March 06-07 Travel Days

So we board our first plane in Los Angeles and take a short one hour flight to San Francisco. Then we board the flight that will take us straight to Singapore. Here are some pics from LAX and the landing in San Francisco (SFO). I even think I spot Rice Paddies in SFO! Who’d have thunk? It is delayed 30 minutes. Not a big deal. Then we get on the tarmac and delay most of another hour.

The captain comes on the radio and explains that we will have tailwinds to Singapore (which is odd for a westerly flight) and that Singapore will not allow us to arrive early. So we finally take off and are told that we will arrive in Singapore on time. Sixteen and a half hours in the air. A long time! Plus another hour and a half in the plane for the delay! 18 hours in the plane! Crossing the International Date Line really messes with your sense of time! No, we are in tomorrow. You are in today! But Elee has found the perfect seats for us in Premium Economy. We have footrests, reclining seats that recline further that most seats and ‘leg lifters’ that supported our calves. Add to that a sleep package pouch that had sleep masks, toothbrush and sundries. Toss in a huge blanket (larger than any airline blanket we have ever seen) and a pillow!

So we spend the first couple hours relaxing and watch a movie each. I choose an old Tom Cruise race car movie, Days of Thunder, and Elee muscles her way through Barbie. More power to her! Then a hot meal arrives and because of our seat positions, we get served not only a hot meal but with stainless silverware and glass wine glasses (with an open bar, of course!).

Movies completed, tummies filled, blankets arranged, I take a sleeping pill that my doctor always kindly prescribes for me when I travel, and I actually get most of 8 hours sleep in a couple of 4 hour shifts. Then I wake and watch another movie. This time I attempt to be brave like Elee and watch Barbie. But 15-20 minutes in, I can’t tolerate it and have to go looking for another action/adventure movie. PS: Elee admits to me that she fell asleep watching Barbie and only woke up near the end!

I watch another movie after and manage to time it so my movie ends shortly before landing and it works perfectly. As we approach Singapore, the last hour has fabulous views of the sunset and I grab some shots with my cell phone which I will try to upload here. We are seated over the wing so not truly clean shots but fun colors.

We get off the plane and have to go through Customs. We find the line to stand in that says, “Nothing To Declare” and we get in that line. No sooner are we in line and an official looking lady looks at us and asks, “Nothing To Declare?” We say ‘No, Nothing To Declare’ and she signals us to open a gate and leave! So we do. There is another check to go through and I clear it with flying colors and walk out. I look back and they have flagged Elee for some reason and send her through another line. But she is through and out in a couple minutes. Nobody is looking at me so I take a photo of the Security area. Usually, one is told not to do that. But here we are!

A half hour taxi ride to the hotel that was pre-arranged and all is good. Our driver was even in the terminal looking for us so it was a happy arrival! All is looking good! We check in to the IHG hotel and get into our room, which is somewhat small but we manage to figure out how to place our luggage. Glad Elee had the absolutely brilliant idea of packing an internal bag/pouch marked “Singapore” and I followed suit.

So we walk outside and down the street which is filled with food restaurants and we choose one, FYR, that serves wine and bar food and all is good! We stop at a small market on the way back to the hotel and pick up bottled water and room snacks and turn in for the night. I get this blog written and it is time for sleep!

Day 00 – Pre travel jitters – Mar 05, 2024

Well here we are again. Do I have everything packed? Do I have all my paperwork in order? Do I have my Apple Airtags attached correctly so I can track my luggage locations?

This will be our second longest vacation ever, second only to our Round The World 2020. But the allure of adding 12 new countries to our list is exciting! Getting up at 4AM to catch our first flight is a bit disconcerting but we can do this.

So off I go to finalize my luggage and zip them up. See you on the plane(s)!

Day on our own in Bucharesti, Tuesday, Oct 17

We will sleep in this morning, having absolutely no schedule. We make ourselves coffee and tea in the apartment and kick back, enjoying having no schedule today. Around 11:30 AM, we get dressed and wander downstairs into the city. About 3 blocks away we find an interesting lunch restaurant and stop in for a bite.

After lunch, we walk down the street and find a large park with a small lake in it. We stroll around the lake and take in the sights and the people. Back in the city streets we walk back to the apartment. We are tired from the entire vacation and we lay down for a nap.

An hour or so later, I get up and tell Elee I want to take a walk. She chooses to stay in and nap. I go out and head in a different direction, photographing a lot of very old buildings. Even an autumn display going up on a store. I keep walking, looking for interesting restaurants for dinner. I finally find a good one called “Vatra”, and I make reservations for 6:30PM. We need to eat early as we will be getting up around 3AM to leave for the airport at 4AM for a 7AM flight.

It is still time for another nap and we snooze some more. Then we head out to Vatra and get seated for dinner. The food is good and I order a bottle of Feteasca Neagra, my new favorite Romanian wine. It is so good!

Walking back to the apartment, I manage to get a few more night shots of old buildings, including one of a restaurant with an interesting name! I’m sure they mean ‘meatballs’, right?

Tomorrow will be about 9 clock hours of travel, but with time zones, it will be 19-20 hours of travel. I hope my sleeping pills work and that I can sleep on the plane! Good night everyone!

Tour and return to Bucharesti, Oct 16

Today we get an extra half hour to sleep in as Maurius will pick us up at 9 AM. We don’t really sleep in but we have breakfast and visit with our hosts and discuss things like the situation in Israel. It is a fun chat and they seem of like minds to us. But the time flies and it is time to zip up our suitcases and head out.

Maurius is waiting for us in a different car today. No more spacious van, but a more comfortable car. A car built in Romania, a Dacia (pronounced Dachia). He loads our luggage after carrying it downstairs for us and we are on our way.

Our first stop is the “White Tower”, overlooking Brasov where we have been staying. The views are spectacular. Everything is wet this morning because it rained overnight. The sky lends it’s art to our photographs with patches of blue, white and grey! There is a group of Kindergarten children here on a field trip and I have to wonder if they are getting a history lesson.

We drive on and it is a pleasant drive. Our next stop is the Fortress of Rasnov overlooking the valley below. Again the views are spectacular and the sky lends it’s art again! There is a Funicular to take you up but this time of year there aren’t enough tourists to warrant it being open. So, instead, we are taken up by large tractors towing trolley cars.

We pass by a monument to WWI soldiers on our next drive. Maurius is taking us to places while working our way back towards Bucharest. We pass through small picturesque communities and stop for lunch at Gulyas House where we have Goulash Soup and Maurius joins us and we treat him to lunch!

Our next stop is at the Monastery of Snagov on an island in the middle of Snagov Lake. This Monastery was built in the 14th Century and I am allowed to take photos inside, a privilege not allowed to many. I don’t know what the conversation was between Maurius and the docent, but my camera is allowed inside! Simply beautiful decorations, some damaged by an earthquake in 1802. All in all, a fun stop!

After we leave the Monastery, it is about an hour drive to Bucharest where Maurius carries our luggage into the AirBnB we have rented. The online descriptions sound much nicer than the construction debris strewn in the courtyard we encounter. The online description calls it a “Courtyard Garden”, we call it a mess! The apartment is nice inside but I quiver in fear at the realization that I will have to carry our luggage down and out at 4 AM in two days when we leave for the airport.

We take a nap for an hour and then look up restaurants near us. We settle on a restaurant a couple blocks away called, “Noa”, a Romanian Steakhouse. As we walk in there is a glass refrigerator in the window filled with Dry Aging Beef, from Tomahawk Steaks to Ribs to what looks like could be carved into some fantastic steaks! Wish I had known, I would have come hungrier!

We take a few night photos on the 2 block walk back to the apartment and it is time to enjoy the rest of the bottle of Red Romanian Wine that I got at the restaurant, there it was wine with dinner. Now it is sipping wine for the evening!

See you all tomorrow!

Sunday, Oct 15. More Romania

Today we arise and have breakfast at 7:45AM. Marius picks us up promptly at 8:30AM. We drive for an hour and a half and come to Zarnesti, Romania, where we find “LiBearTy”, a Bear Sanctuary where a group of impassioned people got together and began rescuing bears from circuses and other performing act places. It appears that bears in these places are severely abused and kept in cages barely larger than their bodies! AND, they are punished with food, so if they don’t perform properly, they are starved!

This group has managed to acquire hundreds of hectares of land and have fenced it to protect both bear and predators of bears. The land is described as 400 football fields in size. I pay a premium entry fee because I am carrying a professional camera. I am no stranger to this practice and I always succumb to the price. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. This time is in the middle. We are cautioned to not approach the fencing (which has 6 inch square openings that will easily accommodate my camera lenses but I am cautioned to only shoot from a distance. What did I pay a premium for?

Everybody else can shoot for free with a cell phone. Maurius tries to dissuade me from paying the extra. Perhaps he knows something I don’t? Anyway, I pay it and get the tag to wear on my jacket that says I have permission. All the money goes to a good cause, right? But, at one point, where the bears seem to be gathering but we don’t know why, one bear poses for me and I reach my camera to the holes in the fence wire and shoot some fun shots. “Sir!, Sir!” I hear the guide call. “Please get away from the fence!” I have been busted. But she is 50 yards away with 50 other people around her demanding her attention. So I keep shooting. “You will be electrocuted!”, she shouts. But I can see the electric wires and I know where my equipment and I are. So all is good.

Fearing she will call some sort of security, I back off and demurely walk back into the crowd. I follow rules from them on, but at least I think I have a half dozen shots worth while for my 10 extra Euros! It is all downhill to get out and Elee’s knees are fighting her and we are the last to leave. On the way out, we are told there are wolves. And there they are right on the other side of the fencing.

The countryside is very picturesque as we continue our tour. Haystacks and sheep farms galore! One thing we have seen many times are nests at the top of poles. Maurius tells us that Romania has a lot of storks and all the nests we see are stork nests!

We drive on to the town of “Viscri”, a quaint little town where it turns out that Prince Charles (now King Charles) bought a home here and he has done an exorbitant amount of humanitarian work here! We visit and read his story and are actually impressed for our knowledge of King (Prince) Charles history never impressed us before this.

King Charles residence tour…

We drive up the road a mile and stop for an authentic lunch at an open air restaurant. We both have a Romanian Goulash dish! The food is fantastic and we make friends with the resident dalmatian dog!

We then drive on for another hour and a half and come to a Fortress on a Hill. Many steps later and a tower climbs and my camera seems to be satiated! But I tell it to hang in there as the best is yet to come! My cameras limps on exhausted legs (or is that me?) and we plod along.

We drive on and come to another old fortress city, Biserica Evanghelica, and tour there also. Maurius walks us up into the town and the sights are amazing! My camera complains that it’s memory is tired (wait, or was that me?). We are feeling our age and contemplating why we do this. But there is still too much world and not enough time!

My camera is offered a climb of 175 steps and I swear I hear laughter coming from the lens! Or is that laughter at me because it hears me decline the climb? What?? Me decline a climb for a photo op?? Unfortunately, that is the case. So, my camera hangs it’s lens in shame, I hear it mutter to Maurius that we are done. Please take us back to Brasov. A two hour ride where my camera randomly falls asleep and dozes. (Or was that me again?) As we near Brasov, Maurius strikes up a conversation and I manage to stay awake.

Once we get back to our AirBnB, we head out in search of dinner. Uncle Google leads us astray with walking instructions and we wander for a mile or two. This does in Elee’s knees and a lovely lady who speaks English brings us to a taxi stand and talks to the driver for us. 15 Romanian Leis later and we arrive at a very good restaurant! I order a Rib Eye Steak and an told I will have to settle for a T-Bone. Horrors! Elee is feeling under the weather and orders a bowl of Romanian Soup and a plate of cabbage. The food is good and I ask the waiter to order us a taxi back to our AirBnB. The ride is less that half of our 15 Lei ride and he asks for 12. Part of me wants to challenge his price and then I tell myself that 12 Lei is $3.50 USD and the battle becomes moot.

The buildings here have fantastic architecture! I have to wonder why the bricks don’t collapse in on you! But they don’t!

So it is back to our room and time to turn in! See you all tomorrow!