Though we have four days remaining of our trip, in many ways it feels like this experience is coming to an end. My energy is a bit low, I have a touch of homesickness, and my patience is wearing thin. At the same time I'm feeling anxious about fitting in every last thing I want to do or see in Bucharest before we leave tomorrow night for Istanbul. 

Yesterday was a wifi-less day, which is why there was no blog post. Of course, I was fine with that because, as I mentioned before, my impatience has made it so that I dread having to sit down before going to bed and summarize an entire day's worth of experiences in tidy little paragraphs. I'm especially dreading having to write about yesterday because so much happened in the form of conversations. 

We spent the entire day in Galați with family, arriving first at Radu and Veorica's home, where we would be staying that night. We arrived to an enormous spread of food, and place settings with multiple dishes--a sign that more food is to come. We spent the afternoon eating and drinking, beginning at the dining table and then moving into the back courtyard to sit in hammocks and lawn chairs. It was the perfect pace for a sunny Sunday. 

The whole family in Galați was there, joined by Radu's two sons, Radulicu and Ionuț--they were the final two cousins I had yet to meet. After finishing lunch, we all moved on to Nicoleta's home, where another enormous spread of food awaited us. My dad was able to spend more time with Sonia and share family stories, while I was busy sampling some of Nicoleta's homemade brandies. Noticing how much I enjoyed the cherry brandy, she packed some for me in a giant water bottle to take back home.

I also had the chance to get to know my cousins better as we spent a good amount of time talking in the courtyard about current events, video games, and what life was like under communist rule. On the whole, yesterday was about strengthening newly formed bonds and learning more about my family's history and why certain things are the way they are.