August 14, 2025
I was up first this morning and went to explore the hotel breakfast but it was only just opening at 7:30. It eventually all opened up and had a little bit of everything. I thought the scrambled eggs with veggies were quite good. Then I went back to the room to do some life admin from the porch and snuck in a shower while everyone still slept.
They eventually got up close to 10AM and we made our way to Mihai’s family house. We had breakfast outside and Bună was eager to feed the boys anything they might be willing to eat. Shortly after breakfast we decided to drive up the mountain in search of blackberries and plums. The boys, Ollie, Lenny, and Tudor, opted to stay back at the house with Bună to watch TV and relax.
Mihai drove up the bumpy dirt road with the four adults and Hope and Francesca sitting in the trunk. We stopped to investigate some plum trees his grandfather had planted but they had no fruit on them. We continued up the hill with all the girls getting out at the first sighting of ripe blackberries while Mihai and I drove further up the hill where I found some plum trees with ripe fruit. Mihai explained that all the homes in the area owned various different land plots on the mountain. The dirt roads were built by prior generations to help them plant fruit trees, mainly plums for moonshine, and collect the fruit.
The girls eventually caught up with us and with the sun out in full force looked very hot, but none worse off than Hope. We cranked the air conditioning in the car and started our drive down. Eventually we came to a natural spring with cold water to drink and splash on our faces. There was also a shared cup left on a stick there for anyone in need but most of us non-Romanians passed on using the cup.
Instead of going back we continued our drive to another mountain that Mihai was keen to show us, though we learned that he actually just likes to drive around the mountains with no real direction in mind. Hope perked up and from the trunk her and Francesca were singing two songs they made up endlessly. One was “Moving, moving, moving. Stilllllllll moving.” The other “harmala, sarmala and their grandsonnnnn Tonyyyyy”. Harmala is not a word and sarmala is a Romania cabbage roll so the song made no sense but they liked how it sounded.
We stopped at a roadside bakery stand to grab some snacks. Hope and Francesca had taken down half a bucket of blackberries but the adults were hungry. We got some Kürtőskalács and Plăcintă and both were delicious. The Kürtőskalács was a “chimney bread” with the outside of the hollow cylinder dusted in a variety of different options but our favorite was cinnamon sugar with walnuts. The Plăcintă was a pastry resembling a thin, square-shaped cake. The one I ordered was stuffed with cheese, sour cream, and garlic. I ended up sharing a second one with Gabby.
We returned to the house where Mia had made bean soup with fresh beans from their garden. Even though we were all stuffed we had a bowl and it was great, then Mihai brought out the moonshine. It was made by his grandfather and Mihai has a small stockpile of it that was meant for his wedding but since he never had a wedding in Romania, he still has it. It was plum moonshine and I expected it to be terrible but was wrong. It was smooth and had a fruity aftertaste that was pleasant, though I would not have been able to guess it was plum.
After the moonshine and all the food, I was ready for a nap. Just after I found a nice spot on the grass to lay down with a blanket Mihai’s brother arrived to pick up Tudor and Francesca and begin their drive to the Black Sea. We chatted for a bit before they left and once gone Mihai decided we should bring out the scythe. They have a lawn mower now but this was the old way to cut the grass in their yard, if the goats did not eat it. It was fun to use and surprisingly light, I’m sure by design as you would need to swing it a thousand time to cut any meaningful patch of grass.
We tore the boys away from their TV marathon day and Mihai took us to Bologa Fortress. Gabby and Hope stayed back as Hope had started to throw up all the blackberries she ate in the trunk earlier that day. Perhaps the shared Romanian cup got the best of her.
The fortress had been redone with new stairs to access it and reach the top. The courtyard had a nice grassy area where the town had built a small stage for performances. The boys were happy to give a performance of their own with Kayleen playing music on her phone and Ollie dancing on stage. Lenny would dance briefly but was more interested in running wind sprints between us and the stage.
We returned to the house for dinner and to find Hope still under the weather. Mia had made goat stew; the goat came from a neighbor. It was very good and we continued eating with roasting marshmallows on a fire Gabby made. The boys were thrilled as this is one of their favorite deserts.
