Full Of Sass And Fury, Signifying Nothing

Yesterday was our first full day with our American friends Jason and Rachel.  I thought the two of them would be totally useless due to jetlag for much of the day, but they were both bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as you can see in the photo at right.  There actually is an explanation for what they're doing there, but the explanation itself is weirder than letting you wonder about the explanation, so in the interests of maintaining their good reputations -- clearly of paramount importance here on One Man's Search For Dracula, a mission that we will see further strengthened as these entries go on -- I am going to leave it unsaid for now.

 We started out the day with a traditional Romanian breakfast of cold cuts, various cheeses, radishes, olives, and green onions.  Jason and Rachel each tried some tuica (the bathtub gin that all true Romanians make in their backyards).  As you can see, Rachel hated it, but Jason become more intellectual the more of it he drank.









After we ate we headed out to the Village Museum, which loyal readers of this blog will remember is one of my favorite things in Bucharest.  Lots of old houses, churches, etc. all lovingly maintained (and sometimes restored) and kept in this one big park so you can see them all together.  Although it's pretty cold in Bucharest these days, we still walked around almost all of the museum and looked at most of the buildings.

My kisses: so searing they cannot be captured on mortal film

We then headed over to see some other parts of downtown Bucharest, including a bunch of old and new buildings that I'm not going to show here because I have a strict three-building limit when it comes to blog photos.  However, while we were out Jason and Rachel got to eat both Furious Donuts and Sassy Donuts, which is something even I have never dared to try in the same day.  I mean, that is some donut overload.  Rachel declared Furious Donuts the best, but Jason and I are both Sassy men (we are also sassy men, but that goes without saying).  The sassy donuts are pictured at right.  If you look closely, you can see that Rachel is wearing a Russian Cossack hat and I am for some reason wearing a conical hat that makes me look like the guy from "V for Vendetta," yet Jason manages against all odds to be the goofiest-looking person in the photograph.  Well played, sir.

The evening ended with us returning home to one of Tania's fantastic home-cooked traditional Romanian dinners: sausage, polenta with special cheeses and sour cream, stuffed cabbage leaves, the whole nine yards.  Everyone ate until they were stuffed.  Although we went to one of the best restaurants in Bucharest the next day, Jason and Rachel both said the meal Tania made was better.  They kind of have to say that because Io was right there and can kill them with her judo, but even after they were safely out of her reach they still said it.

Romanian wine does not have the same intellectualizing effect on Jason.
Watching him go from tuica to wine is like an imbiberic Flowers for Algernon

Today we spent basically the entire day wandering around downtown.  In early March there's a Romanian tradition that you get yourself publicly weighed.  Rachel was horrified but Io insisted that it's bad luck if you don't do it, so we paid some bum with a bathroom scale to weigh her out on the street.  Jason and Rachel were so flabbergasted that both of them grabbed their cameras, on the (correct) assumption that otherwise nobody will believe this is even a thing.

Dracula's vaults

We then headed out to see the sights of downtown: Dracula's palace, University Square where the democratic revolution happened, a famous coffee shop that was really nice and built inside a Renaissance-era inn, a couple of really old churches, etc.  A fun time was had by all.  I unfortunately started coming down with a cold (both Io and King Gabriel were sick when I got here), so I didn't take many pictures.

After that it was off to my favorite Romanian restaurant, Caru cu Bere ("The Beer Wagon"), where we all stuffed ourselves silly, and entertained ourselves listening to the wandering violinist while watching some skeevy Asian tourist hit on all the hostesses and waitresses.  Lots of fun.  Then Jason ruined the night by making us all go clothes shopping, because that is how he is.

We said goodbye to the two of them and came back home to reunite with King Gabriel (who had been with his grandma all day -- thanks Tania!).  Tomorrow we see Rachel and Jason off on the Orient Express to Turkey.  Io and I will be joining them via airplane a day later, because trapping ourselves with an unpredictable baby for a 19-hour train trip seemed like madness.

So, next up: Istanbul!

Moment of Zen: