Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Bumbling Around Bucharest

Four Days of Wandering and Exploring 

Romanian City of Bucharest



June 15, 2016

Oh the glories of sleeping in a bed, with sheets and comforter....having a marvelous breakfast at 11:00 o'clock....in a splendid hotel....in a brand new country...Romania. We walked to the bus, took a ride around the city, stopped in the Old Town, wandered and wandered and wandered. Becky discovered an old monastery, Stavropoleos Monastery and Orthodox Church built in the early 1700's right in the middle of Old Town.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavropoleos_Monastery)




The temperature is in the upper 80's and we have to stop and get something to drink...Explorer's Irish Pub...a beer and a plan...another beer and a better plan...another beer and what plan??? Sitting on the main street outside enjoying the shade and people watching. Our wait person was friendly, helpful and very cute. Wifi is everywhere........
Even though we have a difficult time every time we try getting on wifi.





We discussed the very positive aspects of Bucharest. Beautiful wide streets, loads of traffic, many preserved older buildings, a lot of large buildings, many blocks of government housing, lots of graffiti, very attractive people, great looking shops, lots of people walking/strolling, families, quite a few gay gathering spots and a large amount of very good looking restaurants.




Arch d' Triumph -- honoring Romanians lost in WWI




Beautiful older homes/buildings



Grafitti
 .




This building was called Stalin Communist Buiding, built by locals and housed the controlled \press. Today it houses the Freepress and all newspapers

The restaurant we chose for dinner: The Red Angus Steakhouse! recommended by the  Marriott and our travel people located in the Old Town. We sat next to Vlad the Impalers' home (also known as Dracula) A large statue of him stared at us as we drank our Prosecco and ate marvelous rib eye steaks from Australia! Our wait person was terrific and interested in what we thought Romania, as we continued to praise what we had seen, he was obviously pleased but he did tell us that there was much corruption within the government. He also informed us that there were very few if any refugees in Romania.


    

Even after all of this wandering we still had not achieved our 10,000 steps -- if you can believe it.  So we walked "home" using the maps feature on the iPhone, with Beth using her exceptional navigational skills.

Total steps taken for today:  11,891

      

            


Tomorrow is now Yesterday

Amsterdam and Bucharest

We've been thru umpteen time zones. We've travelled 24 hours from Becky's door to hotel in Bucharest. We had a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam where it poured rain the whole time. 





Amsterdam, Netherlands

Pouring rain in Amsterdam, making us feel welcome and at home. Little did we know that our luggage was sitting out in the rain for the 5 hour lay over. When we opened our suitcases, everything a damp or sopping wet!




Bucharest, Romania








The shuttle from airport to the Marriott hotel in Bucharest was at least 1 hour due to traffic.


 We can hardly wait to go to sleep. We have not seen any of the refugees. Today is 14 June and we're pretending to be awake during the early evening in the JW Marriott overlooking the Parliament Building. We could not go to sleep until we opened our luggage and distributed our wet clothing over the room to begin drying. Out our window, Across from the Marriott, the Palace Parliament where we will have dinner on Thursday June 16. 








Monday, June 13, 2016

TODAY AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW


Putting on our travel clothes, grabbing our gear and hitting the road...... 

Today is the last full day before Departure....

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Tomorrow  is Departure....

Monday, June 13, 2016

And  the next Tomorrow is still Traveling

Tuesday, June 14, 2016



 Big day as we depart.









On this our last full day, every chore we can think of is being addressed. 

Today is spent: bathing Hana, doing final check list, weighing luggage, repacking, changing what we are wearing....


We had our farewell dinner of hamburgers last night, we are ready to hit the airwaves...




Thursday, June 9, 2016

Magic Maria



Changes, Changes, Changes, Saved by Maria the Magician



Each time we decide on a new adventure we work with Maria Nelson at AAA Tacoma.

Each time, Maria finds great deals and keeps us insured, reassured, answers questions and negotiates with providers.

Maria's precious one



Maria and her precious two

On June 8, Maria learned that Air France was going on strike on the very days we were scheduled as passengers on their flight from Paris to Romania.  Ugh!


Magic Maria had already begun her abracadabra thang by the time we arrived for our pre-departure meeting with her.

Yup, all fixed.  New flights on KLM.  No more Paris (Charles DeGaulle airport) layover.  Nice long layover in Amsterdam (Schiphol) which has wonderful shopping and miles and miles of indoor walking from here to there.












If you're really curious you can explore Schiphol here


Count Down Has Begun!!!

Three Days to Blast Off!!!



As you can see, Beth can be ready to depart at a moments notice...

Leaving behind our precious darlin's


Cuddles Hana Susie Willis

and



Princess, the cat. 

Staff: Becky 


Wednesday, June 1, 2016

International Bling

Seems that during every trip -- either with Beth or with late husband Ernie -- I am drawn to jewelry, especially earrings.  


Begin in the center with gold hoops from Venice.
Then to the right and clockwise we find
Rose quartz from Tromso Norway
Silver (2 pair) from Mexico
Amber/silver from Klaidpeda, Lithuania
2 pair from Alaska (Anchorage and Sitka)

Small pearl/sterling posts from Reykjavik, Iceland

And Beth has been her usual generous self, supplying me with a couple of new bags, the smaller of which will hold my travel jewelry (tho maybe not the ones shown -- wouldn't wanna lose them.)



Just 12 days from departure I am imagining the bling treasure that will appear on this Black Sea journey.  Hmmmm?

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

A BIT OF HISTORY

                           THE BALKANS THEN AND NOW...

1815 - 2016

THEN




AND THEN



AND NOW  ..... WOW!