We arrived in Bucharest late in the afternoon on Wednesday, February 28th. The kids and I stayed home on the extra day of this leap year, the 29th, to get our things in order at the apartment.
The following day we headed out on a walk to the park. We passed a couple of nice looking bakeries and pastry shops. Not far after those, we passed a beautiful floral shop. I was very impressed with it. They had a beautiful display of arrangements outside, as well as inside.
Almost immediately after, we passed another floral shop, just as beautiful! What was also very interesting to me was that they were busy!
We crossed a little side street, and soon after, we came upon flowers bursting forth from a fancy, colorful sports car parked on the sidewalk.
I caught up to my friend who was holding one of my younger child's hand and I said, "I have never seen flowers…" and I intended to say, "like this!” However, as I was about to, I noticed a man with a big smile and wide, bright eyes walking in step with us. Apparently he and his wife owned the shop. He spoke English and must have overheard my remark and been very pleased at our natural appreciation of his creative display. He explained to us that on March 1st Romanians have a tradition of celebrating the beginning of spring. He went into the shop and came out with three pink tulips, enough for each female in our group. Every tulip had red and white strings with tassels tied around them.
From there, we continued until we came to the park. There were a bunch of toys to sit on that had big springs under the seats. They were very still, as if they had been sitting there unused for decades. One by one, the kids began to ride and rock on them until all eight kids from 3 years old to 15, were releasing all of their pent-up energy from traveling and being in the apartment for a day and a half. Those springed toys and the park were brought to life! The kids climbed trees, laughed and played.
On the way home I made sure to stop and take pictures outside the shops.
Later that day, I went online and to research, "March 1st in Romania." I found that this tradition is one of the oldest in Romania. In ancient times they would give gifts tied with red and white strings at the beginning of spring.
A couple of days later, I read that flowers are very important in the Romanian culture. It said that they are given for almost every occasion, especially when going to someone's house. They advised to always give an odd number of flowers because numbers are very important to the Romanians.
The following week was Women's Day. I was unaware of that at the time, but I was so amazed when we were out for another walk to a different park, that people everywhere were carrying bouquets! I laughingly compared Romanian florist shops to Albanian cafes. They're everywhere!!! Albania is said to be one of the countries with the most number of cafes per capita. I believe it!!!
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