City tour. Blah blah blah.

City tours are terrible– they drive you around on the bus pointing out buildings for you to snap pictures of out the bus window. They describe the different architecture, which buildings used to be embassies, etc. Throw in a church, a couple of quick jumps off the bus for pictures, and a bunch of complaining about not being able to stop the bus in rush hour for other pictures. Voilà! City Tour. The Bucharest city tour is really no different from any other city tour we’ve taken.

We went to the ethnographic museum which has old houses from all the different regions of Romania. Like wooden houses with straw roofs and things. Most of the houses didn’t have fireplaces because you had to pay taxes per chimney. So, they just smoked the bacon in the attic to warm the house. Since it was a Monday, the houses were all closed, so we just took pictures from the outside. It’s a great place for selfies!

Our afternoon (and lunch) were at our leisure. Naturally, we went for crepes. Anyone who knows thetwinsontour knows thetwinsontour love crepes. The one we chose was savory– savory crepes make a great meal! Especially when you go for chicken, cheese, and pickle! Except things are never quite how you imagine. This was a giant crepe, covered in shredded cheese and garnished with red peppers. There was no melted cheese inside the crepe with the chicken. And the pickles? Yeah, those red peppers were pickled red peppers. It was a delightful meal, but not at all what thetwinsontour envisioned.

Before dinner, we had a guest lecturer who was on the front lines, protesting, the night the socialist regime fell in Romania– December 1989. He was 15. His best friend was standing right next to him and got shot in the head. He did not survive. When I was 15, I knew nothing about politics– I sure was not out fighting the establishment and bringing down Communism.

Anyways, here are some Romania in the 80s facts. They were very poor and had monthly rations.It was a very difficult time. They got 30 eggs, a pound of butter, 1 kg sugar, and a liter of cooking oil per person. There was no coffee nor Coca-Cola. There was Pepsi–Pepsi signed some kind of agreement after Nixon visited Romania. However, Pepsi had to be requested special. And each family could only have 25 bottles per month. (which is weird– how do 25 bottles fit in a box? like 24 makes more sense.) There was a dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu, who wanted -and succeeded–in making Romania the only country in the world to be debt free. I think it was because he didn’t want to psy interest to World Bank. However, everything comes at a cost. Everything Romania produced was exported. Everything. Hence the rations. They raised chickens, but only got to keep the chicken feet. Same with the pigs. They had pigs feet. And, really, chicken feet and pig feet don’t stretch very far or sound very appetizing to thetwinsontour. So, they mixed them with SOY to make it all go further! Everything was mixed with soy, which also doesn’t sound very appetizing. There was also 2 hours of TV per day. And an hour and a half of that was dedicated to the glories of the dictator. A VCR cost as much as a house or a car. Each family could only have 1 car, but gasoline was rationed, too. However, Romania was debt free.

That is about the extent of my memory.

Bye bye!

Love,

thetwinsontour