September 23, 2018 Lunch – Picnic at Salina Salt mine. Dinner - Lacrimi și Sfinți

September 23, 2018 Lunch – Picnic at Salina Salt mine. Dinner - Lacrimi și Sfinți

We got dressed and made sandwiches and met our driver at Starbuck’s at 9:00.  He drove us for about an hour to Salina Praid,  the Praid salt mine.  After parking the car we were loaded on small buses with lots of other visitors and driven into the mine.  It took the minibus about 15 minutes of driving down a descending road to reach the mine floor.  When we walked through the door from the small parking lot into the mine floor we found ourselves in a large vaulted chamber connected to other vaulted chambers that were about 200 yards wide and about 400 yards high; in a word, vast.

There were sleeping areas, recreation areas, and a chapel area,  plus lots of open floor.  Here is a video and several pictures Suzette made of a tiny part of the mine.

After about an hour of walking we walked to the recreation area, where the gift shop and toilets were.  While we rested an Italian or Austrian men’s chorus gave an impromptu choral concert, which was very lovely.


We listened to two or three songs and then walked back to the mine floor entrance listening to the continuation of their concert echo through the mine.



After a group gathered the doors were opened and our group filled the three waiting minibuses and driven back to the surface.

We walked back to the car that Stefan, our driver, parked in a private parking lot, which had a snack bar and refrigerators filled with cold drinks and beers.  We ate the salami and ham and cheese sandwiches on buttered baguette that we had made under the morning with some kalamata olives.  We drank Epicentrum rose, which Stefan said was made in the small town he grew up in, Vrancea, by the Girbou Winery.  We enjoyed the lovely pale pink blend of Fetescea Negrea and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.  I chose to buy a Tuborg beer to let a Suzette have an extra glass of wine.  Both the wine and the beer were delicious.

Stefan told us a bit about himself.  He was educated as an engineer but started a car rental business with a friend and they own 25 vehicles now.  He said that in the off season they must obtain drivers to take people on tours, as demand for vehicles fall and that us how he became our driver today.  His wife is a corporate lawyer who has two large clients, one of which makes concrete building blocks for buildings.

We arrived back at the apartment around 4:00 and I lay down to rest until 6:00.


Suzette looked up the seven best restaurants in Bucharest and found 1 located about four blocks from our apartment, which we decided to walk to named Lacrimi și Sfinți.

I was in another edge of Old Town out of the hustle and bustle of loud music and crowds of people, which we found refreshing.


It was still daylight when we arrived and had not filled with dinners so we were able to take our pick of outdoor tables on the fenced patio.  The menus were printed in both Romanian and English.  The names and descriptions of dishes were cute poetic captions.  Our waiter told us the owner/chef was a well known poet with a weekly TV show around food and poetry.

We decided to share several dishes.  We started with a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, red bell pepper slices, thin slices of red onion, and cubes of grilled goat cheese, which we enjoyed very much.
We were a bit cautious about the wine after our last experience, so we ordered a glass of rose instead of a bottle.  The wine was fine and we ordered another two glasses with dinner.  Here is a photo of

the label.

We both decided to order a side of sautéed green peas.  I was between the sautéed sweetbreads, turkey testes, mushrooms, and onions and a duck leg.  Our waiter recommended the sweetbreads, so we ordered them and were happy we did.  The sweetbreads were served in the ancient skillet in which they were sautéed with a white wine sauce.  Here is a photo.

We loved both dishes and found the portions large enough to easily share.

As the restaurant filled our waiter became stretched thin and service slowed a bit but we were enjoying the cool night air and nearly full moon lit night sky.

We decided to order dessert because Suzette saw several selections containing Quince.  She settled on an apple, Quince, and raisin cake, which turned out to be a lovely thick strudel wrapped in pastry warm from the oven and dusted with powdered sugar.

We ordered a glass of sweet sour cherry liquor distilled by a local distillery named Bran.  It was sweet and a little tart, a very pleasing drink to sip with bites of the warm strudel.

All in all this was the second best meal of the trip, only excelled by the restaurant in Montmartre and it was reasonably priced at under $40.00.

While we were waiting order dessert Suzette crossed the street to a small shop and bought, eggs, potatoes, and onions, so we could make a pork omelet in the morning.

I wanted some jam on my bread for breakfast, we stopped at a small specialty food and wine store on the other corner as we walked home and I bought a jar of sour cherry preserves for $6.00.

We walked home, stoping by the fountains in the Unirii Park to listen to the music and the dancing waters in the fountains.

  When we arrived home at around 10:00 we watched TV for and hour and went to bed.

We discovered that there are many U.S cable channels on Romanian TV. For example, we watched Crocodile Dundee on the Paramount movie channel.

Suzette put a pillow under my feet to elevate them above my heart, which helped reduce the swelling in my right foot and pain in my hip after only one night.

Suzette is a wonderful practical nurse/doctor.

Bon Appetit