New Year's Eve Cab Ride: Best time of my life :) Happy 2011!!!

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Happy New Year from Bucharest. What a fantastic night. Marina and I made several plans, including an evening with the relatives. The plan was to spend the night over there, but this being my first New Years in Europe.......................well, I couldn't have that. I wanted to see the fireworks. And boy, did I see them.

 

The timing of how everything worked out was so perfectly in snyc that it had to be a gift from God. We had to get from the Northeast side of the city to the southwest side, where we live. I said to my wife: "I'll go to dinner with the family, as long as we can take a cab home tonight, and go down all the main strips (Romana Square, Victoria Square, Parliament, etc) before we get back to the house."

 

We got together with our family around 9, and stayed until about 11:30. Several calls to the cab companies proved in failure, but little to our knowing, it was a success. By the time we finally got a cab, every minute lined up perfectly.

 

Bucharest damn sure knows how to celebrate, for starters. Since December is such a very important month in their culture, these people go all out. I hadn't had a chance to get around the city to see the Christmas lights either, and the whole city was freakin'gorgeous.

 

The entire ride was a BATTLEFIELD of fireworks. EVERYONE SETS OFF FIREWORKS. I mean everyone. And the clock struck midnight EXACTLY as we got to the Parliament Building, where ALL the action was happening. I cannot describe it. It was like driving through a battle of color and sound. The cab was actually shaking.The streets were relatively clear of traffic, but many people were about. I have never seen so many fireworks exploding, and if I have it was over the ocean in Florida, not over all these cool looking buildings, both new and old.

 

The whole thing was SSSOOOOOOOOO surreal. It was a 30 minute cab ride that seemed to go by in 5 minutes. The cab driver was such a cool guy too. We just told him to keep driving around the city. On every single street were big and small fireworks. Groups of people were everywhere celebrating, both large and small groups. It was like visiting 100 parties in half an hour.

 

All the streets were decorated in Christmas lights, snow in all the trees, fireworks, people laughing............it was a happiness overload. And to think it could have been another new years just sitting in a house or stuck at work. (believe me, Ive had my share of those.)

 

So a simple cab ride with my wife and a cab driver whose name i never got, turned out to be one of the best moments I've had in such a long time. When we got to my neighborhood, he dropped us off in front of our building. The bill was 36RON. I gave him a 50 and told him to keep the change. His face brightened, and my heart brightened as well. We wished him a happy new year and our blessings. Then Marina and I took a  15 minute walk around the block just to breathe the air, still with kids and adults blowing up everything in sight. :))

 

Happy New Year Everyone. May you all be blessed <3 <3 <3