Halfway down the Danube

Just a Sunday in the park

We took the boys to Herestrau today.

Romanian readers will know that Herestrau is the huge park nin the north of Bucharest. It goes on for kilometers, with ponds, playgrounds, football fields, restaurants... you name it. Parts of it are very run down, still recovering from Communism (and post-Communism); parts of it are lovely. The kids see no difference, and love it all.

Things to do in Herestrau, if you're not quite three years old:

1) Ride the new bicycle that Oma (grandmother) got you for Christmas. Alan rides that thing very fast, and he's getting very adept at high speed turns.

It was gorgeous, unseasonable weather: clear, sunny, a few degrees above freezing. So the park was full of Bucharesters soaking up sun while they can. Alan simply plunged into the crowd, pedaling madly. Not a problem! My first couple of outings with him, I would yell and lunge and grab when I saw him heading for someone's legs. Now I don't, because I know he'll swerve in time.

Well, unless he's distracted.

2) Jump on the trampolines. Oh, does he love those trampolines. There is an open chamber with four big ones together. It costs 20,000 or about 70 cents for 5 minutes (which I suspect is a special "rich foreigners" rate, but so what?)

I go in there with him, but he won't let me jump on the same trampoline. Alan will stay just as long as he can, so when our time is up, I make a sudden predatory jump onto his trampoline and grab him. If I do it right, I can bounce him up and snatch him out of the air.

Oh, and today I figured out how to do a sit-bounce, or whatever it's called. You know -- you jump, throw your legs out, come down on your butt, bounce up, get your legs back under you. Do it wrong and you flop in a really humiliating manner. Tricky if you're wearing an overcoat. But I have to keep the overcoat on. (The only think I really liked about the Matrix movies? The fights with Smith. And I was rooting for Smith. But still. Hands in pockets, glasses on, I go soaring slowly up...)

3) Play on the playground equipment. Romanian playgrounds deserve a long entry of their own. Short version: the recent stuff is pretty good, the older stuff can be pretty amazing. Under Communism, it seems, playground equipment was made of cast iron. Safety was not a priority, but damn, the stuff was solid. More on this some other time.

Oh, and Claudia took the chance to get on her rollerblades for an hour or two. She's out of practice, but she could push the stroller, which helped. Though it may have cut down on the whole aerobicise aspect of the thing. Money quote: "At this rate, by 2050 or so I will have a really excellent butt."

Then we went home, and everybody took a nap. The neighborhood cat who has adopted us came and mewed at the door, and I let him in, and he went to sleep too.

And that was our Sunday afternoon.

Posted by douglas at January 16, 2005 10:41 PM | TrackBack