T-48 hours

I arrived in Timisoara quite early and went promptly to my old workplace to say goodbye (I had already said goodbye to the people at the Institute before I left for Turkey). Part of me wanted to take a walk, or to do something symbolic on my last day in the city, but in reality, I wanted to spend it with one of my best friends.

So I did.

I hung out with Cristi all day. We laughed, cracked jokes and remembered the old times. At lunchtime, I went to my favourite kebab stand and said goodbye to the owner and the lovely girl who works there. I got some ice cream (absolute cheapest ice cream ever...for 7000 lei a container! And it's damn good too!) and came back.

I called a few friends to say goodbye. I had a nargile I picked up for Adrian. Unfortunately, he was flying to Iasi and wouldn't be able to meet me before I left. Cristi took me to dinner and we had a last "traditional" Romanian meal.

I had my favourite soup, Greek chicken soup and frogs' legs. The soup was good, some of the best I've had in Romania. The legs weren't that great, and we were both a little subdued.

I wasn't going to write this, but I have to.

Cristi ordered ciorba de burta (the infamous tripe soup) and made me taste it. It was actually pretty good, if I didn't think about what I was eating (cow stomach). The broth was great but the texture of the burta...

Let's just say I'm glad I got *that* over with!

We got back to the office and Adrian called me. He was back from Iasi and could meet me for a few minutes. It was nice to say goodbye, especially since he was the first Romanian I met. I also got to see him in uniform! Very dashing.

Soon it was time to go to the train station. We loaded up Aya 2 with all my luggage and drove to the station. I stayed in the car while Cristi bought my ticket to Arad, and soon it was goodbye. Luckily, the train was small, so we hoisted everything into the cargo car and then it was goodbye. We gave each other a huge hug and I said "I love you, thank you for being such a good friend to me" and then I hopped on the train as it started moving.