twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?"

place2place

  • not bulgaria

    Finally the rain stopped. We were suppose to go to Bulgaria for the three-day weekend (it's Pentacost, don't you know), but Camille had too much homework, so hopefully we'll hit the Black Sea coast eventually. Instead, we devoted this weekend to eating strawberries and taking a small trip up to Sinaia to enjoy its offerings: the bakery on the road up there, Peles Castle in a field of wildflowers, the view from the Serbian Restaurant, the 17th Century Monastary.

    Sinaia with mom peles

    Siniai with mom castle detail

    Sinaia with mom flowers

    Sinaia with mom statue

    Sinaia with mom monestary

    Sinaia basket of leaves

    For Pentacost you have to carry around a bundle of leaves.

    Sinaia sheep
    Also mandatory, stopping to let sheep cross on the road home.

  • also gypsy horse carts and quail eggs

    Mom's been in Bucharest one month today. To celebrate she went with us on a CLO trip to Lacerta Winery in the lovely Prahova Valley. We ate salad with hand made sausages and local cheeses for lunch along with a Sauvignon Blanc, a Chardonnay, a Rosé, a Merlot, a Pinot Noir and a wine made from the local grape, the Feteasca Negra. Peter says when you come to Romania this can all be yours.

    DSC_0781

    DSC_0790

    DSC_0805

    DSC_0803

  • si si si sicily

    I entered into the Must Get Out of Bucharest Machine:

    • Cheap, short flight
    • Not expensive, dog-friendly accommodations (Paris/London = no way)
    • A view…with a beach would be best

    And out popped Sicily.

    Photo-1
    The view of the village of Taomina from our balcony.

    Photo-6
    The view of our balcony, not quite all the way from Taomina.

    Photo-stef_view

    Photo-cam

    Photo-food

    Photo-church

    Photo-gelato

    Photo-sheep

    Photo-gate
    Camille and Bea opening the gate to The Lemon Tree Villa. I love staying anywhere called a villa.

    I didn't even enter in:
    • Good wine
    • A diffent flavor of gelato every day
    • The popsicle store
    • A Fiat Cinquecinto "Wait! I drove up to the top of this road but we can't drive down stairs!"
    • One-person-sized presecco
    * Sheep on the road
    * Spring showers at night, wam sun during the day 
    • Aritchokes 

    Photo-beaview

    Even Bea is enjoying Sicily.

  • sinaia must mean “too good to be true”

    Drove just an hour and half north of Bucharest the other day to the dreamy little town of Sinaia. We caught the town between snow storms, on a day in the middle of this crazy cold when the tempurature was about 15F degrees. Sinaia has everything you could ever want in a town though, starting with a gingerbread-house of a monastery that dates from the 1600s.

    Sanaia_monastary

    Sanaia_monastary_crosses

    King Carol liked the extra-blue sky here too, he built a castle during Downtown Abbey times.

    Sanaia_castle

    Sanaia_castle_detail_ice

    Of course we need dogs in the story.

    DSC_0613

    Sinaia is also a bear zone.

    Sanaia_bears

    And a mom and baby zone.

    Sinaia_mombaby

    Sinaia_skier

    And Sinaia has a ski lift that comes right down to the main street, that's what every fairy tale town needs in my book.

  • snow and tiramisu–hurry up take the picture before they’re gone

    Stefan in snow

    Finally! January 20th and we got our first snowfall.

    Tiramisu

    Photo-4
    I spent part of the afternoon with our neighbor after I begged her to show me how she makes the best the tiramisu ever. Not pictured: the Romanian congnac that may or may not be the secret ingredient.

  • 12 days of christmas in 7 days in paris

    One Eiffel Tower.Paris_spc

    Two feet around the very center of Paris.

    Paris_stefan_point 0

    Three French macaroons at Angelina at Versailles.

    Paris_angelina

    Paris_versaille_hall of mirrors
    Four matching bracelets. Three years ago we bought matching silk-corded bracelets that the four of us wore until they fell off. Peter's was the last to give out, he wore his tiny LOVE amulet for almost three years! I didn't know if the store would still be there, or if they would still have the bracelets. When we found the store and I expressed my relief to the proprietor she said, "We've been here for 25 years." They still have the bracelets too, and we are outfitted for another couple years, or until our next trip to Paris.

    Camille discovers the 4th arrondisement.

    Paris_kiki_4th arrondissement
    One of the huge fireplaces at the Chateau de Vincenne, five minutes from where we stayed. Where's Santa?Paris_santa chimney

    Six pounds of clementines a day. Stefan discovered the charm of squeezing the peel into a candle flame and now it's like, his job.

    Paris_clementines
    Seven nights of gorgeous lights. Also, Beaumarchais fans, squeee!

    Paris_caron hotel lights
    Eight stops from our hotel to Saint Paul on the number 1 line metro.

    Paris_riding the metro

    Ten trips a day to the bakery for croissants.

    Paris_bakery

    Paris_croissant eater
    Eleven pipers piping.

    Paris_pipers Piping

    Twelve drummers pounding in my head–I've had Bronchitis/possibly Pnemonia–I call it Cough Until You Pee or Throw Up. Having a fever every day has given this last couple of weeks an altered feeling, I knew I was sick when I couldn't be bothered to try on these shoes at Comptoires de Cotonnier. I don't recommend being ill. I do recommend Paris at Chirstmastime though, they have zithromax a plenty and you can always order online.
    4426Xmas_dinner

  • seeing with your photographic eyes

    Lipscan_coffee

    I spent the afternoon poking through art supply stores on a Harry-Potter-Diagon-Alley kind of street called Hanal cu Tei in Lipscan, everyone's favorite neighborhood.

    Lipscan_door

    In this neighborhood, run down buildings stand next to refurbished ones, shabby belle-epoch chic dominates the mood. The stores and cafes that are open are busy, street muscians draw a pretty good crowd. At an artisan-kind-of market you can buy honey and homemade soaps, hand-knitted socks and, from an old man wearing a tie and sweater vest, funny decorated gingerbread cookies. 

    Some of the streets are being re-cobble-stoned. I heard that a Spanish company won the bid to do the re-cobble-stoning. They came in and tore out all the old, real cobblestone, which they sold. Now they are repaving with cobblestones made of new cement. Romania. It's sad sometimes. That could be their tourism slogan.

    Lipscan_church

    Then on the way home, my taxi driver wanted to discuss whether God intervenes in the requests of humans, or is prayer a form of auto-suggestion. He believes in prayer because he feels the answers from God! Then he asked where I've traveled in Romania and he was super excited to hear that I'd recently come back from Lake Balae. 

    He has seen yeti there! Well, he hasn't seen him with his own eyes, but he took photos there, and when he looked at the photos later, yeti is in them! Well, not yeti, but bears with lights coming out of their eyes! He told me he has seen yeti twice–with his "photographic eyes"–and that I should look through my photos of Lake Balea very carefully.

    I don't know about the Lake Balea photos, but I think I see yeti in the lower left of the photo I took at the cookie stand! That's creepy!

    Lipscan_yeti

  • dracula tourism

    Bran Castle, located in Transylvania, matches Americans' Hollywood idea of where Dracula lived. The architecture screams gothic, but where is the foreboding cloud action?

    Brasov_bran_from a distance

    Brasov_bran entry

    Brasov_writing on the wallBuilt as a fortress in 1212 when Rome and Luxemburg argued over the area, Queen Marie of Romania enjoyed summers here until they booted her out in 1948. The castle has been given back to the Hapsburgs, they've graciously spent quite a lot of money de-decaying it and scattering bear rugs and crowns about. In 2009, the castle opened as a museum and a place to rent for private parties, for the red-lined-dress-capes-for-men crowd, presumeably.

    Wandering through the dining room, I thought of my favorite part in the book, where Dracula pretends to have servants and sneaks around fixing dinner and preparing rooms, scrubbing pots and making beds behind his guest's back.

    The foundation that runs the castle does a good job explaining who Vlad the Impaler was, one of his many middle names was Dracula, and local beliefs about undead ghosts. People really do hang garlic over their doors in this area, but signing the guest book on the way out, Peter and I were embassassed by the Americans disappointed with the castle who found it "uninteresting." They weren't actually attacked by a vampire, so they want their $2 admission fee back?

    We wandered past carved doors, ate blood-orange flavored black gumdrops, admired the sword collection and enjoyed the hospitality of the imaginary Count Dracula. We didn't see any sharp teeth climbing up the creepy secret staricase in the house, but saw plenty them for sale in the stalls at the base of the castle.

    Brasov_famille

  • lake balea, go if you get the chance

    Brasov_breathtaking lake vert

    We spent a long time throwing snowballs onto the frozen lake, then listening for the echo. Click on the photo to pretend you are there.

  • the road to lake balea, the transfăgărășan highway, yeah that

    You know you've started your Romanian roadtrip and have left Bucharest behind when you have to drive around horse carts.

    Brasov_leaving town1

    The Top Gear guys drove the road to Lake Balea last spring–in a Masarati, a Austin Martin and a Ferrari. We weren't really sure what to expect–maybe we should have watched the show before the drive?

    But it started off pretty.

    Brasov_on the road

    And then got stunning.

    Brasov_lake with mountain

    Then we started climbing up and seeing snow. Kind of a lot of snow.

    Brasov_snowy mountain roads

    Then it got ridiculous.

    Brasov_windy mountain road

    Since I've been home and watched the show, I know now that the Top Gear guys describe this road as the "best race track turns in the world, knitted together."

    The road went up and up and up, a million hairpin turns, to an elevation of 6000 feet, then we came to what looked like end of the road. I'd heard the pass can be closed when it snows, but I didn't expect it to be closed in October. We drove hours of switchbacks and can't get to the lake?

    As we approched what we thought was the end of the road, next to a WC with the best view in the world, we saw a tunnel.

    Brasov_WCYou come out of the tunnel, (the longest in Romania) pass the lake by mistake, have to TURN AROUND on this road where there is absolutely no turning around, then go back up an even steeper road to the tiny alpine lake, almost completely frozen. The hotel couldn't be any more on the lake, in fact, we were a little afraid of it falling in.

    They build an ice hotel in December, so I can't wait to go back.

    Brasov_lake with dist
    Brasov_lake_pebe

    In the night our water bottles in the car froze, so I was glad I'd stuffed the dog into a suitcase and smuggled her up to our room. She has no idea she's thrown up three times on what the Top Gear guys call the "best driving road in the world."