random question...

Here’s a question that you’ve probably never heard, and never contemplated: What do turtles do for happiness? A few days ago we indulged in some delish deep fried donuts at La Scoica, a popular pizzeria, where the décor is maritime; there are fishing nets and shells and fish tanks and small ponds, and one central pool that is home to a few dozen turtles. They were completely still – no movement, no life – and we felt sorry for them and wondered whether or not they were happy. And then Steve: “What do turtles do for happiness anyways?” Hmmm… they eat? Lie in the sun? There was no sun and no sign of food, at least not for them… poor little turtle-guys! And (thankfully) no, turtle soup was not on the menu…

We’ve been busy with Nik in town – we’ve checked out a number of new (to us) cafés, been shopping (sales are still ridiculous) and have made, and gone out for, some fabulously yummy meals. We had Tammy and Arvis over the other night and Nik made supper for all of us – baked carbonara… yummmm…. And then, crepes with nutella for dessert – how evil is that? Deliciously evil. We’ve seen a few flicks too: Revolutionary Road and Rock Star. Revolutionary Road was okay – we were all kind of left wondering what the point of it was, and decided that the moral of the story was to go to your Paris, and to stay true to yourself. (Also, don’t try to give yourself an abortion – duh.) Rock Star just ROCKS… Steve and I have seen it five or six or seven times and we still LOVE it… such good music and Mark Wahlberg is awesome in it – as is the hair, the clothing… all of it.


What else… Oh, so Ron hates me. We came downstairs last week and found an injured dog – he had a big gash/wound on one of his hind legs and there was blood and matted fur and all of it – bleh. Anyways, so I asked Jennifer for some advice, and she was kind enough to get me a bottle of spray antiseptic-antibiotic for dogs; since then I’ve been spraying him every day, and now he runs away from me. Poor guy. I hope he gets over it and doesn’t forever more associate painful wound spray with me. Mrrrr…

My yoga class yesterday was awesome – I had 10 people and lots of positive feedback… yay!! I was kind of having a blah day – Nik lost his phone and the three of us were just a bit down about it and then... yoga turned it all around. There are three things that do that for me (usually): coffee, exercise (running) and yoga. There hasn’t been too much time for exercise this week but, with a Greek guy around, there’s always time for coffee! There’s a double-header at the gym today: Tammy’s team plays at 3:00, and Tomis follows with a game at 5:00, so we’d better grab some coffee before we settle in for a few hours of volleyball. If I had some lungs like Steel Dragon’s Izzy, I’d STAND UP AND SHOOOUT! for two hours - but, I don’t, so I think it’s best if I let my hands do the talking…

ping-pong and more...

We just got back from watching Euroleague ping-pong (Romania vs. The Czech Republic) and wow… what a spectacle. Okay wait… clearly, these guys were not playing ping-pong (a sport reserved for beer halls and basements?) but table tennis; they were jumping and grunting and there was a crowd. We went out for dinner and mosied on over to the sport hall afterwards to check out this tourney; the hall was completely silent… so we were doubtful that we’d caught the end of the show. Oooooh no – there were clearly table tennis manners that the crowd followed to a T: exuberant cheering between rallies (yes, exuberant) and hush-hush silence during play. We stayed for two matches and I have never been so excited about ping-pong in my life.

What I’m not excited about is the fact that I left the lights on on the Matiz again, and this time (I did this last week too - oops) we had no dirty Dacia man come to our rescue. Tammy and I, taking turns, pushed the Matiz through the parking lot of one of the biggest grocery stores in the city, with only one dude offering, for 10 minutes, to help. Whatever - that’s not a big deal (I think I might weigh more than the mini-Daewoo-woo); we just couldn’t get it started! I tried first, but Tammers had to take over – she’d observed Dacia-dude working his magic a few days earlier. She had no luck either, and eventually we ran out of parking lot and road on which to push our luck. There was a bit of stress in the air, as I’d left Steve and Nik at the mall, and Steve had to get to practice… oops. There was enough time for Arvis, the Lithuanian opposite player, to come to our rescue with jumper cables, and then… no problem. It’s a good thing that didn’t happen today, as Arvis woke up to a fully punctured flat tire, which the guys helped him change this afternoon. The funniest part about it – even Arvis laughed – is that he got shit on by a bird just as the work was beginning. What luck…



We’ve been having an awesome time with Nik here – ya, okay, there’s not so so much to do here but… we’re finding stuff. We sampled some traditional Romanian dessert this afternoon – Papanash (sp?), which are basically fresh, light, warm donuts covered in the topping of your choice. Each of us ordered something different: Steve had the deluxe (whipping cream, ice cream, sprinkles, syrup and ?), I had a regular (jam and thick yogurt) and Nik had Nutella on his Romanian donut dessert. They were delicious… we each got (and gobbled) two donuts, and left with smiles on our faces, satisfied with our choice of traditional Romanian food. Steve has had his fair share of that, and I’ve sampled enough (I think); the traditional fare we’ve been served at The Flora hasn’t been anything to write home about, but these Papanash are. So there you go. Steve might also like me to write home about last night’s bowling victory. When it comes to backgammon and bowling, the Steve and Nik are super competitive, and there’s always a lot of talk. Okay, the bowling alley – specifically the bowling balls – weren’t up to Greek snuff but, everyone made due and Steve came out on top. I don’t remember who won the pool tournament – and that’s not because I had one too many Carlsbergs… wait: Steve and Jim won, and I remember that because Jim was hooting and yelling and victory-dancing. It was funny, and seriously fun. Still no internet here, so time online has been minimal, and I’m feeling a bit cut off from the world. Mrrrrrrr… I’ll finish this blog on a positive note – yoga was awesome this morning – I had a great class and everyone enjoyed it and stuck with it for the hour. Numbers were up and… it just felt great! Tomis has a big game tomorrow – preceded by a big game for the women’s team (they both play Dinamo Bucharest, and everyone hates them), so Nik and I might have a long day at the gym tomorrow. I better rest up………

a visitor!!

We have a visitor! Our friend Nik made the trek from Kavasila to Athens to Bucharest to Constanta to visit us for nine days! As his (and our – wait, more specifically my) luck would have it, getting to Constanta was made a little bit more complicated by the fact that the night before he arrived, a huge storm hit Constanta and Bucharest, and the road between the two cities was closed. So, my plan to pick him up with a borrowed mid-sized vehicle was, er, compromised? We were told that the storm was to get worse, and that the Code Yellow (weather alert? not sure…) would be upgraded to a Code Red in the morning. I was advised by the team manager that, as a woman, I should not attempt to drive to Bucharest. Steve stood up for me: “But she’s a strong woman!” And Buly (manager) said, slowly, “Yes, but no speak language, maybe strange men.” Uh, yup. Especially with strange men thrown into the equation, I’d really rather not attempt Code Red weather by myself. Of course we weren’t sure what this really meant – which is standard here in Romania: did Code Red mean a foot of snow and a closed road? There were accidents and backups all over the country on Friday night (including a 10 car pileup on the Constanta-Bucharest highway)… so we weren’t sure. Opting for safety first I decided to take the train, which would have been unbearably slow: the fast train takes four and a half hours; driving takes around three. Long story short, I ended up taking a bus and then – I’m proud of myself! – public transit, in Bucharest, to get to the airport. I picked him up no problem and we made it back to Constanta – again, all on the bus – in time for Steve’s four o’clock game. Nik’s catch phrase is “No problem!” and, it was just that: no problem. (I have to add this: On Friday night we met Buly (to get the keys to the car I was going to drive) in a dentist’s office next door to his house and he smoked the entire time we were there. In a dentist’s office… )

Saturday night’s game was kind of a breeze, and the guys won 3-0 - no problem! Several of the starters (including Steve) didn’t dress, and got a break from their as-of-late grueling schedule. Even though things aren’t going to let up for a while (until the end of the season), at least they’re at home for 10 straight days… yay! We don’t have too much planned for our visitor – I can’t say that Constanta is bursting with tourist attractions or things to do, but hopefully we’ll be able to explore the coast a little bit, and see some new things. Yoga has been going really well for me, but numbers are still really up and down. Friday’s class only had six people… but it was great. And not too much else is going on! I am finally reading a book that I’m enjoying – Pilgrim by Timothy Findley. It’s pretty rare that I start a book that I can’t (or don't want to) finish, and prior to this one there were three in a row that were only good for putting me to sleep! Even with a cup of coffee… snore. I'm going to cut this short - this internet signal is starting to fade (the computer is perched on a windowsill; we are still, basically, sans internet), and the guys are watching the Greek Basketball Cup final on TV and it sounds exciting… so I’m outta here!

Us girls and our half-litre beers (Tammy, Agustina and me)

The guys with their man-beers: Steve, Nik and Sebastian

a huuuuuge win!

Big news for Romanian volleyball and CVM Tomis Constanta – they’re in the final four! They won last night in Belarus 3-1! Yaaay! It’s huge for Romania – even though the rest of the teams in the league aren’t that strong, having a team in such a big-deal event is great for everyone. Rumour has it that the president wants to host it here, but I can’t imagine that it would fly – I mean, the manager would actually have to stop smoking for five seconds and do some work, and organization would have to be top notch. I'm not sure who the other teams in the tourney are... I think there might be a Polish team, Steve's old team from Greece (Patras), and maybe a Turkish team. But, I'm not sure.

A couple of us got together last night to watch the game – Tammy came straight over after practice, Val scooted over up from Mamaia (the beach town that’s basically an extension of Constanta) and a new friend, Jennifer came over from just around the corner. Last week Steve and I were in the small grocery store down the block and we kind of bumped into someone who kind of bumped into us and simultaneously said, “Sorry!” We kind of did a double take and then started chatting - we never hear English around here! Anyways, Jen and her husband Rowan have been living here for two and a half years – he works for a shipping company in town. She was born in Canada (Toronto area), is from a Dutch family, and has lived in Australia since she was 15; he’s a Kiwi and that’s about all we know about him! So that was a really nice surprise meeting her, and she joined us to watch the game. After the victory! we sat around talking about Romania and our impressions and experiences… which was super interesting.

The main topic of conversation was, of course, the dogs. It sounded like Jen’s husband, before they’d come here, had been forewarned of the doggie situation, and made Jen promise not to fall in love with any strays or ragamuffin puppies. She reluctantly obliged, but when a skinny, near death dog squeaked through their gates and landed on their back doormat, she couldn’t resist. Well, no. It sounds like she went down the vet, and they agreed (because they know her) to put the dog to sleep – apparently they can’t do that unless there’s proof of ownership, but the number of dogs in this country without owners outnumbers the ones with owners by a gazillion to one. Anyways, she was really upset at the state of this poor dog – fleas, bones protruding, ears partially eaten away… and when her husband got home from work that night, the first thing he said to her was, “Well, you could at least give it a flea bath!” And all Jennifer heard was YOU CAN KEEP IT. So she did! And now it’s healthy and happy and is their little baby. How sweet is that!? She’s given names to all of the dogs on their block, as we’ve given names to Ron and his buddies. But the doggy talk wasn’t all pleasant. Apparently the dogcatchers – who, previously, were paid for each dog they brought in (but then would just release them in a different part of the city and catch them and bring them in again) are now being paid (or being paid more – not sure) to bring in dead dogs. Horrible. So poisoned meat is being set out in the park in our neighborhood. Horrible. Once a year they round up strays and sterilize them – the only problem is, is that up until this year, they only brought in the males…. which really screws over the females (in more ways than one) and clearly didn’t solve the problem. But just as we were lamenting the fact that there are no animal shelters, it dawned on me that I haven’t seen any shelters for people. And, that’s because there are none. Jennifer, who has some Romanian friends in town, told us that four homeless people died in December, just in our neighborhood - horrible and appalling. I know that the system here – government – is stressed and probably stretched thin; but with the amount of alleged corruption, it’s no wonder that more progress isn’t being made in terms of social services. What comes to mind for me, is that, in general, with the not-so-long-ago fall of Communism and system of shared wealth (whatever that may have amounted to), people are now clutching on to whatever is theirs, and not sharing. At least that’s the attitude I get from the younger nouveau riche, who you see speeding around town in their BMWs, Mercedes, Audis and Land Rovers, parking wherever they want and tossing their garbage and cigarette butts out the window.

Not everyone is like this. This morning I left the lights on in the mini Matiz and, after being in the grocery store for 10 minutes, the obviously minute battery was toast and our car wouldn’t start. Three dirty middle-aged guys climbed out of their parked, aged Dacia and offered to help; one drove and the other two pushed and they got the Daewoo started. I got in the car and said, “Well isn’t that a nice surprise…” And Tammy? “Yup, he stank of alcohol. Stank.” Maybe not such a nice surprise for her….

oh, Romania...

Wow. So, because none of my Christmas presents arrived (I sent them from here on December 10th, regular mail), I decided that I’d look into sending a small – and I mean small – package with DHL… perhaps more reliable than Romanian theftmail? Anyways, to send the CD and a card would have cost me 363 lei: over $130, and that’s without rush delivery. Ridiculous!! I am going to have to convert these to electrono form, and somehow send them over the internet. Argh. However, these frustrations with Romania (don’t get me – or Tammy – started) are nothing compared to what Tammy is going through… another mail (not male) related problem. When we got back from Christmas holidays, Tammy was pickpocketed in Mango while shopping: gone were her credit cards, license, etc. I wasn’t there but she said that a woman was checking out the same stuff she was, holding up sweaters and shirts and Tammy didn’t feel a thing… wallet - gone. Anyways, so she went through the whole rigmarole of getting a new set of cards re-issued, and Tammy’s mom sent a whole pack of them, along with a new battery for her computer in the mail a few weeks ago. Canada Post has tracked it to Romania, and it has since been lost. Yes, for real, lost. Romanian frustrations are running high around here these days, but despite it all it seems like a much better place to be than Gomel, Belarus. I haven’t talked to Steve yet but Agustina has talked to her boyfriend, the Argentinian setter, Sebastian, and it sounds kind of like Yaroslavl. Old Communist Mother Russia is still alive there – at least in the streets, buildings, and aura of the place… bleh. Constanta really isn’t such a bad place after all.

Speaking of people… and fashion, BOOTS WITH THE FUR is a common theme here. You know that song “Low” by Flo Rida? (Didn’t know the artist or the name of the song until just now, doh!) Well, it comes to mind here on a very regular basis (the lyrics do), as women love their boots with the fur. I’m reluctant to take pictures because I feel like I’m being rude and invasive, and even though people are rude and invasive on a regular basis here (and probably everywhere)… I still don’t know if I can do it. Example of the rudeness first. Walking through the grocery store today, it was quite clear (and this wasn’t he first time this has happened) that Sherisa is the first black person many Romanian children and grown ups have seen, and no one tries to dull, soften or be polite about intense staring and gawking. It is out of control. Furthermore, the entire idea of personal space (whether in person or in a car) is lost on the majority of Romanian people…. Or perhaps it’s just not a part of their culture. Anyways. On to fashion and style (or lack thereof). Boots with the fur is big (I’ve seen pink ones and red ones and lots of black ones), especially when paired with pants, shirt, sweater and jacket of the same furry colour. Red is surprisingly popular, as is bright pink. That’s a way to stand out in a crowd – a full pink, furry outfit; it’s almost Halloween costume-esque. Men’s clothing is pretty normal and boring (i.e. no fur), but the women really do it up. Not with the higher fashion look of Russian dames, but it’s pretty regular for women of all ages to be primped, preened and properly clothed for any and all activities. Unlike Russia, you’re not stared at with disgust if you wear runners, sweatpants or housecoats in the street. (And that includes fluorescent housecoats, and men are okay in those too.) I haven’t tried the housecoat look, but feel much better about walking around in my old runners and jogging pants than I ever did in Russia – and I'll stick with that look and leave the bright bathrobe for ... the bathroom.

What a week... What a weekend!

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! We are still sans internet at home, so were disconnected from the virtual world on Saturday… and all other days. We’ve found a new, more reliable location to connect (new apartment building), and it even has plush sofas, plants and natural light (and a full-time maid that wanders around the lobby). The only problem is that there are smokers and it stinks – blech. Our previous haunt, the Hotel Malibu, has an unreliable connection and is cold; but we did find a new dog-pal there who lives under some concrete stairs, and he is so cute and so sweet. On Wednesday night I brought some meat for the little guy and he devoured it with more power than the latest Hoover – it was a spectacle. So, anyways! We had a busy week, and I’m not sure where to start. Yoga is going well, though without the internet my resources are cut to zero, so I’m planning on plumping myself down in one of these oversized sofa chairs for several hours on Monday to learn and plan… even if the people coming to classes won’t (or don’t) appreciate the effort I put in, I’ll benefit… is that more important? Even though I know the culture of yoga and awareness is a million billion zillion times stronger at home and in North America, it still irks me a bit to see people bringing in their phones, leaving or arriving half way through class, and trying new poses for about 0.3 seconds before they fall over and are done with it. Not everyone is like this, of course, but people just don’t work that hard, or really get the mind-body connection thing… and yes, I explain it. But… I’m learning, they’re learning and slowly we’ll find some harmony I’m sure... I hope.



Steve’s team played against a team from Belarus on Wednesday night and almost thumped them 3-0, but somehow managed to lose set three before winning the fourth 25-17. If they win this series (they have to win on Wednesday), they’re in the final four of the European Challenge Cup, which is kind of a big deal… so fingers crossed on Wednesday. They left this morning (at 5am) on yet another brutal road trip – drive to Bucharest, fly to Vienna, fly to Minsk, drive six hours and end up in Gomel. Yes, Gomel. Fun facts about the place? It's sister city in Canada is Sudbury; Maria Sharapova's parents lived there; it's the second largest city in Belarus; and, it was heavily contaminated in 1986 after Chernobyl, but never evacuated. Interesting, but not very amusing. Anyways...

The guys also played on V-day, which didn’t ruin any romantic plans – we’d decided to forego gift and flower giving and, instead, make martinis! After their game the girls played (both teams won 3-0), and Tammy, Arvis (Lithuanian guy), Steve and I went out for what we’d hoped would be a quick bite to eat… but wasn’t. It took an hour to get our appetizers, but we figured that it was because we took the last table up in the attic of the building – plus, it was super busy with big groups of dining Valentiners. Anyways, Tammy and I had bought goods to make peach, cranberry, and raspberry martinis – complete with fruit garnish and real-deal glasses – and after dinner went home to start bartending (and drinking). We’d invited some of Tammy’s team and some of Steve’s team, but not as many people showed up as we’d thought… which was fine – we have leftovers for another night! The drinks were delicious (my fave was peach: vodka, peach vermouth, peach juice and san pellegrino), as was the cake that Sherisa brought: chocolate layered with chocolate covered in chocolate – yum. Anyways, we went to Wish (nightclub) as per our usual Saturday night routine; we danced, got smoked out and Steve and I left early. Sunday really felt like Sunday, and the only other exciting news from the weekend, in Steve’s words, is: “Girlfriend got paaaaid!” Funny. Yup, I got paid for my first five classes of yoga, yay! I’ll just have to try to not spend it all at once…

My favourite - PEACH!

Me and Tammy
Steve and Arvis, a few martinis in...

We finished the puzzle! 3000 pieces!

getting there...

So, as far as getting home goes, there are two stories. Steve's team played in Piatra Neamt on Saturday night, and had an 8 hour bus ride home immediately following their 3-0 win. I’ll save the best (really the worst) for last and tell my story first. I guess it’s not too much of a story, but I took public transit to the airport, and despite being a bit stressed about figuring it all out for myself at 7:30 on a Sunday morning, it all worked out just fine. Tammy, who has been without her car for almost four months now (initially they told her it would take 10 days to fix it; since then they’ve told her lots of things, none of which has resulted in a car), offered to come and pick me up, hoping that her team would follow through on it’s latest promise to give her the car by the weekend. Of course that didn’t happen, so the president gave her a car just for the day… but told her to put some air in the tires. So, Saturday night she did just that and noticed, on Sunday morning, that the tire was looking just a little bit flat again. Back at the gas station, one of the attendants pointed out two massive bulges in the tire and told her that driving to Bucharest was not a good idea. How ridiculous is that? Her team gave her a car with an about-to-burst tire…. unreal. Her coach had offered the use of his car, so at the last minute she took him up on the offer, and took off to Bucharest with Sherisa to come and get me. We spent most of the afternoon at Bucharest’s biggest mall, and left around 5:00 – but took a different route to get out of the city. Riddled with potholes, the ring road has got to be the worst ring road in Europe… and signs for Constanta and the only highway in the country were few and far between. So… we found ourselves a bit lost, and had to ask for directions; we were told to keep going keep going and that we’d hit the highway eventually. Every now and again there was a sign for Constanta, but the next three signs would be missing the city; sometimes there were signs pointing in both directions for our destination, and distance would jump from 210kms to go to 217, back down to 160 and 15 minutes later be back up to 175. Oh, and it was pouring rain and it was pitch, pitch black. There were no lights to illuminate on-the-road pedestrians and cyclists, let alone signs. Long story short, it was a stressful, white-knuckle drive, especially with the out-of-control Romanians, who were driving as if on the Autobahn on a sunny June day. So… after a long day for all, we made it home safely… what a relief.

Steve’s story is much worse than mine. They won so quickly on Saturday night that even though they played at 4:00, they were on the bus and on their way home by 7:00… things were looking good. That is, until their bus broke down in the middle of nowhere. Without a shoulder to pull onto, the guys were just a tad stranded, literally, in the middle of the road. The Turkish driver evaluated the situation, and declared the bus kaput – the team would have to wait for a replacement to come from Bucharest, which they were told would take only 2 ½ hours (ha! ya right). They took cabs to a gas station where they waited from 9:30 until 1:30am… brutal. So, as I was getting up in Istanbul to make my way home at 7am on Sunday, Steve was just getting in the door from an all-nighter gas station, bus-ride trip from hell. Oh, and when the bus arrived in Constanta? All of the guys’ cars had been stripped of gas – someone had siphoned gas out of all of the mini Matiz cars – really incredible. So, coming home to Romania wasn’t nearly as pleasant as my vacation in Istanbul was, but, c’est la vie – things are different here, and we’ve just got to roll with the punches.

Turkish underwear – a need to clarify what’s inside?

Istanbul...

On Galata Bridge

… was awesome! I loved the city; people were friendly, there was loads of public space, it was clean and green, and there were parks and walkways all over the place. I had such a good time there… great friends, great city and three very full days. The travel was probably the worst part – on Wednesday morning I took a bus to Bucharest’s Gara de Nord, and then a short taxi ride to the airport, where I waited for several hours for my TAROM flight to take me to Istanbul. Once there I waited some more; Angela was coming in from Cyprus and arrived a few hours after I did – but no problem! It was great to see her and the airport was great – full of friendly and helpful staff (and about three times the size of Buch’s airport), so even though the 12 hour travel day was a bit long, I was just happy to be there! The return trip was crazy, but I’ll get to that later. Anyways, so Angela and I met at the airport and took a bus to meet Julie and Angel at a metro stop 45 minutes away. Julie’s husband Jeroen is playing in Istanbul on the same team as Angel’s husband Scott; Scott and Steve played together in Greece a few years ago, and Julie played on the National Team (Canadian) and went to university with Steve – there are the connections. So! The four of us took a cab back to “My Town”, the apartment complex that they live in, way on the other side of the city in Asian Istanbul. We caught up, had a glass of wine, and then… sleep; I never knew an air mattress could be so comfortable or conducive to sleep, but I slept like a log (do logs sleep?) – Angela and I had our own large airbeds to sleep on and I was out like a light, only to be awakened by the morning speaker-blasted call to prayer.

On Thursday, Julie, Angela and I made the trek into the city, which involved taking a bus, a metro, a funicular and a tram – average time, one hour. It was a gorgeous day and we saw a ton; the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, the New Mosque and the Blue Mosque. The Grand Bazaar was just that – grand. There were characters galore in there, feeding us lines left right and center: “Charlie’s Angels look please come into my store” and “Are you a model?” and “You want to come and buy stuff you don’t need?” and so on. People were so friendly, and though I can’t really say it was a mistake to pay any of these dudes any attention, it might have been. A merchant asked us how we were doing, where we were from and what my name was and I told him – this elicited the following response: “OOooooh so many women in Canada are named Heather I know so many Heathers I have met a hundreds of Heathers from Canada,” and on and on and on and on. Eventually the dude left us alone but we were cautious about not running into him again. (Side note of no importance – he had one of the worst mullets we’d ever seen.) The bazaar was full of scarves and gold and pillows and lights and colours and people people people; there was so much going on! None of us bought anything – perhaps it was too overwhelming… and we were happy to get outside and away from the cat calls. Next, we hit up the Blue and the New mosques, both of which were very impressive. Built between 1609 and 1616, The Blue Mosque is the only mosque (in the world?) built with six minarets, and is so-called because the interior walls are covered with ornate and painstakingly detailed blue tiles. I liked the grounds of the building almost as much as the interior – there was so much clean, well taken care-of public space: fountains, grass, trees, flowers, walkways… I haven’t seen much of any of those things in Romania. On our way to the new mosque, we strolled through another park steepled with three obelisks – all of which looked very, very old.

Some of the ooold old obelisks...

In the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque

We took the tram to the new mosque (not really so new – built in the 1600s), located right beside the spice bazaar, and with covered, scarved heads and no shoes, took our time inside. The spice bazaar was just as busy as the grand bazaar, but much smaller and way less intimidating; we heard, “Hey, Spice Girls!” more than a few times, but none of the some-new, some-old lines we heard prompted us to spend any of our lira. We did buy some cashews, almonds, and yummy dried fruit at a busy stand at the back that didn’t need any verbal hooks to get us in the store; the display was more than enough.
The New Mosque - it was enormous!

On our way into the Spice Bazaar - you wouldn't know from this picture that it's a lot less hectic than the Grand Bazaar...


Our stand of choice in the Spice Bazaar... yummy!

By 3:30ish we were all pretty much done with the sightseeing, and ready to make the trek home. Julie warned us that it was best to try to get on the bus before the 4:00 sardine-bus-rush, and we made it in time for a few ounces of personal space. (We weren’t so lucky on Saturday… that was interesting.) “My Town” is right across the street from an outdoor mall, equipped with Western stores, coffee shops (Starbucks) and restaurants, and we hit up Num Num’s for dinner. Nummmmm… after over-indulging in a huge cheeseburger (num) we felt we deserved dessert (of course) – and went next door to Go Bongo’s where we ordered: a chocolate lava cake, mango souffle, candied pears and ice cream and deep fried ice cream with chocolate sauce. Seriously! There were five of us… but wow… it was serious dessert. We waddled home and I’m pretty sure I deflated my air mattresses just a bit that night with my over-capacity-full belly.

Eating dessert on Thursday night: Julie, me and Angela

On our boat tour!

Me and Angel - great to see each other after two years!

Friday morning Julie and Jeroen left for Ankara (Jeroen had a match on Saturday night) which left Angel, Angela and I to hit the town once again. The weather was amazing – it must have been near 20 degrees, and it was a perfect day for a boat tour of Istanbul - done and done! It was such a good choice – we saw so much of the city and it was great to be on the water… it was relaxing and beautiful and we got some great pictures. After two hours of that fabulousness, we grabbed some bread from a street vendor and checked out the spice bazaar yet again; we stocked up on nuts and dried fruit, and after stumbling upon a busy deli, decided to grab some things for an at-home Turkish dinner… which was the best decision ever. Moderately loaded up with goods, we walked across the Galata bridge to find the Galata tower, in the Beyoglu district. Built by the Genoese in the 14th Century, it offered amazing views of the city; it was such a perfect day for boat and tower… and by the time we’d come down from the tower’s heights, we were ready to get home, put our feet up and have a beer… and so we did just that. And then… dinner. At the deli we’d bought dolmades, dip, bean stuff, stuffed peppers, cheese and bread, and had, on the way home, bought a roasted chicken and a bottle of wine from the Real (grocery store) across the street. It was such a good meal – they were the best dolmades I’d ever had, and once again we went to sleep full and happy.

The view from the top of Galata Tower was amazing... and such a perfect day!

We woke Saturday to drizzly weather, but were undeterred on day three; we took the train, the metro, the funicular and the tram back to the city to check out Hagia Sofia and Topkapi Palace – both were amazing. Hagia Sofia was a church for 916 years, a mosque for 481 years, and is now a museum; it was purportedly built early in the 4th century, but the current structure is a result of several reconstructions. It was definitely the most memorable part of the trip for me. – besides the 86 karat diamond in Topkapi Palace, and other diamond, jade and ruby studded swords, cups and thrones. Anyways, it was also neat to see some Christian mosaics that are now being carefully uncovered, next to Islamic creeds, and spend some time in one of the most famous and historic buildings in the world.

Hagia Sofia



From there we headed through a gorgeous public park towards Topkapi Palace, the former home of Ottoman and Turkish sultans and their administration (and harems). It was enormous… we spent a good three hours touring the palace and grounds; again, it was gorgeous and green and so well taken care-of. The treasury really made me think of an Ocean’s 11 or plan-the-heist movie, because the treasures in there must be worth an absolute fortune. There was no photography allowed, so the 86 karat Spoonmaker’s diamond flashes only in my memory – or sparkles and blinds. There were daggers and thrones, cups and jugs, helmets and rings, Koran covers and boxes, covered and smothered in jewels – gold, diamond, pearl, jade, ruby… it was insane! The history and the value of so many of those objects just blew us away. And speaking of history and value, Topkapi Palace is also home to Moses’ staff and bits and pieces of the prophet – some of his hair, his fingernails and even a footprint; I’m not so sure how any of this can be known or what proof there could be of whether or not these are the real-deal things but… wow. And, really? Fingernail clippings? Anyways, there was much to be seen, and we saw most of it. After another full day… we made our way home on public transit. However! We failed to leave the city before 4:00 and were sardine-jammed on the 122C from Europe to Asia… it was one of the most uncomfortable bus rides of my life… blech. But! It got us home. We ate at Num Num’s again, had a few beers and, like that, the trip was over. I had a great time, saw a lot, and hung out with some great girls… it was a success! Yay. And since this is nearing epic proportions, I’ll save the rest for later – there is more. For now, let’s just say Istanbul in all of it’s splendour, casts a long shadow over Romania…

Nearing the gates to Topkapi

sans internet groundhog day...

We have no internet! Argh. We also had no hot water all day, and the biggest grocery store in town was missing some of our dinner essentials and we had to double up on the grocery store trips to find ground beef and garlic bread. (Essentials, sure... ha!) On the other hand, at grocery store number two (Mega Image), we found baby spinach which is a first for salad planning (for us) in Romania. Anyways, so no net all weekend and here we are at Hotel Malibu taking advantage of the friendly wireless signal. I had wanted to plan my trip to Istanbul over the weekend and get some ideas for yoga classes but, alas, no such luck. Actually... even though internet is a total necessity (moreso than garlic bread and ground meat), it wasn't so bad not having it - I had a break from the constant pull of the world wide web and the time sucking vortex that it can be. I read, I scrapbooked, I puzzled, I cleaned, and I had an awesome weekend.

On Saturday I got up early enough to get a really good workout in before Tammy and Sherisa's 2:00 game against the same sucky team that they played on Wednesday and beat no-contest 3-0. It was basically a repeat and, even though the team looked half-alive instead of fully comatosed, the result was the same: 3-0. Stelio's wife Val offered to host an impromtu dinner, so Tammy and I hit up the grocery store (daily activity) for salad fixings, martini stuff and dessert... to complement Val's spaghetti carbonara. We had all bases covered BUT... when we picked Sherisa up she was toting two bags holding two fancy cakes from one bakery. These cakes were amazing looking... and tasted pretty good too, even though I'm more of a simple just-cake-and-icing cake person - I'm not a fan of the fancy foofoo layers of mousse and soaked-in-something-cake and whipped cream etc. etc. So yup, we had a ton of food. With our blueberry martinis (vodka, blueberry vermouth and red berry juice), we watched Team Tomis lose their first game of the season to Zalau... what an upset. The outside hitters really struggled and Zalau played well, so ?? I hate to say it, but they deserved to win. That night, the poor guys had to get on the bus and drive two hours to Dej where they went to bed late and got up early to play a 1:00 game on Sunday... exhausting. What must have been really exhausting was the 10 hour bus ride home... bleh. Anyways, they won on Sunday and Steve arrived late (2am), tired and ready for a few days at home. I leave on Wednesday for four days in Istanbul, and he leaves Friday morning for yet another far away away-game in Piatra Neamt... oh, joy. So anyways... enough time spent in cyberspace - time to get home and make and EAT lasagna... yum.