Bucharest According to Irma

Alright, so I already shared with you how my Bucharest turned into a group event. You even already read traveler #3's take on the trip. Well, here's traveler #2, Irma's, answers to the same questions previously answered by her teenage daughter.

Katie: What 3 words describe Bucharest?
Irma: Diverse, sad, food

Katie: What is the strangest thing you experienced on the trip?
Irma: I think the strangest thing I experienced was the statue outside the Modern Art Museum.  I’m not really sure what was going on with the naked man holding a wolf with a snake sticking out from somewhere.

Katie: Describe your trip in 30 seconds please.
Irma: Trip started in a small elevator for two, continued to a missed bus stop and a check by the metro police (for payment), which eventually led us the travel agency before closing time-barely.  After that, public transportation went well, no major catastrophes.  The trip to Transylvania was interesting, but would have been more interesting if it was Vlad “the Impaler(’s)” castle, but it was still nice to visit (in the rain).  I really enjoyed all the different ethnic restaurants we were able to enjoy, including the stop at Chocolat to warm us and experience death by chocolate. Great trip!


Katie: Any words about the weather?
Irma: The weather was very interesting.  It did give us an opportunity to spend time with the homeless man in a wheel chair under an alcove.  I’m still not sure if maybe would should have paid him for sharing the space with him.

Katie: What was your highlight of the trip? You know, the thing you will forever associate Bucharest with.
Irma: The highlight of the trip for me was the trip to the Natural History Museum where we experienced the Human Body Expo, that was a very interesting exhibit.  Another highlight for me was the pure goodness of the hollow bread cylinder called kurtos.

Katie: Would you go again?
Irma: No, but that’s because I like to experience new places.

Bucharest According to Taylor

My solo trip to Bucharest, Romania turned out to be Katie + 2!
How? Well, from what I hear it went something like this:

Irma (my coworker) to her husband: Katie is going all alone to Bucharest this weekend. Isn't that terrible? She says it's okay if I want to join her, and I do because I don't think she should go alone. 

The response? You can go, but take Taylor. 

I love this family! I'm not sure if it's because their last name also starts with "O", when I sit at their dinner table I feel like I'm reliving chats with my family, or the fact that I get along with them so well. Irma and I have traveled together (although there would be no blog post to link as reference, trust me, we marched all over Munich) and more importantly, we traveled well together. Our trip went fabulously- well we had a few minor mishaps, but that's all part of the traveling adventure.

Taylor, the daughter, is my second interviewee turned blog post. Shoot, I don't even know if she wanted to go to Bucharest and was just thrown in the deal or what? What I do know? Her love for bread, easy going nature, and facial expressions made our trip even more memorable for me. Here's her summary, the short form, after all- she is on summer vacation!

Katie: What was your highlight of the trip? You know, the thing you will forever associate Bucharest with.

"The Potato on a Stick"

Taylor: The potato on a stick statue made me laugh every time you guys said it so I'll probably remember that.

Katie: What 3 words describe Bucharest?
Taylor: Loud, Historical, Surprising.

Katie: That is the strangest thing you experienced on the trip?
Taylor: Strangest thing was hiding out under that arch during the rain with the homeless man.
(Make sure you read my version here.)

Katie: Describe your trip in 30 seconds/100 words, please.
Taylor: There was a lot to see in Bucharest. Our trip seemed kind of relaxed, because we had listed what we definitely wanted to see and were able to stop at a lot on the way there. The tours we took to the castles and around the city were very informative. The weather was crazy, but bearable. I liked the wide variety of food, that was available even though it took us a long time to choose, each time. Bucharest had a really interesting history, which was actually kind of fun to learn about. So all in all, I actually enjoyed the trip very much, although I did freak out in the beginning because I thought we were going to be kidnapped and forced into prostitution like all the movies and stories you read about.

Katie: Any words about the weather?
Taylor: Bipolar

Katie: Would you go again?
Taylor: Probably not to Bucharest, because like the site (or whatever it was) said, you can practically see everything in 2 days. I felt like we were seeing things over and over near the end of the time we were there.

Katie: Anything else you'd like to add/put on the record?
Taylor: Make sure you don't end up riding to the very end on the bus.

Rainy in Romania

When traveling I really do try to "unplug" from the computer. The lack of smart phone sure assists with this task but when traveling in slightly shadier places...say Romania, the check in factor with friends and family sort of becomes important. When my travel companions offered the use of their technology, I sent a few emails off relaying the events of the day.

Well, there were two versions. Yes, there are always at least 2 versions. Here's the hybrid between the two and those who I sent these to, hope you don't mind that I'm sharing my words with others but it's way easier than creating a new post.
- - - - - - - - - -
In Romania and visited two museums today, and got stuck in the rain after each. This apparently is one of the of the countries where you can be drenched in your own sweat one minute, and drenched in rain the next. Luckily the thunder alerts you and the homeless man let us share his alcove when the trees weren't cutting in on round 2. This was after a man with mic and camera crew asked me some question at a craft market and I had to "decline comment" because I had no idea what he was asking.

Yes, homeless man.
Yes, let me back up and explain a tad more. 

Leaving the Peasant Museum cafe (beer break) after I sat on the floor of the gift shop searching out the perfect painted eggs, we realized the sky was about to dump every ounce of water it had absorbed in the previous hours. We found a great tree (previous rain avoidance tool) and huddled under it.

Wind starts making the rain attack us. No, I'm not made of sugar but that doesn't mean I like being drenched in rain. So we sprint across a way to an alcove/driveway to and share it with a homeless man in a wheel chair. 2 minutes pass and we move because the rain drainage is like a small creek taking over our feet.

Thunder.

Lightning.

Wind.

Hail.

Yes, the day started off at 80F and 100% humidity. My umbrella was in the apt for the sunscreen bottle to fit in my purse.

As soon as the rain slowed, we went back to our tree. Then the front of the museum, where there were several people and 4 dogs. Slowly we made our way over to the metro. At our stop we decided the rain had passed, so we marched on to St. Nicolas Catherdral and then in what felt like a terribly long march, but I think that's because my sandal wearing feet were gritty with dirt and my feet were still sliding around them due to the rain and slick roads? 

Needless to say we were laughing about it by the time we plopped down for dinner and made our break for the dessert place prior to the 3rd downpour of the day. And yes, we packed our umbrellas the next day. Of course it didn't rain!