Laundry day in Bucharest

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We had today designated to do laundry. We Googled it when planning and thought there were some easily accessible laundromats. When we asked our guide for advice yesterday he made a phone call to confirm that there are none except in university housing. Clay Googled one an 11 minute walk from the Europa Royale and Alin called them for us. He confirmed that they were open and they charged a base price of 18 lei to wash 8 kg and 15 to dry. It was not self-service other than you were responsible for separating your loads. They dried and folded and charged for laundry supplies. We took over a duffel bag with 2 loads and got them back about 3.5 hours later fresh and neatly folded for 82 lei. That equals about $19. It would have cost us more than that to have a single outfit laundered at the hotel, so time well spent. Plus it made a more restful day.

The temperature soared over 90F today and the sun was brutal. It also seemed more humid. It was tolerable in the shade with a near constant breeze though. We walked the Google Maps route over to Fourwood Laundry. It was inconvenient. We had hours to kill and needed to stay out of the hotel room so it could be serviced. Following Alin's suggestion, we walked to the Patriarchal Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena to see the relic (corpse) of St. Dimitar whose tomb and monastery we'd visited yesterday. The cathedral also has relics (small parts) of Constantine & Helena as a bonus. I visited the relics and Clay didn't. You could not see the parts. St. Dimitar had a waxy hand available to be seen, touched and kissed. I just looked. It was a good suggestion.

We walked back towards the shady park opposite Fourwood Laundry. When we go to the inconvenient part of the walk, I suggested an alternate route in the shade along a parking lane and across some lanes of traffic to the Piata Unirii. I could see some large umbrellas for outdoor seating at the other end of the block. It wouldn't be the shortest walk to Fourwood, but it would be closer to the park where we planned to end our wait. We stopped at Czech In for drinks and killed an easy hour there watching people and the amazing fountains (that we understand on weekend nights dance to light and music). Clay had a beer and I had a caffe frappe which had a scoop of chocolate ice cream! It was 27 lei for an hour's enjoyment plus we used the toilets. (About $6.25.) I noticed the Metro entrance at the corner as we went around the end of the block to our park instead of backtracking to Fourwood. We bought a cold bottle of water at a minimarket nearby and waited. At 1:30 pm, our still warm clothes were turned over to us neatly packed in the nylon bags we'd provided. We headed back towards the Metro, Clay planned to cross the large square and walk along beside Uinrea shopping mall. I pointed out that it was all in traffic and sun and we should try to walk underground because surely the Metro connected to the mall or worst case would just take us across the busy lanes of traffic. It took us to within a block of the hotel! Good orienteering!

We sorted out the laundry then after a short cool down head back out to the mall. Clay wanted more hard candies for his throat plus Coke Zeros for the next 8 days touring remote villages, just in case. We never did find an entrance to the giant mall. Each store with a street front had their own entrance but you couldn't get into the mall. The Metro has access to the Mall according to online news stories but we didn't find that either. We did find the Carrefour grocery store behind and got our shopping done as well as finding a bank ATM.

After we dropped off our shopping, it was near 5 pm and we headed back out for dinner. This was another excellent suggestion from Alin. Caru cu bere was about 5-10 minutes walk through small pedestrian streets. The building was fantastic, we were so glad I asked to sit inside purely to avoid cigarette smoke. Clay had checked the menu last night and found his crispy pork knuckle for 2 so we skipped dinner last night and lunch today to have it. It was huge and we still couldn't finish it! We paid 131.60 lei or $30.65.

When we were in the room before dinner, Clay's phone rang. It was Vlad, our guide for the next 7 days. He wanted to meet us to start touring tomorrow at 9:30 am instead of 9 am. He said he couldn't get tickets to Parliament tomorrow until 10 am. I wasn't part of the conversation but evidently we will walk to tour the world's 2nd largest building behind the Pentagon. Vlad doesn't know yet how slowly I walk and Clay didn't mention it to him. Fingers crossed it won't be a problem tomorrow arriving on time in the 30 minutes Vlad allotted.

I forgot to mention that our Europa Royale Room 409 has a balcony. From the balcony, you can look right and see the dancing fountains of Unirea Plaza. I just looked and though Clay said they only dance and sing on weekend nights. They were specially lit and dancing tonight. We may be too far away to hear music.

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