Back From Where We Started

Really?

I doubt that!

We’ve been home for quite some time now. But you already know that.

The doors of the airport open and we stumble with our too many bags (our stay in Romania tripled or quadrupled our belongings). The first thing that I see is a big panel on which is written “Bun Venit” (Welcome in Romanian). My heart skips a beat as my adoptive country greets me with my own language. And then I notice the other ones: Malaysian, Russian, German… hey, we’ve been there too.

We take turns driving the rented car: instinctively the foot is searching for an nonexistent clutch and we’re searching for a stick to change speeds. We have to think on which side of the car is the wheel, imagine it closer to the middle of the road, to figure the answer to the question: on which side of the road should we be?

We’re getting closer to home. We listen to music on shuffle. We’re on the last mile and the first sounds bring tears in my eyes:

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,

Are also on the faces of people going by.

I see friends shaking hands, sayin', "How do you do?"

They're really sayin', "I love you."

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world.

Louis Armstrong

We settled down in our house, overfilled with too many and sometimes impractical, comfortable, useless objects. We rediscovered them (“I forgot that we had that!”), sorted them (to give, to keep, to deal with it some other time). After a while we abandoned them in order to deal with our feelings: a personalized mixture of glad to be home, to have a personal space, more clothes, same clothes, school again, back to work, “I don’t want to go anywhere!” to “When do we leave?”. 

We did go to Romania and tried to enroll Maria in the school system, but due to different bureaucracies we failed. We are happy with the result, seeing that we didn’t pass up the opportunity and from the cross-examination of our families “Are you sure you want to be a doctor?” “Is it yours or your parents’ wish?” Maria emerged stronger and more confident. She is now a student at Colgate University. 

Ileana is taking two courses for drawing comics and suddenly, her school life has a meaning. Ioan is partnering with his father to play table tennis right in the middle of our house (I can use the table for cutting patterns when sewing and if we’re not planning on using it, we fold it). Mihai is Somebody! He is working at a hospital as a child psychiatrist and has several part time jobs (somebody has to work to pay those debts.) I have returned to my numerous hats: cook, driver, fashion designer, teacher, gardner, handy-woman, modifying them as they should fit now. I try to live in the present. I am happy where I am.

Wow! Fifteen months! We’re the same people, but different, like an essence of ourselves. Though not totally greenhorns, we were new to long-term traveling. We will have to go again to Japan, where taking care of nature and gardening are arts. We took so few pictures! And we didn’t have enough time to sample its culture. China fascinated and engrossed us, a country where many work as one and are influenced by a few “chosen” ones. Tibet, so different, resisting in so many ways to the wave of the Han invasion, and yet not making progress. Nepal, trekking the jungle in search of birds and finding rhinoceros. A different religion, another form of respect. India, the beginning of enjoying ourselves, opening to the unexpected, savoring every happening. Cambodia, where people smiled with their entire body and chose not to teach their children about Khmer Rouge. A country where we learned not to rely on western body language, but to read the local one. Thailand, a mix of touristic heaven and almost religious love of their monarch. The South Island of New Zealand, driving an RV and getting tired of the breathtaking views. Hawaii, volcano and coffee, a state where putting solar energy into the grid is not permitted. Australia, vibrant coast and deserted beauty, such a young country, still carrying the dead weights of false white superiority. Indonesia, Borobudur Temple and the Hindu island of Bali in a sea of Muslims. Singapore, a miracle of four equally-treated nationalities. Malaysia, with the mix of different heritages and cuisines. Saudi Arabia, as a woman feeling exposed and helpless. South Africa, where optimism and willingness for better still abounds. Lesotho, beautiful and poor. Madagascar, unique animals and habitats, mismanaged by political interest, where some people are so poor that there is no beauty in their life, only survival. United Arab Emirates, where money build cities in the middle of the desert, but can’t buy a meal during Ramadan’s day time. Scotland, stating their heritage. London, treasures of the world. Vienna, an austere beauty. Berlin, reinventing itself, a polyglot society. Prague, a medieval city flooded with tourists. Barcelona and Gaudi. Greece, seaside vacation, ancient culture, friends and family. Italy, a marathon of museums, churches, cultural sites. Egypt, welcoming and severe at the same time. Istanbul, a key piece in the history puzzle. Romania, the same old known, and yet changed country.

We changed...

Almost five years ago (wow, time flies!) the idea took shape in our minds. We wrestled with it back and forth, found pros and cons and eventually went with it. We made it happen! We changed our subscription from what society values to what is important for us, our family. Cocooned in the safety net provided by Mihai’s planning (transportation, lodging) we absorbed what was new or different. We developed a new family dynamic, the 24 hours togetherness gave us opportunities of being not only parents, but confidantes, friends, playmates. Freed from everyday responsibilities, we faced ourselves and found more. After so much planning and working toward our goal, we just had to enjoy every day. Inklings of what we would like to do in the future, what to repeat and what not, were stored in our memories.  Having each other helped us feel less alone (internet also helped with connecting). While away we had only what we took with us, our knowledge and gut feeling. Need was the best teacher and we learned to do with less (water, clothes, food, energy, technology, etc.)

We’ve returned to the same place where we started as different people: more confident in what we can do, more generous toward our fellows, less judgmental, paying attention to our consumer habits (that long, hot shower comes with guilty reminders of yellow, dirty, plastic tanks in which water was transported on the head or shoulders for a long and dusty way), thankful for everything (even for a day of driving around in rain trying and not finding our future car).

Just writing these things down...it takes a long time, and a longer one to pull myself from the reverie. I had no clear idea when I started writing, it was more like reporting, what we did, what we saw, selecting pictures. I can’t pinpoint the moment when I started writing for myself, the things that impressed me and couldn’t capture on camera. I showed you how I see the world; you can, better than me, see my flaws. I think this one, (more than traveling for 15 months, eating different food that I didn’t know, facing my shortcomings) more than anything else, took courage. I wrote about my doubts, concerns, prejudices, fears, lies, breaking rules and everything else, It is not easy to put yourself on the line; bad things could happen. But I did it any way for one reason: to help inspire somebody else. 

I am sure there are people who have a dream or a wish or a whim or a what-you-might-call-it and they have different reasons for not seeking them, yet. This blog was my nudge, my droplet of water in helping them fill their glasses, my straw to break their camel’s back, my example that it is possible. 

Some people are fortunate to know what they want and work slowly toward their goal. 

Others have a hint and need just a little help in clarifying their image. Or they are afraid of what might happen, of failing. 

To these I tell: there is no judge out there to give you marks, only yourself. 

And the reward is custom-made and priceless! 

When you want something badly enough, you make things happen. 

Yet others are so paralyzed by fear of even finding their dreams, that they don’t recognize it. They feel chastised by our choice of leaving our home, the security of a job, spending the little money that we had and mortgaging the house, to travel countries where we could get sick or find our doom, when we could have done as they are doing, read about the same things or watch them on TV. To these I say: live your life and let us live ours.

I had the chance of visiting yet another country, but in a touristic group. I was part of everything that I loathed while traveling around the world: touristic bus, crowding around the guide, fighting our way to see, making the most of those 15 min stops, and yes, shopping. My camera was on auto most of the time, there was no time for framing, for searching for a better picture. While I loved the food and had no complaints, my fellow travelers found the hotel miserable, the traditional food not up to the standard, and nice clean bathrooms with a hint of smell barely acceptable. This experience showed me that my family and I have a different threshold from the vast majority, and because of this we enjoyed most of our stays in different parts of the world. No matter how easy it seems to me, for somebody else it’s an unconquerable mountain! I am not asking you to repeat my experience, but to find your own and make it happen. I’ll be honored to be part of your experience, if you choose to share it with me, and if not, I’ll be just as happy living my life.

Sometime in the future we will close this blog, maybe we will find the energy for writing a book, or making a movie...if such things will happen we will let you know. Until then, thank you for being part of our adventure.

Our minutes in the lime light are finished, it’s your turn now...

Go, find your dream!

If you have it, transform it into reality!

If you already did that, help somebody else with their dream!

Celebrating Romanian National Day in our church, 2014

Why are you still here?

Which Was Your Favorite Country?

It is sad to hear about what's happening now in Egypt. I take no pleasure in reminding you that I predicted in my blog that it will be a long and tortuous road toward a decent society. Give credit to the people in power anywhere - they make reality much worse than the worst nightmare. We are so lucky to have made it there last November and so glad that we didn't listen to our doubts and outside advice and traveled there. Of all the countries that we visited it was the only one that we all liked in equal measure. We all rated it with an 8 out 10. Read on and you'd realize why this is as close to perfection as possible.

A graphic representation of our scoring results from February 2013

How can we answer the simplest question we got from everybody? Which country did you like best? It turns out that it is one of the most complicated. Four hundred sixty five days of travel, divided in 32 entities, with a duration varying from 42 days in Romania and 35 in India and Australia to 2-4 days in places like Macau, Dubai or Singapore. On a secret form each one of us had to give a grade from 1 to 10 to the countries we visited. We used the traditional Romanian rating system where 5 is the passing grade and 1, 2 or 3 are only given as a strong statement of rejection. My wife, Ileana didn't have any grade lower than 6 and I didn't have anything lower than a 5 for Hong Kong (not fair!) and Dubai. Meanwhile the kids were merciless. Ioan gave a 3 for Malaysia and Macau and a 4 for the trip to China with the grandparents. Ileana had a 2 for New Zealand and Hawaii, 3 for Australia (!), and several 4s, while Maria gave the only 1 in our ratings to Macau, a 2 to Southern China and a 3 to Hawaii. In my mind, if 5 is a passing grade, then 1 or 2 should be worse than hell, but to them it might have been a different measure.
We had China twice because it was such a difference between Beijing and Xian with our family in November and Guilin and Guangzhou in January. Also, we had two separate stints in South Africa, counted separately and Scotland and Dubai were seen by only 3 of us. The girls were in camp in Pennsylvania, rated as 7 by Ileana and 10 by Maria.

We had to compare apples with donkeys. Cities or wilderness, familiar or exotic, rich or poor, crowded or deserted, we've had it all, sometimes in the same country. Take India: we all liked it, but for some the tough days from the beginning left a more lasting impression than the perfect final days. How could Ioan give it a 7 is beyond my comprehension. Similarly we all scored Cambodia as a 9 with the exception of Ioan who gave it a 6. What more could a 12 year old ask for than Internet in an air conditioned room, French and Asian food at a restaurant, pool at the hotel, fish massage and playing on the best ruins in the jungle? He gave it a 6!

There was a significant difference between the raters, but all of us were pretty consistent. The children, more demanding, tended to score less. Ileana gave 10 to the exotic Nepal, Maria gave 10 to the familiar Romania and the camp. Ioan could not give a 10 to anything, he used the only decimal, a 9.9 to Romania. I gave four 10s, Japan, Australia, Greece and Italy, while my wife only one: India. Just look at these averages:

Totals for each of us with the corresponding average

Here, in detail, our whole scoring exercise

At the lowest end it is not fair to have Macau rated so poorly, but probably it was too short and too cold. The parents liked it, the children were not ready for it. Hawaii was the second worst, fittingly, considering that it was the only destination where we were forced to go against our will. In the end, Romania scored the highest but it should be disqualified because it didn't play fair: it involved time with our families, with the grandparents and the aunts and uncles and cousins and the lifelong friends. It included the winter holidays and Maria's 18th birthday as well as the excitement of getting ready for return home.

So the runners up are Egypt, Madagascar and Italy with 40 points. In the third place Tibet and Greece with 41. In the second place, with 42, we have Cambodia thanks to Ioan's reckless restraint.

The winner is India with 43 points. Fittingly, by far the most read post on this blog, is Ileana's "India, my love". But, more importantly, from what you read here, which was your favorite country?

Numbers and Money

My favorite saying is "a statistician drowned in a river with the average depth of 2 cm." Many people don't get it, but I use this in different situations, asking somebody to look at things from a different angle, or just not to take numbers or statistics too seriously. Anyhow, for reference, here are some numbers.

We visited 33 countries. One might argue rightly that I artificially inflated the number by including Tibet, Hong Kong and Macau, who some might consider part of China; Lesotho, which we visited on a day trip; France, where we spent a night in a motel across the Swiss border; Vatican, a tiny republic inside Rome; Saudi Arabia, where we only stayed 10 hours in the airport and it even includes Romania and United States (our home bases). I added all these places because they have different histories, cultures, currencies and/or borders and passport stamps. Even briefly, each experience was a special lesson for us. I think that the country model is way overrated, but unfortunately this is what we have in today's world.

North Camp of Mount Everest. China or Tibet?

Even by the most conservative count we went to Japan, China, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Madagascar, United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Egypt, Turkey. We touched down on three continents for the first time in this life. We even went to the eighth continent and to what (some say) is left of Atlantis...

Airports - does anybody love them more?

We flew a lot. Many times because it was the only available option, sometimes for convenience, like in Madagascar, sometimes because it was the cheapest option, like in Greece, Italy or some places in Asia. We forfeited five flights with AirAsia, lost $630, but we didn't see it like that. We adjusted our schedule prolonging the vacations at Bottle Beach and in Bali. Overall we flew 48 times (50 for the girls), covering 123,549 km/76,770 mi (136,278 km/84,679mi for the girls, since they went for 10 days to the States in August). We payed $35,316 for plane tickets. I came a little over my initial budget, but a couple hundreds less than what Airtrecks, a round-the-world ticket consolidator, asked from us for one third of the flights mentioned above! This was the make or brake part of our budget. Interesting, if someone is flexible about her destinations, she can tour the world for much much less. For the distance that we covered and the number of flights we took nobody can do better than we did. I did the math, we payed 5.5 cents/km/per person (8.8 cents per mile). Double this figure if you plan your own trip, triple the figures if you buy tickets from some travel agency.

Renting a car can be cost effective for a traveling family

We used other means of transportation of course. I kept track of the meaningful day trips or travel between different areas by train, boat, bus, van or car. What we learned is that one meter, the international measure of distance, feels different on a road in Nepal or Madagascar compared to a highway in South Africa or Australia. And traveling by high speed train with 300 km/hour in China or in Italy is way different than going in zig-zag by boat on the Tsiribihina river. It is not fair to lump it all together, but anyhow the total number is 81 road trips. Some were two hours long, some were weeks in a row, like the car we rented for South Africa. Excluding the distance travelled by bus, taxi or subway within particular cities we still reached 40,000 km (25,000 miles) on the ground matching the circumference of the Earth at the Equator! I did the math, we payed 11 cents/km/per person (18 cents per mile).

We slept in 130 different beds. Most in hotels, a lot in rented apartments and at the end in Europe and especially in Romania we stayed for free with friends and family. Except for a handful of occasions we had 5 beds, and especially that 5th one added a lot to the total cost. Overall we payed $15.5 per night per person. That is not bad at all, is it? I did a little accounting trick though. Whenever we payed for something, a boat, a train or a plane, I counted that for transportation with the cost of the night at zero. We payed a lot for the cruise on the Nile or a boat on Tsiribihina river but I didn't include any of that for accommodation. In one way or another I marked 78 nights at zero and that changes the cost of a bed for us at $18.65 per person per night. We spent 7 nights in tents and 12 in chairs. That was not funny, believe me.

We rented apartments by the day in South Africa and so the food cost was negligible

The cost of food was partially affected by our accommodations. We payed very little or nothing in Romania where our families fed us. In many hotels we had free breakfast, where we had apartments we bought our food and cooked for ourselves. A more expensive apartment decreased the cost of food and a very cheap hotel meant eating at restaurants and spending more. The total came to $5.80 per person per day. How much do you spend at home? So many of my friends in the States who could "never" afford such a trip spend more than that for a latte and a panini, everyday! There is no bottle of wine that you could buy for this amount. Can you get a Big Mac meal in your country for less than $6? (In Switzerland it costs $14!)

This amount is not entirely true. If I subtract the days when we stayed with friends or family and assume that they also fed us for free, and also account for some of the free hotel breakfasts then we probably spent $7 per person per day for food. Is it a deal breaker?

This trip included a lot of additional expenses, and some of them were mandatory. We had to pay visas, several other fees and I included the immunizations that we had in Nepal and Thailand. The total of $4,235, could have been easily erased by going only to countries with no fees or visas like Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand or all of Europe. Yes, it was an optional expense...

One year ago, on my birthday, at the end of Africa. Visas were expensive but it didn't matter in the end.

We spend just a little more than that for all the miscellaneous occasional things that one could imagine. All the shopping, mail, Internet, replacement of broken iPods or stollen shoes, donations to beggars or charities or hair cuts came all to a little over $4,000 - that is not bad for five people on the road for 15 months, is it?

Included expense - trip preparation - a few books

And that brings me to the big chunk of "optional" expense that a trip like this entails. Amusements including all the museum or temple tickets, the fun rides, the guides, the cruises and so on. We spent a lot here, a little more than what we spent for food for our stomachs, this was the food for our souls. Examples include the Vienna or Sydney Operas, the helicopter ride in Hawaii, the scuba diving school, a trip to Lesotho, whale watching, and at least a hundred more things. We saved sometimes by skipping something outrageously expensive, like most activities in New Zealand, a National Park in Madagascar and the mummy rooms in Cairo. Generally speaking, we don't regret what we missed and don't regret most of what we did. Going over every blogpost from our trip you'd find where the money went.

Spending her 17th birthday at Taj Mahal, cheaper than the typical birthday party, still memorable.

You now have all the information you need to find out the cost of our trip. It was cheaper than I expected and we did it in the more expensive way. If you want to travel for a year with your partner and circle the world you should be able to do it for $40,000. Some young people do it for much less. If you have two little children you should add another $10,000. If you live in the first world and have a little more than primary education you probably can afford this. So why are you still home?

The Golden Pagoda in Kyoto, the first week of our trip.  Let's start over...

We Did It

We did it or we made it. However you want to put it we went around the world and we are back home in five whole pieces. We left Bucharest on Sunday afternoon, in the end of January. A short flight to Vienna, a change of planes to Berlin. A little adventure, I booked a hotel at the wrong airport, I realized at the last moment thanks to Ina. Overnight in Berlin, a short encounter with our friend in the hallway of the airport and we got on our last flight. At JFK we got a car and drove a couple of hours toward our house. We left the children to spend the night with a friend in New Jersey and we spend the last night in a hotel. Tuesday morning we drove a few more hours, stopped at Sam's club and Aldi for groceries. We spent $500 on supplies, for the first time in ages we didn't have to calculate how much we needed to buy, we just got everything that we could think of to resupply our pantry and fill our fridge. In the afternoon, we did the last few miles toward our house. It was epic. Unplanned, Louis Armstrong started to sing on the car stereo "What a Wonderful World". We did the last few miles singing and naming all the landmarks that we've learned so well on our way home. When we entered the house there was a lot of screaming and jumping. It took a few minutes of going through the house to recognize our home. In the evening friends joined us for pizza and champagne. It was epic. We did it, or we made it, however you want to put it, we went around the world!

At the airport in Berlin, AirBerlin carousel 

Hotel Bärlin in Berlin, just a big cheap room and one short night

Winter in Berlin from the hotel

This is our hotel 50 years ago behind JFK's limousine

Berlin Airport, last flight, last signage for New York

On arrival at JFK the welcome sign has Romanian as the top language!
Nice touch - thank you!

Done, we're in. No more passports necessary.

Above our rented car, the rest area has a sign to welcome us to New York State

Home. The planning board stayed just as it was 465 days ago.

Our friends left their map, flowers and another welcome back sign! Thank you!

It all started a long time ago with the thought that if others could do this, we can do it as well. Later it evolved into a strange feeling that we have to do it, we owe it to ourselves and to our children. By the time we left we felt that it is not such a big deal and any family who wants it can go around the world with their children.  More than a year later, as we approached the end of our trip we realized that what we were doing was extraordinary. Extraordinary as in out of the ordinary but also exceptional.

Is not just about numbers. We visited so many places and we walked so many miles. It's the incredible fact that we planned for the best case scenario and we made it happen. We were prepared for the possibility that we might not last this long, but we hit all our targets and we did everything we dreamed of in a special way. With the exception of Cape Town, we reached all our destinations at the best possible time of the year and in all cases at the best time of the day!!!  The only place that was on our list and we did not go to is Petra, in Jordan. We were close, in November in Sinai and we peacefully decided against it. The financials and the political situation were against it and we had to leave something for another time. As we were approaching the end of the trip we were exhausted. Maybe not that much physical exhaustion, maybe a mental one. Simply listing the places that we've seen would make somebody space out. Most of our families and friends lost track of us at one point or another and some of them got exhausted by just following us on the map. Once I caught a very close relative who had no idea on what continent we were and I'm sure he's just the unlucky one.

I would not advice anybody to try what we did. Do your own thing and follow your own interests. Definitely fly less and visit fewer destinations for a shorter or a much longer period. Our pace and our rhythm was exceptional and looking back I can argue that is not possible to do what we did. The only counter argument is that we did it.  There is a small club of families who travelled the world and probably a few that are doing it right now. What they did seemed simple when I read about it and now I know how special they are. Maybe we did travel longer, spent more, seen more, or maybe not, it does not matter. They are all extraordinary. As you plan and execute your own trip, what you'll do will also become extraordinary.

Did we see too much? I don't think so. We had this one chance and we made the most of it. We could have gone slower and shorten our list of destinations, we could have stayed for a shorter time. We have good reasons for why we did what we did. Like I said, we didn't start by planning to do something great, it just happened. We are the main beneficiaries, so there is no point in bragging about it. We were lucky, we were smart and we were well prepared. We never fought or argued, never questioned ourselves and never worried. We stayed healthy. Ioan had a cold every other day, but he took it in stride and never complained. The rest of us fared much better. On my part, the last day that I was under the weather was in Lhasa in November 2011. Ileana Ruxandra had a serious cold in Xi'an, we had to go to the hospital, the girls had some occasional colds but we never had something serious. Our stuff held on. In the last few weeks we had more and more problems with the cameras. In Madagascar, Maria's shoes were stollen. Besides this, and a lot of holes in the T-shirts, everything else worked out really well.

On the list of our extraordinary accomplishments I could also put this blog. With more than 260 posts, half a million words and more than 6000 pictures it is much more than one can handle. Despite the clean interface and the easy navigation options, most readers cannot find their way around, they read a post or two and go by their business. It is in part by design. Blogs are for the moment, only the last post matters and it stays on top. To start at the beginning it's generally inconvenient and hard to navigate. There is a science behind building a successful blog. Not only that I didn't look for that, but I avoided the general recipes and kept a low profile, this is for us and for you. Even if most of our friends and family members didn't read most of what's here there are a few who did and we thank them profusely. But now it's over and after posting the last few summary articles of this trip, I am thinking of taking this down. It is too much information, too much private stuff, too many of our personal pictures. What should we do?

There are a lot websites dedicated to travel. There are a lot of bloggers who make a living from telling us how great travel is. Some of them are families and they keep repeating over and over how extraordinary traveling with your family is. How the children learn from the world, how they grow more confident, more social, more intelligent. How this thing is going to mark them for life and they will always be grateful for such an opportunity. The truth is that we will never know if this is going to make them better or it will give them better chances. We are smarter, better educated and we have proof that we had an amazing time. This is the message of this blog.


We will never do this again. We would do it again in a heartbeat, but we only had one chance, we didn't miss it and now we are moving to another phase of our life. It is hard for me to understand why I never thought of this until 2009. It is easy to have second thoughts about spending tons of money on houses, home improvements, decent cars, or else. I am not allowing myself to go there. Again, like I said, we had one chance and we took it. Maria turned 18 in December 2012, she is now an adult, has her own life and I will never be able to pay her enough to sacrifice another year of her life to hang out with us. Ileana, getting ready for her 16th birthday, is talking about going with her girlfriends to South America, after she turns 18. Or maybe Europe. Or maybe somewhere else, but she is not even thinking of inviting us. Ioan is only 13. Maybe we'll have another chance to spend time like this on the road, we had a little preview in our week in Scotland. Maybe.

We realized early in our travel that we live in the best place in the world. While we were gone, our little village got engaged in a campaign to be named the "America's Coolest Small Town"


In a recent web article on Yahoo!Travel they listed our region along nine other lakeside vacations that have it all. Even with us back, I am sure that it will remain a very nice place. Surprisingly or not, we didn't find any other place where we would like to move. So we'll stay here.

Home with Emma. No better place in this world.

Our friends asked when and where are we going next time. My answer is that we are never ever going to leave our house again. I never ever want to travel again. We will stay home. I repeat this all the time, maybe I will believe it. But the other day at lunch we talked about a possible trip to Mars in 2018. For those who don't know me, I never joke about these things. Ask my wife and my children.

Our Country

Welcome to my country! Bun venit! (boon veh-NEAT)

What happened? Did I blink and miss it? When did six weeks pass? Though we lived every day, time flew, moving from house to house, from tables laden with homemade traditional food to another one, from conversation to discussion and so forth.

Every day was a celebration!

Being back meant so many things. Suddenly, part of the people we were missing were right there with us, we could share some of our adventures, things that didn’t make it to the blog, we could find out how their life was, the one that we usually found out in long phone calls. We were sedentary, mostly because we loved more being with the people than to go look at a monument. I’m not saying that we didn’t visit anything, we did this too, but on a smaller scale compared with other countries. The combination of sitting, talking, eating (all this food that we didn’t eat in at least 14 months) lead to a logical weight gain. We could have different schedules, travel independently, relax from being in charge and responsible. It meant transitioning to a new life, where we were not a monolith, but five individuals.

What can I tell you about my country? If I tell you it is beautiful, will you believe me? It has mountains with peaks over 7 500 feet, you can trek them, climb them, ski on them, explore their caves and rivers. Maybe you would like to go to a sandy beach, at the shore of the Black Sea, that has a tide of only a couple of inches (better in the summer or beginning of fall). Or visit the Danube Delta, a birdwatching paradise and a nesting ground for the white pelican. Maybe you would like to taste wine aged in oak barrels, a Cotnari or a Murfatlar, and eat good food, close to the mediterranean style but with a local twist and flavor. Or visit museums and churches, and castles. Or have a night-life. Or just meet people, who are hospitable and speak English.

OK, I’ll just show you some pictures.

This is the view from Sinaia’s apartment, where we crashed for five days, after a fleeting  moment with our families in the airport. It was like in the movies, we emerged from the terminal as we traveled, clothes on our backs and one bag each, and after a few minutes we had winter clothes and boots, hats and gloves, lots of bags with homemade food and a car to transport us.

Though Sinaia (See-NIGH-ah) is wonderfully located for winter sports or for trekking, we spent the whole time inside, sleeping, eating, reading and working on the computers. The treatment worked, we perked up, usually at dinner time, talking about a possible book and movie, titles, whose role is what, deadlines and so forth. The children were active, had their opinions, suggestions, an attitude so much different from the “before the trip”.

Maria’s birthday translated into twenty five people crammed in a room singing “Happy Birthday!” and that was just immediate family! In Romania turning eighteen is  becoming an adult, at least in front of the law. She glowed at the attention!

Four generations ranging from 98 to 13 years old.

This Christmas I had all and more that I wished for last year. Carols, gifts, three days of eating sarmale (cabbage meat rolls) with mămăligă (polenta), pork sausages and roasts, loaves of cakes, similar to panettone, and every kind of sweets.

Sarmale earthpot

These are the best cookies ever! And they're homemade!

We left for Craiova, where both of us have relatives, then we moved toward Cluj (Cluezh) to see one of my best friends and spend New Year. But to get there we drove through Târgu-Jiu, the birth place of Constantin Brâncuși (Brun-koosh). Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan and the National Gallery of Art have some of his famous works. He lived most of his life in Paris, where we visited with the children some years ago. It was natural that we wanted to show them the complex from our country. Dedicated as a War Memorial for the fallen soldiers in the First World War, The Table of Silence represents the moment before the battle, with the time passing in the twelve hourglass chairs; the Alley of Chairs, or of the Apostles, leads toward the Gate of the Kiss, and passing through, into a different world, toward the Endless Column, symbolizing the supreme sacrifice.

We were so close to losing our minds and drive toward Sarmizegetusa, the Dacian capital from 2000 years ago. Time and the missing four wheel drive made us reconsider. Still we enjoyed the views of rolling hills and flocks of sheep.

Lainici Monastery

Inside Lainici Monastery

A small orchard, crop fields, hay stacks to feed the stock.

The modern day shepards are still leaning on the stick the same way as their ancestors

Onions anyone?

New Year found us around the table with friends, mulled wine and sparkles.

Noroc! (noh-rock) Cheers!

Moving again, we made a stop in Sighișoara (See-ghee-SHWA-rah), a medieval inhabited fortress, with a fortified church (to keep the people and the faith alive during Ottoman invasions) and a covered stair (similar to the covered bridges) that enabled children to go to school.

Up there is a medieval figurine clock

I just love these cobbled streets.

The walls have ears and the roofs have eyes!

The fortified church and the covered stairs leading to it.

Major stop in Câmpina (Cum-PEE-nah), where we stayed with my sister and friends, seventeen people in one house. The children, happy to be with their cousins, transformed every night into an all-nighter, playing games, singing, talking. They tried for the first time in their life to ski, and while it was enjoyable, only Ioan wanted to repeat the experience.

Get in line!

Grilled pork sausage, chicken wings and tzuica, a strong plum brandy.

You need a professional grill!

Always rolling, we arrived in Iași (Yash) for one full day, to present our children to my father’s side of the family (they’ve seen them just in pictures). Before meeting with everybody at the restaurant, my uncle took us on a tour of downtown.

"Independent Romania" the monument for the ones who gave their life in 1877 so we could be free of the Ottoman rule

At the statue of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the first ruler of Romania.

The Three Hyierarchs church, built in 1639, a mix of Eastern and Western styles

Detail: each row is different, a true stone lace.

Cultural Palace

București (Boo-coo-REH-sht) end of the line. We had time to squeeze a second visit with some of our friends, and even a reunion with Mihai’s high-school friends (some of them were my middle school class mates).

I grew up next to Atheneul Roman, a concert hall, doing my homework with the background sound of rehearsals. In front there is a statue of Mihai Eminescu, our national poet.

There were so many things to do before departure. Maria’s decision to study in Romania sent us in a whirlwind finding the requirements for taking the Baccalaureate (a serious exam on several disciplines, taken right after high school, required for continuing education to the University level, medicine in her case). It would have been easier if we had started when we arrived, but, from times immemorial, winter vacation feeling starts in Romania somewhere around Dec. 15 and ends, reluctantly, on Jan. 8. People still go to work, but nothing gets done, no major decisions are taken, everything is left for “after”. We found some information on the internet, but we had questions, we went to the office to have them answered, we bought books, and had more talks than we wanted if this is the best thing for her to do.

The talks were the reason that I didn’t suspect. The signs were there, secret projects between grandpa and Ileana, a formal invitation to a restaurant so we could “talk with no interference”, serious face but with eyes laughing in anticipation...it never crossed my mind, but my last thought before entering that room was that I should arrange my scarf to look good and... SURPRISE! Our families, joined for celebrating us, our trip, our achievement. We even got “Awesomeness Awards.”

 Looking back it didn’t seem so out of the ordinary. We lived every day, doing normal things, just in different surroundings. As all the things balance, they were the ones worrying, having received news of floods, earthquakes or social unrest, depending on where we were. Thinking that they were the ones who told us that people don’t even dream of this kind of things, not to talk about transforming them into reality, they are the ones who should receive an award, for putting up with us. Mulțumim (mool-tzoo-mim)! Thank you!

This is the end. We really went home from here, to our house, in the most beautiful place on Earth. No kidding. It took us only three days...I’ll tell you more next time. Until then...

La revedere! (lah reh-veh-deh-reh) See you!