*(Just a reminder that it was now Friday, late afternoon.)

Old Town seemed to be the best bet for food so we stayed there and started scoping out menus. I know this is wildly annoying and invasive for some travelers, but I loved that there were girls stationed outside of every restaurant, trying to entice people to choose their spot. They almost always started with, “Hello, you can sit here, have a coffee…” I don’t know, I appreciated their verve.

We ended up choosing a very trendy, Instagrammable place called Old Habits. I really liked the girl who lured us in (don’t tell her, but we had already looked at the menu and decided to eat there) because she had this really cool, IDGAF attitude. She kept going back over to her little customer-fishing podium, looking at her phone, smoking a cigarette, and drinking (I’m pretty sure) beer. I love Romania, you guys. I love it.

Honestly, all the spots in Old Town looked so cozy and cute. But it was the mismatched pillows, hot air balloon decor, and neon that swayed me. I still didn’t have much of an appetite but Henry kept asking, with the strained hope-tinged tone of a boy asking if dad was ever going to come back, “Are you going to want to eat at some point today? Maybe? Yes? No? Dot dot dot question mark?”

Oh, this area was a whole-ass vibe. Especially when some old lady randomly brought over tropical birds for people to hold? While they were eating? And I’m sure for a fee, as well? That felt kind of questionable, but you know, Romania.

Wow. OK. Henry actually posted this on Instagram. Romania changed him.

The one thing that I remember vividly about this moment is that there was a halloumi burger on the menu and it sounded like something I would have beasted on a normal day, but I was terrified of ordering it. So I got some kind of plain tomato penne.

I only ate about 1/4 of it because almost immediately after our (super sweet, btw) server set it in front of me, my stomach was like, “Yo, we’re still not alright in here, remember??” as my body was internally doing the Lord’s work trying to protect me from whatever virus was ping-ponging around my intestinal tract.

Actually, even just looking at this….yeah, I feel super burpy, lol.

Henry ended up eating all of his food (he got mici and I would love to thank him for that, loved sitting across from those meat sticks) and mine. The server was so upset when she came out and saw how much I had left. “Oh, no! You didn’t like it?” she asked, all concerned type shit. I told her that no, I did like it (I really did) it was just too much. She admitted that she asked the chef to give me extra since I don’t eat meat. Seriously! What a sweet person. If you’re in Bucharest, go to Old Habits. They are nice there and while I can’t speak very much on the food since I was in a state, Henry says his mici was delicious.

Then we walked back to the room to drop off the honey and wine (for Sue!) we bought at the farmers market thing. I was so sick from eating lunch when I clearly wasn’t ready to resume eating anything more substantial than crackers. I passed out in bed for about 45 minutes and then felt renewed enough to walk to the Parliament building.

(When I say I am the most stubborn sick person, you guys, I mean it. Nothing gives me FOMO more than being sick. I will forever be the one kid mouse in Secret of Nimh – TIMOTHY!!! – who is sick and watching his siblings play outside with the most forlorn expression.)

Bro. This building. It’s actually so much more impressive IRL.

Some facts from the Visit Bucharest website:

• the largest administrative building (for civil use), as confirmed by the Guinness World Records Book
• the 3rd place worldwide by its volume
• the heaviest and the most expensive building in the world

Apparently, the dictator at the time – Ceaușescu – got the inspiration for this building after a trip to North Korea.

These birds were so effing cool – like a cross between a pigeon and a crow.

I was in poor condition, guys. Just looking at these pictures, I can remember how weak I felt at the time while still wanting to see everything and take it all in. Bucharest!

Honestly though – this building was stunning to look at it. You can also take tours inside but that was not something I felt up to doing. I needed to be outside in the fresh air.

The Vlad Tepes Fountain!

I started to feel SICK and needed to sit down. We found a nearby bench and it happened to be right near a cafe so I thought, you know, maybe I needed caffeine since I hadn’t had any coffee at all that day. The cafe was called The Coffee Shop Constitutiei and interestingly also serves whiskey.

Henry got me a matcha latte and it only made me feel worse. Sigh.

I don’t know what he got – flat white, maybe? – but I liked the frog!

We made our way back to the room after this and stopped at Mega Image to get laundry detergent and snacks to bring home for Chooch, then went back to the room where I violently puked up my pasta and then felt great! And thank god because we had a really nice time exploring the area at night, and this included me buying some things at a gift shop manned by a very apathetic man. I bought magnets and a cute little handmade box to keep Romanian coins in, but there was a whole section of RELIGIOUS things that I was salivating over and Henry’s response was to FROWN.

We had to walk by this building every time we went to the Old Town section. I was obsessed with it.

Another Cure poster sighting!!!

This is the CEC Palace looking handsome AF at night. (I think this is actually a bank now??)

Zlătari Church. I bought a really pretty green bracelet here, in case you were wondering. If a church has a gift shop, bet on me spending money.

University Square.

We saw some lady holding a bouquet of flowers completely wipe out on the sidewalk – I don’t know if she was drunk or if she tripped, but she went all the way down and I had a moment of paralyzed panic where I felt like I should help but couldn’t get myself to kick into hear. Luckily, two other people helped her up so I said, in my signature socially awkward robotic monotone, “Oh no” and we continued on our way.

We passed this brewery called Ground Zero and I was feeling OK still so told Henry to go ahead and get a beer. I didn’t feel THAT GOOD though so I decided to stick with something non-alcoholic and just got a Fritz. Henry wanted to get a flight but some dumb guy in front of us ordered like 8 flights for his group so they didn’t have any of the glasses left. The bartender was super nice and apologetic about it but it wasn’t his fault!

Henry got the Amber Guerre, a red ale. I checked it in on Untappd and apparently liked my tiny sip enough to give it a 4.

Russian Church. We started to go in but there was mass going on and I panicked so we left lol. I am easily susceptible to recruition.

We walked past this place and I was OBSESSED with that back wall so I had to take a picture. It’s called Drunken Lords and is also a music venue. Sadly, my FRITZ COLA was making me about to vomit again so we had to make it an early night and start walking back to our room at 9PM, so lame. And on the way back, Henry kept pointing out street food places and beer and I was like, “CAN YOU NOT.”

I’m glad I was able to get out and do SOME things but I can promise you that there were so many other things I had wanted to do and just couldn’t. What can you do, though? At the end of the day, I was still there, in actual Bucharest (!!!), and that is what matters the most to me.

Here’s the daily video compilation!

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