From Tennessee To Texas to Saudi Arabia

We awoke on our last morning in Istanbul and had breakfast at the hotel. It was a good Turkish spread of fruits, cheeses, olives and simit. The van taking us to the airport arrived right on time and we all serenaded the birthday girl with our beautiful morning song. Greene was turning 24 today!

We arrived early and had to wait awhile for Tarom Airlines to open a counter. I was beginning to get worried, knowing the possible lines we would face at passport control. Once the ticket counter opened, we were through to the terminal area very quickly.

As we exited passport control, we ran into some friends from Yanbu who were traveling to Rome for Spring Break. Ali, Mei and their children visited with us for awhile before we grabbed a quick picture and headed for our gate.

The prop plane had a few in our crew a little nervous, but the flight was smooth and we were soon over the green plains of Romania. We munched on cheese sandwiches so full of cheese that we all ended up with little piles of excess cheese on our trays, but the pay-off was the Milka Choco Cows with each meal.

We landed in Bucharest, where we would spend the next 2 days before traveling further north. Our van driver was very interested in our new President and we found out the tourism industry in Bucharest is very interconnected when we told him the address and, without further prompting, he called the AirBNB owner to tell her when we would arrive.

We waited outside a while for our host to show up. Then the Tasmanian Devil in the disguise of a Romanian woman arrived to let us in, give us a tour, tell us the entire history of Bucharest, tell us where to eat, what to skip, and generally put a big smile on our faces (sometimes biting cheeks to avoid laughing at the borderline absurdity of it all). Doina left us all in need of a rest and freshening up before heading out for birthday festivities.

I had arranged a surprise dinner at La Mama and let them know it was Greene’s birthday. They assured me they would have something special for her. We arrived to fresh flowers on the table and ordered some excellent Romanian dishes. We sampled the Romanian Starter which included cheeses and pork a couple different ways – sausages, cured and straight up lard. Once we were finished eating, the staff came out with a plate full of papanasi and a bottle of champagne. They sang “La Mulţi Ani” and “Happy Birthday” in their very best English, while almost debilitating an exiting diner with the champagne cork.

Next stop was the Romanian Athenaeum for a performance in one of the small chambers. One of Greene’s loves in life is live music. I had struck out with a performance by Amedeo Minghi, whose concert was cancelled due to lack of interest. Ahem.

There were no performances in the large hall for the night, but we were not disappointed in the smaller, intimate setting and enjoyed a selection of classical and modern music.

Greene had a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime birthday experience! I felt fortunate have the opportunity to make her day so special.

I found a couple YouTube videos from the performance:

After the performance (when they rolled out the red carpet for the birthday girl), we made a quick trip to a nearby Angst to pick up some basic necessities for the next few nights. We finished with some Elfer Raus and hit the sack for another full day to come.

The second day in Bucharest would be a tour with Alina, owner and operator of When in Bucharest. We met her at the White Church, just out our front door, and walked down towards the Old City. We passed the Athenaeum on the way to our first stop, a statue of King Carol I that sits in front of the beautiful Central University Library and across from the National Art Museum. It’s a short walk to Revolution Square, the beginning of the end for Ceaușescu and communism in Romania. Alina makes an interesting point here. Many still miss communism. These events only happened in 1989, so many in the older generation retain expectation of dependence on the government.

We continued down Victory Way to see the confluence of “The Little Paris of the East,” art deco, and communist architecture in one frame of the camera. The Telephone Palace stands out, literally and figuratively, with the art deco modeling and the ownership of the tallest building in Bucharest title until 1956. This stark contrast between traditional architecture and communist bloc buildings can be noticed everywhere around Bucharest, and Romania in general.

A turn down Pasajul Vilacrosse took us back to the passages and galleries of Paris. It’s full of restaurants and shisha shops that are quiet this early in the morning. We exited the pasajul next to the National Bank of Romania. This is Alina’s favorite building in the Old City, and it’s hard to argue.

We strolled the cobblestone streets and stopped to look into Cărturești Bookshop. We decided to have coffee and tea while taking in the recently refurbished 19th century building. Our next stop was Caru’ cu Bere, a nice place to visit, but as our lunch later that day proved, not exactly the best food to be had in the Old City. We continued on to the beautiful Stavropoleos Monastery and spent time admiring the interior and the peaceful cloister. We snaked our way through the city, passing our first Vlad Tepes bust at Princely Court, until we reached Hanu’ lui Manuc – Manuc’s Inn. It’s the oldest inn and was once an important commercial center for Bucharest. It’s still used as an inn, but is primarily known for the restaurant it houses. We made one more stop at St. Anthony (Old Court) Church. We said our good-byes to Alina, who promised to reserve our afternoon tour tickets while we were going for lunch.

We rushed through our lunch at Caru’ cu Bere before running to our tour of Palace of the Parliament. Since it is a government building, we trade our passports for ID tags and walk around the cavernous halls and rooms of the 2nd largest building in the world (behind the Pentagon, largest by weight). We were told to not take pictures, but this directive is rescinded as we enter the Grand Ballroom. The entire tour of the “People’s Palace” is given from a script that provokes snickers from those locals on the tour and feigned surprise to said snickers from the tour guide. At points, the sarcasm from the tour guide is palpable. The building is said to be 70% empty and cost $6 million a year for utilities. The “People” would just a soon see this communist era holdover sink into the ground, which is slowly happening.

We took our time getting back to the flat. We stopped at a flea market inside the old Stock Market Palace and dropped a few Lei on some distinctive trinkets. We walked back and freshened up before calling for a taxi. There were no taxis available. So we decided to go with Uber. This isn’t a problem in cities with UberXL, but we’d never tried to take two Ubers. The ride out to Hard Rock wasn’t a problem at all. The drivers arrived almost simultaneously and dropped us off within one minute for our dinner.

I walked into HRC and discovered there was going to be a concert that night, and no tables were available for eating. We decided to get takeaway and eat down by the lake next to the restaurant. As we were waiting, the manager came out and said we could eat on the patio as long as we were leaving before the concert started. We took them up on the offer, and our food arrived shortly after we sat down. They brought a few blankets to hold of the chill, and we had our favorite HRC experience. We caught a few songs by Vama while waiting on the check. We hung out by the lake while waiting for our Uber return rides.

I took Drew and Cade with me in the first, since the second was showing arrival in less than one minute. Our driver was about 7 foot tall and sat in the back with us. I kept checking on the other Uber, only to see that it cancelled. Once everyone was back at the flat, the following details were shared with me.

The other group – Greene, Mom, and Drew – had their Uber driver cancel because he couldn’t get into the parking lot. Whatevs. The girls are deciding how they will get home, when Mom notices a big red bus that looks familiar. She had seen it sitting at the Radisson Blu earlier. The Radisson Blu is just around the corner from our flat. She approached some guys standing outside the bus to confirm the destination of said big red bus, and then asks if they can ride back with them. Done and done.