Previously, Marcus and Leenie explored Venice, joining a historic walking tour of the Jewish Ghetto and booking a ride with a pioneering female gondoliera. The romantic day inspired Marcus to keep working on a lifelong poetry dedication to his wife. Read Chapter 8.
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Bucharest, Romania — August 2025, One Day Earlier
“Cheers!” said Scott as he clinked a fresh limonada with Kelly’s elderberry socată.
Kelly smiled at Scott, his disheveled hair and nose slightly sunburned. Around them, the grand Ionic columns of the Romanian Athenaeum and its imposing dome framed the Bucharest plaza. Tourists zigzagged across the tree-lined space, capturing every moment of their vacations, snatching up embroidered purses and hand-painted ashtrays from vendors.
Kelly wiped a smudge of mud off Scott’s sleeve, a hiking shirt she’d seen almost every day for the last two weeks. “If I see this worn-out hiking shirt one more day, I might burn it,” Kelly joked, “It’s got more miles on it than a Flix bus.”
He laughed. “Right back at you with your purple shorts.”
Kelly stretched out her legs. After five days of hiking Romania’s Via Transilvanica, the couple was in recovery mode. They’d hiked through valleys and forests in the countryside of Transylvania. Kelly loved when the villagers invited them to ride in their horse-drawn sleds through meadows they never would have found on their own. Scott taught her about the Saxons and their centuries of influence on Romanian agriculture, they climbed fortified churches that had been built to withstand Ottoman raids, and on one hot afternoon Kelly had begged a local shopkeeper to open his door so they could get ice cream.
Old men sipping afternoon coffees in the cafe ignored the impressive Athenaeum’s facade and continued with their card games, oblivious to Kelly and Scott.
“To five amazing years of Nomad Life. Happy Nomadaversy to the best husband and travel partner ever,” Kelly said.
“A truly remarkable part of our life together, honey,” said Scott. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Really? You don’t miss any of our stuff?” Kelly asked.
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