Tuesday, August 12, 2025
I couldn’t get to sleep, then woke up early. Dumb. At least I feel good – not hit by the not-sleeping bus. Except I don’t feel good because today was a tough heart day. Luckily, we had absolutely nothing to do.
We packed up and left our hotel about noon. We took an Uber to our next hotel – part one of our cruise. Huh. It makes sense to me that if we are not actually boating, we don’t have to be on a boat. I assume someone is boating on it right now and they are getting maximum usage of it. We checked in to the Grand Hotel Bucharest! (by Marriott) It is fancy enough to make you feel sort of unwelcome as a regular person. We went first to the Viking people at tables in the lobby. They said come back in an hour, they weren’t set up yet. Luckily, our room was ready. We lounged around and looked out the window. Our mini bar is locked so we don’t have a refrigerator which is a bit disappointing. The room is bigger for sure, but no extra features. The Wifi doesn’t work, so we can’t watch a movie or do much with phones. We went back to Viking in an hour. They had a envelopes on the table with names on them. There was not one for us. They flustered around a bit, then said here is the piece of paper about today and tomorrow. Today is nothing. Huh. We knew we didn’t have an excursion, but assumed since it was Day 1 there would be a meal or something. Nope. Leave luggage in the hall by 7:30am, check out by 8am, be at the bus at 9am tomorrow.
Okay.
The lobby is big. There is a “street” that runs along the front of the lobby that is like a mini mall of high end shops. We can do Dolce and Gabana without leaving the building. Handy. I liked the me-high poppies. I imaged those shoes on my tree trunk legs and got giggly. I imagined them on Nancy’s skinny ankles and thought they would look great until she fell off and her foot just broke off.
We spent some quality time looking for things in the area to look at and where to eat. We decided on Chicken Staff. I don’t get the name. We studied the menu a lot. It is a fast food chicken place. Whoever does translations or websites here is not really a friend to the English speaker. It was pretty entertaining. Off we went in search of Chicken Staff.
It was across the street. It’s a big street, but still, it was straight across the street. Nice. We waited for the walk sign to turn green. You do not consider walking against the light because the consensus here is drive AS FAST AS POSSIBLE until to catch up to the car in front of you. We have been in vehicles and we have watched vehicles and that truly seems the way. The bus regularly went 85km in 40km zones because there was not a car in front of us. So, if you see a car a block away, it is coming FAST! The walk light turned green and we walked. Surprise! The cars from the other direction only come on a curved road straight at us. They got a green facing away from us, so we had no idea, but they were there SOON. We ran. The beeping of the walk light kept going as we crossed two more streets in the conglomeration. It might have been the longest walk light ever. Bottom line: we did not die. Yay.
No one was at Chicken Staff at 2:30pm. Made sense. We used a kiosk to order. We tried several times because confusion. What should we get for toppings? (mayo) What should we get for salads? (toppings on sammich) There is no diet soda (I actually ordered my first bottled water). What about gaskets? Should we get gaskets? I thought I ordered fries from the gasket menu, but it turns out I ordered fries from the salads menu, so the fries were on my sammich. Still good. Keith ordered the menu, so he got fries. We’ve been in Europe enough to know that was going to happen. He ordered a can of 7UP. He got a tiny bottle of 7UP Zero. Apparently 7UP here is always zero sugar (which is quite good). I ordered profiteroles because they looked like chocolate pudding and I thought they might be like the to-die-for ones in Rome (THEY WERE!).
The food was very good. I ordered two spicy garlic mayo because it seemed like I was supposed to. Turns out they were good for Keith to dip his schnitzel into. My sammich was already dressed. As we ate, the place filled up. Literally filled up. There were 6 older ladies (probably our age, but dressed like ladies from the 70s so they just looked older) who came and all had roasted potatoes. We did not see roasted potatoes on the menu – online or on kiosk. What was happening? We like roasted potatoes. They chatted and had tea and ate their potatoes and were gone in about 30 minutes. We strongly believe they meet every Tuesday at 3 for roasted potatoes. Isn’t that a happiness?
There was a hand washing station right in the wall. We watched a guy do it. I failed. Nothing happened. My hands weren’t dirty, so it was okay.
We crossed big streets and went to the National Cathedral. You can’t go inside because they are still building it! Have you ever seen anyone just building a big new cathedral? I have not. We walked around a little area in front. There were quite a few people doing religious things (we ran from them) and others just wandering around (us).
It really is right by our hotel
While hanging around the grounds we noticed footprints in the concrete. It was like being at Disney World with themed walkways.
It was so hot and I was so thumpy so we returned to the hotel. I rested (meaning I was so passed out that Keith tried and failed to wake me up at one point). I was awoken at 8pm. Solid nap. We went to the grocery store down the street from Chicken Staff and got a Coke zero, an apple, a croissant, and some golden Oreos for dinner. When we passed Chicken Staff we were surprised to see it open. Keith had seen online that it closed at 5:30. I thought that was bizzare at the time, but it wasn’t true, so it doesn’t matter.
I had the massively awesome idea of going for roasted potatoes!!! (Chicken Staff is on the corner, with the red rectangle sign.) (that church is pretty great in the background, isn’t it?) We found the potatoes three screens under a word we did not know and that I have forgotten. They said rosemary, so I got fries. I do not like rosemary much. They were good. The fries were good. We ordered and got a bigger 7Up zero. Keith ordered a spicy ketchup for 360 RON (about $0.83) It was spicy sweet chili sauce. So good, but not really the flavor we were going for with potatoes. It was sincerely spicy.
It was all spectacular.
As we walked home, getting ready to cross the street where the traffic does not stop, we wondered if cars would see us in the walk lane and stop. They had a curve 30 feet, then us and it was getting quite dark. We hesitated until there was a little break and zoomed. A car and a motorcycle stopped. Yay.
Keith spilled spicy ketchup on his shirt, so we did sink laundry. We could have done that earlier today, but never thought of it. We had an extra towel, so perfect for helping wring things out.
I read an article this morning (while not sleeping) that said lower middle class people do not take free days on their vacations because they want to get as much as possible for their money. Color me lower middle class because I like to go and see all the things, but today was fine, especially given thumps and heat and Chicken Staff fun.
Oh. I also ate some chocolate biscuits – cookie deal covered with milk chocolate. They are a reason to live in Europe.
Oh, again. I forgot to tell you our elevator has several scrolling news bits referencing Felon 47 and his going to court on 34 felonies. When is it?
