Day 18: caught in a landslide, no escape from reality

Miles: 40
Countries: Romania
Stops: home -> Old Town -> home -> dinner -> home
Playlists: N/A

We were told the passports will be ready by morning. We wait. And wait. And wait. Nothing. We decide as a tribute to our last day in Bucharest, we'll go check out the city and actually do touristy stuff. We drove downtown and parked the car, but didn't get very far. Something, again, just didn't seem right. Not sure if it was the heat, dehydration, or Justin feeling off in general. I was just cranky but he seemed...off.

I start craving cheesecake but apparently nobody carried cheesecake and it became so tedious trying to find a place, I just lost interest and we just wandered around in silence. We decided to try the tourist stuff again, got to a park and realized, nope, just not feeling it. So we walked back to the bars again in Old Town, sat down and I had a mudslide. Feeling much more upbeat with the sugar rush, we walked back to the car thinking we'll head over to the embassy to check in.... seeing as the day is almost over and they should be long ready by now when we get a phone call from the consulate. Passport Canada needs proof of a flight out of Romania in order to approve our passports.... wtf would we apply for passports if we're planning on sticking around? So we explain, again, that we drove in and are planning on driving out. She sends that off and says to sit tight until we get authorization. She assures us our case is urgent and she'll work late to get this out to us. Not even half an hour later, she emails us saying she's packing up for home and maybe there will be news tomorrow... so we're cranky as we had hoped to leave first thing in the morning to make it to Turkey before dark, plus it's only 5 and the embassy is supposed to be open until 5:30.

Not much we can do, so we head back home where our hosts are ready to drive to the new home they're midst building for a Romanian grill out. We have an amazing evening, the food is delicious, the wine is pouring, and the conversation is great! Especially when we're all arguing who we'd pick between Donna and Rachel (from Suits). I also finally got some puppy time with the local stray (everyone was giving him love and Puffy knew everyone well so I joined in thinking it was a neighbour's dog until I was told to thoroughly wash my hands. So hopefully rabies isn't spread through licking).

At this point we get a not so good call from home and the stress starts to seep in again. So many choices lay ahead of us and we still don't even have passports and time's a-ticking from every direction. 

We get home barely in time for Justin to make it into the apartment. He's been sick the rest of the evening and after some meds and loads of water, he's now sleeping.

We need something to push us forward because right now... it feels like we're getting kicked while we're down and no matter what decision we make, it's not the right one. The Mongol Rally is all about adventure and chaos and we were ready to embrace it. From the car breaking down, to getting lost, to probably eating some bad street meat, to terrible border crossings, to bribery and cop shinanigans that would make a story. We've already had a number of these throughout, and it's been hilarious and we've handled them like champs. But for this to have gone all so wrong so early on, and all at once to the extreme that it has.. he's wanted this SO bad for SO long, it's like a domino effect all because of the smallest, stupidest mistake, and it's breaking my heart. We could definitely use some encouragement at this point. Not so much a complaint, we expected this to be hard, could definitely just use some love and some direction.