Episode 9 - Buses and Aeroplanes

I thanked my little room for hosting me and went to find Alex the manager to check-out.  He was much taller than I had realised as previously he had been sitting behind a little desk.

The bus stop was about a ten minute walk so off I toddled, with my giant purple tortoise.  

Bus 100 soon came.  It said the location was OTP - this usually means One Time Passcode, but on this occasion it meant Otopeni, which is where the international aiport is located in Bucharest.  

I jumped onto the bus, paid my 50p on my Revolut card (hear that, Luton Cash Cow?!) and made myself comfortable.  An older lady sat beside me.  She said something in Romanian - 'I'm really sorry, my Romanian isn't great'.  This was a bit of an understatement - I can say 'yes', 'no' and 'gift'.  A woman about my age opposite interpreted for us - the older lady's son is living in London, working as an engineer.  

The older lady left the bus - she was leaving anyway, it wasn't my influence - and I carried on chatting with the interpreting lady.  I had noticed her earrings - they were little aeroplanes.  She also had an aeroplane ring and an aeroplane bracelet.

I asked her what she did for a living.  She is a dentist, a pilot and an air traffic controller.  'I was a dentist for a while, then I fell in love with aeroplanes', she told me.  'There is just something so exhilarating about them'.  She then proceeded to tell me that her 7-year-old son wants to go into space, hence her working hard now to make it happen.  She's keen to do the next part of the pilot's licence, but only certain companies will page the forty thousand dollars to make this happen.  

We chatted about the infrastructure in Romania, the revolution, membership of NATO, membership of the EU, Ukraine, Russia, drones, all the regular topics for bus journeys.  We arrived at the airport and off she went to control the air traffic, including the WizzAir flight I was going to be on.

I was intent on making great in-roads into this textbook and am proud to say that I have almost finished it today - it is nearly 300 pages, although a significant proportion of it is footnotes, so in reality it's not that long.  I started sticking little post-its in it to highlight the salient points.  It looks good anyway.

The naughty app had already checked me in so I just had to deposit Purple.  The lady at the baggage drop-off printed a label then said 'is there somewhere I can put this?' I think it might have been her first day.  

I perused the duty free at Bucharest, coating myself in some nice perfume.  

Before settling at the gate, I did a quick circuit to check if there were any non-tattooed women needing help with compression socks.  There weren't.

I boarded the plane and was sandwiched between a man and a discombobulated woman.  I asked her if she was ok.  A man came over and they spoke in Romanian - it wasn't 'yes' or 'no' or 'gift' so I was clueless.  He walked away, crestfallen.  

'Do you want to sit next to him?' I asked her.  She hesitated.  

'Well, yes', she said.

'Well I can swap with him'; she beamed and called out to another man in Romanian.

'Hang on, I thought you wanted to sit next to this man'.

'No, he is not my husband - that is my husband', she said, pointing to a completely different man I hadn't even seen - 'I just have one husband', she said, quite seriously.  I moved.  

I then found myself sandwiched between two very heavily tattooed men who played on their phones the entire way back.  I smiled at them both but they weren't having it.  I thought of offering them some of my delicious oregano toasty things that I purchased in 'Shop and Go'; then I thought maybe I should make them some origami gifts.  I think they weren't wanting to make friends, so I respected that and buried myself in my neck pillow for a little sleep, then my book.

On arrival at Luton, as ever, the E-gate wouldn't let me through.  I headed over to a smiley immigration lady.

'Hello - those gates never let me in', I explained.

'Don't worry', she reassured me.

'I think it's because I look quite different without my glasses'; I removed them;

'Ooh yes, you do!' she commented.

'I think also it's my ears - something ate a chunk of my right ear you see, so I look a bit peculiar'.

'Ahh, bless you', she said, in a sympathetic way, I think. 'Welcome home'.

This blog has been written in memory of my friend and housemate of 20 years, Sue Craven, who checked out of this life unexpectedly on Feb 19th 2026.  Sue heard the Challenge Anneka appeal in the early 1990s and went to Romania to volunteer as a physiotherapist.  Rest in Peace Sue.