July 4, 2018
Bucharest, Stockholm, Reykjavik, Minneapolis
(Romania, Sweden, Iceland, United States)
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| Fireworks photo taken by Joshua |
Happy birthday America!
We are usually traveling on the fourth of July, but always find a place
to sing America the Beautiful, and sometimes the Star-Spangled Banner. Usually next to a body of water, such as Loch
Lomond in Scotland, and the Mediterranean in Italy. In Salzburg it was on a balcony as we watched
fireworks in the distance (unrelated, of course). This year we are going home on the fourth. Randy is looking forward to playing the
Fourth of July concert with Sousa Band, we are all looking forward to the
fireworks following the concert.
Usually, on the days we come back from a long trip, we get a
pizza from Papa Murphy’s and struggle to stay awake until a late enough time to
go to bed for the night and try to reset our body clocks. This time, we will be busy going to the
concert and getting home late after the fireworks. Then to a blissful sleep. It seems like we aren’t traveling long
because of the time zones. We left at
8:30 am and arrive around 6:00 pm.
This morning, we had to wake up at 5:00 am to leave by
6:00. The written instructions that come
with every Air B&B said that we didn’t have to empty the garbage and the
recyclables should be put in the garbage.
So, nothing to worry about except eating breakfast, washing our dishes,
brushing our teeth, then finishing packing.
We did most of our packing last night, so this is just the last minute
things and ensuring that our breakables are in the best space. Joshua has a set of 4 wine glasses that he
bought in Murano, I have 2 pairs of earrings and 6 glass candy pieces from
Murano (to go in a candy dish that I bought last time we were in Murano) and
earrings from a Cluj street market. I
also picked up a cat clock made out of a vinyl record for Shelby as a thank you
for house, cat, and garden sitting for us.
It involved watering all of my window boxes every three days and
watering the plants in the whole yard if it didn’t rain for 5-7 days. It’s a lot of watering. And picking (and eating) the raspberries as
they ripen—she likes that part, though!
Another thing I noticed in Romania (in addition to other
things I’ve mentioned in my previous blog posts), is the crazy drivers. Part of it is the way that streets are
designed. Most of them going through
cities are one-way, 2 or 3 lanes.
Drivers drive VERY fast on these streets! I’m guessing about 50 miles per hour. One day, a boy started to run across the
street and the road curves here. He
looked, then took off. A car came very
fast around that curve and had to slam on the brakes so that they didn’t hit
him, then honked at him! In my opinion,
the car shouldn’t have been going that fast in a heavy pedestrian area next to
a city square and around a curve! There
are crosswalks controlled by lights—you need to use them! Most vehicles won’t necessarily stop unless
you are in the road. Some of the crosswalks are red, we think that
those require the cars to stop for pedestrians. Vehicles seem to think nothing of driving in
the pedestrian malls of the old towns.
And they park literally everywhere!
On sidewalks, on traffic islands, on corners, even in striped pedestrian
zones. And the only signs we’ve seen
about parking are those that say
“Garage—no parking” where a garage or gate is along the street. There doesn’t seem to be any enforcement of
parking rules (if there are any!), except for making sure you pay for pay
parking spaces. Oh well, enough of that.
We left our apartment five minutes before six and were
boarding the TAROM, Romanian Air Transport plane at 8:20. We had some trouble finding where to catch the
bus. It isn’t where we were dropped off,
evidently. I told Randy to check with
the woman at the koisk and then a woman setting up wares to sell on a bench
tried to tell me in Romanian (and through gestures) where we had to go and
which bus to take to get to the airport.
We found it and only had to wait about 5 minutes. Luckily we got seats for the long ride which
filled up quickly. Everyone gets off at
the airport, so it wasn’t a problem to go to the empty wheelchair space where
we had put our big bags and get them on.
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| This is the cover of the inflight magazine--look familiar? (see Day 10) |
Each of us has a big travel backpack, meeting the
specifications for overhead bins. Joshua
and I each also have a personal size backpack (the type you use for school)
that we wear on our chests. Randy has a
large camera bag that he wears crossbody by his chest. I also have a travel bag that I bought this
spring before I went to Paris for spring break.
Normally, I use a tiny purse with only enough room for money and
cards. I squeeze my phone in there. But for traveling, you need a day bag to
carry your stuff while walking around and doing things. So I researched, looking for a bag that I
could wear crossbody that would hold my water bottle, camera, sunglass case,
money, credit cards, and passport. I
found one! I just love it. It is a crossbody bucket bag from
Travelon. It has special RFID protected
pockets for passport and credit cards, a wire reinforced strap that cannot be
cut, an open front pocket (for lip balm, lens cap, etc. a zippered pocket on
the front that can be locked (the zipper pull locks on a tiny hidden metal
loop; that I use for money, my phone, and my external batttery for my phone
(Google Maps sucks up a lot of battery).
There is a large central space that is big enough for my camera,
prescription sunglasses case, a book, whatever, with a zippered pocket and the
RFID pockets. This zipper also
locks. In the back is another big
zippered pocket big enough for a map or guide book. I watched a video on you tube about the bag
and was sold! I’ve used it on two trips
now and it’s great. Only two
problems—it’s not waterproof and when my big camelbak water bottle is in there
and full it’s heavy on my shoulder. Not
too bad!
Our flight had some extra rows open so the guy next to me
moved and I didn’t have to sit in th middle (I hate the middle seat). So it was quite comfortable! And they fed us! Omlet, ham, beans, rolls, yogurt, cold drink
and warm drink. Wow! Joshua slept the entire flight. Then a four-hour layover in Stockholm until
our flight to Reykjavik (Iceland Air always lays over in Reykjavik), then home
to Minneapolis! Not looking forward to
the weather forecast of 92 degrees with a dewpoint of 70. And thunder storms tonight!
Our flight from Stockholm to Reykjavik was delayed by half
an hour which was a bit concerning because we only have an hour and a half
layover. It was even more concerning
when it didn’t leave on time, then when we arrived at Reykjavik we had to delay
landing, then we had to wait for our gate to open up. They asked people deplaning to give
preference and let those with connecting flights off first. The people in the back of the plane listened
to that, but the first half completely cleared out, so it took forever to get
off the plane. We got off, checked the
board, saw our gate and headed for our concourse. To get there, we had to go through
immigration with a HUGE line. I asked
one of the employees what we should do since our flight was iisted with final
boarding call and was scheduled to take off in 10 minutes. He pointed to the super long line and told us
to get in line. We cut into the line,
went through, then when you have to scan your boarding pass to get into the
concourse, mine was tagged to have me and my bags scanned (random). So Joshua was already on his way to the gate,
so I told Randy to meet him at the gate and hold the plane, I’d meet them there
when I was done, I was given a number
and pointed to a small room. I had to
wait my turn, then they used squares to swab inside my bags as well as my
hands, waist, and feet. Then they put
the swabs in a machine that checked for drugs, I think. Then I was able to go to my gate. Arrgh!
I ran to my gate only to be told that I was at the wrong Minneapolis
gate and was sent to another one. Then
we boarded a bus that waited a while before driving us to the plane.
We left a bit late, but landed on time. What a nightmare! I was so worried that we would miss our
connection!
We got home a little late beause of customs, so Randy raced
home from the train, changed and left and Joshua and I went a little slower and
then Joshua, Shelby, and I all went to the concert/fireworks together. We had to get air in the tires (after the car
sat for 2 ½ weeks) and arrived a few minutes before the band started!
Dinner when we got home from the fireworks, then bed. Dead tired after traveling for 22 hours! Enjoyed watching the fireworks--hope everyone had a Happy 4th!
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