Lekker Roemenie

Day 1

We get ourselves at Schiphol, we have too much cash on us, damn the .ro currency!

Can’t wait for the brilliant Eurozone! Get scared on the plane when some drunkard of a pilot announces the route and all. Sailorboy gets panicked at his foreign language capabilities, me at his Romanian with a taste of vodka. I pray. We land precisely on time. Gee!! The only time the plane’s on time, my parents are late with their pick-up. No wonder they’re late. The traffic’s a mess!! Such a nightmare!! Well, when in Rome.. luckily we get home, I see my big-fur cat and we have good .ro food and drinks. We drag ourselves to sleep.

Day 2

Enthusiastically launched into an exploration of the 2nd biggest building in the world – the House of People. This thing is humongous! Only sailorboy gets to see it, I’m banned to solve issues bank- and uni diploma-related. Bank’s are in the system. Issue solved. Another Kafka scenes rolls under my eyes when I figure it out that at my former uni they only work between 11.00 and 2.30. Lazy bastards! I re-visit them at the appropriate hours and get to stand in a line for more than one hour. I silently congratulate myself for my choice of moving to a different country.

We’re lunching with the extended family, grandma and grandpa. Grandpa manages to talk about grapes and weather with Sailorboy just by using hand-language. Pretty cool! We hit it off to La Motoare – the place to be! It’s a real gather-up with Gigi, Geamy, Kiki, Simona, Ioana, Adriana, Raluca, Corina, Maria, Vico, Boris. Later we move on to the creepy Cafenea, where we’re not allowed to sit outside on the terrace, we only can be given a drink if we’re in. Inside it’s a public sauna. Delia, a mother to be, her man, Razvan, another mother Alice and Edi join us. We keep up the good short stories and I’m happy to see all. Till our next gather up, ta-tar!!

Day 3

My agenda definitely includes Vulcanii Noroiosi, a.k.a. the Muddy Volcano’s.

The desire to climb up on a mountain is crawling up in the back of my head.

Sailorboy discovered the plopping concept. He’s just playing the

bubblegum and then breaking sound as a plop for a good illustration of the volcanos. We’re just picturing it, stopping at a dam to admire the view then getting to the real thing. It’s indeed a plopping feeling. Next to that, it’s always good to see the Mars-like scene. I play a new-born coming out of Mother Earth.

We hit it off to Sinaia, the mountain touristy resort where lately bears have been coming up from the mountains.. I suppose the bears discovered the economic principles of scarcity in the woods, as well as “no lunch for free”. Now they need to attack city and village population to convince people to get food placed in the forests. Damn economic bears!!

Day 4
We’re having museum/castle visits on our travel agenda. We get some ridiculous shoes for the Pelisor visit. We get in and come to some long-forgotten places of kings and queens in .ro.

Later on we get to see the Peles, castle which value’s estimated of weight in gold.

That should be pretty cool. I’m wondering what’s my value?!Had dinner at the Serbian place where too much food invaded my plate. Needed to taste my father’s food, so he’d take something from my plate. So overwhelming!

Day 5
Woke up early in the morning to go see the Dracula’s castle. They made some sort of medieval castle out of it, so only the fame and glory stays. I took the most popular photo’s whom every one who visited must have took. I’m so ordinary!

We carry on our road trip to Brasov. We get a magazine to choose from, we’ll be staying at Samurai. The owner looks like he’s going to split us in two with a sword, but he’s too kind. He speaks the slow language of the west .ro, he couldn’t be more funny.We’re advised to check out the Coliba Haiducilor at the Poiana Brasov.

We get very traditional food and music. Together with that, a rip-off bill to pay. No mood for fights with waiters, we leave.We take a tour of the big square, have some cold drinks and enjoy the evening – chill-out time.

Day 6

In our quest to see more Dracula places (we are in Dracula’s land, so we need blood), we get to the man’s house in Sighisoara. I really enjoy the medieval city and revival style. We step in the house which is now a restaurant and we have some Transilvanian food. Soup in bread included.

Funky bite!

We stuck around enough for one day, we needed to move on. We

expected Medias to be something of a city, we could only pee there, so we’ve named it PeeCity.

In desparate need to sleep somewhere, we asked at a hotel in Alba Iulia.

Man, what do you think this is?! Paris?! Watch it out for ridiculous prices while you’re out there!! The bastards would try anything!! We got in a park where oddly enough you could use internet for free. We tried to connect the minicomputer, failed and asked some guy with a computer what the trick is. Poor park guy couldn’t figure it out, so gave us a number of a hotel.

We got in there, we finally got air conditioning. It’s a God-given gift at 39 degrees..At the valuable indications of the hotel personnel, we could walk for 20 minutes to the old centre. After no less than one freaking hour and a half, we got there.

After walking in spooky neighbourhoods where I was really watching my bag and asking people if it’s a long way till there. They diplomatically and politely offered to show the direction, without precise information of the hour it would take us to get there.

Damn stupid hotel personnel!!We made it to the old city center. Apparently the pride of the city is a music fountain where half the city walks around, even at 10 in the evening. The massive ancient city walls are impressive. They amazingly made it so long. They even had some parade guard watching, I suppose it’s for the fun of it. Otherwise the huge cathedral had no guards whatsoever. I’ve never been alone in a church at 10 in the evening. Most of the time you cannot get in there that late.

I felt scared, good thing Sailorboy was there. Felt quite unique.

Day 7

Driving to Deva we decide there’s too much to walk to the castle, we were going to see the one in Hunedoara anyhow. The Corvins castle looked like an old fortress, but had some Dutch caravans around. Sailorboy discovered the hyper Dutch complaining to his

pregnant wife and regretfully and unrecognizably shut up. At the entrance I bump into this guy I’ve known for ages. We used to do a lot of partying.. Wtf?! What are the odds?! Castle looks nice for what it’s meant for. No glamour, except for the ladies working at its restoration. Only women at work! What’s that of a crazy club?!

Sailorboy drives on to some amazing racing routes backed up by fabulous scenery. We’re up to

Paltinis, next to Sibiu. We get no gps signal at the moment and get on some muddy side road, I get down in the paddles to ask how the road is going, and we proceed to Paltinis. We’ll have

some quiet relaxing time in here.

Day 8

My wish comes true – we climb up the mountain. We do an easy tour, as it’s a rainy weather. We have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, there’s not much happening there. Even the waiter’s so old his feet hurt.. he seems he’s been on them for ages. He’s

tempting sailorboy with palinca and I have the usual beer of the

mountains, Ursus. We’re getting more .ro food and chill.

Day 9

We travel the same wonderful route on the steep curves to

Sinaia, we have a pick-up for my mom and dad, who were just enjoying their own private time in there since we left Sinaia. My dad drives to Buchi and we have dinner by the park. We’re on some covered-up terrace, but by the time we’re in the middle of our delicious dinner, a storm stops by. It’s so ravaging that in 5 minutes it manages to wet half of the terrace territory and all guests need to retreat inside. We continue eating, till Gigi calls. It seems half the Bucharest’s underwater. My father gets to the car and faces water till his knees, he brings the car to the door of the restaurant and for 20meters distance, Sailorboy gets shower wet. Ridiculous!

We need to get from our car to Gigi’s by letting them park next to each other. We had a set-up meeting, so we could get to see Gigi’s new house. Great place, I also need that kind of a kitchen! I suppose I need to earn it first.. I’ll do my homework on Cooking princess. We part with promises to see each other in the Netherlands again – soon, hopefully!

Day 10

Spent the morning at Sorina’s new hairstyling place. Got a good hairdo. Then hit off to the Green Hours, such a pleasant place to be at. Especially with Aida.

She’s telling me stories I somehow know and we catch up with our lives. I think this is the most one-to-one I’ve had so far in this trip.. but I don’t get many chances, what can I say.. I love you all!! Sailorboy joins us after unsuccessful attempts to see some museums in Bucharest and walking for half the day. Aida drives us to granma and grandpa where we say hello-good-by and talk about all we’ve done. We have a night out in Club A. My usual Club A friends are there – Alina, Andra and the gang! Geamy, Kiki, Alex and Maria on top. Sailorboy scores some extra points on social skills, niceness and rhythm. (can't believe I have no pics of that!!)

Day 11

We’re definitely not leaving the country till we see Cerna, the countryside. So we’re again the happy family on board. Damn we must have spent half of our days in the car starting day 2!! Oh well, all for a good cause!! My grandma’s so happy to see us, my uncle as well.He’s so happy he needs to prove he’s magnetism with all cutlery and remote control. I can also do this with one spoon – are we freaky or?! Sailorboy gets his first taste of goose heart – what do you mean you haven’t had that before?! I had a lot of brains in my good times! – It’s always such a pleasure to say that – I mean brains as food..

Day 12

We have the final generous breakfast in Buchi. Man we got so much food all the way.. drinks and food.. we’ll need to get ourselves on some diet when we get back. We’re happy to have a modest dinner at our place in Amsterdam. This was definitely a good one! Sailorboy’s

convinced we need to get back for some KTM motor off-road. I hope I was convincing enough with his friend, the RacecarSultan who agreed we’re going to see it all from an off-road jeep through the woods. That should be fun!!

Mon 20th of October @ Cerna/Buchi

Half asleep I struggle to move my feet to the car. I catch up with my dad about everything and ride an empty road to the countryside. There I see my family, we laugh about so-called golden rings bought for real money from gipsies and other fooling around.

Back to Buchi and I attempted a normal Monday, so met with friends for drinks and good talks. We weren’t able to find any bar open which would hold in 13 persons on one table without crap music and screaming speakers. So we finally managed to get in the Da Vinci. 

Felt like the last dinner indeed – at the centre of attention telling every one how I managed to miss a flight, party in Brussels and get to a wedding. Hearing everything I missed out on my friends. Oh well, we’ll miss some more of each other’s lives. And then we’ll get together again at a big table. Ta-ta!

Vama

Dupa un Bucuresti relativ calduros si cu mult soare, stam si ne gandim ce sa mai facem.. eu cu telefonul si prietenii. Mami si-a luat deja gandul ca o sa ma vada mult timp. Mi-a parut rau ca am vazut pe toata lumea in fuga, inclusiv bunicii. Data viitoare va fi pentru cel putin 2 saptamani.. habar n-am cand va fi data viitoare... ma intreb daca vin peste 10 ani data viitoare, oare mai am prieteni? Oare rudele ma mai recunosc? Oare Bucurestiul o sa mi se para la fel?!

Intre timp am decis ca daca si Expiratul e inchis si numai in Deja Vu mai poti sa te mai distrezi cu rusii, pai hai totusi sa ne caram la mare. Decizia se ia vineri la 8 seara, cand altcandva sa se ia deciziile?! Gigi zice ca o sa conduca noaptea.. vom fi noi doua si mult Red Bull. Este genial! Plecam pe la 11, cand deja vorbisem cu Roli, Roli cu Ionutz sa ne rezerve camera.. ne facem grijii despre starea lui Ionutz la ora 3 cand ajungem, dar este bine. O stare potrivita, ca dupa vreo 2 jointuri si 5beri, perfect treaz.

Noaptea se incheie dupa un tur pe plaja si bere romaneasca.. Gandul de plaja e mai puternic ca visul. Ne trezim mai devreme decat trebuie, ne luam cafelele de la Ovidiu si ne taram usor pe plaja din fata de la Ovidiu. Ovidiu era foarte varza si se enerva cu el insusi la fiecare client in parte – da ce-am ma nene?! Ca dadea cafelele gresit, laptele sau zaharul, mereu gresit, de vreo 2-3 orisi blestema vodka din seara trecuta si capul lui prost. Caterinca.. mie in tot cazul mi-era dor de injuraturi aiurea, la nervi, de plaja cand stai si vorbesti aiurea, cand te dau fetele cu crema, de berea romaneasca de pe plaja, de si mai multa bere de dupa plaja, de lekkeritul din Vama, de dansatul pe plaja, iar apoi de dansatul pe mesele de pe plaja, de lumea din Vama si de faptul ca intotdeauna te intreaba lumea ce ai facut in Vama si nu stii ce sa raspunzi – e clar! Ai fost in Vama...

Ionutz a ajuns la concluzia ca a negociat degeaba cazarea mai ieftin, ca a venit Alina si a adus cazarea la pretul mare, dupa care ea nu a folosit camera decat pe post de depozit de haine, ca a ales sa danseze pe plaja noaptea aia..
Eu am ajuns la concluzia ca e bine sa dormi mult, daca poti.
Gigi a ajuns la concluzia ca nu suporta sa aiba oameni beti in masina sau carora sa li se faca rau, dar nu si-a dat seama ca ma are pe mine. Dar a fost bine.
Alina a ajuns la concluzia ca e rasista – ceea ce eu nu stiam despre ea, dar inca mai trebuie sa ma convinga, eu cred ca e doar ceva cu Banel..
Lumea din jurul nostru a ajuns la concluzia ca grasu e penal si noua nu ne era rushine dintr-un motiv sau altul atunci cand a dansat cu stalpul sau s-a extaziat pe masa.
Restul de oameni au diparut in noapte fara ca eu sa-mi dau seama daca au ajuns la vreo concluzie...

Cert este ca m-am trezit duminica seara ca de data asta chiar a trecut timpul si eu sunt pe cale sa ma intorc in Hollandia... oh well, am mai avut o discutie cu Geamy, zi girlz talk, am impachetat si m-am trezit ziua urmatoare la job dupa 3 ore de somn.

Lekker Roemenie

Rrrrr!! Ma trezeste Cilipi :) cat de lekker!! E foarte devreme, mi-e foarte somn, dar trebuie sa rezolv chestii organizatorice, cum ar fi sa-mi iau certificate de nastere international si diploma de la ASE.

Pentru cei ce inca n-au facut ASE-ul, norocul vostru! Inca mai aveti timp sa nu-l faceti (sfatul autorului)… acuma, pe de alta parte, posibil sa fie peste tot la fel. Posibil ca peste tot sa mearga lucrurile la fel, iar la Facultatea de Limbi Straine stiu sigur ca merge mai rau!! Dar “ASE” (assez) zice francezul cand a avut destul! Iar eu am invatat de ce.

 Pur si simplu te saturi sa revezi Kafka live. Ca sa platesc o nenorocita de taxa – intreaba mom – unde o plateste fi-mea?– in Cibernetica la parter, dupa care merge cu chitanta in Bastiliei la parter, ca sa i se elibereze diploma, raspunde careva la telefon. Ok. Intru prin Bastiliei, strabat Comertul pana in Cibernetica, ajung la ghisheu. – Aaaa, nu aici, la Bastiliei, la parter.. Ok. Ma intorc la Bastiliei la parter pe traseul deja cunoscut. La parter in Bastiliei intreb – nu va suparati, se poate sa platesc aici taxa pentru diploma?! Neeaaah, uite la casieria celalata, tot aici, la parter, dupe coltz, ashea [semn indicativ cu mana care face un dupe coltz]. – Aha, deci nu la dvs. Ajung si la ultima casierie din Ase de dupe coltz si pana la urma imi ia cineva banii!! Incredibil cat tre sa te chinui sa-ti ia careva banii!! Nu mai zic cum e in alte parti.. tac. In semn de protest. 

Kafka nu se termina pana nu e complet – ajung la ghiseul de diplome cu chitanta-n dinti, biroul inchis pentru o saptamana!! Fu@#%$&^(*

Dar se poate si altfel. Dupa o alta repriza de Kafka de alergat intre niste camarute la Primaria sectorului 1 pentru certificat international de nastere, intru la o cucoana. Cucoana ma intreaba ce doresc, imi da o cerere de completat si ma trimite afara sa o completez si sa ma intorc. Ma returnez peste program deja cu ea completata. Duduia nu tine cont si-mi zice sa ma prezint luni.

 Well.. eu nu mai stau decat pana maine. Atunci vino maine, zice ea. Sa mori tu!! N-am zis, da am stiut. Cu cafeaua Jacobs rezolvi multe chestii mici si plictisitoare. 

Am primit inapoi, ca de obicei un “aa, mersi, da nu trebuia sa te deranjezi”. Asta pentru cei care n-au fost la doctor, la secretara, la asistenta, la profesor si la alt functionar public. Iar ca sa fiu in ton cu faptele bune bune, am ajutat singura rusoaica din Romania, cel mai probabil, 

sa scrie o cerere formular tip. Foarte funny femeia, desi prima data cand m-a intrebat – cine e subsemnatul era sa-i zic – faaaci mistooo?! :)
Dar dupe atatea colturi, trebuie sa ne si aducem aminte de vremurile bune. Pentru cei ce ma cunosc.. nu mai stiam meniul de pe Motoare. Deci ce alt loc mai potrtivit ar fi fost de intalnire decat lekker la Motoare?! Si pentru toti cei care au fost acolo.. numai de bine!! M-am fericit mult sa vad cata mai 

gloata de oameni numai pentru mine! Ce bine e sa fii primit tu singur inapoi si multa lume bashtinasha! Se cunoaste caldura si dragostea din aer si mie-mi place sa fiu egoista! Si din nou timpul a zburat.. si am reusit sa stau de vorba cate un pic cu fiecare si sa imi para enorm de bine ca v-am vazut. Dar toata lumea mi-a promis pe rand concomitent si succesiv ca ma va vizita. Si eu i-am crezut din nou. Pana acum Gigi are 100% accuracy.. dar eu astept..

Chiar ajung in Romania

La job nu pot sa ma concentrez – este peste puterile mele – la 6 plec!! Yeeeyyy!! O sa vad iar oamenii aia de care imi era asa de dor, o sa ma distrez ca in 2007 si timpul o sa treaca aiurea, foarte aiurea.

Totul decurge conform planului – autobuzul vine la timp, pana si la avion e civilizat, bagajul este structurat pe cadouri si stroopwaffels. Si are potential pentru hainele pe care mi le aduc inapoi.. aproape ca mi se completeaza toata garderoba. Totul etse la timp si planificat din timp..

Wow!! Coada la dat biletul la intrare in avion.. frate da nu aveti locurile stabilite de dinainte?! Ce se da?! Ce tot va bagati in fata?! Ce primiti mancare mai buna daca va urcati din timp?! Zambeste stewardesa mai larg?! Incredibil, in curu meu!! Deja te apuca transpiratia numai cand te uiti la ei. Deja cuplurile nu mai sunt in consens. Daca auzi o conversatie de cuplu la olandezi este – unul vorbeste, celalalt este de acord, urmeaza ja, ja, ja si se completeaza reciproc. Foarte rar variaza si ajunge pana la sfarsit tot un ja, ja, ja de la cel care este de acord cu argumentatia suprema a celuilat. Ei spun ca in momentul in care apare o cearta, se destrama consensul, iar consensul sta la baza unei bune casnicii... ei, explica-i asta la un tzaranoi care zbiara – da nu ti-am zis sa iei si umbrela?! De ce-ai lasat-o?! Faci asa, ce te taie capu, nu esti in stare sa iei o umbrela, da sa te duca capu ca chiar iti trebuie..

Incepe durerea mea de cap. In avion ma urc langa un cuplu linistit.. din conversatie se deduce ca el sta in Norvegia, iar ea in Uk, se duc impreuna acasa.. se iubesc, se dragastesc..Dar durerea mea de cap ia proportii. Iar asta pentru ca femeia il bate la cap cum sa ceara banii de chirie, cum sa se duca la maica-sa si sa faca nu stiu ce, taca taca, taca taca.. da aia cat costa? Da mie de ce nu mi-ai luat? Da parfumu ala cat costa? Pai si l-ai lasat pe Gheorghe sa-si ia camera pe care ti-o doreai tu si despre care vorbeai? Nu, mami, i-am dat si eu un sfat. Pai da cat costa? Da nu era vorba de bani, stii cu tehnologia asta.. avanseaza tot timpul si acuma nu o mai vroiam. Pai si ce chiar asa scumpa era? Aaaarrrgghh!! Femeie mai taci! Relax! Chill! Chillax!! Nu e totu despre bani si cat costa aia si aialalta, mai tre sa te si bucuri de viata!! Numai mie mi se putea intampla sa stau langa asa fenomen.. da mereu ma bucur ca nu stau langa o faraoanca nespalata de 3 zile, ca aia au bani de KLM oricand, apropo de preturi.

Da, intr-un final scap – cata fericire! Am ajuns!! Mami si tati ma iau de la aeroport si e mare bucurie.. si eu sunt fericita, still.. Lumea e la fel si altfel. Eu sunt acasa si in vizita. Strazile sunt la fel de prafuite si organizate cu parcari mai nou. Sunt confuza, nici nu stiu daca sa ma bucur sau nu.. totul trece repede, timpul trece de 17 ori mai repede.. Ajung noaptea la 1 si stau de vorba cu tati pana la 6 dimineata... cum a trecut timpul? mananc toate mancarurile traditionale si dorm 4ore.. cum a disparut mancarea si timpul?!

Azi ajung in Romania

Pentru toti cei care nu m-au vazut de mult, pentru toti cei care vor sa ma vada, dedicatie speciala – Vedeti-m-a-ti prin Bucuresti! Astept! Abia astept!
Vin in seara asta (23 iulie) si plec luni (28 iulie), asa caaaa!! Hai!