Spring Fever

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Yesterday, for the first time in months, we went to church without wearing coats, hats, boots, gloves and scarves. It was wonderful!  We are standing in front of the Center for Young Adults sign that just showed up on the side of our chapel one day last fall.  Notice the pile of snow that still remains in the foreground.  It still may take a while for it all to melt.

Saturday was St. Patrick's Day so we went for a stroll in Old Buc.  I doubt if there are many people of Irish descent in Bucuresti but they were still celebrating like they had some Irish blood.  This is a beautiful old building with a traditional Romanian restaurant called Caru' cu bere.  Even though it was a little chilly people wanted to sit outside to eat.

We chose a little pizza place.  We ordered pepperoni and black olives and got red pepper and black olives.  That's kind of the way it goes here.  But it was good and it was fun to sit outside.  We have found that they always serve ketchup with pizza. 

What can I say?  The store was closed so I don't know what they sell but the name reminded me of New Mexico.

On Wednesday, when the sun was shining and it was above 50 degrees for the first time in months, we went for a walk in Herestrau park.  For the first time since fall, people were sitting on park benches or just strolling in the park, even though it was still a little crisp.  It was a beautiful day and felt so good to be out. 



Of course, there were still signs of the harsh winter.  The shady side of the walk down to the lake had not been shoveled and was still covered with piles of snow.

As you can see, the center of the lake was still frozen but there was a strip of open water around most of the shore line.  It was nice to see waterfowl swimming in the water and walking on the ice.  It was simply lovely to walk through the park and feel like winter might finally be over. There were birds chirping in the trees.

In another part of the lake, there was an old wooden boat with two men standing in it and rocking it hard from side to side to break up the ice around them.

 

After they had rocked back and forth for a while, one man would use a pole to push the boat forward while the other would row the boat forward into the ice as far as they could and then stand up and start rocking back and forth again.  At the rate they were going, it was going to be a while to get wherever they were trying to go.

 

And what kind of park would it be if it didn't have lots of huge heads in it?  We don't know who this guy is because all the plaques are gone.  This is one in a circle of about 10 heads.  We are sure they were really great guys, whoever they were.   

Yes, winter may be over but there are plenty of reminders of what it was like.  Because of all the wonderful flower shops we can look past the remaining piles of dirty snow and see spring just ahead.