The Echevarria Family in Romania: Our trip to Bucharest (w/ Pictures!)

Yes, it has been a while since we've written. We went on an adventure. We almost drove the whole width of Romania from Oradea to Bucharest, the capital. We started out on a Tuesday morning. There is no freeway leaving Oradea. It's mostly a one lane road going through every single village between Oradea and Cluj-Napoca. It was slow going, and there were mountains. You know what that means-winding roads. One of us got sick in the van, despite taking motion sickness medication.

Once we got to Cluj, we were on a highway for awhile, but exited to make a stop in Alba Iulia. We stopped at a restaurant he had recommended, but we did not stay because we were seated next to some smokers. This is a problem in many places, and one we are not used to, as smokers have been squeezed out of restaurants in the U.S. So we walked around a little bit, found a bakery, sampled some tasty different breads and played at a playground.

It was time to get back on the road and back on the highway and then back off as the highway was closed for 20 kilometers or so. Back through the villages, a lot slower going than the highway. Back on the highway, then off because it ended. Going through villages and more mountains, and someone else got sick, then finally on the highway to Bucharest, and then there was traffic. We got to our hotel 11 hours after leaving Oradea. Google said it would take 8, oh well. There was a restaurant at our hotel serving pizza and Italian food, and it was good. We went to bed, then got up for sightseeing in the big city.

We stated walking toward the Romanian Arc d' Triumf, and it was closed, under construction, completely covered by a cloth with a lovely photograph of the Arc on it. We went underground after that. Have you ever tried to buy metro tickets in a foreign country? Luckily there was an agent to help us with the ticket machine. Some of the kids were free, but Sam had to borrow money from one of them because the machine did not take big bills. Then we had to manage the stroller through the turnstyle. The agent helped with that, too. We rode the subway a few stops down then emerged near a mall and a park. We walked down a nice fountain-lined boulevard, until we came to the Parliament Palace. It was a nice building, but we decided a tour may not work out with all of us. We walked back to the mall and thought about eating there. We were slightly bombarded in the food court by the vendors trying to convince us to dine with them. We left. It was smoky there, too.

We walked by the University of Bucharest, heading back toward our hotel. We did find a shwarma/sandwich/pizza place that was pretty good. We got back to the hotel and rested.

The next day was the whole reason we were in Bucharest: Fulbright orientation. We all went to the first meeting and introduced ourselves and met some other grantees, then the boys and I walked around outside until lunchtime, and we joined the Fulbrighters again. We went back to the hotel, while Sam stayed at the orientation. That night we all went to a reception with the Romanian Fullbright commission, the grantees, former grantees, department of state employees, and the U.S. ambassador. It was also my birthday, pretty cool to do something so fancy on my birthday!