One Hundredth Post!

So we spent three days and two nights in “La Tara” (the country). I’m not going to say much about our time there, rather I’ll finally let Swell have a say in something. I’ll leave her to talk about out time at the main Copoiu home.

I’ll let her tell you about the bugs. The outhouse. The uncomfortable bed. The poison ivy. The dirt. The pigs. The goats. I’ll even let her tell you about the food. The stores. The people. I’ll let her tell you how much she loved it there. I’ll let her tell you how much I didn’t care.

Animals and farms? Meh.

If she doesn’t write that post soon bug her until she does. She is the best to write about our time there.

I’ve been rereading our previous Romania posts.

The three leading up to this one.

If you watch the fourth season of the Family Guy on DVD and listen to the commentaries they talk about how for a few episodes Quagmire became a charactiture of himself. They say they took him too far from the reality that is Quagmire. He went so far from who he was that the fans didn’t like it. I became worried that I may have done that with our characterization of Bucharest.

So I conducted a test.

Swell and I went out for a day on our own.

I kept score.

Us versus Bucharest.

The day started out as most days do for us in Romania. We got up when the oppressive heat and city noises drove us from our bed. Not too early, not too late. On this day the house was filled with activity. Swell’s Mum and her mum were preparing for a day we did not envy. They were going to go to many government offices to try to increase the sick one’s pension. The sick one and Tatia were out in the country.

Let me break from the action of the game to discuss the Romanian Pension. I don’t know much about it but what I do know is astounding.

It seems to me, an outsider, that almost everyone here is eligible for government subsidies/funding of some sort. The Copoiu family have only government income to support their lavish lifestyle.

Everyone on government pensions works very hard to find ways to increase said pension. They’ll go from government office to government office pleading their case.

“During communism I worked the night shift. I am, therefore, entitled to more money.”

“I hurt my back at work and (have found doctor’s willing to lie and say) I can no longer work. I need more money and I deserve it from you, the government.”

I have no idea how the government of Romania can pay out as much pension as they do. It seems that people see the government as a source of funding rather than a government. I should research the percentage of people on government funding and what percent of GDP the government gives out in pensions.

I would bet it is a lot.

Anyway a couple of years ago the government made some changes to the pension system that will allow the Sick one to get more money. It actually might be that the Enabler gets more money for being her caretaker but someone will get more money.

The two women had the goal of getting more money starting that day. Swell and I laughed at them and wished them luck. We laughed because we knew. We knew that it would take them a month of hard work to get one small thing done. We have been here long enough to know that a Romanian task takes forever to accomplish. The workers don’t want to help you. The transportation is a nightmare and the bureaucracy is… well… a bureaucracy.

Swell and I, while those two women were sweating and running, would go to downtown Bucharest and enjoy the shops, the fountain lined streets, Romanian food, and the People’s Palace.

We were excited for a day on our own just enjoying our “vacation”.

We got ready and wound our way past the half finished houses, the potholes and the yappy dogs. Today we would walk past the first street, where the maxi-taxi stops. We would walk about 2 kilometers to the busy street where we could catch a real taxi! We were living large on our date day.

We had a pleasant walk. Talking about what we would do this day. Talking about our time in Romania, our time in Palestine, just enjoying being together.

I’ll break this narrative again. Swell and I have a problem. We like being just us far too much. We like people Swell likes people but we more often than not we would prefer just to hang out together. Palestine was like a utopia of just hanging out together. We worked together. We lived together. We did a lot of nothing together. We were together at least 21 hours a day. Only apart during classes. It will be very hard to go back to only seeing each other after a long day at work. We were spoiled.

We made it to the busy street, quickly flagged a taxi and we were on our way. It was a short trip costing about 15 lei (1.4 lei/km, about $6 US in total). We looked around, talked some more. Eventually we arrived and Swell decided that she needed to eat.

We were in this same area a few days prior looking for an AC adaptor for my computer. During our long walk that day we came across a restaurant that seemed to serve Romanian fare.

We headed in that direction.

A kilometer and a half later we found the restaurant and were quickly seated.

Turns out that it wasn’t really traditional Romanian food but they had cabbage rolls and other food that sounded good.

We ordered cabbage rolls as an appetizer and Swell ordered the fish special and I had boring old chicken.

The food, especially the cabbage rolls (which came with mamaliga), was very good. We think the server charged us too little but she was hard to find so we paid what they asked for and took off faster than greased lightening.

Us 1
Bucharest 0

We took our time wandering back to where we were dropped off by the taxi (right in front of a “mall”). We stopped in a number of shops – mostly clothing. We looked. We bought nothing. Too expensive and we don’t really have any room in our luggage. We got to the mall and looked at some of the small shops inside the mall. At the very first store Swell saw something that nearly made her cry.

When we first got to Nablus the house was lacking some essentials. Clean/nice cups and mugs were near the top of that list. We were taken to Israel to go shopping and Swell saw a set of mugs that she loved. They are stacking mugs and when stacked they form a large animal. The ones in Israel formed a cute cow. There are also other, smaller cows on each of the cups. She picked up the box to buy them and saw that there was a picture of the same type of mugs with sheep on them. Alas they only had the cow ones. She purchased them and enjoys them to this day.

This first tiny shop had the sheep version of those mugs. Swell was thrilled. We bought them – paid a lot more than we did in Israel but bought them none-the-less.

Us 2
Bucharest 0

What a fantastic day this was turning out to be.
It was getting late and we wanted to see the People’s Palace so we decided to walk over there. We walked along the main street where one could see fountains, trees along the middle and sides of the street and the Palace straight ahead.

The palace is a monstrosity. Huge.

The trees were Linden trees, which Swell loves. They bring back memories of her childhood and on this day they were very fragrant. It was a beautiful walk and we enjoyed it.

Us 3
Bucharest 0

We got to the end of the street and were faced with a dilemma. We had to cross a street and we weren’t really sure how. It is a busy street.

Very busy.

It was a wide street.

Very wide.

We looked left. We looked right. A ha! A crosswalk way down there.

We headed that way.

As we were walking along the sidewalk we noticed that there were many parked cars on the sidewalk. Actually…there were many parked and moving cars. The moving cars didn’t much care that we were walking along the sidewalk. The sidewalk was quite narrow when you realize that it was being used as a parking lot, a road, and a sidewalk.

The moving cars were moving fast… very, very fast through this very narrow thoroughfare. At one point we were pinned between a building, a parked car and a moving car barely escaping with our toes unsquished.

This part of our walk was no fun. It was hot. It was fume-y. It was dangerous. It was unpleasant.

Us 3
Bucharest 1

We made it to the crosswalk. Crossed the street with little difficulty and found ourselves at the edge of the People’s Palace. We saw people walking in and out of a gate. We saw police and security.

Swell asked the Police man if this was the entrance for tourists. He politely said no and pointed us around the corner.

Did I mention how big the People’s Palace is? Around the corner sure, but more than that it was at the next corner down. A long ways away.

We walked all the while looking at the signs. Looking at the building. I was very much looking forward to finally seeing this Palace and all of its history. This is my third time in Romania and I have yet to do any sight seeing. This was going to be the icing on our already large cake of a day.

We finally arrived at what we thought was the tourist entrance. Noted some more police and Swell asked them if we were truly at the tourist entrance.

The policeman gave her a quizzical look.

Swell “Is this the entrance for tourists? Can we go this way?”
Policeman “You can’t be here today. There is a summit today and the palace is closed to the public until Monday!”

We were astonished. Not that there was a summit. Not that we were not allowed to visit. We were astonished that the first policeman didn’t say a word of this “summit”. Rather he directed us to the entrance knowing full well that we couldn’t enter the building this day. It wasn’t a short walk either. Jerk.

Us 3
Bucharest 2

I, trying my hardest to be upbeat, told Swell that I didn’t mind. It was neat just looking at the outside of the building. I mentioned how big it was and it didn’t seem that big when one drives past it in a car. She told me a little bit about what she remembered from a tour she took years ago.

I suggested that since we’d already walked halfway around we might as well keep going in the same direction and just walk around the entire perimeter of the building.

Half a block later…the sidewalk ended. We turned around and went the same way we came.

Us 3
Bucharest 3

Swell really dislikes walking the same way back to a place as she walked away from that place. So when we made it back to the crosswalk we decided to take the street to the left rather than returning to the street on the right.

It was not as pleasant of a walk as the tree lined street to the right but it had some old buildings and we weren’t terribly upset that we picked that street.

We walked. We walked and we walked. We knew we were going in the right direction and it was a nice day. As we were talking I glance to my left. I stopped. I stood mouth a gape pointing. I was barely able to mutter, “Swell look.”

Swell looked. She to saw what I was seeing. A tear welled up in her eye. Across the street was a place we were told didn’t exist. Across the street was the potential for the best day ever. Across the street was a nirvana. Across the street, one street over from the opulent boulevard with fountains and Linden trees looking up at the People’s Palace was hope. Hope in an area of the city that once housed only despair. Hope and joy in an area of the city that was built to honour the ego of one man. Across the street in front of our very own eyes was…

…An Apple computer store.

We rubbed our eyes thinking this was but a dream. The image never faded. It was really there.

We crossed the street, entered the store and explained our internet predicament. They assured us that it wasn’t a predicament at all and that we should return with the computer (which I had with me!) and the modem (which I left at home – boo.) and that they would have it up and running in about half an hour.

We were ecstatic.

Us 4
Bucharest 3

We left the store with such joy. We left with great hope that we hadn’t wasted our money on the modem. We left with great hope that in a few days time we would be able to have our modem working.

We continued on our way. Chatting. Walking. Enjoying our day.

400 m later as we were talking I glanced to my right. I stopped. I stood mouth a gape pointing. I was barely able to mutter, “Swell look.”

Swell looked and said, “A bloc!? Who cares. Look to the left and the right and back and forth there are blocs everywhere.”

I replied, “My dearest Swell do you not realize whose bloc this is? This is where your Grandpa lives!”

We knew he lived somewhere near the People’s Palace but didn’t know exactly where. We had inadvertently stumbled across his bloc.

Swell quickly called her mother who was out sweating getting very little accomplished while running around Bucharest. She asked her Mum what number her grandpa’s (Swell’s Dad’s dad) apartment was. 66 was the response.


Swell assured me that it would be fine to just drop in on her Grandpa and his “woman”. We were told that G-pa and his woman were married at some point, both are widows, but didn’t know that until late in our trip last year.

We took the tiny elevator to the 10th floor. First door we saw was 78. We walked to the right. 77, 76, 75…78.

Wait. What?

76 looked right to me.

It turned that 76 was the right door.

It was fine that we dropped by. They were happy to see us. Swell was only asked twice by her G-Pa who she was. A touch of Alzheimers I’d say.

Swell mostly visited with Grandpa’s woman who apparently has many a story to tell and is extremely intelligent – she was a journalist in her younger days and “not one of those women with just breasts and legs”, referring to today’s women journalists.

I tried my hardest not to fall asleep. It was hot up in there. So hot that Swell’s egg-shaped G-Pa was shirtless.

Breasts not guns.

We had a nice visit, which lasted a couple of hours. We left with the promise to return soon.

Best day ever.

Us 5
Bucharest 3

We were getting hungry again so we decided to find another place to eat. As we were approaching the mall we veered right and found a little Italian place. We had a great meal. Enjoyed the ambiance. Swell had a cappuccino at the end of the meal. We were having deep discussions about… believe it or not… Optometric vision camps.

The bane of our existence. It was at that moment that Swell did two things, i) she made a good point comparing the inadequacies of optometric vision camps to taking care of the street-dogs here – I won’t go into that analogy but it was very good, ii) she came up with a new name for our blog Over Cola and Cappuccinos. We will change the name of the blog when our adventure here ends. We often have great discussions over cola and cappuccinos. It is very appropriate.

Us 6
Bucharest 3

Best day ever.

It was getting late. Time to go home. Swell approached a taxi driver and he agreed to take us home. We got in.

As we were talking about our day Swell leaned over to me and asked, “Why does his meter say 7.99 lei/km?

I responded, “Dunno. Maybe it isn’t right. Let’s watch it.”

A very short while later we realized that the fare was nearing 15 lei and we had not gone very far at all. Swell asked the dude what was up.

He explained that his taxi company charges 1.4 Lei to come into the city but 7.99 Lei to leave. Doing some quick math we realize that it would cost about $50 US to get home at this rate.

”Let us out!”

He pulled over. Took our money – as much as it cost to get from home all the way to the mall earlier that morning – and he left.

Us 6
Bucharest 4

We surveyed the land. Hmmm… we really had no idea where we were.

Hmmmm… we didn’t really see any nearby taxis.

We started walking. We saw a taxi coming. We tried to flag it down. We got the finger wave of rejection.

Another taxi. More rejection.

There is a taxi over there! People are getting out of it. Let’s go ask!

Taxi driver “Sorry I just got home for the day.”

Rejection followed by rejection followed by taxi after taxi full of passengers.

Us 6
Bucharest 5

And so we walked. And we walked. And we walked.


And we walked.

The only taxis we saw were full. Our cell phone was near dead so we couldn’t phone anyone lest an emergency arise and we had killed our phone.

And we walked.

We ended up walking probably around 6 kilometers.

Us 6
Bucharest 6

By this time we recognized where we were and realized that a maxi-taxi stop would be coming soon. We stopped for some water and headed for the maxi-taxi stop.

We waited 5 minutes or so and saw the maxi-taxi approaching. It ended up stopping at a red light.

While at that red light a different maxi-taxi turned right onto the street we were waiting on.

It stopped to let some people off and other people on.

At the same time a Tram stopped letting people off. Many of those people saw the maxi-taxi stopped in front of us and ran to get on it.

While all of this action was taking place the light holding our maxi-taxi up turned green. To our left was an intersection. Can’t go there.

To our right was a sidewalk separated from the road by a waist high metal bar.
Can’t go there.

Our maxi-taxi drove right on by. Didn’t even glance our way. Well, I can’t say that for certain. I couldn’t see the maxi-taxi drive by. It was blocked by the other one.

Us 6
Bucharest 7

At least we weren’t the only ones left stranded. The maxi-taxi missed 3 or 4 others as well.

We waited about 10 minutes for the next maxi-taxi.

Our feet were sore. Our legs were sore. We were tired. We were getting cranky. We were dirty. We felt ripped off by the taxi driver. We were angry at the maxi-taxi for driving by us.

The last thing we needed was a packed maxi-taxi full of inconsiderate Romanians.

Best day ever?

Nope, the maxi-taxi came.

It was full.

In the front half.

All of the seats were taken. Those standing chose to stand in the front half of the maxi-taxi.

They wouldn’t move.

My butt was getting slapped repeatedly by the automatic door (this maxi-taxi was a bit bigger than most – more like a bus) as I had to stand on the second from top step.

Eventually Swell shoved her way through toward the back. I followed soon after hitting people with my bag, shoving them to the side. They didn’t even flinch.

Us 6
Bucharest 8

We lost. We had high points this day. We started strong. We failed miserably in the end though. We walked at least 6 km after being taken by a conman taxi driver. We ended our day with a crowded maxi-taxi and the long walk of shame from the maxi-taxi stop to home.

We were so close.

I’ll change the rules. We’ll just call this half-time. We’ll continue this game another day. We’ll continue it the day Swell’s Dad comes. That day we’ll have a rental car. It will make all the difference. We’ll have an advantage over this God-forsaken city.

He wass supposed to leave late our time the same day and arrive the next day early-afternoon.

He flies standby as an airline employee… you can see where this is going.

Day 1 – No seats
Day 2 – No seats
Day 3 – No seats
Day 4 – He makes it!

That night we went to Cora to buy a few things. Swell’s Dad needed some Romanian fixings.

Over the next 24 hours we would play the second half of our game.

I scored major points against Bucharest this day. My five month fast would end this day.



Us 7
Bucharest 8

This is an impossible thing to find outside of North America. I have never seen it anywhere else. See my face? I’m happy. Soooo happy.

The next day, today, we were going to visit Swell’s Dad’s dad. We were going to go back to the Apple store and see if we could get the computer up and running on the internet.

First Swell’s Dad would buy a microwave for G-pa.

Off to the store. Perfect Microwave.

On sale.

Ring it up.

Nope.

The price on the giant sign on top of the stack of microwaves under the giant red PROMOTION sign is wrong. It’s actually 100 lei more and we can’t charge the sale price. Sorry. Can’t help you anymore than saying tough luck, nobody told us it wasn’t on sale.

Us 7
Bucharest 9

That microwave was not purchased. He found one at a different store, along with some microwave safe plates, a fan, and a small amount of food.

We DROVE to his bloc. Went up. I was anxious to get this computer thing looked at.

We told G-pa we’d be right back and left to go to the Apple store. We arrived at 2:05 pm to a sign that said they were closed between 2:00pm and 3:00pm.

Us 7
Bucharest 10

Just my luck.

Swell needed a coffee so we walked to a shop nearby and had drinks and a snack. We watched people walk by and had a laugh at the expense of many of them.

It was fun. At 3 o’clock we walked back to the Apple store with apprehension and excitement.

Soon we would know the truth.

We walked into the store. We were directed to the back. A guy said he would help us immediately. He promptly went to the back room closed the glass door through which we watched him for the next 15 minutes.

Us 7
Bucharest 11

Meeting? Lazy? Who knows, who cares because…

HE FIXED IT! I post this from our home in Pantelimon. That is worth four points right there! We’ll call it a tie.

Us 11
Bucharest 11

We left the store for the short walk back to Grandpa’s. We were so happy. Excited by the new internet possibilities. Happy that we didn’t waste our money. Happy that we fought Bucharest and came out with a tie. It’s not that bad! We can survive this.

As we were walking up to G-Pa’s bloc’s front door talking I glance to my right. I stopped. I stood mouth a gape pointing. I was barely able to mutter, “Swell look.”

She looks. She turns to me and says, “Sheepie we just lost.”

We hung our heads and walked away trying with all our might to try and erase the image of a little girl squatting on the front lawn having what appeared to be a very satisfying bowel movement from our minds.

We lost that one as well.