Day 35: Brasov #2

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Today's highlights:

   -Hiked to Sapte Scari

   -Met with Mirons

   -Fancy dinner 

   -Storage Wars!

Fornetti for breakfast! Fornetti for breakfast! (I feel like Fornetti has become my new "gelato." I'm not sure why I feel it's necessary to tell you every time we eat it, but alas, I do).

So our plan today was to go on a fun hike that I have heard about ever since I was a missionary but have never done. It's called "Sapte Scari" which basically means "Seven Ladders." It is a slot canyon, supposedly with waterfalls and rivers running through it, and you have to climb seven super sketchy ladders that are falling apart to get through it. That sounds fun, right? We were super stoked and had no idea how to even get there. So we asked around, found a bus that took us to the edge of town. Then we were told to walk. How far, we did not know. We'd stop every so often and ask someone and they'd say, "Yeah, the trailhead is about another kilometer up the road. Then, a half hour later, we'd ask another guy who said, "Yeah, just keep going. It's about 1.5 kilometers up the road." Ummmmm....what? Anyway, we finally made it to the trailhead, but still had about an hour's hike before reaching the canyon. It was SO beautiful up there. I felt like I was back in Switzerland. The air was so fresh and it smelled so nice. I loved it, and I was getting more and more excited for the hike. Then, we finally made it to the canyon and...........it was closed. Booooooooo. Something about renovating the hike and fixing all those broken ladders. Safety schmafety, I say. So we were sad, but the hike itself was really beautiful so it ended up being worth it anyway.

When we finally made it back that afternoon, pooped. After a little break, we went and met with the wonderful Miron family. This family is so great. Sora Miron (Sister Miron, the mom) is a single mom and has five kids, most of which are active in the church and have been for years. That is a truly amazing thing here in Romania, for a family to stay that strong for so many years. Being Mormon in Romania is so hard, because everything about the culture is Orthodox, so giving that up can sometimes mean giving up family and friends too. So when members stay strong through all that, it just makes me so happy! So we met with Sora Miron and her youngest daughter, 18-year old Ema. It was so fun to catch up with them and see how they are doing. 

After all that, we were hungry! We decided to splurge for the first time in Romania and went to a fancy restaurant. Mmmmm, it was so delish. However, as we would soon discover (tomorrow morning), it may also have been poisoned.....

So after dinner, we came home and flipped on our TV to see what it had to offer us. I think this might have been the first time we have had a TV that worked in our hotel room, or at least the first time we used one. Well, it turns out Romania didn't have a ton of good selection. We finally settled on The History Channel because it had this show called Storage Wars. For those who haven't seen it (like us before today), it's basically a competition between four people who go to auctions and bid on old, abandoned storage units that are for sale, full of random who-knows-what. Then, after buying the units, they get to actually go in and see what they bought and if any of it is valuable. You can make a profit of thousands of dollars on one unit. Very interesting. We started to really like it. Maybe because there was seriously nothing else to watch and we haven't seen much on a TV screen for the last 5 weeks, but still. It was a good night. 

Day 34: Sinaia and Brasov

Monday, August 12, 2013

Today's highlights:

   -Left Buc 

   -Peles Castle in Sinaia

   -Hotel hunting in Brasov

Great news! No fleas! I got a few bites from something my first day in Alexandria but I watched carefully over the next few days and they didn't spread! Woot!! Thanks Lord and Rookie for keeping your friends to yourselves! 

So today, we left Buc for the last time. It was an emotional farewell to say the least. Sora Gorzo kept asking us if we were sure we didn't want to stay longer, saying "I just feel so good when you guys are here." Oh man, she is the greatest. And I have discovered, gives the GREATEST hugs. We told her we would try to come back with our kids one day, so they can know their Romanian great-grandma. I really really hope we make it back to see her again.

We decided to make our first stop in the city of Sinaia, home of Romania's most beautiful castle: Peles Castle. We'd both seen it before during our missions but it is seriously so gorgeous inside and out that we wanted to see it again (the entire inside is covered in these crazy intricate wood carvings, amazing!). Well, it's a good thing we'd seen it before because it's a Monday, and guess what happens on Mondays in Europe? Everything is closed. Including Peles. And we forgot. Bummer. But we still got to make the hike up to it and see the outside so the trip was worth it. 

Can you tell we're getting tired of taking pictures? I think our average number of pics per day has dropped on this trip from 100 to 2. Really.

After Sinaia we made it to Brasov, one of Romania's most beautiful cities. It is nestled in the middle of the Carpathian Mountains in a picturesque little valley. The center of the city wasn't as affected by communism as some other cities (meaning Ceacescu didn't destroy the entire thing and construct those huge cement apartment buildings in its place. Only part of it). So centru (city center) still remains big, colorful and so beautiful. 

We had a hotel in mind where we were planning to stay, and we assumed we didn't need to make reservations ahead of time (I mean, I love Romania, but it doesn't really draw the hugest tourist crowd). Well, it turns out there is a youth soccer tournment here this week and almost every hotel we tried was full because of the parents in town to watch their kids play. Whoops! We wandered for a long, long time (eating a dinner of Fornetti and Viva snacks as we walked, no complaints here!). Finally, we found a place that looked a little sketch on the outside but we were desperate. We went in and it was way nicer inside, cheap, and had open rooms. Win!

We were so exhausted, we fell asleep pretty much as soon as we walked in. We're so excited to spend some more time in this beautiful city tomorrow!

Day 32: Alexandria, Romania

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Today's highlights:

   -Arriving in Alexandria

   -Meeting Mission President!

   -Familia Matei!

We learned a song from Sora Gorzo this week that we keep singing over and over because it is so funny. In Romanian it's actually pretty and simple, but when we translated it and sang it in English, we couldn't stop laughing. 

It's good, it's good, it's very good.

Say that when things get hard.

It's good, it's good, it's very good.

Don't ask me anymore. 

Good stuff. So today we got to spend time with Robbie's other Romanian family, Familia Matei in Alexandria (a city a couple hours outside of Buc). They are a middle-aged couple, Marian (the husband) and Anca (the wife) and they have a 17-year old daughter Andrada. If Sora Gorzo is Robbie's Romanian grandma, Anca gets the award for his Romanian mom. He actually still calls her "Mami." It's pretty adorable. 

Cool story: Robbie was the very first missionary to serve in this city, meaning he opened it for all the missionaries that would come after. This family, Familia Matei, were the only members and had been members for years but had to travel really far (to Buc on the bus) to get to church. Some interest in the church led our mission president to put one set of missionaries there to see how they would do. Their first sacrament meeting was in the Matei's kitchen with just that family and the missionaries. But then Robbie and his companion did so well that Pres. Ashby kept missionaries there and now they have a branch! So this city is really close to his heart, especially since it's where he ended his mission. And since he worked so closely with Familia Matei, they came to be his family. And they are so so great. 

So this morning, we took an early bus from Buc to Alexandria, but I guess there was a miscommunication because they didn't know what time we were coming and they were at their house "la tara" (out in the countryside). We waited a few hours for them to finish their stuff and come get us while Robbie showed me around this town he loved so much. It was so fun seeing him get excited about a staircase where he had a discussion or a super sketchy restaurant where someone told him they wanted to be baptized. We even went and looked at where the building is that the church rents now, and CHA-CHING, the mission president happened to be there doing interviews!! And he even sat and talked with us for awhile about how the mission is doing and everything. It was so great! We could not have planned that better! We also got to meet the two missionaries serving in Alexandria now, and one of them has only been out three weeks. In Romania, we call that a boboc or "little duckling." That was a really powerful and sweet conversation for me because he asked us about the language and how easily it came and everything (you could tell he's been frustrated). It totally took me back to when I was in his shoes and I was positive that I would never learn to understand people. I would always think to myself, "I know that they say everyone learns it eventually, they just need time. But what if I am the exception?! What if I am the only missionary who never gets it?!" Haha, those were the days. But it is really amazing looking back now, how the Lord totally kept his promise. He fills the mouths of those who try to do His work.

I wish so bad that "current me" could go back in time and tell "boboaca me" (female little duckling) that I don't need to worry. God will help me. He won't leave me alone if I'm trying to do what he wants me to. So that's what I tried to tell this sweet boboc Elder. He'll get it, he's just got to believe and do his part. 

So eventually, Familia Matei came and oh-my-goodness! The happiness as they hugged their dear Robbie was so clear on their faces. And the first thing they said to me was, "We are so happy you speak Romanian!!" Hahaha, they wanted to really grill this girl that married their "son" and didn't want a language barrier to get in the way. Haha, but really they were so loving and genuinely excited to meet me and made me feel so good from the minute I met them. 

They took us out to their place la tara and we met their sweetest dogs with the funniest names. Lord was HUGE and so sweet, and the puppy's name was Rookie and he just spent all day jumping all over Lord and trying to eat him. Their names were so apropes and Rookie doesn't even have the same meaning to them as it does to us! 

On a more personal level, I was simultaneously so overcome with joy at watching these cute guys play and also terrified. Dogs in Romania always mean one thing for certain: fleas. Most people don't worry about that, because most people don't ever get bitten by fleas. But as previously stated, I had a bad experience...or ten. So as cute as they were, I never let myself touch them. And I'm still 98% sure that I will get fleas anyway. Cross your fingers! If nothing else, it made us SO excited to get a dog ourselves sometime (hopefully soon!)

They made us this amazing Romanian meal, and divided the portions in true Romanian style. I kid you not when I say that Robbie and I were each given at least 1/3 of the egg casserole, leaving only 1/3 left for all three of them to share. My plate was a mountain of eggs and sausage. But despite our many protests that they gave us WAY too much, they insisted that they had all they wanted and we needed to eat all of this. Romanians are generous, way too generous. We tried (and the food was actually incredibly delicious so we got close) but alas we could not finish and the leftovers went to the dogs. 

These people are so nice that after lunch, we tried to help them clean up and Marian, the husband, refused to let us, saying we needed to go rest. We tried insisting, but he was better at being stubborn so I finally said, "Well thank you so much. It was delicious." To which he replied, "No, no! We thank you!" Like we were doing him some favor by eating their food and sleeping in their bed. Oh yeah, we are sleeping in their bed. They are going to the loveseat-sized couches to give us the master bedroom (which is the only room in the whole place). What?! I tried to fight that one too, but Robbie finally just told me, "It's no use. Just accept it, because they will never let up." These people are amazing. It just reminds me so much of the mission and how kind and generous complete strangers were to us. I just love Romania and feel like there is so much I still need to learn from them. 18 months wasn't enough for me to get it all. I need more time!

After our nap, whaddaya know, it was time to eat again! They did a BBQ for dinner. But this was like, a MAN barbeque. Caveman style. Marian spent about an hour making this crazy high bonfire to get good coals. Then he got this old metal grill, propped up on rocks and piled on every kind of meat and veggies you can imagine. It was an amazing thing to behold. 

What a night. What a family. 

Day 31: Bucuresti, Romania

Friday, August 9, 2013

Today's highlights

-Sarmale lessons from Sora Gorzo

-People's Palace

-Cismigiu Park

***Robbie here***

It wasn't a dream! We really are in Romania, the land of Dracula and Gypsies, sarmale and fornetti (legendary Romanian food), babe and mosi (old women and old men)! I forget how fortunate I am that Angie also served in Romania, so she can enjoy this country as much as I can. 

The Romanians pride themselves on their food. They normally cook with cabbage, potatoes, and pork. But the dish that they brag most about is sarmale--cabbage rolls filled with pork, sautéed onions, rice, and spices. They take practically all day to prepare and cook, and since we are staying with the most famous and adored cook by all of the Romanian missionaries, Sora Gorzo, we asked her to teach us how to make them. 

Turns out, it doesn't take tons of skill or crazy techniques to make good sarmale, it just takes time. We chopped, chatted, grilled, and gossiped until lunch time, and that was only for the preparation. The cooking requires boiling and baking. "Just set it, and... (Emily, you know this one) forget it!" Anywho, it was a blast making sarmale with the cutest Romanian grandma you've ever seen. 

Since Angie never served as a missionary in Bucuresti, I thought I would take her to see some of the sights here. We saw the patriarchal church (kind of like the headquarters for the Romanian Orthodox faith). It was very beautiful and, since we had seen mostly Catholic churches up until this point, it was neat to see some differences. The orthodox churches are much smaller but much more numerous. It seems like they are squished into the smallest of gaps between the large communist bloc apartments. 

Next was Casa Poporului (Palace of Parliament, literally translated it is the "House of the People"). In terms of square footage, Casa Poporului is the 2nd biggest building in the world, behind the Pentagon. Angie had never seen it, which is a rare thing for a missionary. It was built under the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, the last and most infamous communist dictator in Romania. He was one bad dude, power hungry, and paranoid. Not a good combination. He did such horrible things to Romania's economy, morale, and rights that during the tour of this huge building, our tour guide wouldn't ever say his name. She would always refer to Nicolae and Elena (his wife) as "them," "him," and "her." It was almost like "he-who-shall-not-be-named" from Harry Potter. The vast majority of Romanians hate the building because of who it stood for. Anyway, we saw it! And it was big and extravagant outside and inside. 

This is the view from a balcony on the second floor of Casa Poporului. 

Next, we went to a much more positive place, Cismigiu Park. This is the park where Elder Nelson dedicated Romania for the preaching of the gospel. This is a very special spot for all of Romania's missionaries. 

As missionaries, we spend our first day in Cismigiu Park reading the dedicatory prayer at the hill on which Elder Nelson stood. I remember my mission president, president Garth Hansen, telling me that in 2 years, at the end of my mission, I would return to this hill in Cismigiu. I would have the chance to present my mission as a gift to God and that I would ask Him if He accepted my efforts. Wow. Those words stuck with me and motivated me whenever I was lacking the fire I needed. Angie had the same experience. Needless to say, we felt very powerful emotions returning to that hill. We sat there and told mission stories for a couple hours. Listening to Angie tell her stories, I fell even more in love with her. We shared our successes and our failures and it was amazing to learn even more about this incredible woman that I married. Isn't she great, Internet?

That night, we reaped the benefits of our hard labor. We ate freshly made sarmale and dang, were they delicious! With a little bit of sour cream on top, there is nothing better. 

We talked for the rest of the night with Sora Gorzo, Grant Harward, and Morgan Ott (two returned missionaries who came back for career opportunities). Tomorrow is Alexandria!

Day 30: Getting to Romania!

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Today's highlights: 

   -Airport scare 

   -Fornetti!!

   -getting lost for two hours because of NO PHONES ANYWHERE

   -Sora Gorzo 

Ro-man-ia! Land that we love!!  Today we arrived in our dear Romania, and we could not be more thrilled about it. But getting there, we had a bit of a scare. 

We decided to fly from Athens to Bucuresti (Buc from here on out) because we found cheap tickets. So we show up to the airport this morning, totes on time. But as we went to check in and get our boarding passes printed off, they checked our passports. Both are current, but Robbie's expires next month (in September). Apparently, you can't travel with a passport that is within three months of expiring without special permission! What?! What is the point of even having an expiration date then? 

So they red-flagged Robbie and said he couldn't travel by plane (mind you, we have had NO problems with his passport so far). We were shocked, like, you have GOT to be kidding! Finally, the lady at the counter said, "I can call the immigration office in Bucuresti and see if they will give you permission to arrive in their country, but if they say no, we have no choice. We can't let you on the plane." Mama Mia!!! So we waited impatiently for about 10 minutes while she left to make the call, seriously praying in our heads that this will work. Well, our beloved country didn't let us down. They welcomed us with open arms. Whew! That was a close call. So we boarded the plane and arrived in Buc just a few hours later.

Buc is the capital of Romania and almost every missionary spends a good deal of their mission serving there. I was one of the few who never did, so it is much less familiar to me than it was to Robbie, who spent literally half of his mission (one full year) there. But it is still a meaningful place to me because it is both where I started and where I ended my mission. (More on that tomorrow.)

Our first stop, naturally, was at a Fornetti stand. If you ever served a mission in Romania, you know what I'm talking about when I say that the golden streets of heaven will be lined with bright orange Fornetti stands offering a free all-you-can-eat buffet. It's just a stand that sells little pastries filled with different things, but they are AMAZING! I probably went here close to every day in the cities that had one when I was a missionary. And yes, we will return as often as is humanly possible as long as we get to be in this country. 

Telemea....mmmmm....

Then it was time to find Sora Gorzo's house. She is a member in Buc that we are staying with for a few days and she LOVES Robbie (like, loves him). But more about her in a minute. First, I have to tell you how we wandered around looking for her house for over TWO HOURS in the blazing sun. 

We came prepared with her phone number so we could call her when we arrived to figure out how to get to her house, and we even bought a phone card to use the public phones (like we did all the time when we were missionaries). However, times change and guess what? NO ONE uses public phones anymore. So I guess they just decided to break them all...? We found plenty of phone booths, but in every single one, someone had broken off the top of the receiver and stolen parts out if it. It was the weirdest thing. Gotta love Romania :)

Without a phone or address, we had to rely on Robbie's memory of coming to her house on his mission 7 years ago. Did you catch that, "rely on Robbie's memory" part I just said? If you know him at all, you will know that we were in BIG trouble. (For the record, I have a worse memory than he does, so we are perfect for each other! Or terrible for each other, depending on how you look at it.....). 

FINALLY, after way longer than either of us were prepared for, we finally found an open wi-fi network outside of a random bloc (communist-style apartment building) and jumped on it. We called Sora Gorzo over Skype on our phones and she helped us find her. And let me tell you, she was just thrilled that her "Row-bee" had returned to his bunica (grandma) at last.

Sora Gorzo is probably the most famous person in the history of the Romania Bucharest Mission. I never even served in Buc and I know her and have heard stories about her over and over. She knows every missionary that's ever served since her baptism and they all know her, because she seriously thinks of every single one of them as her kids/grandkids. It is adorable. She gets attached to them and cries when they leave. She can't wait to hear from them once they go home. She is the sweetest little baba you have ever seen. And man does she have a special spot in her heart for Row-bee. I saw it in her eyes as soon as we saw her on the street. She adores him as if he is really her long-lost grandson. She just stood and held out her arms with a huge smile on her face and they embraced in this big hug, all 6 ft 2 inches of him towering over all 4 ft ? Inches of her. Oh gosh, so sweet. 

We arrived at her house and just spent the night enjoying her amazing cooking and chatting about every missionary in the history of Romania. Her memory is seriously AMAZING. She is just the sweetest. We could not have had a better beginning to our Romanian adventure. 

Day 29: Return to Athens

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Today's highlights:

   -Why we loved Greece

   -Agora

   -Plaka neighborhood & dinner

   -Hung out with roomies

Today we made it back to Athens for our last day in this beautiful land of Greece. Tomorrow morning we fly out to Romania (can't wait!), but I am sad to leave Greece so fast. Here are the reasons we fell in love with this place:

   -The Wind blew all day, every day. It was like heaven, and did not feel like we were wandering the surface of the sun anymore.

   -We met some of the coolest people. Our hosts here made this our favorite place to sleep. It's so easy to make friends here because people are so friendly!

   -THE FOOD (obviously)

   -It has the conveniences of being a tourist area (with info) but not overrun by tourists (except that sunset in Santorini, but totes still worth it).

   -It has SO much history and it feels like its still a part of their culture.

   -Music everywhere! Such a rich modern culture too.

   -There is just so much to do here and we barely even scratched the surface of it. 

So needless to say, we will come back. Someday, we will come back...

But for now, let me tell you about our last day. First place we went was the agora (which is basically the old ancient city of Athens where the ruins are). It was awesome. There's a little museum there that had the coolest artifacts. Like the world's first bumbo (but they were a step ahead because they also made it a toilet):

Or the water jugs with a hole in the bottom that timed a politician's speech to exactly 6 minutes. Their speech, to be perfect, had to be no less than the allotted time but no longer. They had to be "good to the last drop."

Or the world's first voting booth:

It was awesome. After that we decided to splurge on lunch (being our last day) and we went to this AMAZING traditional Greek restaurant: Ydria. I kid you not when I say, I hope that heaven serves their stuffed mushrooms every day. I loved them so! We had all the good stuff: spinach-feta pie, fried zucchini, moussaka, veal stew, crazy Greek lasagna. It was amazing and we had to waddle home when we finished. 

We came home to hang up our laundry and.....might have fallen asleep for a minute. A long minute. Our plans had been to go to the National Archeological Museum that afternoon to see Greek art from back to 7,000 BC (holy moly!) but then we woke up and realized we would only have about an hour til it closed. I told Robbie maybe we should just skip the museum and wander around the town for the evening. His face lit up like you would not believe, and in that moment I realized what a gem I married. Museums and history are not his thing so much, but he has never once complained or said we shouldn't go this WHOLE trip (and we have been to a lot of museums). If he knows it's something I want to do, he treats it as something really important to him too. What a sweetie. But if I am the one to suggest not going, he is quick to agree :)

So instead, we spent the night wandering around Plaka, this fun neighborhood with shops and restaurants galore. Since we never fully recovered from lunch, we ate dinner as we walked. That's right, gyros and Fanta to your heart's content.

The only bummer is, I dripped tzatziki ALL OVER MYSELF before I noticed it was leaking. (I looked like I was a toddler that was let loose with no parental supervision). And now I'm pretty sure my pink shorts will have grease stain drops all over them, but I have to keep wearing them anyway since I only have two pair! I am a scuzbucket. Anyone know any magical remedies for getting tzatziki grease stains out?

So after our wandering and souvenir shopping, we headed home. Prepared to hit the sac, we ended up staying up forever with our hilarious Greek roommates (Giota and Loucas) and talking about everything under the sun. We talked about travel and music and movies and how Chewbacca (Giota's cat) is so excited for the next Star Wars to come out. It was so much fun. By the time we went to bed, Robbie said we should come back again just to hang out with them some more. And I agree. 

Greece, you won our hearts. And we will see you again soon. 

Day 28: Santorini back to Athens

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Today's highlights:

-Recovery time

-Protection from the elements

-Back to see Maria, paid for us

-First real gyro

-Ferry late, slushee "I have a brain freeze and it feels amazing!"

***Robbie here***

Who's up for a short post? This guy.

Since yesterday was so action packed, it deserved a thorough recap. Today, however, was much less eventful so it'll be a quick one. 

We decided that we deserved a good, old fashioned sleep-in, due to the fact that we only slept a couple hours the night before. Heavenly. We slept in, surfed the web on our phones, and set up the next two weeks by writing emails to our future Romanian, Serbian, and Hungarian hosts. The wi-fi didn't reach our room, but it did reach our balcony. Since our bodies were sunburned beyond belief from being in the sun all day yesterday, we ventured out onto the balcony wearing these shade-creating beauties. 

We looked dang good. 

After relaxing we went to the Corner cafe where Maria (our new Romanian friend) works and ate breakfast there. We chatted with Maria until it was time to say goodbye. We promised we would stay in touch and then I asked how much the bill was. She walked inside for a minute, came back out and said "It's fine." She PAID FOR OUR BREAKFAST! Are you kidding me? We have met the most amazing people here. People who do such kind, seemingly simple gestures that no one else notices. But those gestures have made a HUGE difference to us. I'm getting sentimental right now just thinking of all of the people who have gone above and beyond in helping us. Anyway, she is great. 

For lunch (which we ate an hour after breakfast since we slept in so late) we had our first gyros. So good. This picture should convince you. 

Speaking of food (this whole post will have something to do with food. We love food), we had to wait in the blistering heat to catch the ferry back to Athens. It was so hot that only a slushee could bring us peace. When I got a brain freeze from drinking it too fast, all I could think of was how amazing it felt for at least some part of me to be cold. That's how hot it was. 

We hopped on our first day ferry to get back to Athens. Turns out, when you're not trying to sleep on an uncomfortable surface at 2:00 am, ferries aren't the worst way to go. Goodbye Santorini, we love you and will see you again someday.