romania VIII

my last day in romania...
my last day of relaxation with nothing i had to think about. john and laura had more meetings to go to. and then in the evening, we went into cluj!

we went to this really fun pizza place. when we got there, we went up the elevator in a building and out onto a roof where there was a view of the lights of the city. and the restaurant was up there, but it was closed for renovation. sad.

so we walked to another pizza place that they like a little ways away. it was called michelangelo's. (you will notice in cluj they like to name restaurant type places after famous artistic people.) when we got there, it was empty and a sign said they were closed for the holidays. it was december 29! i guess they really close for the holidays in romania.

so we walked to another place, which turned out to be the place laura and john had been going for special occasions, so i felt special. we had to walk a ways to get to that one too. it was open. whew! we were getting pretty hungry by then.

we enjoyed some GIANT italian food.
it was pretty amazing. and you may be thinking that food looks pretty normal. you're right, those are pizzas, but take john's for instance--it had 4 different amazing cheeses on it. not the taste of your regular cheese pizza.

and afterwards we walked all the way back over to near where michelangelo's was since we decided to go to a place called mozart's cafe that they had told me about (what did i tell you about the famous artistic people?). they apparently have lots of yummy drinks there (i couldn't really read the menu), as well as giant dishes of various ice creams. we settled on one to share.
it had four different kinds of ice cream: peach, orange, banana, and lemon, and it had those fruits on top and bottom with cream. well, there wasn't any actual lemon in there, but other than that. the ice cream itself was amazing! the orange and peach especially. it wasn't just fruit flavored but tasted like it was actually that fruit. not sure how to describe it, but it was really good!
it was a good last night with friends who i now miss...
they took me to the bus station in cluj at 3:15 AM and waited with me for the bus. and then i was on my way back to china, in what must have been the longest trip of my life. but that will be a story for another day.

what a blessing to spend christmas and my vacation in such a peaceful and restful place with friends who feel like home. i feel so incredibly blessed.