Romania '26
Travel Interlude
It turned out to be fortunate that I had remained in Europe after Stephanie. I had plans as to what I would see, but Andrew had some problems and ended up needing me to come to Romania. His mission internship fell through for reasons of personal difference, and he developed some kind of problem with his liver function. His friends had noticed his eyes and skin turning yellow. He had first tried to visit the public doctors, who didn’t seem to take his situation seriously and didn’t speak English well enough to help him figure out what the problem was. They did run some tests, however.
A group of Harding University students and their leaders happened to be in town trying to help the mission family in Bucharest as well. One of their chaperons offered to go with Andrew to a private doctor. He had one consultation with the private clinic, and had an appointment scheduled for Monday evening, August 3rd with the liver specialist. Stephanie and Andrew both thought it best for me to join in on this visit if I could make it. I redeemed some of the orphaned Air Canada Aeroplan points we had left over from the canceled family trips to Egypt for a two leg flight from Sarajevo to Bucharest via Istanbul. This worked smoothly, and I was in Romania’s capital in time to escort Andrew to the doctor.
By this time, Andrew’s relationship with his host family had completely deteriorated. He had evacuated all of his things from their home and spent the previous night with the Harding students. I grabbed a bus into town from the airport and met up with him at a town square near an apartment I had reserved for a couple of days.
Our apartment was in old town Bucharest. The shops and restaurants just outside were chic tourist joints. The entry to our apartment, on the other hand, looked like a crime scene. The inside was super clean, though. The bathroom and facilities were a bit on the small side, but it was on the whole a very comfortable, nice place to sleep for a couple of nights.
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Andrew’s doctor didn’t seem to think anything major was wrong, but still wanted to determine the cause of his jaundice. She ordered a couple more tests, but assured him that she had ruled out anything really dangerous. She told us we could come back in anytime without an appointment and she would interpret the test results for him. The lab was closed by the time we left this appointment, so we had to return in the morning for Andrew’s blood draw. We consulted the doctor one more time, and learned that one of the test results wouldn’t be back for five days. The doctor said it would be fine to proceed with any travel plans, since all real danger had been ruled out. Because Andrew had already paid for all of the tests and the consultation, he could just do a video consult once he had his results.
With this news, and with the burden of his difficult relationship with his host family lifted, Andrew felt relieved and happy to relax for a couple of days and then proceed with me traveling while he figured out what to do with all of his newfound extra time.
The Harding group planned to leave on Wednesday morning. Knowing this, I had reserved the room through Wednesday, figuring he would want to spend the remaining time he had in Romania with these new friends of his. He had also befriended a Ukrainian family living in Bucharest because of Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine.
We spent the remainder of Tuesday wandering around old town with some of Andrew’s friends, one of whom had decided she wanted to film a movie in the remaining time she had in Bucharest – a movie for which there was no script, no story boards, no anything except a vision in her mind. Needless to say, the time wasn’t used all that well. I walked the streets with them for a few hours, as we got lunch and saw a few sights. Eventually I headed back to visit with the Harding chaperons in their apartment for a couple of hours before dinner. The Harding group had been invited to dinner with Andrew’s former host family. We were not invited to this gathering, and so went on our own for our evening meal. We bade our farewells to the Harding group.
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Andrew really wanted to spend a day with his Ukrainian friends before we left. I was unable to extend our apartment rental another day for the same rate, so I found us a hostel not far from our previous digs for just one night. We spent a pleasant day driving the Carpathian Mountains with Andrew’s Ukrainian friends. We stopped in a quaint village in the foothills. We had a pleasant lunch at a place in the pines. We stopped at a reservoir created by a very high dam, reminiscent in some ways of Hoover Dam South of Las Vegas. The drive culminated with a visit to Balea Lake, some 6,700 feet up in the highest part of the Southern Carpathian Mountains.
We saw a lot of very nice scenery, and I was able to visit a bit with Andrew’s Ukrainian friends, though of the family of four, only the teenage son Vova was fluent in English. His father could also speak reasonably well. I could tell that speaking English was a bit of a mental workout for all but Vova. I appreciated very much their willingness to spend the day showing us some of the natural highlights of their adopted home in Romania.
One thing that surprised me about our drive through the mountains was the proliferation of bears. We saw at least ten different bears on our drive to and from the lake in the higher country. These were small black bears, not too frightened by tourists. Several cars lined the road each time we saw a bear to encourage them closer with food. One mamma bear had a couple of cubs. One car of tourists with a much different risk tolerance than mine decided to lure one of the adult bears on top of their car by feeding it, then coaxing it up with the food sack. The bear actually climbed on top of their car. Fortunately, no one was injured in this less than prudent interchange.
It was very late by the time we got back into Bucharest. Andrew and I prepared our things for a midday flight to Belgrade where we would continue the tourism adventures I had left off prior to leaving Sarajevo for Bucharest.
