I Bet There's Rich Folks Eatin In A Fancy Dining Car

Here we are back home again in Bucharest.  We had basically two days here to regroup in preparation for my parents' arrival.  We spent a good portion of the first one going to Rahova to visit the great-grandparents.  They were very happy to see everyone, and Gabe was happy to see them.

We had a lot of fun looking at great-grandma's chickens, and using the well, and everyone had a lovely meal together.

We also spent a fair amount of time cleaning and buying stuff to get ready for my parents and for the trip we are taking to Sighisoara with them.  Once again I was struck by how difficult things can be in Romania.  We needed to buy train tickets for the Sighisoara trip, and we had some questions about which train would be best to take.  After past experiences I was definitely of the opinion that we wanted a train that had compartments, rather than the kind with all the seats in one big room like a bus.  And then my dad, who apparently saw Inception one too many times, said he wanted to just buy the entire compartment so we'd have it to ourselves.

In the states you would just go online, read about the various classes of trains, and buy tickets with a credit card.  But here, you have to physically go to the train station, talk to someone at the information window about trains, and then go to a different window to buy tickets, and yet a third window to pay for them.  The whole excursion took a couple of hours.  But while we were out we picked up Gabe's swank new stroller, so that's pretty boss.

We also managed to spend some time at the park.  The weather's finally turned nicer, and it's a great time to be out with Gabe having adventures.

Gabe thinks we are in Ratatouille

Yesterday night my parents got in around midnight.  We all had a lovely but brief reunion and all crashed into bed.  This morning we made a giant breakfast combining the best elements of American and Romanian cooking, and hung out with Gabe until he went down for his nap.

MUNCH  MUNCH  MUNCH

My folks seem to be recovering from the jetlag okay, but we're just taking it easy today.  When Gabe wakes up we head out to the Real hipermart to pick up our last needed supplies, and then tomorrow we wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the 6:15am train to Sighisoara.  Adventure awaits!

Moment of Zen: