4a.m.

It's 4 a.m.and I've pulled an all-nighter with Bart and Andreea.  I'll go down to Bart's room in half an hour and wait with him until it's time for the hotel bus to take him and Wojtek to the airport for their 6a.m. flight.

I went to the lobby around 7:30pm to wait for someone to walk to the restaurant with for our last dinner.  Ioana and Andreea showed up and said, "Good, we've been looking for you.  You are coming to the Opera House with us to see a famous Romanian dancer."  So I went with them and we found Bart at the Opera House and Florin came so I could have his ticket.  He had to host the dinner at the Casa cu Flori restaurant.

Our tickets for the Opera House cost 5 Lei, about $1.75.  Amazing.  We sat in the second balcony in the front row so we could look right down at the stage.  The story was set to Wagner so was kind of very emotional and at times dark.  It lasted about an hour and ended to thunderous applause and a great number of curtain calls.

We walked down the street to the restaurant where we found the rest of our gang and joined them for dinner.  We sat at dinner until about 11:45 and then nine of us went to a gay bar.  Two of the straight women had never been before and we all had a really good time for about an hour.  When the smoke started getting to us we walked back to the hotel.

Bart, Andreea, Nataly and I found a quiet place downstairs in the hotel and talked for a while.  Nataly went to bed and the three of us talked all night.  Bart went up to pack, Andreea to bed and I to blog.  As soon as I finish this, I'll go down to hang out with Bart until he leaves.  I'll miss him.  The rest of us fly out at various times; most of us on the flight to Bucharest this evening at 7.  There's about a 60% chance that Bart will be able to come to Malta.  It's really been a fun but emotional day.
PICTURES FROM TIMISOARA  http://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/20091025#