Planes, trains and automobiles

A post in which I load numerous unattractive photos, describe our utter and profound exhaustion and dissuade anyone from ever wanting to come visit us.

People tell us all the time that they'll come see us in Romania but I can count on one hand the number of folks who have followed through on that promise.
Generally it's less by design and more by accident when we get visitors, e.g. people who are already on holiday in Italy and they figure it's not too big of a deal to meet up with us in Romania.
But to start from California and make the 24+ hour trip, that's a feat reserved for the intrepid few and by that I mean my parents who really only undertake such an exhausting journey in order to see their grandchildren.
I get why people would hesitate to do it. I really do. For one thing, I complain about the arduousness of the trip all.the.time. When I get going on the subject I'm a broken record.
But I'd like to point out that my complaining has much to do with the fact that I'm just plain burned out. After nearly 20 years, I'm sick of traveling the Santa Cruz-Obedin corridor.
However, at long last we've found friends foolish crazy adventurous enough to join us on the journey. Fortunately both Griffin and Logan are excellent and enthusiastic photographers and not only will I get a break from carrying my camera around but you all will get to view our adventures through their fresh, unjaded eyes.
At the moment, profoundly jet-lagged as we are, not much has been photographed but since some of you non-travel weary readers are already clamoring for a post, I am trying to oblige.
These uninspiring photos represent the sum of our adventures so far. They mainly consist of us dozing on various means of transportation. The highlight of the 13 hour SF to Istanbul flight was Mircea ordering beer with his meal.
The highlight of the 50 minute flight from Istanbul to Bucharest was Mihai and I accidentally getting put in business class, the result of which created such confusion that the flight was delayed 20 minutes until they figured out the haggard passengers lounging in row 7 were actually supposed to be in economy class row 16.
Other than the joy of seeing Vali when he drove us from the airport to the train station, there were no other highlights. There was just exhaustion until we got home and found a kitchen full of food and warm beds with clean sheets.
Never fear, it won't all be so mundane, there's more and better to come, the Rummel boys promise.

At last a meal at a table! Things are looking up already.