Most of today was about food. We started off the morning by “tricking” Jessie into going to a pastry shop that we found out about that was 100% gluten-free. After eating cakes and cookies for breakfast, we went to a park where Ashton spent around an hour playing basketball. Then we hopped aboard a tram towards our next destination…and that resulted in ice cream for lunch. We got the ice cream on our way to the Senses Museum…which is a really interesting exhibit of mostly optical illusions. We followed all these sweets up with a stop at a grocery store to buy even more cakes and desserts to take to our dinner party.
Andrei and his family invited us to join them at their home for a cookout this afternoon/evening. We had a blast! Sadie spent hours playing card games with Ruth and several of her friends who were there. Ashton and Phillip spent the afternoon mostly playing ping-pong…and a bit of billiards. Jessie and I hung out with Andrei and his wife Laura as they cooked a fantastic meal. A highlight for me was “mici” (pronounced “meech”) which is a traditional Romanian dish that is essentially a sausage without the casing. The feast also included sausage, pork, chicken, burgers, fries, salad, grape fanta, and a local beer called Ursus. I think there were around 12 of us total…so quite the party! We really appreciated Andrei and Laura inviting us and our kids loved playing with their kids. It was great for all of us to have a more authentic moment rather than just being tourists all the time. I continue to be surprised that almost every day (today included) the kids tell us that “today was the best day of our trip so far.”