Hello and Good-bye

It takes about 27 hours of traveling to get from our house in Santa Cruz to our house in Obedin. Car, plane, plane, car, train and car, these modes of transportation are needed, in that order. Now you know.

In case anyone needs the obvious to be expounded upon, it's an exhausting journey with little to no sleep under the best conditions. This time around was free of delays and lost luggage but it felt exceedingly tiresome. Maybe I've just done it too many times and the thrill is really gone. Could it be that I'm getting older and just don't bounce back like I used to? Say it ain't so.
In any case, we arrived somewhere near midnight local time, the weather was balmy and the house cool and maybe I was numb from exhaustion but we paid no heed to our surroundings, we simply staggered in, dropped our suitcases and crawled into bed. I was vaguely though pleasantly aware of how clean everything seemed but at midnight the state of the house was utterly irrelevant, I could think of nothing but sleep.

Then it was morning. Once I was coherent and caffeinated I began to notice how mercifully, miraculously and meticulously clean and organized everything was. Fresh sheets on the beds, bathrooms that sparkled and soap in the soap dispensers. No cat hair, no dust, no piles of furniture to maneuver around, bare surfaces on which we could place our things.  I wondered if, in our exhausted stupor, we had stumbled into the wrong house last night. Then it hit me: this is what it's like when someone is trying to impress you.

As many of you long-time faithful readers know, Pia passed away over 2 years ago. And now Silviu has a lady friend. Oh yes.

Her name is Silvia. No, that's not a type-o, it's Silviu and Silvia. Although for a 24 hour period it seemed like it was only going to be Silviu and his cats. It seems Silvia was caught up in a combo of nerves and fatigue over all of the preparations for our arrival and a lover's spat occurred a few hours before we arrived. I don't judge. There was clearly a lot of work that went into getting things ready for our arrival. A lot. I probably would have snapped too. (Who's kidding who, I totally would have snapped, we all know it). So as of the moment of this writing, we have yet to meet Silvia which is why there will be no photos of her in this post. I am sorry, I can think of several people (Lisa, Linda and Jenese) who will be cross with me but since the reconciliation has occurred, it's fairly safe to say that she will be showing up in a future post. So stay tuned.

So what will be in this post? Not much. Did I fail to mention that we're tired? It's difficult to take meaningful photos or write meaningful text when you're this knackered. (Some may point out that I never write meaningful text but I'll pretend I didn't notice). We did manage to make to trips into the city for things like toothpaste, the meeting, the boys' ID cards but that's only because we absolutely had to. Only because we're leaving tomorrow. Oh yes. The luggage tags are still on our suitcases, the smell of airplane still on our clothes, we've not yet unpacked and yet we're taking off.
Budapest here we come.

In the meantime I leave you with some photos of a Craiova which we almost did not recognize. A Craiova in which we only saw 1 stray dog. One. A Craiova with clean(ish) streets, with crosswalks and people using them. A Craiova, in short, in which it was pleasant to walk around for a few hours. At least I hope it really was that nice. Maybe it was all an exhaustion-induced hallucination. Did I mention we are tired?

Just so that you don't think we're trying to pull a fast one on you and pretend we're in Romania when we're not, here are some sights that might be more familiar to you long-time readers.

And of course a few shots around the house and garden just to show you that although the inside is clean, the garden gives the evidence that Pia is gone. It's strange to see the pathways choked with weeds and a lack of flowers blooming in the late fall. The garden was where her heart was and it misses her. We all do.
(and yes that is me walking around at 2 in the afternoon in my nightgown. Keeping it real as ever)

Did I mention we are tired?