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July 01, 2008
| Prime Time |
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July 01, 2008
My recent trip to Bucharest Romania started late on a Wednesday night in Toronto Canada. My flight left right on time at 10:10PM via Lufthansa, but it was an Air Canada 767 that flew us all the way to Frankfurt Germany. Everything ran smooth, we did not crash. I slept mostly, but had a pretty comfortable ride in an aisle seat nice and close to the washrooms.
We arrived in Frankfurt on schedule and as I had a 2 hour layover between flights, I got a drink and sandwich and waited in the terminal. It was a short wait as two hours between flights seems perfect. No rushing around to find your next gate, and not enough time to get bored with the airport. There were lots of good looking women to look at and plenty to see otherwise.
My flight to Bucharest from Frankfurt also left right on time and it was just slightly over two hours. A snack and drink on the plane, a chit chat with my neighybor beside me and we were there very quickly.
Because of the time changes between my home town and Bucharest Romania, I just lost seven hours.Actual air time for the flight was almost nine hours to Frankfurt + 2 hours layover + 2 hours flight from Frankfurt to Bucharest ..... by the time we landed in Bucharest, it was about 10AM Toronto time. But when you ad the time zone difference of seven hours, it was about 5:15PM as I landed.
A few days before I left, Francoise offered to meet me at the airport. As I landed right on time, I figured that she'd be there at that time, or arrive shortly there after. I got out of the terminal quickly. I waited outside the terminal for almost an hour, looking for the exotic one inside and outside, I walked back and forth, but never found her. I then decided I'd waited long enough and figured that she wasn;t coming, so I grabbed a taxi cab. The taxi girl that was there said her driver would do the trip to Rin Grand Hotel for 35 Lei, so I figured that sounded good and took the deal.
Well, as it turned out, the drive to the hotel was just short of two hours and I gave the guy 45 Lei. The traffic was horrible. Bumper to bumper all the way and my driver was excellent, driving up curbs and taking shortcuts, but there was so much traffic, so many lineups at lights, it was unbeleivable. So ... yes, it took as long to get from the airport to my hotel as it did to get from Frankfurt to Bucharest. It's been a long day.
I got to my hotel and unpacked, and within an hour Francoise called me. She was not pleased. She had indeed gone to meet me at the airport, but had arrived about 10 minutes after I left. She was rather upset. Ooops.
I spent that night in my room watching TV and eating and sleeping.
The next day Francoisecame to meet me at the RIn Grand Hotel early in the afternoon. She waited for me at the coffee shop area of the hotel. It's a busy hotel and wasn't sure if I'd recognize her ..... of course she was the most beautiful one down there and was easy to spot.
We went up to my hotel room for an hour or so, and took these pictures.
We decided to look for a place to eat in the hotel and found a really nice chinese food place. We ordered some good stuff and ate and talked for over an hour. She was gorgeous and I always found her really interesting and entertaining. We went back up to my room for a few minutes and then she decided to go home, and would call me the next day.
I spent the rest of that night walking around the hotel, inside and outside and hanging out at the coffee shop downstairs. I had free internet at this hotel and spent some time surfing too. (Las Vegas Hotels charge $9 - $11 per day for that - this hotel provides it for free!)
Saturday
I woke up rather late and got room service. Today is the day when it will all come together as we would try to get everyone together. I was looking forward to meeting Alexander and the LNBs as we were expecting Christine, Mihaela and Francoise sister Julia.
Late in the afternoon I received a phone call from Francoise telling me to meet the group at Alexanders hotel, which was the Golden Tulip hotel, the place I stayed at last August. I knew where it was as I had mapped it out and had a fair idea of where I was going.
I arrived after about a 20 minute taxi ride and waited and waited ..... and around the corner came Francoise to greet me. Julia had borrowed brothers car and was waiting as well with Christine and Alexander.
Mihaela was no where to be found on this day. I called several times but as it turned out she had some personal stuff that needed to be done and was running around town doing it. So, the five of us take off and head for a shopping mall. We shopped and shopped until we dropped. It was anamazing walk as we went into several stores on several floors in this mall. Julia did the driving and was terrific. Clear nails on that steering wheel ..... it was difficult to concentrate.
We were all getting hungry and decided to eat. We found a really nice restaurant and had a great dinner. I have no idea what was orderd for me, but all I know it was beef and it was great.
We finished eating and walked some more. Francoise was contacted by a secret admirer on the phone and he joined us, bringing gifts for Francoise, Julia and Christine.
We found a pub on the top floor of the mall and had a few drinks. I had beer. It was great ..... very refreshing ..... but not nearly as great and refreshing as the nails that the three guys were faced with on the other side of the table. The evidence of that is here .....
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After we had drinks and chatted for over an hour, it was time to move on. We decided we'd call it an early night as the girls had to get the car back to the brother, and others had to get on to other stuff. Alexander and I got dropped off at our hotels, and the girls went on with the night. I got home around 10:00 as I recall, and was feeling a little down as I thought we'd go later but admitted that I was tired and was ready to call it a night.
All of a sudden my hotel phone rang at about 11PM. It was Mihaela! To make a long story short, let's just say she taold me where to be and when to be there and I did what she said, and sure enough around 1AM she picked me up outside my hotel, with sister in tow! And we were on our way to Alexander's hotel - the night was still young and we had lots of time to sleep - later.
Mihaela's sister is Melanie, known as Viscious Rider at Camcontacts. On this night she had no nails, but after inspecting what she has ... I can tell you that she is a definite Leni Cano subject for the future and man oh man is she cute! Wonderful face, she has that Romanian hair that makes me crazy and she talks and talks .... hehe.
So, we left a message on Alexander's message system at his hotel, hoping he hadn't gone to bed yet. We went to his hotel, but he was nowhere to be found. We waited a few minutes and sure enough, out of the elevator he came. We chatted for a few minutes and off we went.
We spent a few hours at a cafe called The Pink Cafe. Last August, Raul, Mihaela and I had gone there and had drinks one night and it's a great place. We stayed for a few hours. I had severl pina colladas. Yes, girly drinks, but potent damn things. I was wired.
It was getting to 2 or 3 AM and the place was closing. Melanie and Alexander decided to go to a pub, so we dropped them off somewhere. Mihaela and I went to meet Raul with his friends in a basement restaurant where we were to order some food. This place was already closed, but there had been a wedding there earlier that night and the chef was still cooking, so we orderd a ton of food and many drinks. Just a great time. As it turns out, we did stay up all night once again as is the custom here in Bucharest.
Mihaela drove me back to the hotel, just as the sun was rising. Another great night.
Sunday
Alexander was leaving Sunday, so Christine, he and I made plans to meet at 10:30 at his hotel and do a nice big Romanian type breakfast. I was a few minutes late and got there just before 11AM. Christine recommended a restaurant at Uniiri Mall. I had visited there last year with Francoise, Mihaela and Raul and had a few drinks. This time, Christine had us go to the top floor on the food court and ordered us some great stuff. I'm not sure what it was, but it was pasta with cream and bacon and my arteries are still clogged. We had a great lunch and took some pictures, albeit terrible ones. I need to apologize to Christine for doing such a terrible job on these. My worst habit is trying to get too close, and Christine's claws are magnificent as you can almost tell from these ...
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Sometime after noon, Mihaela and Christine made contact and we made plans to meet Mihaela and Melanie downstairs somewhere. So, Christine, Alexander and I made our way downstairs and just a few hundred meters from the mall we found an outside pub. We sat. And waited. For about 30 minutes we waited and never got served. Just as Mihaela called again to say she had arrived, the waiter was making his way over to us. We left. We wanderd out back of the mall and met with Mihaela and Melanie. We chatted for 1/2 hour or so and plans were made for ther afternoon.
First, Christine had to get going as she had things to do. Melanie and Alexander decided to stay in town and eventually ended up spending the day on the water, before Alex left for home around 6PM that day. Mihaela and I were off to the mountains. Mihaela was fulfilling my request from last year when I told her I'd like to see a castle - a spooky castle. She complied with my wishes. Read on.
We started off on what I beleive was a three hour trek and hit the road flying. We drove several hours as we were on our way to a town called Shinai. Here, there is a castle that was built in the early 1800's for the King of Romania at that time, who just happened to be a teenager. Things were weird in those days eh.
This is a dream come true. Gorgeous Mihaela in the driver seat, me observing as we head out on this voyage across the land, through rain storms, through heavy traffic in some spots on this trip that I'd thought would never end.
After three hours, we're getting slose. The flat land part of the drive ends. We're now driving up this mountain. At the top of the mountain I can see clouds, it's dark and it appears to be raining. Up we go, winding around and heading up this steep terrain. Finally we come upon a small town called Shinai. We ask a few people how to get to the Palace and we're off.
So, we're driving up this 45 degree slope, on a beautifully designed stone brick road. We come to a sign that says "Parking" with an arrow. Mihaela parks the red rocket. We get out, walk back out to the road, and up we go as the last part of our journey will be by foot.
OK, so I am 50 years old, I smoke, I am a little overweight, we're up high in the mountains, the air is fresh, clean and most importantly, thin. This 45 degree angle hill is killing my achilles tendon, so painfull. My lungs gasping for air, I am sweating. Mihaela, yelling back at me "Come on, you can make it, you can make it". AHHHHH. I thought I was going to die.
Finally, we get to the top of the hill.
First thing I want to do is have a smoke. Mihaela says no, not yet. We walk some more, she asks at the desk and wouldn;t you know it - they are closed. I wanted to cry - or die.
It seems the last tour of the castle starts at 4PM, it is now 5PM. We're here now, so we try to make the best of it. We walk over to the main building and the security guys tell us to go home, they are closed. We walked back to the refreshment building, and bought water. Mihaela and I decided to sit and smoke. Funny thing is here, it's raining, awful weather, but all around us is bright blue sky and sunshine. I'm tempted to draw the conclusion here that this is part of the legend that whenever you see a spooky castle in Romania in movies, it's always raining, there is always thunder and lightning. It figures. There is truth to these legends. We sat and talked for a while and looked around at the four buildings that make up the entire complex. Just a beautiful place. and the castle does indeed have a spokky quality to it. I took some pictures of the visit with Mihaela to the top of this mountain. I am regretting it as usual as I did not take nearly enough pictures, but what I got are these ....
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As you can see, the place is beautiful. This may not have been Bran Castle, and it was not in Transylvania, and we never did see Dracula. But after spending the afternoon with the Morticia Addams look a like Mihaela, and being thrilled by her amazing red nails, and seeing The Palace in all it's glory, and walking up that hill, and sitting and talking, and the drive .... well, beleive me, it was FANTASTIC. Thank you Mihaela.
We made our way back to town. Now, the route we took just happens to be in line with the airport and as we were on our way back to town, we were to pick up Melanie who was waiting at the airport for a ride as she saw Alexander off on his flight. Timing was pretty good as she waitied only an hour for us.
We were hungry, we went to a fantastic pizza place and had the best pizza I have ever had in my life with two unbeleivable creatures in Melanie and Mihaela. What a day! I'm tired .... time to head back to the hote. Mihaela dropped me off and to the room I went. Sunday in Bucharest was a great day. One more day and the rest is history.
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