[We don't know if this will be interesting to anyone else, but one of our shared passions is Indian cuisine. Before leaving for Bucharest, we were delighted to learn that there are quite a few Indian restaurants in Bucharest--a significant change since my first visit in 2004--and we are determined to try them all, and share the results with our beloved readers. Or at least note our experiences for our own amusement!]
So, after trekking for three miles, past the Centru Civic, the Palace, and the Marriott, we finally reached our destination--Taj Indian Cuisine. There are at least six Indian restaurants in Bucharest, and we had thus far been to two: Tamarind and Karishma. (For those experiences, see our previous posts.) Taj was the first Indian restaurant to open in Bucharest (and therefore so far as I know, in Romania), starting business in 1995. At first we were afraid we wouldn't find it, but right when we were about to give up, I noticed it across the street from us. Take that, Bucharest! This time your confusing layout did not defeat us.
The interior was very nice, and the non-smoking section was, in fact, blissfully smoke-free. The staff were not Indian (thought the owner/executive chef is) but seemed pretty knowledgeable about the food. The menu was extensive, including not only over thirty Indian main entrees, but also an eclectic "international food" section, which listed among other things a burrito. This last bit did not inspire much confidence, but we decided to keep an open mind. For starters, we ordered vegetarian samosas. For the equivalent of five dollars we got five pieces, making it a better deal than what you normally get in the States. They were quite tasty, although they would have benefited from a bit more spice, and were served only with raita and not the traditional chutney duo (chili and tamarind). For our main course, S ordered her old stand-by, daal makhni, and I got Rogan Josh, and asked for it to be spicy since they tend to turn down the heat for the Romanian palate. S also ordered a glass of the house red, and I a mango lassi.
The Rogan Josh was quite good, and thankfully the chef heeded my request for spice, as the heat was definitely present. S was less pleased with her meal--basically what she got was rajma, a dish made with kidney beans, instead of daal makhni, which of course has lentils. For rajma, she said it was tasty, but daal makhni it was not! I wasn't sure how the mango lassi would turn out, and almost didn't order it, but I'll be darned if it wasn't better than the lassis I get at our favorite place in Bloomington, Shanti. The house wine S ordered wasn't bad (a bit thin), but the quantity for what she ordered ($1.50 for a carafe holding two glasses) made it a great bargain. We had plenty leftover food to take home, and also ordered some gulab jamun to go--which were quite tasty!
One last thing worth mentioning: Taj was busy. Aside from us, there were several other couples, a table of four businesswomen, and a large party of about twenty people in one of the back rooms. It is good to know so many Romanians enjoy Indian food!
So, then, here is how we rank Taj compared to the other two Indian restaurants we have been to in Bucharest. Our highly scientific system takes into account menu, ambiance, service, and taste, renders the variables to a single score of 1-10 samosas, 10 being perfect, and 1 representing something even a Goan street-hawker wouldn't eat. As a base, our beloved Shanti in Bloomington ranks as an 8.5.
Now for the results thus far:
Tamarind--2 Samosas (though to be fair, we haven't had any made-to-order food from there yet, just what they had available for take-out)
Karishma--8 Samosas (easily on par with the best restaurants we've been to in the States, but not quite on the level of what you find in Toronto, Houston, etc.)
Taj--6.5 Samosas (might have been an even 7 had the "daal makhni" actually been daal makhni)
There you have it! There are still several other places to try--maybe we'll make it to one before we come back for Christmas. . .or maybe we'll just go back to Karishma. . .
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Weekend Update
Hello everyone! S and I have not written a new post in a several days, and there is actually a lot to say, so here goes. . .
On Wednesday, I went to the Holocaust Institute, where I have an affiliation. The day didn't start out too well, as I had a difficult time finding it and ended up being thirty minutes late for my appointment. It is located on an extremely short street, tucked within a maze of similar small streets, and even when I asked some cabbies if they knew where it was they couldn't tell me. Eventually I did find it, and after apologizing profusely, I spoke with the director and two historians for about forty minutes about my research project, what I hoped to accomplish while in Romania, and the archives and libraries I intended to visit. They then provided me with a list of people to contact, and offered to provide me with letters of introduction to some of the instiutions mentioned during our conversation. Afterwards, they showed me to the reading room--the Institute has a pretty decent amount of material from the National Archives on microfilm, and their reader is capable of creating .pdfs from microfilm, which will save me money down the road . They're even providing me with a desk and computer!
While walking home I stopped in a tiny shopping mall on the more run-down end of Calea Victoriei and poked around for a bit, eventually finding what I wanted: a good umbrella and a toaster for S! I thought they'd make nice Thanksgiving gifts. That evening S made a declicious dinner--creamy rissotto with oven-roasted vegetables.
On Friday S did a bit of shopping and cleaning, while I worked. One of the staff from the Holocaust Institute walked me over to the Library of the Romanian Academy and helped me get my credentials established so I could work there, and I spent the rest of the day looking up periodicals and books to request. They have an excellent collection, including some obscure Roma publications from the 1930s that aren't available in the States. After coming back home, S and I finished the leftover rissotto and watched one of our favorite movies on the laptop, Bend It Like Beckham. A nice, cozy evening at home!
After running some basic errands on Saturday (paying off our cellphone bill, picking up dry cleaning, etc) we worked up an appetite, and inspired by the previous evening's movie selection, we decided only Indian would do! I will write a separate post about that, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the journey there. After taking the metro to Piata Unirii, we walked a total of three miles to the restaurant. On the way, just as the sky began to darken and as autumn mist clung to the air, we walked past the Palatul Parliamnetului (Palace of the Parliament), formerly known as the Palatul al Poporului (Palace of the People). As S would agree, there is nothing I could say to really impress upon you just how dauntingly enormous of a monument to Nicolae Ceausescu's arrogance it is. To put it in some perspective, it is the second-largest building in the world, after the Pentagon.
It sits in the center of the Centru Civic (Civic Center), which Ceausescu hoped would eclipse all other city centers in Europe. In 1977, Bucharest suffered a massive earthquake which damaged a great deal of the city, and Ceausescu decided to remake Bucharest into his idea of a socialist paradise. Huge communist apartment blocs were erected both on the city's outskirts and center, and Ceausescu levelled roughly one-fifth of the historic district to make room for the Palace and Civic Centru, destroying hundreds of beautiful homes, synagogues, and churches. His mad dream failed, however, and now Centru Civic is like a ghost town. Most of the large buildings are only partially occupied (some even remain unfinished), and as for the Palace itself, which houses both chambers of the Romanian Parliament, only about 10% is actually used on a day-to-day basis. The rest of the complex can be rented out (for an exorbitant sum). I took a tour once, and one day I'll go through again with S, as the interior is every bit as overwhelming as the exterior. The entire structure, inside and out, was created solely from Romanian materials, a source of some national pride, but on the whole Bucharesters hate the building with a passion. Walking past it in foggy twilight gloom evoked just the right feeling dreariness.
Past the Palace, we saw the Marriott Grand Hotel. I had always heard of this place, but never actually seen it. The hotel is enormous (though a dwarf compared to the Palace) and contains within it a high-end shopping mall called Grand Avenue (think Rolex and Louis Vuitton, etc). As we were on a mission for food we didn't go inside, but one day we'll have to check it out just for the experience. To encounter the Marriott after the Palace represented a stark contrast in grandiosity, to say the least, although ultimately in both we find the driving force of Ego.
The night ended nicely, Skyping with our friends Jake and Aerin (and little Edy!) and S's parents and ultimately zoning out.
Today we did quite a bit of grocery shopping, which left us both exhausted due to a combination of walking, negotiating crowds, dealing with rude people, and carrying a ton. In the Unirea department store we found some Christmas decorations, which we'll put up tomorrow, and this time visited the top floor--where we found a schnazzy food court and an arcade. Skeeball, billiards, video games of all sorts, and even bowling! -B
On Wednesday, I went to the Holocaust Institute, where I have an affiliation. The day didn't start out too well, as I had a difficult time finding it and ended up being thirty minutes late for my appointment. It is located on an extremely short street, tucked within a maze of similar small streets, and even when I asked some cabbies if they knew where it was they couldn't tell me. Eventually I did find it, and after apologizing profusely, I spoke with the director and two historians for about forty minutes about my research project, what I hoped to accomplish while in Romania, and the archives and libraries I intended to visit. They then provided me with a list of people to contact, and offered to provide me with letters of introduction to some of the instiutions mentioned during our conversation. Afterwards, they showed me to the reading room--the Institute has a pretty decent amount of material from the National Archives on microfilm, and their reader is capable of creating .pdfs from microfilm, which will save me money down the road . They're even providing me with a desk and computer!
While walking home I stopped in a tiny shopping mall on the more run-down end of Calea Victoriei and poked around for a bit, eventually finding what I wanted: a good umbrella and a toaster for S! I thought they'd make nice Thanksgiving gifts. That evening S made a declicious dinner--creamy rissotto with oven-roasted vegetables.
On Friday S did a bit of shopping and cleaning, while I worked. One of the staff from the Holocaust Institute walked me over to the Library of the Romanian Academy and helped me get my credentials established so I could work there, and I spent the rest of the day looking up periodicals and books to request. They have an excellent collection, including some obscure Roma publications from the 1930s that aren't available in the States. After coming back home, S and I finished the leftover rissotto and watched one of our favorite movies on the laptop, Bend It Like Beckham. A nice, cozy evening at home!
After running some basic errands on Saturday (paying off our cellphone bill, picking up dry cleaning, etc) we worked up an appetite, and inspired by the previous evening's movie selection, we decided only Indian would do! I will write a separate post about that, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the journey there. After taking the metro to Piata Unirii, we walked a total of three miles to the restaurant. On the way, just as the sky began to darken and as autumn mist clung to the air, we walked past the Palatul Parliamnetului (Palace of the Parliament), formerly known as the Palatul al Poporului (Palace of the People). As S would agree, there is nothing I could say to really impress upon you just how dauntingly enormous of a monument to Nicolae Ceausescu's arrogance it is. To put it in some perspective, it is the second-largest building in the world, after the Pentagon.
It sits in the center of the Centru Civic (Civic Center), which Ceausescu hoped would eclipse all other city centers in Europe. In 1977, Bucharest suffered a massive earthquake which damaged a great deal of the city, and Ceausescu decided to remake Bucharest into his idea of a socialist paradise. Huge communist apartment blocs were erected both on the city's outskirts and center, and Ceausescu levelled roughly one-fifth of the historic district to make room for the Palace and Civic Centru, destroying hundreds of beautiful homes, synagogues, and churches. His mad dream failed, however, and now Centru Civic is like a ghost town. Most of the large buildings are only partially occupied (some even remain unfinished), and as for the Palace itself, which houses both chambers of the Romanian Parliament, only about 10% is actually used on a day-to-day basis. The rest of the complex can be rented out (for an exorbitant sum). I took a tour once, and one day I'll go through again with S, as the interior is every bit as overwhelming as the exterior. The entire structure, inside and out, was created solely from Romanian materials, a source of some national pride, but on the whole Bucharesters hate the building with a passion. Walking past it in foggy twilight gloom evoked just the right feeling dreariness.
Past the Palace, we saw the Marriott Grand Hotel. I had always heard of this place, but never actually seen it. The hotel is enormous (though a dwarf compared to the Palace) and contains within it a high-end shopping mall called Grand Avenue (think Rolex and Louis Vuitton, etc). As we were on a mission for food we didn't go inside, but one day we'll have to check it out just for the experience. To encounter the Marriott after the Palace represented a stark contrast in grandiosity, to say the least, although ultimately in both we find the driving force of Ego.
The night ended nicely, Skyping with our friends Jake and Aerin (and little Edy!) and S's parents and ultimately zoning out.
Today we did quite a bit of grocery shopping, which left us both exhausted due to a combination of walking, negotiating crowds, dealing with rude people, and carrying a ton. In the Unirea department store we found some Christmas decorations, which we'll put up tomorrow, and this time visited the top floor--where we found a schnazzy food court and an arcade. Skeeball, billiards, video games of all sorts, and even bowling! -B
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello All,
Happy Thanksgiving to all! We miss you all and hope everyone is having a wonderful day with family and friends and is using this opportunity to relax and have a nice long weekend! B and I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, which started with a HUGE bowl of corn soup, at the Bucharest Hilton. We spent the morning watching CNN coverage of the attacks in Mumbai. It is such a sad and terrible situation. It makes you wonder what is wrong with people? And wonder when will all the terror stop? It is strange to watch all the coverage as all the places they are reporting about, are places I have been to several times before-spooky. We hope those who are trapped and held are safe and able to get out soon, those who are injured are able to recover well and send our condolences to the families of those who have died.
We are thankful to be safe and sound, have loving friends and family and are blessed with comfort and safety. We wish you all and your family well. -S
Happy Thanksgiving to all! We miss you all and hope everyone is having a wonderful day with family and friends and is using this opportunity to relax and have a nice long weekend! B and I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, which started with a HUGE bowl of corn soup, at the Bucharest Hilton. We spent the morning watching CNN coverage of the attacks in Mumbai. It is such a sad and terrible situation. It makes you wonder what is wrong with people? And wonder when will all the terror stop? It is strange to watch all the coverage as all the places they are reporting about, are places I have been to several times before-spooky. We hope those who are trapped and held are safe and able to get out soon, those who are injured are able to recover well and send our condolences to the families of those who have died.
We are thankful to be safe and sound, have loving friends and family and are blessed with comfort and safety. We wish you all and your family well. -S
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Starbucks-woo hoo!
Today started like any other day- we got up, had breakfast, got dressed and B went off to the archives. I was getting ready to head to the grocery store when my Romanian tutor showed up to have our lesson early. It was a nice lesson, but still somewhat scattered. He is only in high school, after all. At the end he told me how impressed he was with my ability to figure out how to spell things when I have only heard the word. Great! I can now spell back to the cabbie/cashier the words they have said ... glad I have the right skill set for this adventure ... sigh.
After the Romanian lesson, I did head to the store, which is about a 15 minute walk away. This store is a little pricier than Carrefour, but the selection, especially of stuff we want, is better and today I noticed a shelf with tortilla chips, tortillas, salsa and guac. I didn't get any today, but at least it's there. I managed to get all the things on the list, pay and get walking home on my own! Imagine my surprise when I was walking back on a street we have been on several times and I looked across the street and saw a sign for a Starbucks!! Yeah! Seeing the store made me so happy I nearly started jumping up and down on the street, but managed to contain myself. Now, don't get me wrong, I do really like being able to get good cappuccino in any cafe (and there are so many everywhere here), but the idea of being able to go into a Starbucks and order what I would at home and have it be similar (dare I dream- the same?) was overwhelmingly exciting. Given that I had an arm full of bags and we are to have dinner with our friend later, I refrained from going to Starbucks just now, but maybe tomorrow morning! Wow! Starbucks and just in time for peppermint mochas! Yeah!
Please excuse the the ode to Starbucks. Once I got home and got all the groceries unloaded I was sitting down to check email when our door bell rang and our landlady had come by to say that they were finally able to get their car back from the shop and were heading to a large (inexpensive) grocery store and would I like to come? What luck. Oh, well.
Soon, I will leave to meet B at the metro near the archives so we can meet up with our friend for dinner. It should be a nice evening and I am looking forward to it. Well, I will have another Romanian lesson tomorrow as I had to reschedule my normal Thursday lesson because of Thanksgiving. Have a good day and have a mocha for me!-S
After the Romanian lesson, I did head to the store, which is about a 15 minute walk away. This store is a little pricier than Carrefour, but the selection, especially of stuff we want, is better and today I noticed a shelf with tortilla chips, tortillas, salsa and guac. I didn't get any today, but at least it's there. I managed to get all the things on the list, pay and get walking home on my own! Imagine my surprise when I was walking back on a street we have been on several times and I looked across the street and saw a sign for a Starbucks!! Yeah! Seeing the store made me so happy I nearly started jumping up and down on the street, but managed to contain myself. Now, don't get me wrong, I do really like being able to get good cappuccino in any cafe (and there are so many everywhere here), but the idea of being able to go into a Starbucks and order what I would at home and have it be similar (dare I dream- the same?) was overwhelmingly exciting. Given that I had an arm full of bags and we are to have dinner with our friend later, I refrained from going to Starbucks just now, but maybe tomorrow morning! Wow! Starbucks and just in time for peppermint mochas! Yeah!
Please excuse the the ode to Starbucks. Once I got home and got all the groceries unloaded I was sitting down to check email when our door bell rang and our landlady had come by to say that they were finally able to get their car back from the shop and were heading to a large (inexpensive) grocery store and would I like to come? What luck. Oh, well.
Soon, I will leave to meet B at the metro near the archives so we can meet up with our friend for dinner. It should be a nice evening and I am looking forward to it. Well, I will have another Romanian lesson tomorrow as I had to reschedule my normal Thursday lesson because of Thanksgiving. Have a good day and have a mocha for me!-S
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thanksgiving Plans!
Today I tackled (what turned out to be) the monumental task of cleaning the bathroom. Though I am without my favorite bathroom cleaning tool, Bleach Wipes, I was able to clean most of the bathroom with Mr. Proper (Mr. Clean to those of you at home-it's even the same logo and everything) and Romanian version of Windex. However, the challenge came when it was time to mop. I had seen a mop and bucket in the hall outside our door, so thought - no big deal. Unfortunately, I underestimated the funckitude of the mop and bucket. Apparently whoever used it last decided not to clean it out and so it took not one, but TWO buckets of soapy water to get the mop clean enough just to use. Meanwhile, I realized I had to use the shower (newly cleaned) in which to empty the dirty water and that because we are in the basement and things tend to stay humid down here, it would take extra long to dry. So ... what I thought would be a quick clean before a shower, became a two hour process before the floor dried, I re-cleaned the shower and finally got to get clean myself ... sheesh! What a process.
After this, there was endless Internet searching and some continued rearranging of our stuff. As I mentioned before, our apartment tends to get pretty humid, so we have to open our windows for a few hours everyday in order to make the place bearable (Brr!). Unfortunately, this means we have a lot of debris in the house and now I am realizing that it seems we will need to sweep daily in order to get the leaves, etc out. Fun!
Although all of that is pretty dull, we did have a bit of good news: we have found a place to have Thanksgiving dinner! Before we arrived in Romania, B had been told by a couple of his colleagues who have been here on Fulbrights in the past that the Fulbright folks were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at either the Fulbright office or Embassy, so we assumed this would be true this year, as well. Unfortunately, in the previous years, the director of Fulbright here was an American woman, but she has subsequently stepped down and now the director is a Romanian. So, this year the Fulbright folks have arranged a "holiday get together" on Dec. 6, leaving Thanksgiving day gapingly without any plans. We were told, though, that sometimes the American owned hotels in town host a Thanksgiving dinner. After many calls and emails, we were able to secure a reservation at the Hilton for Thanksgiving dinner. We are pretty excited and cheered up. We were getting worried that we would not be able to make any plans and both down about it, so we are glad to have set plans now. A good end to an otherwise frustrating day!-S
After this, there was endless Internet searching and some continued rearranging of our stuff. As I mentioned before, our apartment tends to get pretty humid, so we have to open our windows for a few hours everyday in order to make the place bearable (Brr!). Unfortunately, this means we have a lot of debris in the house and now I am realizing that it seems we will need to sweep daily in order to get the leaves, etc out. Fun!
Although all of that is pretty dull, we did have a bit of good news: we have found a place to have Thanksgiving dinner! Before we arrived in Romania, B had been told by a couple of his colleagues who have been here on Fulbrights in the past that the Fulbright folks were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at either the Fulbright office or Embassy, so we assumed this would be true this year, as well. Unfortunately, in the previous years, the director of Fulbright here was an American woman, but she has subsequently stepped down and now the director is a Romanian. So, this year the Fulbright folks have arranged a "holiday get together" on Dec. 6, leaving Thanksgiving day gapingly without any plans. We were told, though, that sometimes the American owned hotels in town host a Thanksgiving dinner. After many calls and emails, we were able to secure a reservation at the Hilton for Thanksgiving dinner. We are pretty excited and cheered up. We were getting worried that we would not be able to make any plans and both down about it, so we are glad to have set plans now. A good end to an otherwise frustrating day!-S
Sunday, November 23, 2008
A Full Weekend, Part Two
So, as I was saying. . .
Life here can be hard. It frequently frustrates me, and I speak the language, like the culture, and have been here multiple times. It must be all the harder for S. Bucharest is very overwhelming: it is a sprawling city, difficult to navigate (see previous posts), and unfortunately people are not the most patient when it comes to dealing with foreigners. You have to develop thick skin and accept that things will be difficult at times to figure out. So yesterday I think we both felt a little drained.
Today proved to be much better. While at the Fulbright Commission last Wednesday, we were given tickets for a concert at the Atheneum, a beautiful concert hall built in 1886 and one of Bucharest's architectural crown jewels. We accidentally slept in a bit, so we rushed to get ready, leaving without breakfast. The concert was put on by the Society of Engineer's Orchestra, so they weren't professional musicians, but except for a couple gaffes it was an excellent concert (enhanced by the Atheneum's gorgeous interior, which I had never seen before). They played pieced by Sibelius, Beethoven, and Brahms (I don't have the program in front of me, so I can't say what the were). After the two-hour concert, we felt famished and tried a cafe a friend recommended. It was pretty nice, and serves breakfast (S had an omelet and toast) and sandwiches (I had a great chicken sandwich).
Refueled, we left for Carrefour to find non-food supplies. Mainly, we needed some organizational materials: tupperware, some bins to put electronic equipment in, thumbtacks, magnets, etc. Carrefour is right behind the Unirii (United) department store, which I had never been in, so we decided to explore it a little. We were impressed. The ground floor was mostly filled with perfume and jewelry stores, as well as The Body Shop. The second floor mainly held fashion boutiques, more of which are located on the third floor, as well as an electronics shop and a store called Diverta which sells both office supplies and books. We didn't even visit the basement or fourth floors, as I started getting a bit overheated (they had the thermostat set to eleven!), so we got a drink at a cafe, and then popped into Carrefour. We managed to get almost everything we wanted. More importantly, we had a very good, fun day.
Life here can be hard. It frequently frustrates me, and I speak the language, like the culture, and have been here multiple times. It must be all the harder for S. Bucharest is very overwhelming: it is a sprawling city, difficult to navigate (see previous posts), and unfortunately people are not the most patient when it comes to dealing with foreigners. You have to develop thick skin and accept that things will be difficult at times to figure out. So yesterday I think we both felt a little drained.
Today proved to be much better. While at the Fulbright Commission last Wednesday, we were given tickets for a concert at the Atheneum, a beautiful concert hall built in 1886 and one of Bucharest's architectural crown jewels. We accidentally slept in a bit, so we rushed to get ready, leaving without breakfast. The concert was put on by the Society of Engineer's Orchestra, so they weren't professional musicians, but except for a couple gaffes it was an excellent concert (enhanced by the Atheneum's gorgeous interior, which I had never seen before). They played pieced by Sibelius, Beethoven, and Brahms (I don't have the program in front of me, so I can't say what the were). After the two-hour concert, we felt famished and tried a cafe a friend recommended. It was pretty nice, and serves breakfast (S had an omelet and toast) and sandwiches (I had a great chicken sandwich).
Refueled, we left for Carrefour to find non-food supplies. Mainly, we needed some organizational materials: tupperware, some bins to put electronic equipment in, thumbtacks, magnets, etc. Carrefour is right behind the Unirii (United) department store, which I had never been in, so we decided to explore it a little. We were impressed. The ground floor was mostly filled with perfume and jewelry stores, as well as The Body Shop. The second floor mainly held fashion boutiques, more of which are located on the third floor, as well as an electronics shop and a store called Diverta which sells both office supplies and books. We didn't even visit the basement or fourth floors, as I started getting a bit overheated (they had the thermostat set to eleven!), so we got a drink at a cafe, and then popped into Carrefour. We managed to get almost everything we wanted. More importantly, we had a very good, fun day.
A Full Weekend, Part One
B here. Yesterday and today present striking contrasts. Yesterday, we didn't get to doing too much as it rained all day. S had seen a poster advertising an Indian Handcrafts exhibition being held at Muzeul National al Satului, i.e. the National Museum of the Romanian Village. This museum was created by Romania's first great sociologist, Dmitrie Gusti, who identified huts, churches and other buildings representative of folk traditions from each of Romania's regions, and brought them to Bucharest. Most of these structures are over two hundred years old, and form an open-air museum in one corner of Herastrau Park, a beautiful sprawling park in the north of the city. The museum isn't that far from us, so we decided to walk over there and check out the exhibit. Daring cold rain and deep puddles, we walked down Soseaua Kiseleff (named after a Russian general who served as governor of the Romanian principalities for a time in the early 19th century, who actually did a lot to develop the area), past embassies, a couple grand old hotels well past their prime, Romania's own Arc de Triumph (built to honor the nation's World War I casualties and celebrate the unification of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania), and one of the entrances to Herastrau before reaching the museum. Since it was raining, we decided to skip the open-air portion and stick to the Indian exhibit.
The exhibit was fun, but not quite what we were expecting. There were artisans there representing various traditional art forms from several regions of India: woodworking, painting, printmaking, miniature sculpting, etc. Each artisan had crafts for sale, and we ended up buying a small painting which we will hang on one of the walls of the apartment. The crowd was a little small, with some Romanians but mostly Indians. The poster S saw stated that vendors would provide food, but none was to be had, at least not for us: apparently refreshments were only available for the opening day. Before leaving we stopped in the museum's gift shop and looked around, picking up a small bit of pottery to use as a toothbrush holder (functional art!) and getting some Christmas ideas.
We then headed to La Belle Epoque, a Belgian restaurant and bar a few minutes walk from home, for a late lunch (since our stomachs were sadly not full of yummy Indian food). Aside from reaaking of smoke, it turned out to be a nice establishment: well-appointed with nice wooden tables and chairs, and the food was pretty decent (as was the Belgian ale I quaffed). I had "frigarui de vita" aka beef skewers, and S chowed down on a croque madame sans ham (or a glorified grilled cheese-with egg). Tummies full, we did some minor grocery-shopping at the non-stop, bought an onion at the produce market next door (which turned out to have the best display of fruits and vegetables we've seen so far) and headed home.
All the above seems like a lot, but actually, it didn't take up that much time. While at home, S got pretty sad--a lot of frustrations buidling up over the week, plus homesickness. I think it just really hit home that, even with our upcoming Christmas reprieve, we're here for the long haul. So we just spent a lot of time talking about it, and I think Skyping with S's parents helped too.
Speaking of Skype, I just realized it is time to call my parents, so I'll have to make this a two-parter. More to come in an hour!
The exhibit was fun, but not quite what we were expecting. There were artisans there representing various traditional art forms from several regions of India: woodworking, painting, printmaking, miniature sculpting, etc. Each artisan had crafts for sale, and we ended up buying a small painting which we will hang on one of the walls of the apartment. The crowd was a little small, with some Romanians but mostly Indians. The poster S saw stated that vendors would provide food, but none was to be had, at least not for us: apparently refreshments were only available for the opening day. Before leaving we stopped in the museum's gift shop and looked around, picking up a small bit of pottery to use as a toothbrush holder (functional art!) and getting some Christmas ideas.
We then headed to La Belle Epoque, a Belgian restaurant and bar a few minutes walk from home, for a late lunch (since our stomachs were sadly not full of yummy Indian food). Aside from reaaking of smoke, it turned out to be a nice establishment: well-appointed with nice wooden tables and chairs, and the food was pretty decent (as was the Belgian ale I quaffed). I had "frigarui de vita" aka beef skewers, and S chowed down on a croque madame sans ham (or a glorified grilled cheese-with egg). Tummies full, we did some minor grocery-shopping at the non-stop, bought an onion at the produce market next door (which turned out to have the best display of fruits and vegetables we've seen so far) and headed home.
All the above seems like a lot, but actually, it didn't take up that much time. While at home, S got pretty sad--a lot of frustrations buidling up over the week, plus homesickness. I think it just really hit home that, even with our upcoming Christmas reprieve, we're here for the long haul. So we just spent a lot of time talking about it, and I think Skyping with S's parents helped too.
Speaking of Skype, I just realized it is time to call my parents, so I'll have to make this a two-parter. More to come in an hour!
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