Romania - May 27-30, 2016

Never in my life did I think I would wake up in Romania. What a surreal trip. Our first trip with friends from London (Anna Steenrod and Mark Reid) and to this day, it’s the one that I talk about the most.

Taking another late Friday night flight, we landed in Bucharest, Romania around midnight and the adventure began. Our first task was finding Anna’s wallet which was left on the plane. The airport lost and found was literally a phone in the wall with no receiver. I snapped this picture because, well, it's hilarious. 

We stayed the evening in an airport hotel to begin our early morning road trip. In attempt to relay all the ‘interesting’ observations of Romania…a few details are needed. Picking up the car, the attendant explained to us where the First Aid Kit and Fire Extinguisher were located. All of us nodding and making jokes, he was very stern. ‘No, you will need these. Police will stop you to search your car.” Low and behold, not 5 minutes down the road, we saw the police searches…police in the middle of the road, busy roads, pulling cars over for searches. Who knew at the time this was foreshadowing for the remainder of our weekend?

Along the way, we stopped off with the rest of the tourist to take some selfies amongst the poppies. (Also the sight of Michael's bee sting...in which his finger was swollen around his wedding ring, so yea, that happened.)

Our 2-3 hour road travel took us to our 1^st castle, Peles castle and it. Was. Stunning. What an amazing day, an amazing view. We took our tourist tour of the castle and grabbed lunch with a view. Walking around the local market we found ourselves at a Painted Monastery. As we lit candles, we took in another breathtaking moment. 

Back in the car we headed towards our 2^nd castle … Dracula’s Castle. The car rides seemed to be one of the best parts of the trips, the stories, the sights. We literally saw a man carrying a log down the street, not a board, a log, observed that most cyclists travel really slow, snails pace through the Romania country side and if we saw one police, we saw 50 in the road…pulling people over and yelling at us to use our head! Just to name a few, the road trips were forever entertaining.

Dracula’s castle was another ridiculous castle, however, was very very crowded. We weaved our way around every turn in the castle, took a few selfies and avoided anxiety with the copious amounts of tour groups.

Back in the car after our 2^nd castle tour, Mark offered to drive which seemed all well and good … until he started driving. Reversing he tells us “Ok guys, I haven’t driven in 9 months…here we go!” Lawd have mercy! Almost immediately I had to switch seats from car sickness. Mark’s driving – An adventure all in itself.

Setting off to Brasov, Romania for the night, Mark driving, Michael navigating and The Peanut Gallery, Anna and myself.

Brasov, Romania – Reminded us all of a small village in town in Spain or Italy. We settled into our Air BnB, grabbed a local dinner of meat, meat and more meat. And tasting the traditional liquor, Palinka , basically gasoline. We headed out for a night cap and I had the most humbling conversation with a young Hungarian lady. She says, “Oh you’re American, we love Americans…you’re so free.” Confused I asked what did she mean? They are free too. Her response: “Yea, but we haven’t always been free. We don’t understand your sense of freedom.” Speechless.

Day 3:

On the road again, we headed to Bucharest to spend Sunday evening. There is a stark difference between Romania countryside and Bucharest. It’s almost as if you walk through Bucharest and can still see the times of communist rule. Buildings are concrete, gray and some even with bullet holes…including our Air Bnb. To this day we laugh about our check-in … walking through the building into a open aired, gray, shot to hell courtyard, up the scariest elevator ride in my life and into our home for the night. I’ll spare all the details, but needless to say, I slept on top of the covers and didn’t take a shower.

Bucharest was surprising in that you could walk along a tree lined street to the largest palace I’ve ever seen in my life ...

To walking along street for street neighborhoods to find the hip bar where we met Mark’s American teacher friends. The hip bar was also a heavy metal karaoke bar upstairs, so there’s that.

We ended the night at one of the best bars we’ve ever been to. Imagine walking behind a deserted building into a multiple level oasis of trees, hammocks, picnic tables, swings … it was out of this world. Take my word for it because we only took mental pictures.

One of our greatest, most eye opening experiences to date. I’d say I can’t wait to go back….but I can.