound like much, but in 30 degree heat its pretty tiring! So we had the beautiful bods out ;) Plus sands pretty heavy. But anyways, so we had to move the bags of sand from the back of our house, round to the side/front. Joel was carrying round one of the bags, with his top off, whilst roaring like a dinosaur because it was so heavy...... Unfortunately, a middle aged woman walked past at this exact moment and was slightly terrified at this sight!!! :)

So on Wednesday night, we went to the Youth Group on the Church in Simleu! We listened in on their meeting, and then played a bit of pool and table tennis after! BANTER!!!

So yesterday and today, we have been moving tiles from our house to another house in a nearby village. So yeah, our house was a bit of a mess outside, with tiles and sand everywhere, but we've sorted that out a good bit now! Again it was awesome weather, but then also very tiring!

So now we're going to head round to our friends house again tonight for some LOST banter! Joelsy's got them all hooked on it ;) We dont know really what we are doing tomorrow. We're supposed to be going away for the weekend, but we haven't been told anything, so yeahhh, who knows what we will be doing! And we'll try update the blog as soon as we can with what we got up to!

Until then, take care and keep praying for us! Peace!

"Slinky Slinky, everyone loves a Slinky! GO SLINKY GO!"

"I didn't shoot him full of holes or try to jump off a building with him."

Paul and Edith!!! - Legends! Thanks a million!

David, our translator! What a guy!!

Kriszti!! See you in June!!!


Robi and Sanyi!! 2 complete legends!!

and below, the widow happy with her newly painted gates :)

Heyaaaaa everybody :)

We're back again! Sorry we've taken a while to update the blog, but we've been pretty busy over the last few days! But read on, and find out all about it!!!


So on Thursday we travelled to Simpetru to do some practical work there. We were painting a gate for a widow that lived in the village. It was really good weather again, so it was tiring enough, but good fun too! The hard work was worthwhile when we saw the woman's face after we finished. She was so thankful, and just completely filled with joy!!! She kept saying "God bless you" in Romanian!!! And this was the highlight of a class day! :)


On Friday we met up with Jim Brown and Norman Lynas from Exodus. Norman was delivering teaching to local pastors at a conference in the Church next to our house. It was nice to have some teaching in English again! After we went back to Jim's house to have lunch with him and Norman. We ended up doing the gardening too!!! And Norman did a short discipling session with each of us, which we both found to be really beneficial! Norman also thought we would make 2 great teachers - that's 2 of you now Karen Booth!!!

That night we headed to Simleu Baptist again, but this time to participate in their youth meeting. They're partnering with an Exodus team that is coming over, so it was great to meet them! After we had a bit of banter with them, playing table tennis, pool and table football!!! Another epic day!!! :D


Early...and i mean early... Saturday morning we travelled to a village called Kec, near the Hungarian Border. We've been working hard on our Romanian, which proved to be completely useless while we were staying there, as they all spoke Hungarian!!! We stayed with a Pastor of a Reformed Church, like Presbyterian, called Paul - he was a legend! We met up with a guy called David who showed us around the village. After lunch, we led a meeting for a team of young people from their church who are coming to Ireland with Exodus in June! It was good banter, and great to start friendships with them all :)


Straight after this we went to their Youth meeting, and sat in on it. We worshipped, prayed and did a Bible study led by 2 of the young people there! It was an unbelievable night, no doubt the best night we have had so far :) It was amazing to see that God's presence was so evident in this group of people! It was actually like a family, rather than a youth group. They were all so passionate about God, and it was really refreshing and encouraging to see this!!! We also broke into small groups and had time to just chat to each other. We were two other guys called David and Sanyi, and it was class to hear some of their stories and be with them :) Sanyi actually used to live in Cookstown for a while!!! And some of the stories were hilarious!


Then we headed back inside, and they taught us an AWESOME game called Parliament! It's too long to explain now, but trust me Trinity Youth, we're going to be playing it pretty soon!!! :D

On Sunday, we went to the Church, and gave our testimonies. The Church service was different to Romanian services, but more similar to services we would have at home. Still hard to follow in a different language though!!!

That afternoon, the youth choir from the Church were participating in a big service, where all the different choirs from the area took part in. Not just saying this, but the Kec choir where by far the best!!! :) So after this, 14 of us crammed into a 9 seater mini bus to get back to Paul's house to prepare a surprise birthday party for his wife Edith. It was really cool to see how Birthdays are celebrated here; they're very different to what we have at home. So we had some birthday cake, and then played some more Parliament!!! We were a bit better this time, as we started to understand how to actually play! After this there was a Hungarian Karaoke, which we gave a by-ball to! Another awesome night - and we're all really tight with the youth there! It was rubbish saying goodbye, but we got lots of pictures and we can't wait to see the ones that are coming to Ireland in the summer!!! :)

Today, we just travelled back to Zalau, and are now shattered, sitting in Imbiss. We'll be taking advantage of a potential early night tonight! It's been a long, but awesome weekend!!! Hope everything is sweet in NI. Keep in touch, and let us know your prayer requests, thoughts or questions you may have!!!

"See how easy that was? Boom, still alive. Now we question him. You know why we question him? Because i got him in the leg. I didn't shoot him full of holes or try to jump off a building with him."

"Rumplestiltskin's a good man... So are you guys"

Joelsy's 1st Hitchhike!!! :D

Carl's 1st Hitchhike!!! :D


The lads!!!

Just for you Geary!!

Hey Hey :D

First off, big shout out to Courtney Rainey! For anyone else who feared that we actually did get robbed by a sweet old lady on a motorised cart - we didnt!!! The titles are only movie quotes!!! :) Lol

So we had our day off on Monday, but yesterday we got stuck into some more practical work around our house. We finished off the painting more or less, and then last night we went round to our mates' house and watched Liar Liar! Banter! Unfortunately we couldn't find any appropriate quotes to use as our title today!!!

But anyway, today the banter properly began! We hitch hiked..........................

Yeah you read that right, we had to hitch hike to get to another village called Sutor. We were going to the site where the new Exodus centre is being built, and hitch hiked a lift! LOL! We can just imagine Lynn McManus having a heart attack right now reading this ;) But it was grand, the guy didn't speak english, but we got there, and he didnt charge us any money!!!

So at the new centre, we were clearing a field of trees and branches all day! The weather was unbelievable, and so was the view! So we may have a bit of a workman's tan now!!! It was a long enough day and we're pretty tired! And cut from all the thorn bushes!

But now we're sitting in the usual hangout of Imbiss, about to get a dirty wee kebab, so that makes it all better :) And as usual, we're heading round to Emi and Dina's tonight to watch another movie!

Stay tuned for more updates!!!! Lots of love from Joelsy and Carlo <3

Sonny: "Especially Yoohoo with a little rum"

Kid: "What's Rum?"

Sonny: "You don't know what Rum is?

Kid: "Rumplestiltskin?"

Sonny: "Rumplestiltskin... Rumplestiltskin's a good man... So are you guys"

"You like espresso? I'll make it back there myself with a lemon twist, it's good, you'll like it!"

Horse and cart ride!!!
Day in Cluj with Pica and Codruta

Salut!!! Ce faci? :)

Thats hello, how are you, in Romanian!

So you might have found our last title to be a bit random! So we'll explain! So basically, we thought at the time that it would be a good idea to make our title a movie quote!! We should add that this bears no relation whatsoever to what we are talking about in the blog! Just for the bant!!! The last one was from Dumb and Dumber by the way, for all of you who don't know. But anyways...

So on Friday we didnt really do much. We went to see our friend Emil play a gig at the local school! Quite random that two foreigners could just brew into the school without any questions asked. But meh. It was quite good weather and the craic was good! It was funny to see them play We Are the Champions! The other band were also really good, and they did some Greenday and Blink 182 :) ROCKIN // *tribute to Pete Waugh*

On Saturday we went to Cluj, which is one of the biggest cities in Romania! We met this legend called Pica and his girlfriend called Codruta. They showed us round the city and took us to a pretty epic mall called the Iulius Mall! While we were in the city we just randomly brewed into 2 different weddings! And then we bought our Romania footy tops in the Mall :) After we got a wee McD's, we headed back to Pica's girlfriends house and played a bit of cards!!! :P Great day!!!

So when we got home on Saturday, we headed round to our friends house for Emil's birthday party! Happy 21st big lad :) We had some pizza and cake, and watched movies! Didn't get home until 2am, so it was a pretty long day!

So yesterday we went to a church in another small village called Stupini. It again was a really small room again, and we did our testimonies, translated by our lovely friend Dina :) Have to say that, she is sitting beside us!!! Was really encouraging because the people were so full of joy! Then we went back to Simpetru and got a horse and cart ride!!! Absolute BANTER!!! We must have looked like right pillocks, because we kept nearly falling off it! :) Then Carl preached in the church in Simpetru that night about Luke 10 v 38 - 42, Mary and Martha, and how important it is to spend time with God. He did epically well considering the amount of notice he was given!!! :D That night we headed back to Dina and Emils, and watched Rush Hour 2!!! Another long, but epic day!!!

At the minute, we're sitting in Imbiss with Dina and Dana <3 Just enjoyed a good burger and chips!!! Its our day off, so we havnt any plans! just going to head and do the shopping now and then head to our friends tonight again :)

"You like espresso? I'll make it back there myself with a lemon twist, it's good, you'll like it!"

Romania pics - our house!!