Bucharest for the Wicked

Sooo... let's be clear.  I'm really doing a terrible job at blogging this trip.  

Part of it is just the fact that we have been on the move non-stop...

...and the other part of it is that I am easily distracted.

"Smells Like SodaStream Spirit"

On our flight, for example, we all became obsessed with the flight attendant who kept asking everyone "Cake or Flapjack" as if he were a robot.  Actually, maybe he was a robot.  I'm not qualified to answer.  I'm barely qualified to answer the Cake-or-Flapjack question.  (I chose flapjack, which was wrong as it turns out.)

Anyway, after arriving in Romania...

...our Guide (Florin!) picked us up at the airport.  He held a sign up with Donna's name, which I did not take a photo of because, again, I'm easily distracted.  But it looked kind of like this, I guess:

One of the first questions we had for Florin was if he could take us to the vampires.  He broke our heart by telling us they maybe don't exist.  "In the more than 300 years I've lived, I've never seen one."

 He then took us to our adorable little hotel right by several delicious local restaurants.  

The best part of our hotel was how easy it was to find.  Just look for terror...

...and turn left!

Actually, the best part of our hotel was the breakfast.  I took photos of it, but then ate them.  Sorry.  Look at Debbie instead:

Over the next couple of days, Florin took us on a lovely walking tour of Bucharest and explained its rich history...

...which I was definitely paying attention to and not wandering off to look at stuff...

\

Florin also took us to a cemetery where we weren't supposed to take photos...

...but there were kitties, so I broke the law.

We also checked out the third heaviest building in the world...

...which  became the second heaviest when I walked in, due to all of the food we've been eating.  It's the parliament building.  So, now you know.

Then we ate and drank more.  Because that's who we are.

Bucharest is a city that is so gorgeous, we couldn't help but wonder what it would look like if we found jobs there.   Donna has made her choice.  

Maybe I'll sell food...

"...and they're running out of you!"

And I think this would be a perfect gig for Debbie:

OK - more to come!  Up next:  Transylvania!

AHH!

Intromania

Oh, hello, and welcome to Undead by Morning  an old-school Blog Adventure that is Already Very Behind Schedule.™

For those of you just joining us - I'm Jeff.  Donna is my sister...

 Debbie is our friend... 

....and also basically a sister.   And by sister, I mean nun, of course.

She is very holy.

Donna and Debbie have been talking about going to Romania since the 1980s, apparently.   

I was 9 and not paying a lot of attention, but I tuned in around 2019 when Donna started making more noise about going, and apparently I was also coming along.  

Then That Thing® happened that shut the world down for a while.  And so we rescheduled.  And then we rescheduled again after a war broke out like 100 kilometers away.  Or maybe 1000.  I'm not a math guy.  Or a geography guy.  Or a human person.

Anyway, all that to say, we are now (spoiler alert) in Romania.  

But before that, we had quite a journey.  After some trouble at the airport... 

...Donna and I met up in London...

...where we had an overnight stay.  Donna hadn't been to London since 1985, and Big Ben was covered in scaffolding during that fateful trip, so her main objective was to visit him.  

We took an Uber from our hotel....

...and made the 45 minute journey toward the iconic clock tower.  However, Donna had been awake for more than 40 hours at this point in our journey, so she wasn't thinking super-clearly. And for this reason, as soon as we caught a glimpse of The Mighty Benjamin (as the locals do not refer to him), Donna told the driver to let us out in order to walk the rest of the way.  Perhaps I should have stopped her, but I was also super tired and had plane-brain.™

We were at least a 20 minute walk from Ben--which would have been fine if I maybe didn't get us lost while I was trying to figure out the maps app.

Where the crap are we?

We wandered around a lot...

...had some delicious drinks to help us through our journey...

...and finally saw The Man Himself:

You know what Big Ben looks like.  You don't need my crappy photo of him.

Afterwards, we grabbed food...and drinks at Covent Garden's THE IVY...

...who have very strict rules, apparently.

Oops.

I also=so saw this piece of art...

...which apparently is "Punch" of "Punch & Judy."  Donna fondly remembers these characters who date back to the 1600's when my sis was putting up Big Ben's scaffolding.  Or whatever was happening.

After dinner, we wandered around a bit and found this place:

Donna shouted "Punch and Judy" for the rest of the night.  Except for when she talked to Dominic, London's own living embodiment of public drunkenness.  

He got mad when I mentioned Jedward and turned to a friend (who did not exist/was not there) and shouted, "A Yank talking about Jedward!?!? How's he know!?"  He may have been talking to a sitcom audience that we couldn't see.  Or hear. 

Whatever.

After a very short night of restless/not enough sleep, we took a shuttle back to Heathrow...

...found our Debbie...

...and made it to Romania!

Donna nearly cried.  

I did, too, but for other reasons.  

And we'll visit those reasons on the next episode!