Okay, quick update (or not so quick)

here I am in Moldova, Chisinau to be exact. And let's just recap the MOST exciting thing that happened to me...ever. I voted (in my head, because I wasn't watching it directly) for the winner in Eurovision!!! You should watch it on youtube. It was Norway. There were quite a few pretty good songs though. Ukraine is another one worth watching, if only because it is ridiculous. Wait, I forgot about Germany. That was the most ridiculous. Unless it was Bosnia, the guy's face is of Eldar quality in its torment.
So staying in Czech Republic was great. And Slovakia was just a bonus I hadn't even counted on, just check (yes, yes) that off the list of countries to visit, you know?
Okay, center. Let's see. Moldova I have seen very little of so far, except the world of booze! Which has been an exceptionally thorough tour considering how little time I've spent here. Let's see: descending from the bus and grabbing my backpack I turn around and there is Sasha towering over me. How exciting! Then we checked in to a typical rip-off (but european style so more expensive) hotel and went out. I had some most delicious white cheese (LAUREN! WHITE CHEESE! And it was delicious, should i bring some back for Markek?) patties, a sweet white cheese that you dip in sour cream and then elderberry jam. We also had a shot of honey vodka which was delicious and some pilsner Moldovan beer which was actually good, and then you know some wine and then we went to a grocery store where an old babushka talked to Sasha for possibly 20 minutes about her life. She was tiny. Later we found a nice bar and had a drink which was complicated. First the bartender put alcohol in a class- no, first he put coffee beans in a shot glass. Then he put alcohol in a snifter or whatever, a glass, and balanced them on top of the shot glasses. He proceeded> to light them on fire and spin them around to get hot. Then, one two three he dumped the licker in on the coffee beans and turned the empty glass upside down over a straw that had been stuck through a napkin (previously), trapping the bent up part of the straw under the glass. Follow me? Then you drink the hot drink and then you suck in through the straw. Nice.
So the hotel front was a rip off but we're not going to think about that because I got to have a nice bath and seeing Sasha/Alex/Constantine again is worth it, and meeting his family is maybe even MORE worth it. I am enamored. Let's see if i can get a picture up here.

Oh, this is me after having bought my FIRST bus ticket to Moldova. In the communist bus ticket station. You can see what a relief it was to get out of there. Unfortunately that bus didn't end up existing, so when I got there I had to exchange the ticket at another office for two days later. Which turned out to be fortunate because I was able to laugh really hard and really obnoxiously with some other Americans who work for IBM. Okay but here above you can see Sasha's sister and dad. It's bad quality but they are really cool people. Natalie spent all day yesterday making me food and talking with me/translating words for me between Russian, Romanian and English. And then when the parents, Galina and Constantine, got home she had to translate between all of us. It also turns out we are very Russian. Not only does my name blend in well here but Mom, your name is Russian too. Did you know? Actually, my name is very easy to travel with. It has very easy consonants and vowels I guess. Well chosen. And since my haircut is very Czech (according to Kyle) and also very Spanish I just blend right in anywhere. Well, more or less.
It's still really weird to think that I'm in this part of the world.
It's also really weird, Kyle's face in this foto. This is when we climbed to the top of this hill, scaling dangerous cliffs and braving black rider territory to enjoy our bag full of pastries. That cream puff he is ardently devouring lasted him for about three days. I mean, in his stomache, because it disappeared from the light of day in approximately five minutes. I'm going to also upload perhaps my favorite picture of him ever, upon the night of this, our most important invention: the snoily. I'll let you guess as to its purpose.
Okay, let's do two more. Here is a picture for Lauren, because this is a Larsen Bay face if I ever saw one, and yet another indicator that there is no hope for me in this life. This is when we went to patinoar last night with some of Sasha's friends.

Lucky that we skated for so many hours last Christmas because I felt much more comfortable and was able to avoid all the hazards typical of a small sheet of ice covered in people with blades strapped to their feet and differing abilities in the use thereof. Let me tell you, there was blood on the ice within ten minutes of the herd being let loose. Drops all over the place. We cuidadosamente avoided them in case they contained H1hash1 (which is how they call the swine flu here) along with the myriad other typical blood born pathogens. So in short, it was good.
So here I will put up the view from Sasha's family's apartment, but let me say that the view inside is much nicer than the view outside. Today I think I will attempt the journey to the history museum.
Updates later, maybe not until I reach Spain, and wish Laura and I luck with Ukraine. O! I didn't talk about the much feared bus ride. Well it was great. Firstly, it had a lovely band trip atmosphere, everyone knew everyone else and had their blankets and donuts and oranges. This was probably because there were four different bus drivers and they each brought their wife/girlfriend with them. Also because I got to watch a movie that I rather liked, in Russian, and could recognize more words than I can count on my hands, which I think is hopeful. Let's see if I can remember them.
завтра
хорошо
And the bus was not packed, so I had two seats to myself, and then we watched Eurovision and guess what? This year it was held in Moscow, so between each performance they would show Russian vocab words. How perfect? Then the next day Romania was lovely to drive through. I very much liked looking at the houses with their piles of hay and cows rubbing their faces on trees. So the 28 hours really flew by. I like that state when you are traveling. The feeling of just sort of oozing in and out of consciuosness. When is it pleasant, like that bus ride. Not like the Ryanair plane ride which for some reason, even though it was only three hours, was almost untolerable. Maybe because I was sick but also because it was loud and no entertainment and small seats and inadequately shaped space for legs. Okay, enough for now.