In most parts of Europe this year, snowfall's been dismally disappointing and many skiiers are swooshing down the slopes on artificial snow. But what can you do about it, really: that's just nature!

That's not the attitude being taken, however, by a bunch of disgruntled Romanian snowboarders. They held a sit-down protest in front of the National Weather Institute in Bucharest this week. Their complaint--quite simply, a lack of snow.

With nothing better to do (and their snowboards still in their cupboards) they stayed at the institute until officials told them their complaint "would be passed on to a higher authority." Al Roker?

[Photo: Thomas Hawk]

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· Snowboarders Stage Protest [Ananova] ]]> amandak 2007-01-17T10:50:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/12/25/234231/07
We really want to congratulate Romania on January 1 when it enters the European Union, but there's just too much weird news coming outta there to concentrate on the serious stuff. This time we've learnt of a soccer team which is bartering a player for a gas pipeline.

The way we know it, when you want to exchange your football/baseball/basketball players, you agree on a price, and do it. Not so in Romania.

The boss of a second division soccer team in western Romania, who also happens to be the local mayor, has offered his star goalkeeper to a first division team on the condition that the rich owner pays for a gas pipeline to his town. Of course, we can think of other ways a football team could provide a lotta gas for a town, but Romanians are obviously too polite to think of this.

[Photo: Tsjeu]

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· Careful With That Toothbrush in Romania [Jaunted] ]]> amandak 2006-12-26T11:45:03-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/11/10/5044/5658
If everything that we hear happens in Romania really is true, it must surely be the most exciting country on the planet. We've already told you about mayors who promote open-air sex, nude models who demand better pages in the newspaper and farmers who feed their cows dope. With all this action, who wouldn't want to hop a plane to Bucharest right this minute?

But wait, there's more. This week alone, news reports told us about a Romanian girl in the town of Falticeni who swallowed a toothbrush while imitating what the reporter explained as "extreme moves" from an adult movie; another mentioned an 80-year-old hospital patient in Botosani who had to use his mobile phone to call the emergency service line from his hospital bed to get attention from doctors. Where does all this Romanian news come from, and why don't these crazy things happen in neighboring Bulgaria or even in our own backyards? Clearly because Romania is the most totally hip place to travel that we haven't quite discovered yet. Get going.

[Photo: andrea z]

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· Romania's Humping Hill [Jaunted]]]> amandak 2006-11-10T09:23:44-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/11/7/5284/68854
So Britain wants to attract more visitors and they've set up British Tourism Week (starting next year) to do so. Fair enough. But is choosing flappy-eared Prince Charles as the patron of BTW really the smartest move? The VisitBritain boss reckons that the support of Charlie is "evidence of the critical importance ... of our royal heritage to the tourism industry." So if your idea of a good time in England is buying dinner plates with long outdated pictures of the royal family on them, then you're the target group.

But all this at the same time as Charles starts building a castle in Romania? Reports this week also tell that the would-be-King has purchased property in Transylvania, and the stories vary from a desire to promote sustainable tourism to the rumor that he's already busy building a palace there. Of course, we know better, because there's plenty to attract you in Romania: sex, drugs and pretty women to start with. Go for it, Charlie.

[Photo: mansonxu]

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· Prince Charles in Transylvania [This is London]
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]]> amandak 2006-11-07T09:13:18-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/11/2/81830/3565
Time for another lesson in marriage proposals the Eastern European way. In Serbia, we know men make wedding proposals by spelling out their request with taxis. A bit further east in Romania, one man recently used a Cinderella-style proposal when his fiancée dropped him four days before the wedding: he announced in his hometown that he'd marry whichever girl fitted into the wedding dress!

He's now recommending this to all the local men as the way to find the love of their lives, after the new bride turned out to be a perfect match for him. So let's get some bridal travel going: head to the Malu Mare commune in Dolj country, Southeastern Romania, and attend a few wedding gown fitting sessions until you find your Romanian Prince Charming. It's gotta have a success rate at least as good as speed dating.

[Photo: JumpinJack]

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· Jilted Groom Finds Fitting New Bride [Ananova]
· Asking For Her Hand ... [Jaunted] ]]> amandak 2006-11-02T08:56:51-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/11/1/52752/8862
Romania's constantly pumping out news that just makes us want to drop everything and buy a ticket to Bucharest: from the sexy nurses to the sex tourism, it's got everything we need.

With European Union membership coming for Romania in January 2007, they're gearing up for a big rise in tourism. Whether it's more flights into the country or improving accommodation possibilities, everyone's doing their bit, and that includes the local witches. A celebrity witch in Romania, Ioana Sidonia, has been ruminating on the question of EU accession:

My magic powers told me that not only would Romania prosper from joining the EU, but that it would bring me lots of English-speaking clients.