Alex's Adventures in Romania: Days 14, 15 & 16

Friday was the last day at the clinic for the two Jeans, Genie, and Robin. I spent a lot of time in the isolation rooms again. I wasn't allowed to take Raul out of his crib in the afternoon, so I had to feed him while he was lying down. He didn't seem to mind, though, as long as somebody was near.

I think Roxana will be released from isolation soon, but it still will be a while for Paula and Cristi. And, of course, Andreea was only brought into that room a couple days ago.

I also spent some time in the nonmobile room, mostly with Ionut and Maria. I gave Maria a little massage, which she seemed to enjoy, but when I tried with Ionut, he wasn't having any of it. Apparently he had worked hard with Jean! So I cuddled him a bit. Remember a couple days ago when I said that I was surprised he doesn't bite? Well, I had to eat my words on Friday because when I held him against my shoulder, he sunk his teeth right through my shirt and into my shoulder. He just latched on and didn't want to let go! He broke the skin, but only a little.

The ladies said their goodbyes, and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner in Barlad. We went back to Trattoria Da Vinci and ordered off the menu! I got a 4-cheese penne that wasn't fantastic, and dessert was cheesecake.

When I woke up Saturday morning, it was like Christmas outside my door again! I inherited water, a blanket, a pouch of tuna, an umbrella, a box of tea, saltine crackers, pepto-bismol, and a book. I'm going to miss the ladies who left (particularly as I room-hop this week), but I will especially miss Robin. I was able to spend a lot of time with her in the isolation room, and she is a fantastic woman with a wonderful outlook on just about everything. I'll miss talking to her in isolation, and I'll miss hearing the on-the-spot conversations she makes up with the kids. (But wait!...lol)

Judy and I got a taxi to Barlad, and the driver was very nice. He pulled out his copy of the train schedule and tried to be helpful by telling us that there wasn't a train to Iasi until the afternoon, but as it turns out, his schedule must have been outdated. We had expected a train at 8:30, but while that was wrong, we only had to wait until 9:30.

We arrived in Iasi around lunchtime and took a taxi to the Metropolitan Cathedral area, which seems to be right in the center of things. As we walked down the street, we saw that it was blocked off for something involving motorcycles.

Honestly, there isn't much to do in Iasi, and we only ended up staying a few hours. Some highlights of the trip:

*While walking down a street, we saw a modeling/photography gig going on, with a young man and woman posing near a bridal shop.

*When we went to the modern Cathedral, there was a wedding party outside! The bride's dress (or what I saw of it) was lovely--white with a mauve-ish bow on the back. It began to rain, though, so they moved inside fairly quickly.

*We went back to the train station earlier than we intended, but when we got to the ticket counter, we were told that the next train to Barlad would leave in about 4 minutes. We got the tickets and started running, and if we didn't have the whole fence/gate thing to go around to reach the train, we would have made it! As it was, I was able to climb onto the train as it started moving. Unfortunately, Judy could not, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I found myself jumping from a moving train. I nearly fell over the barrier, but that's a better alternative to falling backwards and getting my head taken off. The moral of the story? No matter how slow a train is going, jumping off is a bad idea.

*We ended up getting a refund and getting tickets for the next train, which wouldn't leave for almost another two hours. So after several games of cards and a trip to McDonald's for ice cream (KitKat & caramel McFlurry!), we were on our way. A young man joined us in our compartment, and he didn't let on that he understood anything we were saying until I said something that made him laugh. I'm very glad he was in there with us, though, because there was a creepy man who kept wandering up and down the car, and the younger man yelled at him to leave us alone and slammed the compartment door so he wouldn't come in. Our savior. :-)

I decided to take Sunday as a lazy day. I did some reading, watched some more True Blood, and handwashed a bit of laundry. The agenda for the rest of the night includes writing in the team journal and drinking 1.5 litres of water.

P.S. I asked Mihaela on Friday about baby Nicoletta, who has been in the hospital for a little over two weeks because of pneumonia. Unfortunately, there is no news on her yet.

Andreea in the butterfly dress I brought. It's backwards, but still cute!