Changing Countries

Friday, Sept 22

Our final morning in Scotland started off on a pretty good note considering the fact that we were packing to leave. We were given a complimentary breakfast at the Waldorf, which was a $30 value each, and it was certainly a yummy meal of different kinds of smoked salmon, freshly squeezed juice and tropical smoothies, fresh breads and pastries and eggs cooked in all sorts of special styles includes eggs benedict and eggs Florentine.

After breakfast Mark went back to his room to do some work while the three of us headed back to the old part of town looking to do some shopping. Among other things, the shopping list included a refrigerator magnet (We always get one or more from every trip), a sweatshirt for Bryan that he could have used in the Highlands trip, and a waffle donut!! I was not going to leave without one! We did manage to find all the primary things on the list and finally it was my turn and we headed to find the waffles, which I did!

The mysterious filling that I kept seeing on the sign and had no idea what it was turned out to be gelato. The shop made and sold gelato and this was one of the ways to get it besides in a cup or a cone. In a donut! It was not as good as I was expecting because the donut tasted like a 2-3 day old one, but the mint gelato inside was marvelous and the whole idea was genius. I was so caught up eating this cherished prize of mine I didn't realize till a bit later that I had lost all our purchases. Bryan had given me charge of the bag containing everything while he and Jason went off in search of something else. I set the bag down outside the waffle shop and got so caught of with the pleasure of this self provided reward that I just walked off and left the bag on the sidewalk.

When I caught up with the others Bryan asked where the bag was. Ok now I'll spare the rest of the drama because there was plenty but needless to say I very quickly burned every blasted calorie I had just consumed and then some as I shot back to that waffle shop at full speed. The bag had been found and left at the shop for me to claim so it all worked out in the end and I didn't have to be sorry one bit for getting that gelato waffle. Ok I gotta end this subject fast cause I just burned a few more calories thinking about it. It was a close one. Besides calories, I almost lost our purchases, my wits, my mind and my pants. (Shudda brought that belt)

We then all three hoofed it back to the hotel to pick up Mark and our luggage, check out and head to the airport. Jason needed a few minutes to decompress after the stress of the shopping trip and he seems to do that best in the bathroom. He took so long Mark (who was rooming with him) called me over to get Jason out, he was worried something happened to him. What happened is he took his phone in with him and started reading. Everything was a rush for a bit but we got checked out and on our way.

Just as we were about to board the tram for the airport Jason realized he left his phone back at the hotel in the bathroom. ZOOM!! There he went like the flash. Or like Trevor headed back to that waffle shop. Another story full of drama and adrenaline which ended on a good note as he retrieved his phone. OK now things are starting to get rough and we haven't even gotten to the airport yet and travel days are notorious for long frustrating, exhausting days anyways.

We did get to the airport in plenty of time, found our airline, got through customs and even had time to go to the airport lounge, again free benefits from our credit cards. This lounge was mostly empty, quiet and good free food and drinks. The flight was late departing so we hung around a bit longer and when the time came we boarded our flight.

We were seated in the very front of the plane on the front row. Across the isle was a Romanian guy traveling by himself who turned out to be quite a pleasant traveling partner. He gave us some tips and made us feel very good about our decision to go to Romania, even during such questionable times. When the plane landed he had us follow him to a shortcut (he flies a lot) and we were to the first to arrive at customs. We got right through and went to baggage claim.

This was our first taste of Romania and it wasn't necessarily starting off on a good foot. While still on the plane we all marveled at how many people were going to the bathroom. It was a long constant stream of people to get in that small airline toilet. We all noticed and commented on it. We were starting to wonder what was going on in there. Maybe they were giving out free beer or something, either that or Romanians have a very bad diet. None of us ever used it and we were right by it. We were afraid we'd get trampled by the mobs.

Another interesting thing to note was that before the plane landed they sold some kind of lottery or raffle tickets. We skipped the offer but again, we were like what?

The baggage claim was remarkably slow. Everyone was crowded around one of the baggage claim areas like sardines, it was like they were all afraid someone else would grab their bag. Then almost the whole group moved to a different carousel, still mobbed. Jason was near the front and some lady flat told him to move out of the way. The luggage was not even coming thorough yet. He remained calm and made no reply. We were very proud of him because he sometimes is known for speaking before thinking.

When the bags finally started coming out, the same bossy lady even stood on the carousel and grabbed bags as they were coming out the little shoot and was throwing them over on the belt. It was obvious that something was wrong with that there crazy woman so we all stayed out of her way.

Our luggage did arrive, we called for our shuttle and in a 5 min ride we were checking into our hotel. The time was 1:30 AM and we had a tour driver picking us up at the hotel in 7 hours so we all got to bed as soon as possible. For now we only knew one thing: We were in Romania!