Well, not really, since Bucharest isn't on the Danube. But we are moving further east and will be arriving in Bucharest on Sunday, June 1st.
We already have a full plate for the first week: Doug's starting to work on Monday and I will have to dedicate my time hunting for a place to live. It seems that the rental market in Bucharest is at least as hot as in Belgrade - at least, that's what the prices indicate. My, I could easily rent a nice home in the DC area for what we will have to pay in Bucharest. Let's hope that we can find something equally nice as in Belgrade.
As much as we are looking forward to moving to Bucharest and to being EMPLOYED (can you spell regular pay? We still haven't been paid once for this year!), leaving Belgrade is a bittersweet experience.
We will miss our house. The skylights and the garden in the back which makes for nice cool afternoons on the balcony (although the big tree was knocked down by a thunderstorm two nights ago). The green market around the corner and the little bakery down the street with those yummy pastries. Alan's nanny Natsa and Milena, the maid, who are both mourning about Alan leaving (nobody's really sad about us leaving, or so it seems). Our friends who have made our stay so pleasant.
But there is no time to get misty-eyed. Lots of packing to do.
We are back home in Belgrade - which we can only call "home" for some nine more days. The countdown to the move has begun and somehow it seems that we can never get all the things done that need to be done.
Coming back was a bittersweet experience. We did have a very nice life here in Belgrade and we'll miss much about this city and its people.
But... the movers are coming on Friday, we are leaving on Saturday. Time is getting short.
Traveling with a fourteen-month-old is no joy at the best of times. Travling with a fourteen-month-old who is also suffering from a nasty cold, complete with green goo out of his nose, lots of sneezing, barking coughs and high nightly fevers is no fun at all. Add jet lag and four new teeth (molars!) and life is quite miserable.
I must say that for all of it, Alan is handling it pretty well. He loves his cousins and enjoys his stay a lot. The nights are hell but in the meantime we learned to dose him heavily with all sorts of meds and somehow make it through. We get lots of smiles during the day (interspersed with whiny episodes, of course) which is pretty amazing considering his general state of health at the moment. My brave little boy...
[Doug here] Having the baby wake up at 0100 with full-throated screams and a 103/40 degree fever is indeed no fun. But he is a sturdy little guy, and the smiles do make it worthwhile. It's a delight to see him playing with his cousins. Or, to be precise, his cousins playing with him -- at fourteen months he's still a little blurry on the idea of "play with", but the cousins just pick him up and put him down as circumstances require.
We took him downtown to Dupont Circle today. He played on the edge of the fountain and listened to the bongo drummers and in general seemed to have a grand old time. Oh, and his Baby Chick Magnet powers are still working, green goo notwithstanding. ("Oh, does he have a sniffle? Oooohhhh!")
We're none of us looking forward to the trip back across the Atlantic, but at least we know the thing can be done.