Day 16:
After the frenetic activity of our whirlwind tour of Romania and then the baptism / wedding checkup / house party, we felt entitled to a day of rest. We spent the morning mostly just hanging around the house doing nothing.
Ioana made delicious chicken in white wine for lunch, and I made wedge-cut fries Romanian style with paprika. Romanians love them some paprika, especially on potatoes, and I have to admit that they are onto something here. I don't know how expensive paprika is in America but I'm going to start using it more regularly.
Eventually Em convinced me that we should go out for a run. In the past weeks...okay, months...actually, going on a year...I've fallen out of my regular-5Ks running routine and gotten a bit, shall we say, more lax. So a run sounded like a good idea. We ran I would guess 1.75 miles or so around the streets of Titan (the neighborhood Ioana's family lives in). Em came back glowing and full of energy. I was sweating like I'd just been through a Romanian wedding. But exercise is good. Right? I hope so, because it sort of sucks to do.
After running, I felt like it was time for some donuts. I hadn't had Sassy Donuts since that day in the park. Io assured me she knew of a donut place that was a 20-minute walk away, which in my mind totally cancels out the fact that I'm eating donuts. So off we went.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived to find that these were (a) Furious Donuts, not the Sassy Donuts I craved; and (2) the place only had four lonely, stale donuts left, all of them with sour-cherry filling that I hate. Io bought one for herself, but I was having none of that.
Io convinced me that we should walk even farther from home because maybe there'd be Sassy Donuts somewhere else. We went on a long walking tour of Titan and eventually ended up at a local park. I was ready to go home, but Io said I should have faith and see if we could find some in the park. "Sure," I said. "Maybe my new God will bring forth Sassy Donuts." After all, I had renounced the Pope, hadn't I? Seems like maybe I'm owed a little something.
So we headed down there, which turned out to be a very happening place. Lots of people out on a Sunday afternoon, lots of stalls selling all sorts of stuff. There were some delicious treats -- some Hungarians were selling home-made candy (we bought some), and there were a couple of stalls selling delicious kolac. This is the stuff I previously called Turkish conac. The correct word is kolac, and it turns out Io was saying Kurdish, not Turkish, so Vlad Tepes is off the hook for killing the kolac makers. Saddam Hussein, you are now on my shit list.
We wandered around the park for a while, which was nice, but no Sassy Donuts. We had given up and were heading to the metro to catch the subway home when suddenly I heard the sweet voices of angels. The heavens parted, light beamed down, a burning bush started making frantic gestures towards a nearby stall, and a flock of geese flew overhead in the shape of a donut honking out the Ave Maria. I figured this was all a big coincidence, but as I walked up the stairs I saw...
SASSY DONUT!!!
So this story has a happy ending. I ordered my donuts (I have become a total expert at ordering donuts in Romanian), thanked whatever God the Eastern Orthodox worship, and had ten minutes of bliss as we headed back to the metro for home. Hooray!
This is way better than being Catholic
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