Romania. From the airport having big scary guns pointed at you, our first travel through Bucharest on a bus with Michael Jackson's What about us playing (they have music on buses), a very flourescent fast food restaurant where the staff were on rollerskates and the Outhere Brothers were being played on a continuous loop (think "Don't Stop Wiggle Wiggle").
After an 8 hour journey on a train like something out of the railway children in a tiny 4 person compartment for 8 of us, all our luggage and guitars we stepped out into tiny village in the mountains and was like going back 100 years with ponies and carts, livestock everywhere and no phones.
The whole experience was amazing, spending a week helping to run a youth camp then another week staying with a family in Tirgu Jiu. The whole place is a big culture shock.