Our plans were to fly out very early on Sunday, December 26th, which meant Peggy and I would be spending Christmas together in Chisinau.
Spent the morning packing! And concerned that we were just not going to be able to get everything stuffed into our 4 suitcases. . . .
I had purchased a nifty scale at the Central Market so that I could weigh each of the bags, to make sure that they didn't weigh over the 23 kg allowance. . .
(When packing for the trip, I did not have such a scale. I would get on our bathroom scale, weigh myself. Then pick up the suitcase and weigh myself. Then subtract. To get a rough idea of how much my suitcases weighed. . . . )
We had wanted to go back to Mall-Dova to see Tangled in Russian again before we left Chisinau, but, the timing just did not work out for us on Christmas day as we had hoped.
It was such a beautiful day -- in the 60s! -- so we decided to spend time at Peggy's favorite playground (near the Flower Market). We had the playground to ourselves, and we were able to enjoy the free concert that was taking place on Stefan cel Mare while we played. We decided to have dinner at Andy's Pizza one last time.
We first went to the location on Banelescu Bodoni. Played at the playground there. But then Peggy asked if we could go to the Andy's Pizza that is in the Opera and Ballet Theater - which has an even bigger playground. So we headed another 2 blocks to that location. Again, we had the playground to ourselves.
It was so *muddy.* At one point I thought we were going to get stuck in the mud. I mean actually stuck in the mud. It was the stickiest, gloppiest mud I have ever experienced. When I expressed my disgust with the gloppy mess that was consuming our boots and threatening to keep us from dinner (or getting back to our apartment), Peggy said, "Mommy, don't be mad at the mud. Mud is just a part of life." True. But I am sure this sticky, gloppy, killer mud was the reason why we had the entire playground(s) to ourselves on such a mild and beautiful day in the middle of the winter.
After savouring our potato balls, pepperoni pizza, and caramel sundae, we headed home on Stefan cel Mare.
Much to my surprise, we saw MICKEY MOUSE?! I had to laugh. All of our presentations about "Christmas in Sunny Florida," each of which concluded with our descriptions of our favorite family Christmas tradition: WaltDisneyWorld. And here we were, on Stefan cel Mare in Chisinau, Moldova on Christmas, with Mickey Mouse. (And "Minnie," too)
We stopped in front of the Parliament Building to enjoy several more acts of the free concert before heading home.
It was sad to think that this would be our last concert on Stefan cel Mare, our last walk home, past the McDonalds and the street vendors. Our last time walking up those 4 flights of stairs to our apartment. It was strange feeling. We had been so busy trying to squeeze in as much as possible into our last few weeks in Moldova, that it hadn't really sunk in that we were leaving. It was a surreal ending to our Christmas in Chisinau.
Aww... way to tie it all together at the end.
ReplyDeleteIt was great to meet you at the airport, and I loved how Peggy said you had a lot of bags. She's sure quite the traveller right now! I think you need to buy her a pink and brown polka dot suitcase...
You should see the glud right now!!! It's even worse than it was a few weeks ago... and it's been too long since the ground has been frozen and it rained this afternoon, so I have a feeling this mud isn't going anywhere quick.
Looks like you made it home safe... thank goodness that flight wasn't cancelled! If you had known, you could have seen "Tangled" again!! (PS, how was it??)
Cate