Signing off from Romania with Dracula

We made it, the film has wrapped and the clan is headed home on a 14 hour flight back to Los Angeles tomorrow.  Neither Jason or I can actually believe it's over, we're still in shock.  It's been a long time away from home and it will be interesting to see how we adjust back in the states.

I'm dedicating my last post from Europe to Romania.  Our trip to see the castles!

The first Castle we saw, Rasnov Fortress was probably twice as cool because everything was covered in snow.

It was quite a trek to the top and with little legs it was taking forever so I tried to strap her to my back but that just resulted in a major tantrum.  It's not always easy or pleasant sight seeing with a toddler, ohhhh Miss Harlow.

I love when the trees have just a couple inches of white snow to outline them, so pretty.

Entrance gate

View from the top

Smiling girl, after she saw a little black puppy.

The second castle we visited was the famous Bran Castle home of Dracula, or at least one of the castles that have been linked to him.

The view from town.

The town was super cute too.

This castle was absolutely gorgeous inside and out.

How much do you love that red little shed on the side there?

The entrance had this beautiful script painted on the front wall above the light fixture.

This amazing cross was also at the entrance.

the knocker was so heavy

Dracula

View of the courtyard, everything outside and inside was accented with dark wood.

Check out this amazing water well in the courtyard, I was obsessed with it!

There was this secret passageway in the living room that super duper tiny your arms touch the walls as you climb through it.  Not the best place to be if you don't like confined spaces, uh um, yeah that's me.

Ohhh I loved this guy carved into the dinning room table.

View from the top

I can't remember what this way but it was pretty.

I have a ton more pictures of the castle but I'm sure you're getting bored right?

I did want to show you one last thing though, a little restaurant that we stopped into to use the restroom.

Crazy right?

Well the adventure is over and while I'm sad to leave, I'm so happy to be returning home. But I have one question for those who actually read this blog.  Should I continue to post back in LA?  I'm not sure anyone will want to read this anymore without all the cool locations we've been touring.  Who knows maybe we'll be leaving soon for another adventure somewhere, but in the mean time let me know if I should keep this up? Please, seriously let me know.

Goodbye beautiful adventure in Europe, for my first time here we pretty much rocked it!!!

xoxoxo

Christmas Cheer

This morning the rain had stopped and the sun was shinning Harlow and I headed downstairs for an early breakfast.  They put up a Christmas tree in the restaurant and she was thrilled.  She brought both her babies up to the tree to show them, it killed me when she held them out so they could get a closer look.

Sitting at a table next to the tree was a guy with gray hair and glasses, she pointed at him and said "Mama HOHOHO" from across the restaurant.  Then she ran back laughing at herself.  Already a little comedian, wonder where she gets that from.

After breakfast, if you want to call it breakfast, oh pancakes I miss you, we met up with another mom from the film and walked down to the park.  

The first month we were in Bucharest they had this beautiful lake that was in the center of the park similar to Central Park in New York with all the row boats.  Well a couple weeks ago they drained it and all the trees leaves had fallen and the park kind of lost it's luster.  Now look at it, a winter wonderland...

They replaced the lake with a huge ice skating rink, music was blasting and people were out there making it happen.  We stood and watched for a while, for a Tuesday it was pretty packed, the more I watched the more I decided I would NEVER go ice skating here.  Everyone out there was skating like a professional.  I would have looked like Bambi with my scrawny limbs trying to sync up, umm no not going to happen.  There goes my winter fantasy of Jason and I all bundled up with our mittens and scarves on drinking hot hot chocolate while holding hand on the ice.

You should have seen the little bug's face when she saw this Christmas tree they put up in the main entrance.

 Harlow and Hunter

Christmas markets are being set up all over the city, this one ran straight through the park all the way to the other side which is a long distance.  They sell every thing from food, decorations, clothes and housewares.  The ones that sell homemade holiday candy are my favorite.

Oh alot of the little huts in the holiday markets sell meat: sausages, salami, ham

There was a sensational life size sled with reindeer and presents, I bet Santa probably makes an appearance during the weekends, maybe even lets you get in there and take pictures with him.

The reindeer had real fur on them.

We will have to come back on the weekend and see for ourself what they do with this.

Also they had a life size nativity scene over by the children's park equipment.

Which I thought was a rather odd placement, I mean what kid wouldn't want to climb in there and try to pet all the fake animals, my kid tried too.  It took two cookies to derail her.  

Just looking at this picture makes me what to sing Silent Night, come on you know you want to.

I feel very blessed to be able to see how another country celebrates, I'm sad Harlow won't remember all of this.

But at least she's having a ball! 

Mom that picture's for you.























Noapte buna

Caru Cu Bere

I haven't had a moment to sit down and write the past couple of days.  Jason is still doing night shoots and slowly Harlow and I have changed over to his schedule so we can spend more time together but it hasn't left much time for anything else.

Last night he finally had a day off so we went out to dinner at Caru Cu Bere one of the oldest beerhouses in Romania and it was awesome!!  I was desperate to take photos when we were inside but all I had was my iphone and it was dimly lit so they weren't turning out.  When I goggled images on the web a bunch of pictures of Nic Cage at the restaurant came up, funny.  Anyways this is the place to eat, just look at the inside.

This photo doesn't do it justice the architecture in the ceiling was all arches and big oil paintings.  It was like having dinner in a museum.

Caru cu Bere is located in Lipscani the old town of Bucharest

The food was delicious!!!  We started off with a salad that consisted of red beets and shredded raw horseradish AMAZING!!  I will so be making this when I return home.  Simple ingredients but something about the spicy and the pickled beets just made for an excellent combination.  For an entree I had yellow squash stuffed and baked with minced meat, rice, and dill served with a tomato sour cream sauce.  I ate every single bite, it reminded me a lot of a greek dish  as I think there's a lot of Turkey's influence in the some of the recipes here.  

Being in Europe I've order beer or wine with all of my dinners but for some reason I thought I'd be cool, relax and order something a little harder.  I asked for a whiskey and coke forgetting where I was momentarily only to have them bring a glass bottle of coke to the table and a shot of whiskey, ya they don't do ice here.  Needless to say it makes for a very interesting cocktail without ice.  Way too reminiscent of high school.

As we were finishing up dinner the music started blaring and a full on dance number took place right in  the middle of the restaurant. Harlow thought it was the greatest thing of all time, she even got to dance with one of the ladies after the show.  Here's two quick clips of the dancers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ19amzZtGo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEAi_nt6OiA

The food was great the scenery was unreal and the entertainment made for a really fun night!  Exactly what we needed.

2 more weeks till our holiday and I can't wait.  

Love to everyone

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Christmas is in the air, I've got the carols going (the real sappy ones just like my father taught me), my little construction paper decorations up of christmas trees, presents and those little red and green paper chains you made in elementary school.  Hey you do what you can when you're on the road.  Oh I even got a christmas book on my ipad for Harlow, she's really into the decorated trees and keeps saying ho ho ho.  You can download it here, it's interactive, and FREE http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/christmas-tale-for-ipad/id402016391?mt=8

But what really makes it is the weather, outside is freezing, literally freezing, the ground and everything around is completely frozen, no snow just ice. It makes the trees look beautiful.  Check it out.  I'm sure this means snow is on it's way just in time for the holidays.

Just to make things feel authentic who could start the holiday cheer without my husbands most favorite thing on earth

that's right Jason managed to sniff out a Starbucks in the mall, they even had their holiday cups.  Too bad they don't serve eggnog latte's though, hmmm I wonder if I can attempt to make homemade eggnog, ohhhh!

While we were standing in line at Starbucks Harlow saw a big basket of their signature teddy bears dressed in costumes, they're ridiculously expensive and I've been trying to steer her away from stuffed animals because they just seem to multiple and take over.  Well the woman working at the counter told her to pick one and let her have it, just gave it to her for free.  So sweet, you should have seen how happy she was, the people here can be just so loving when it comes to babies and when was the last time someone just handed you from merchandise in a store because you were cute?  

She's been making out with it all day.

So instead of the eggnog latte we enjoyed toffee nut with whipped cream and cookie crumb sprinkles, so freaking good!!

Behind me was this massive Christmas tree that you could walk through the center, I don't know like some sort of Christmas tree hallway that was decorated with twinkle lights on the inside.  Harlow dragged Jason through it about 30 times.

that's a happy man, and a handsome one.

We did a little shopping and Jason finally bought one of those thick necked charcoal gray wool old man sweater cardigans I've been trying to get him to wear forever from Pull&Bear which is an incredible store with men and woman lines at pretty affordable prices.  They sweater looks kinda like this one but better, darker and thick in the neckhe looks super cozy in it.

This wool sweater will come in handy when we spend our Christmas in Vienna, Austria WHAT?  

Yep last night I booked our tickets for Christmas 6 nights in Vienna and 5 nights in Berlin for New Years.  I'm beyond excited to visit these places.  Do me a favor and goggle Vienna Christmas and take a look at all the images, it's an absolute wonderland.  They hang massive chandlers covered in lights for their Christmas markets and the architecture is so romantic I can't wait to see it.  Ok do me another favor and goggle Berlin New Years and check out the images.  All you see is fireworks apparently there's no restriction on them so the sky is just full.  We've been told you won't be able to find a bare spot in the sky.  We're in for a huge adventure I can't wait to post the pictures.

Two more weeks till our next journey and 23 days till Christmas.