Tales from Bucharest

24 hours from now, Lord willing, I'll probably be somewhere over the ocean, heading westward.  Right now, I'm resting at my Airbnb after a full and happy day.  I'll head out again for dinner soon, but I figured blogging now might be a good plan since I won't want to do it late tonight, or tomorrow after a long day of traveling, or Wednesday when I go back to work.
Yesterday started with a visit to the coffee shop in the building next to my Airbnb, which my host recommended, and which was fantastic.  I then took my first Romanian Uber ride (which turned out to be the 1st of 4 in one day!) to meet my friend Adoriana and her husband Bogdan at their church.  Last time I saw them, they were helping me into my 3am cab to the airport in 2016...it was so nice to see them again, in the light of day!  Their church is small and meets in a medical clinic, and I enjoyed the service and the people there a lot.

at Adoriana and Bogdan's church

With Adoriana in the mall

Afterwards, Adoriana and I took another Uber to a really nice mall. In the middle of the mall, there are waterfalls, a ropes course, a skating rink, and a rollercoaster!  She treated me to lunch in the food court (my first mamaliga of the whole trip!), and then I bought some new socks (I've been going through multiple pairs a day) and went on my way.  After coming "home" to change, I took the subway up to the biggest park in Bucharest, explored for quite awhile in the snowy beauty, then came back to the Old Town area and got dinner and a drink on the top floor of the amazing bookstore there.

a bench at Herastrau Park

more Herastrau Park

Some kind of chocolatey orange drink,

called a Winter's Dream!

While I was eating dinner, I got a phone call from my friends in Draganesti.  Turns out, an American visitor had arrived in Bucharest unannounced (or an email had been lost), to spend time with Hope Church, and was waiting at the airport for a ride to town.  Since the church is about 3 hours from the airport and I was about 30 minutes from the airport, they asked if I could go to the airport and meet her and spend time with her until someone could get there to pick her up.  So I quickly left the pedestrian part of town, got an Uber, and got to the airport as fast as I could.  Problem was, nobody had a way to get ahold of this woman, and I didn't know what she looked like, only that she was an American in her 50s.  So I wrote her name in large letters on a page of my journal and wandered all around the arrivals area holding it out and looking for any potential Juanitas...only to find out that she'd given up on us and had gotten a cab herself.  So...I got Uber number FOUR, which was a bit trickier to figure out from the airport, and came back to my cozy apartment.  It was such a strange night, but I'm thankful that I had the experience of Ubering to the airport so that I know what to expect early tomorrow morning!

This morning's breakfast

At the National Theatre

My first attempt at using the panoramic function on this phone.  

I kind of cut the theatre in half, but you get the idea.

Today, no Ubers so far.  I walked back to the excellent little coffee shop nearby and spent a long time reading and journaling and praying and reflecting.  It was nice to be so relaxed.  Then I walked another block to the National Theatre, where I took a guided tour with a bunch of Romanian schoolchildren.  The guide spoke very quickly, and my theatre vocab is apparently quite poor, so I understood very little, but it was still a beautiful place and it was fun to see and hear how excited the kids were.  The rain had stopped by the time of the tour, so I got more adventurous than I'd planned for the day, and walked quite a long way.  I took some touristy pictures of the giant "People's Palace," wandered through some more beautiful parks, and ended up eating a late lunch at a restaurant I'd enjoyed in 2016.  Then back to my apartment, where I'm resting now.

Palace of the Parliament.  The heaviest building 

in the world, visible from the moon...but not

entirely visible from down the street today

Despite the weather, I made it to my favorite park 

after all!

One last bowl of my favorite soup, and my own

little pitcher of mint lemonade.   That's right,

I'm allowed to drink lemonade from a pitcher

with a straw.

The plan is for me to return to Romania next year, if not before.  I'm so thankful for this plan, but I also know that it is MY plan and that God's plan has not been revealed.  Every time I say goodbye to this place, I know that it could be the last, though I hope with my whole heart that it won't be.  I'm eager for home, with my family and friends and my apartment and my church and my work and my flip-flops and my iced coffees and my ability to so easily navigate my world.  But I'm already eager, also, to be back here again, beginning another adventure.

Thanks for reading!