Not my actual son, who is still negative-two months old. But like in a movie-sequel way. Io went to the hospital in the morning yesterday, rather than her usual night-owl practice of going in for the evening shift (she had her own health appointment there in the morning, so the morning shift made sense). That presented a chance for a rare daylight trip to the hospital when I went to pick her up, and since not much exciting has happened this week, I present to you my trip to Pantelimon Hospital in convenient photo essay format:
Start off at home in your nice warm jammies and Mr. Rogers-style sweater. I know it's freezing cold outside, which makes the call that Io is getting towards the end of her shift sort of a two-edged sword.
All bundled up and out on the road! This is the last time I ever saw those gloves. They became the second pair I have lost since arriving here. Luckily, I am at this point replacing them with gloves that cost 65 cents per pair.
The sun has been shining pretty brightly for the past couple of days, but temperatures are still below freezing. The end result is that the snow melts in some places where it's thin or where it had previously been cleared. Most sidewalks, though, still have two inches of hard-pack on them, so this combination causes the top of it to melt and then refreeze into a solid sheet of ice. Walking on the sidewalks is like walking on an ice-skating rink, so the smart money is to walk in the street.
This stray has found a nice patch of sun. The tag on his ear means he's been neutered by the city or by a good Samaritan.
The route to the bus stop takes me past the market area, which is fairly busy even in the middle of a weekday. I guess a lot of people are on six months of vacation just like me.
After a walk of about 4 blocks, we reach the bus stop on busy 1 December Street (named for Romania's national day). In the background you can see some of the blocs, giving some idea of the labyrinthine quality the residential areas have.
The 101 bus runs closest to Pantelimon Hospital, so on we go.
Here we are on the bus, getting the skunk-eye from a Romanian woman. The bus isn't crowded in this shot, but a few minutes after I took it people were jammed in the aisle like sardines.
You can pay your fare in a variety of ways. Io has a monthly pass that is good for all the Bucharest buses and trams, which I think is probably the smartest thing. I'll probably get one next month. You can also pay using an RFID card that can be refilled at a kiosk, similar to the TAP cards they have in Los Angeles.
Or if you're not a frequent traveler, or lazy like I am, you buy paper tickets. The passengers have no access to the driver (he's in like a sealed compartment), so when you get on the bus you insert your ticket into a little slot and then punch it. Each bus line has its own pattern of holes, which changes on some regular basis or something. So if a fare inspector comes on the bus, they can tell if you punched your ticket here or not. Io tells me that some people cheat the system by carrying an entire library of tickets punched in all different ways, and just looking at an honest person's ticket to see which one they should use.
The bus ride is about 25 minutes, and lets us off in the middle of Bucharest. Right near the stop is the entire reason I go on this trip (don't tell Ioana that)...Georgi Patiserie. This is, in my estimation, the best pastry place in all of Bucharest. They have great soft pretzels, and all sorts of breads and other pastries. You can see here that even in the middle of the workday, the place is packed and the outside fast-service window (which serves only a selection of their most popular items) has a line partway down the block. I almost always get a covrig cu mac (soft pretzel with poppyseeds) for the walk to Pantelimon.
There's a tram stop right across the street from the bus stop. If you want to, you can take the tram two stops to the hospital. But that would take another of my precious tickets, and the walk is maybe 15 or 20 minutes and is half the point of coming out here. It also gives me plenty of time to eat my pretzel.
So, off on the walk. It's cold, but I'm getting used to that at this point. Walking the streets of Bucharest is pretty exciting, because most Romanians consider traffic laws to be rough guidelines at best. Pedestrians run the lights all the time, and even drivers will usually stop for a red light if it's been red for more than 15 or 20 seconds, but will then run it if they don't see anybody walking right in front of their car.
As you can see, even though we're miles from home, the blocs in residential zone in the background are all identical to the blocs in Titan. Centrally planned efficiency!
Although the main street is fairly clear, the icy conditions continue to prevail along most of the sidewalks. Everyone walks using those halting half-steps you have to use on solid ice, and I see one person totally wipe out.
It's a walk of many blocks up to the hospital, though mostly business districts. It'll probably go faster in the summer when the sidewalk is clear, but right now I can finish a pretzel while I'm still only halfway to the hospital. A two-pretzel solution is obvious. I make a mental note for next time.
Our goal! Pantelimon Hospital. The hospital has armed security guards both inside and out, who wear solid-black uniforms with bulletproof vests and ammunition pouches sewn onto the sleeves. I have no idea why. But they never stop me coming or going, or anyone else for that matter, so I guess I don't mind. Although I wonder what they're actually there for. I guess they would respond if a squadron of armed ninjas tried to storm the hospital or something.
You can't actually see any of them in this photo. Or the ninjas, either.
This is where I spend most of my time, the hospital waiting area. The nature of Io's job (and the nature of Io herself) means that it's hard to predict when she will actually be able to leave, so I usually get in some quality time with Uniwar or some other iPhone game.
As I'm sitting here today, someone comes hobbling into the hospital with a plastic shopping bag wrapped around his leg. I assume that whatever is underneath the shopping bag is probably not good.
Nurse Io!
Once Io is ready to go, it's just a matter of changing clothes and then we're out of there. The return trip is another 45-60 minutes, although we took longer today because it was nice and daylight out, so we did a little window-shopping and stopped at a pastry place Io likes.
Not much else to tell for the past couple of days, really. We had Gagi's mother, who I think is nearly 90 [correction by Io: 93! Holy cats!!], over for dinner on Sunday. Tania made a full-on feast. We had ciorba (spicy vegetable soup, although I just had the spicy and soup parts), roasted chicken, potatoes, two kinds of bread, pickled veggies, and cabbage. Yay for giant meal!
Io got herself set up to play Civilization V in bed. If you prop the computer up just right, the baby makes a wrist-rest, preventing debilitating carpal tunnel syndrome. Thanks, baby!
My grand experiment in not showering ended after about a week. My scientific conclusion: not showering is itchy. How annoying. Io took this photograph. Thank your lucky stars it has been cropped on the lower edge. I'm saving you a lot of wear and tear on your mouse's scroll-wheel, if you take my meaning.
I think you do.
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