In between pointing out the communist era buildings and making blunt explanations of how Romania is safe because there are no human rights protections to prevent police brutality, the man who rented us our sunny apartment in Bucharest, emphatically tells us that Obama has been killed in Pakistan. At first we brush this aside as impossible, but since he kept repeating it, certain of it's truth, I decide to flip on CNN after we settle in. To my relief I see that it is Osama, not Obama, that has been killed (big difference). I watch the crowds of Americans cheering the death of a man as if their favorite team has just one the Super Bowl, sad that the international picture of us is such a blood thirsty one and hoping that this death might be justified by bringing the end to killing, but knowing it will not.
Tired, I flip through the channels filled with music videos from Romania, Europe, and the States, stopping when I hear a soulful voice pumping with unusual power for the typical pop genre. Inspired, I download Adele's CD that will become a staple of our three days in Bucharest. Our bright apartment with it's tea pot and yellow dishes sheltered us from the dreary weather, offering us a place to recover from the April whirlwind that sent us flying from Cambodia to Thailand to Israel with barely a moment's breath. Each afternoon we set out for cultural adventures that led us to a traditional clothing museum, a traditional art museum, a traditional meal with tripe soup accompanied by traditional music in the historic area of town.
The only thing to top such a Romanian experience was an excursion to Sighisoara, the place of Dracula's birth. Vlad Dracul, aka "Vlad the Impailer", inspired the legend of the blood sucking vampire that haunts countless movies and tall tales. Playing the good tourists we arranged to sleep in a small guesthouse where supposedly Dracula was seen with a mysterious and beautiful courtesean and we ate "Prince Dracula's Snack with Mush" in the house where the vicious vampire was born, but for us, we found the true experience not in these legends, but in the beauty of the small midieval town nestled in the breathtaking green and blue rolling hills layered upon eachother creating a scene painting truely worthy of a fairytale.
Tired, I flip through the channels filled with music videos from Romania, Europe, and the States, stopping when I hear a soulful voice pumping with unusual power for the typical pop genre. Inspired, I download Adele's CD that will become a staple of our three days in Bucharest. Our bright apartment with it's tea pot and yellow dishes sheltered us from the dreary weather, offering us a place to recover from the April whirlwind that sent us flying from Cambodia to Thailand to Israel with barely a moment's breath. Each afternoon we set out for cultural adventures that led us to a traditional clothing museum, a traditional art museum, a traditional meal with tripe soup accompanied by traditional music in the historic area of town.
The only thing to top such a Romanian experience was an excursion to Sighisoara, the place of Dracula's birth. Vlad Dracul, aka "Vlad the Impailer", inspired the legend of the blood sucking vampire that haunts countless movies and tall tales. Playing the good tourists we arranged to sleep in a small guesthouse where supposedly Dracula was seen with a mysterious and beautiful courtesean and we ate "Prince Dracula's Snack with Mush" in the house where the vicious vampire was born, but for us, we found the true experience not in these legends, but in the beauty of the small midieval town nestled in the breathtaking green and blue rolling hills layered upon eachother creating a scene painting truely worthy of a fairytale.
