This Train She's Bound For Glory

Romania with my parents continues.  Yesterday we ran some errands and they took giant naps to help adjust to the time-change.  We walked to the fancy Real hipermart and spent way too much money getting ready for our Sighisoara trip, and then went home and had another Tania home-cooked dinner.  Thanks Tania!

Because of various baby-related duties, Io and I weren't even able to start packing until like 9pm, and by the time we went to bed it was way too close to our 4am wake-up time.

This morning we were up before dawn to catch the train to Sighisoara.  The train trip turned out to be really pretty awesome.  We had a six-person private compartment all to ourselves, and since there are only four and a half of us that meant we had plenty of space.  We packed a picnic brunch and enjoyed the scenery and each others' company for the 5 1/2 hour trip to Sighi.  Gabe had lots of fun looking out the windows and ambling up and down the corridors of the train cars and looking at the other passengers.

Sunrise on the way to Sighisoara

The train pulled into Sighisoara around midday and we went and checked into our hotel, whose name I can never remember but is something close to Bimbliombulgobilbomberboomerang.  Io and my dad set this whole thing up and I wasn't paying much attention to it (I think I was finishing up a giant trial at the time).  This place is a freaking palace.  Io and I are in a nice junior suite with a great baby bed for Gabe and loads of space for us and all our stuff.  I am told that there's a spa here and that everything in the spa is included in the price of the room.  I am not normally much of one for receiving massages from strangers, but I think I am going to have to check this out.  The hotel is right at the base of the big hill that has Old Sighisoara on top of it.  I like the walk there and back, but it may be a bit rough on my parents.

We all got settled in and everyone except my forever-sacrificing wife took naps to catch up on our lost sleep.  Then we headed out to walk around Sighisoara.  It's as cool as I remember: old, beautiful.  We stopped for dinner in the same restaurant that Chris, Liz and I had dinner in about 40 blog entries ago, and it was still quite delicious.

While we were having dinner, night fell, and we walked back to the hotel seeing Sighisoara by night.  Also beautiful, and even older than when we saw it before.

And now we are back at the Bimbliombulgobilbomberboomerang, and I am pretty well exhausted.  It was just a short reconnaissance trip into Sighisoara today.  Tomorrow is the real deal, with full sightseeing and souvenir-buying activity.  For now we are all off to bed, and looking forward to another day and a half here in my favorite place in Romania.

Tomorrow is Gabriel's birthday, which is really sort of freaking me out. On the one hand, I can't believe it's been an entire year.  On the other hand, I can't believe his whole first year is over already, never to come back.

Moment of Zen: