For the first time in 2016, we woke up in the United States! Hard to believe that we have been out of the country since 2015. Sure it was the very end of 2015, but still. Such a long time away.
We would have slept in this morning but, given the time lag from Europe, we were all awake pretty early anyway, even without an alarm. We got a great night of sleep, though, and are well prepared to get back on the road this morning. I was up first at six thirty and Dominica not all that long after me. We didn’t wake the girls up until we had to so that they could go down to get breakfast and in no time we were off on the road again.
We got out to Frankfort to Dominica’s parents’ house. Truman the Boston Terrier was very excited to get to see us. He has missed us.
Trumans Loves Me
We hung out for most of the day with Dominica’s parents. In the evening I packed up the car and drove on to my dad’s house which is about three hours further to the west. Tomorrow dad and I are celebrating Father’s Day together and also returning the rental van to Enterprise in Geneseo. Originally it was going to get returned somewhere else, but Geneseo said that they would take it for us without any charge, which is awesome. We love Enterprise.
It was very late when I got out to dad’s place. We spent a little time catching up, but not too much. I’m exhausted, all of the travel is catching up with me and we need to do things in the morning so more or less it was straight off to bed for both of us.
I’m sleeping on the futon in the basement. My first time alone in a quiet space in a very long time. I slept great. The futon is super comfortable and the basement is very cool which helps me to sleep a lot.
It’s mad, crazy, wild travel day here in Romania for the Miller Family! Finally the time has come to begin the real trip from Romania, through Turkey and on to the United States. We had to be up very early and before we could go to the airport we had to figure out how to return the rental car that we have had for three months.
Returning the car turned into rather a fiasco. We had the wrong address as to where to return it and it turned out that we had not communicated to them correctly that we were going to be returning it when we did so after much driving around and maybe an hour of trying to get to the right spot finally getting there – there was no one there to turn it over to.
That made for a stressful start to the day, but Bucharest airport is easy to deal with and we were to our plane in no time and our morning was underway. First leg of our journey is the very short hop from Bucharest to Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport where we got snowed in six months ago during the blizzard.
That flight was quick and easy and it was still morning when we got to Ataturk. We know our way around there a bit already and it is a nice airport to deal with, even if it is huge and crazy.
We had some time to kill as part of our layover so we took some time to use the restroom and collect ourselves, during which the girls spent some time running around in one of the empty gates. Liesl even managed to make some friends and play with them for a while.
Liesl at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul
Once we found our gate was sat outside of security for probably an hour. Everyone relaxed while I went hunting for food items. I got a selection of things and brought them back for everyone.
The girls and I made friends with a girl who was of a Surinam background but grew up and lives in the Netherlands. We got to chatting for a while.
Once it was time for our flight we faced the security for the US bound flight. Several layers of additional security at what is already one of the most secure airports in the world. The degree of security is just off of the charts compared to American airports. Unlike the US which has one security checkpoint midway through the airport, Ataturk as security to enter the airport, then the mid-airport checkpoint, then the International terminal security then gate security. It is extreme, but effective.
We boarded our flight and are bound for New York City. This flight is so long. But really, even though it is incredibly long, I feel like I am getting used to these long flights and I really do not mind them at all. The girls did really well flying next to me, they napped or watched their own shows. I watched a series of movies as Turkish Air provides unlimited in flight movies and great food. It really was a comfortable, enjoyable flight. I didn’t get any sleep but I caught up on my movie watching for the season. I actually get so many first run movies while doing these flights that I wonder if you factored in the cost of popcorn and stuff at a normal movie theater how much the flight really costs!
Everything went quite well. We landed in New York at JFK in the evening and did well getting our luggage and getting out of the airport. We know our way around JFK well, the weather was good and the AirTrain is working again unlike our last time arriving at JFK which was a total mess. And we know exactly where our car rental place is now.
We got to Enterprise and got underway getting our rental car. We had some credit card issues as we often do when switching countries. Had to spend nearly an hour on the phone getting things working. But everything got sorted and in not too long we were in our car. At first I got us a Fiat 500 SUV, but we found that we could not fit into it so they switched us out for a minivan. Enterprise Rent-a-Car at JFK is always so good to us. They make everything so easy which we really need when we are getting back from Europe.
It was not yet dark and we were underway in our minivan to start driving up to Frankfort, New York. A long drive after a long day of flying.
We got north of the city and swung into the Dunkin Donuts on the circle just north of our house in Peekskill and grabbed coffees for the road (and some tuna melts as those are available again after two years being off the market!)
The drive north went fine but we were all very tired and realizing that the drive to Frankfort was going to be too far for us and that we were going to be seriously exhausted by the time that we would arrive and it would be the middle of the night.
So at the last minute we booked a room at the Hampton Inn just off of the Thruway just west of Albany and checked in there for a nice night of sleep. We were all very excited to get into the Hampton with modern showers, great beds and good air conditioning. So we were very happy with the decision to stop. And we get our Hilton Honors points, too, which we need to earn quickly as we are only in the US for such a tiny amount this year. So we are more willing to use the hotel given the need to do that.
It was probably two or three in the morning when we got into bed. What a long day. Up very early, dropping off the car, one short flight, one really long flight and many hours of driving plus many hours of airport logistics today. But here we are, back in the US after our longest ever time away. Six whole months in Europe, what an adventure it has been. And we have no idea to where we will be off to next!
We slept in a little this morning. We had originally planned to be driving all morning. So this is very nice already being in Bucharest. Today is just our buffer time and time to run errands so, unless there is some disaster, we mostly just get to relax. Tomorrow is Istanbul, but today there is no travel at all. This is our last full day in Romania, though, and that makes us sad. We love it here. Our visas are nearly exhausted, though. Time to get back to the States and let our visas and passports rest for a while. What a spring it has been!
Our main job for the day is finding a car wash and getting the car detailed. That was part of the deal with our three month rental at such an amazing price. We got a great deal, but the car had to be detailed when we returned it. A huge pain, but boy was it cheap and the car was really great. So no real complaints there, even though putting up with this today is awful.
We tried following some Google Map directions to find a detailing place and got led on a wild goose chase into a residential area. I really am sick of Google Maps, it is worse than useless most of the time. We tried to take the main highway and look for a place to eat, too, and that did not go well. We eventually wasted too much time looking for a place to eat that Dominica wanted and I put my foot down and drove us back to the McDonald’s right across from the hotel. It was the only obvious restaurant that we knew where it was and it was extremely close and easy and would let us not be starving while we worked on finding a car wash place. Or maybe we could even ask someone.
We pulled in to the McDonald’s and the parking lot was quite busy. While driving around looking for a spot we noticed that the back side of the restaurant parking lot was shared with…. a car wash! Bingo.
So we got lunch and sat outside and let the girls play in the jungle gym thing that they have for a long time while we ate. McDonald’s food in Romania is much better than in the US. I got a smoked salmon salad, for example. And the girls each got their very first Happy Meal!
Luciana got trapped in the gym thing and Liesl had to go save her. This seems to happen a lot with this enclosed jungle gym things.
We had a really nice, long relaxing time at McDonald’s knowing that our one major errand of the day was all figured out and solved. We had nothing to worry about now.
After our meal, we went back and had to wait maybe twenty minutes before they could wash the car. They did a great job and it was so cheap. Like eight dollars for a complete detailing! We are so glad that we found that place. Everyone was really nice and helpful, too.
We went back to the hotel and just hung out all afternoon. We ordered in pizza for dinner and got to bed very early. We need our sleep, tomorrow is going to be a very, very long day. The girls loved the hotel. Having a room to themselves was a special treat.
Tomorrow we have to get up and return the car and catch our flight very early in the morning. And we will be in New York by late tomorrow night. Hard to believe.
This morning, after the rain had stopped, while Dominica was doing the absolute final touches on the house and all of the stuff was in the car and ready to go, I took a walk around the mountain to the south of the village and up to the forest and took some pictures and videos while up there. It was a bit of a walk but we have not had a sunny day in Baita in almost two months and I wanted to have some footage to share with everyone and this was the only chance that we had to get it. It’s been raining non-stop this week, as well. I love the rain, but it makes filming anything very, very hard.
Once I was done, it was time to say our final goodbyes. I walked over and said goodbye to Iakob, our priest who lives across the street, our hosts came and got the keys to the house, and we were loaded up into the car.
Down the driveway, past the church and the school, down the long road out of Baita and out to the highway. Our time in Baita is done. Goodbye little town where we lived for the season. We hope to see you again in nine months.
The drive south to Brasov went quite well. In fact, it wasn’t “that” late when we drove through Brasov and I was feeling pretty good about the drive so we decided to just pass right on through and continue on towards Bucharest. Why stop short just to have to get up early, very early, and drive it tomorrow since we know that we have to deal with finding a car wash once we get there and if we arrive too late in the day that we will have a problem finding one that is open. So instead we just pushed on.
It was pretty late, like three or four in the morning, when we got into Bucharest. Finding out hotel was not too bad. Parking was a bit of a problem but we got into our suite – which was actually two nice adjoining rooms and we were very happy. The girls loved that they got their very own hotel room. This is their first time getting a whole hotel room to themselves. So we were able to close to adjoining door and have some quiet time and they could play and not bother us. The hotel was quite nice in general and we were very happy.
It was actually so late (or early) that breakfast was already set up! So we had a quick breakfast before going to bed. So we kind of got an extra free meal out of the deal. Awesome.
We are very happy with the hotel and will be staying here tomorrow night as well. Tomorrow night was the only scheduled night for us. Tomorrow we will be in Bucharest all day running errands and getting ready for our early flight out of Romania. So the sixteenth is a Romanian logistics day. The seventeenth we fly from Bucharest to Istanbul, then a short layover and Istanbul to New York City where we are immediately renting a car and driving to Utica. That is going to be one long day.
But for tonight, it is time to sleep and tomorrow we have much less that we have to do that for which we were originally scheduled. We are super glad now that we pushed on to Bucharest. As tired as we are, we get to rest so much better and do not have to drive tomorrow and our only really critical thing is finding a car wash.
Today is the last day for the packing. We head out tomorrow. So much to do. Writing, posting, packing, cleaning. The girls want to play with their friends and see the dogs before we leave. So busy, and so tired. We have loved our time in the village of Baita and are really looking forward to coming back here again. We hope that we can be here, maybe even in the same house again, in the spring of 2017. This has been such a good experience for the whole family. The girls have been just so happy here.
After today Dominica is very exhausted. Packing falls almost entirely to her, this is her biggest work load at any given time in our travel cycles. I am terrible with both packing and planning, so she really gets a work out on these prep days.
Our plan is to leave tomorrow and drive to Brasov in the Carpathian Mountains, spent the night tomorrow night and then drive on to Bucharest first thing on the following day so that we have a good amount of the afternoon to deal with all of our logistics in Bucharest and be all set for our flight the next day. It’s our major international travel day, so leaving nothing to chance that we don’t have to. Leaving lots of time built into the plans for things to go wrong.
At this point, I’ve already been off of SGL for about a week and falling behind very quickly. We’ve been busy with travel all over, then seeing village friends all weekend, then catching up and staying caught up on writing, getting the house packed and everything. Just no spare time at all. SGL is suffering a lot, I’m afraid. There is very little that can be done about that. I hope to be catching up soon, but it is going to be a monumental effort.
