I got to the hostel but there were no beds available so I went and sat on the couch and got the blog back up to date. Around 9 I got a bed and went in there. Some crazy Australians were in and I kept working until they left. I slept from 10 to 11, feeling pretty good after the nap.
I went to the park next door to me and walked around. It's a gorgeous park, almost like the real Central Park with it's layout and rocky landscape. I liked it a lot. Once again there were many Romanians out hanging around in the park, a lifestyle I'm sort of jealous of.
I went into the bakery in my building and got another one of those pretzel things, still not that great.
I went into the oldest church in Bucharest from the 16th century, another small inside filled with frescos. Like all the other Ramanian churches, people all bought candles, so I paid the 40 cents and put it outside in the little candle area outside the church.
From there I went to the old town and went to Dracula's court he established in Bucharest. It's in ruins again, and like the castle in Suceava, they have a white line showing where the part is replaced. It's strange they build ruins, but it was interesting either way.
I walked back into Pieta Revolution and ended up going into IO Cafe, which is in the destroyed building of the house. It was cool, the guy spoke English well. I had a chocolate frappe which was awesome and a vegetarian toasted sandwich, with good tufu in it. I really liked it, plus the interior had a big photo of how the building looked during the war, pretty interesting.
I decided to walk to the Arc de Triumph, which is pretty far down Calle Victoria. It was a good walk though mostly parks somehow, and when it wasn't it was through a nice shopping area. It was a great day out too, all really good.
I came back to the hostel and got ready to meet Cristina outside city hall across the street. We went to dinner at an awesome old Romanian place from the 1850s, painted walls, woodwork, all that. I had a green mushy thing and some potatoes in oil and a doughnut filled with cream and strawberry. One of my favorite meals in Europe.
We talked about our name (she pronounces Bolo-HAN) and where our families came from. It was great to hear this kind of stuff after not really knowing anything about it.
After dinner we walked around the town, through the old part down along the river to her school where she took me in. It looked like an old university, wood panelling, with some rooms have an upper deck, really interesting. That could have been me sort of.
From there we went back into town, through the park where we got cotton candy (made in front of us and huge, very good) and we ended up at a jazz club. Outside they had a concert going on. It was incredible, they had a marimba player in the jazz group with the usual sax, drums, bass guys. And on top of that they had a group of Gypsy kids play instruments with them, the best being when they were playing in sort of a drum circle. The little Gypsy girls would bellydance even. The whole performance was a little surreal, starting with the marimba which gave it a very exotic feel. The kids added a lot of color too.
She had to get to sleep with exams so we went back. I stopped in McDonald's for a mineral water and walked down to Umini Mall where all the lights were up on top of the buildings. You'd never think it was Bucharest but very much an American booming city.
I got back to the hostel and Skyped home which was good to hear from and went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment