Hello, Romania!

Apparently, Romanian delays in reaching one's destination on a vampire-hunting trip are not confined to fiction; our flight from Heathrow to Bucharest was a wee bit tardy. We have, however, finally arrived!

The transition from London (wealthy, well-maintained on the whole, a city whose history is scrupulously conserved) to Bucharest (once the Paris of the East, now fallen into a sort of shabby attempt to recover from a dalliance with Communism) is fascinating. There are sprawling suburbs where rural villages stood, and graffiti marks even the most elegant old buildings, of which there are surprisingly many. Bucharest is trying for a glorious comeback, but it hasn't quite found its feet yet.

Our hotel is actually one of those elegant old buildings, and it's both charming and (by the standards of travelers used to sprawling American budget motels) a bit inconvenient and odd.

My room is very, very yellow. It also has a very cool view.