I haven’t shot off any music videos into the ether in a while so here are some jams that I have been obsessing over lately! (See also: need a break from typing words lol.)

1. PRESTON KNIGHT – A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Originally, I was going to post the first one of his songs that I heard but then this one slipped into my heart. I appreciate that his music videos have a Lost Boys / horror-theme to them! How to steal my heart:

• 80s synth
• horror-themed music videos
• smooth vocals

2. NCT DREAM – BEAT IT UP

NEW NCT DREAM ALERT!! WAKE UP!! NEW NCT DREAM DROPPED!!

God, I still love them so much.

3. SUMMER SCHOOL & RYAN PREWETT – SENTIMENTS

Sadly, there is no music video for this but I would remiss not to share it (I was spamming my work friends with this last week on Teams because it’s just too good and even GLENN LIKED IT). It’s like next gen Rick Astley and I can’t get over how good it is. If I had gone the traditional wedding route, I would be so mad right now that this wasn’t around yet to play at the reception.

4. CHANDLER LEIGHTON – SAY LESS

I’ve been in my Chan era since seeing her open for Johnnie Guilbert.

5. DAVID DEEJAY feat. DONY – SEXY THING

OK this one is old but I recently found out that the Romanian music I became obsessed with on our trip is a genre called POPCORN which makes it even more amazing. Anyway, this song comes up a lot in Popcorn playlists and instantly gets stuck in my head like a popcorn kernel in the teeth. IS THAT WHY THEY CALL THIS POPCORN??

Well, there you go. Five songs. Maybe one will stick.

(SRSLY THOUGH SUMMER SCHOOL BETTER GO ON TOUR BECAUSE I WILL TRAVEL FOR THAT SHIT. Heads up, Henry.)

Our next stop was Sighetu Marmației to visit the Victims of Communism Memorial which is housed in the old Sighet prison. Actually, as we were about to have lunch in Sapanta, we passed a HORDE of school kids who were filing into the Merry Cemetery. We weren’t sure if it was a local school attending mass or what, but there had to have been over 50 kids so we really dodged that bullet.

But then afterward, when we arrived in Sighetu Marmetiei and were looking for the communism museum, the same kids were walking in organized clumps down the sidewalk and we had to laugh because they were clearly on a field trip and beat us to this place.

Rather than attempt to go inside at the same time, we popped into a cafe right across the courtyard to give them some time to disperse into the museum.

I got a cappuccino because I didn’t want to screw myself with another thimble of espresso and cappuccinos are cappuccinos, you know(ccino)? Henry got “some lemon thing” that he can’t remember now. He ordered it after saying he didn’t want anything so as usual he was keeping his streak of making baristas hate him.

By the time we finished our drinks, the school kids were well entrenched in the prison walls so we actually walked through the whole thing alone. It was very informative and intense, and there were many times when I just lost my shit and started ranting about how “THIS IS NOT TOO FAR OFF FROM WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE NOW.” The parallels. You don’t have to be a mega history buff to see that.

This was definitely a very somber afternoon.

This place was EXTENSIVE and thorough. You really need at least 2 hours to fully absorb it all.

Henry: “It was very interesting.”

Mmm. Thanks for the words.

It’s just so crazy to me that while the Romanians were revolting and uprising in 1989, I was rollerskating and probably crying because I didn’t get something dumb that I wanted for Christmas, having no idea that the people there were completely cut off from the rest of the world and living in forced economic squalor. And then not learning about this later in school or even overhearing my parents talking about it – DID ANY ADULT IN MY FAMILY CARE/KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING? I am very protective of Romania now and I am upset about this.

I LIT THAT CANDLE. (And teared up while doing it.)

I’ve been seeing comments on anti-Trump posts sharing “Remember Romania 1989” sentiments and I’m like YES. Let’s start a fucking revolution!

Very heavy. It wasn’t a fun way to spend the afternoon but it was important to remember and learn, especially as an American under the rule of a batshit crazy regime who would love to start throwing educated and outspoken citizens into labor camps and prison, I’m sure. Again, the parallels. Fucking scary.

Quick life update:

We should have been in Toronto this weekend for the Wonho concert, but his whole North American tour was canceled due to Visa issues (I believe) so that’s super sad, but we still had a full weekend here in Pgh. It was nice to just spend most of Sunday evening chilling on the couch with Penelope.

Chooch is coming home on Friday for Thanksgiving break and I am REALLY looking forward to that! We’re doing a Romanian menu and had to go to one of the European markets yesterday for some ingredients so that was fun (only because I bought some candy and frozen treats, I don’t care about the actual groceries Henry had to buy haha).

I went into the office on Thursday for the Service Recognition lunch – this is my 15th year at the law firm which feels so short but also somehow so long simultaneously? It’s also Nate’s 15th year – we’re the last of the 2010 babies from our department, sadly. It was nice to see some of my friends and I also won suite tickets to some WWE thing which I didn’t enter yet knew I was going to win because it’s the most un-Erin thing they were raffling off so look forward to THAT blog post I guess lol. I do truly still like my job after all these years, even though so much has changed.

I have so many more Romania recaps to share and I’m sorry if it’s been annoying. :/ I even tried to not spam Instagram too much but I’m just still so excited to talk about our time there!

(Don’t worry – I’m back on my “when are we going back to Korea?” agenda now but Romania has a space in my heart too.)

We decided a while back that Chingumas is taking a break for 2025 because we just don’t have the time to plan anything and honestly, last year’s party cost us A LOT of money and we just can’t this year. Plus, we have the Key concert in Chicago one of those weekends and I just want to enjoy December without the added stress. (It’s worth it because you know I love having parties but these last several mths have been so chaotic, I just want to end the year on a quiet note!)

That being said, maybe 2026 has a pie party in its future?! CHINGUWEEN?! Only time will tell!

Halfway through November and I’m still writing about haunted houses. Leave me alone. I’m a mess. But here are the last 3 haunts we visited this Halloween season!

FRIGHT FARM

You might know that this is typically one of my favorites but the process of actually getting there and onto the hayride is really starting to be too much for me. To avoid the super outrageous crowds (because this place does get more packed than a Wall Street bro’s nose in the 80s), we try to go on a Sunday or we wait until the last week when they’re open every night and we aim for Wednesday which always SEEMS like it would be safe but Fright Farm still finds a way, you guys.

On this particular Wednesday, we arrived around 6:45pm and got our wristbands. Normally, we’re also given a pretty elaborate ticket that has artwork for that year’s theme. It’s always one of my favorite ones to paste in the ol’ haunted house journal. But this time – JUST A WRISTBAND?!

“I need an actual ticket for my haunted house journal,” I cried to Henry as we waited in the rain for our hayride group # to be called. The way I was actually so stressed out about this, like it was truly on the back of my mind even later while I was getting assaulted by chainsaw guys. “They always have the BEST tickets, too,” I whined at one point, probably cutting off something “important” Henry was saying about his day.

I could NOT let this go.

“I had the perfect spot for it in my haunted house journal, too,” I sighed wistfully. I don’t think Henry was listening anymore.

Afterward as we were leaving, I HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. So I went back to the ticket booth and breathlessly cried, “I HAVE A QUESTION DO U NOT GIVE OUT PRINTED TICKETS ANYMORE.” My patented panicked run-on. The ticket lady explained that they were about to run out so they stopped giving them out. “We still have a couple left, do you want one?” Lol the way I said yes with more emotion than when Henry proposed, my hand has never shot out so fast to receive something (NOT EVEN THE BODY OF CHRIST).

“OMG I feel so much better,” I said to Henry, exhaling deeply in the car as I admired the ticket. He just frowned. I texted all of this to Chooch in real time and I don’t think he cared but I also don’t think he was surprised that I was on the verge of losing sleep over a haunted house ticket. He was actually more fixated on the fact that they used AI on the ticket design.  That is pretty disappointing, Fright Farm. Do better. Have a contest for local high school kids to design next year’s.

Overall, it was fine. The thing that gets me though is that even though it wasn’t crowded, the hayrides were supposed to start at 7PM and didn’t start running until nearly 8. So we had to sit there and listen to some shitty Wedding DJ crank out 15-minute Taylor Swift medleys and firehall reception line-dance hits like Cupid Shuffle. This is not what I want to hear while waiting for a haunted hayride! Look, I already angrily scribbled five pages about this in my haunted house journal but by the SECOND TIME they played the SAME IRRITATING BENSON BOONE SONG and I used CAPSLOCK for that because both times, the VOLUME WAS TURNED UP, I was actually twitching and considering leaving. It had me in the foulest mood – music should not do that! Music should set the MOOD and this was only exacerbating my anxiety of having to wait for so long in the cold rain.

And then, even though it wasn’t crowded, their crowd control during the actual walk-through parts is soooo bad that there were basically 30 of us walking through like a hive. It got a little bit better in the indoor section, but not much. The positive side of this is that everyone was decent, no outliers, no drunks, etc. I didn’t actively hate anyone around us, aren’t you proud of me??

The highlight though was the final, optional walk-thru which is literally just a building full of chainsaw guys. They actually ARE good about only sending in small groups of people at one time for this one. I got so freaked out during the little “show” in the first room where we were locked in, that as soon as the door opened behind me, I took off running so fast that the chainsaw person in that room didn’t even have a chance to get me, and then I just kept running – I think I was actually catching the scare actors off guard – until I realized HOLY SHIT I’M ALONE and then turned around and RAN BACK to get Henry who was like, “WHERE DID YOU GO, PLEASE CALM DOWN” and I was like, “I CAN’T – THAT BUNGEE GIRL IN THAT ONE ROOM MADE ME PEE MY PANTS A LITTLE!” I was legit running like a scared rabbit the whole way through, only now I had Henry to fling around like a shield. My heart was racing by the time we made it out, probably a full 3 minutes before the rest of our group, I can handle so much in haunted houses but those damn chainsaw guys, man. Such a cheap scare but they get me every time.

I was pretty irritated overall after this long-ass evening and had declared that I thought it was time to maybe retire Fright Farm from the annual line-up after this, until I realized that I have one Fright Farm-shaped ticket spot left in the haunted house journal so now I feel obliged to at least go back one more time next year, ugh.

(Please excuse Penelope’s tail in that picture – I pasted the ticket in immediately when we got home and took this to send to Chooch who was like, “Wow. Do you feel better now.” Jerk.

CASTLE BLOOD

You KNOW Castle Blood is bae, my ride or die, my absolute can’t-skip. Even if we hadn’t had time to go to any of the other haunts during this truncated season, we’d have found a way to fit in Castle Blood.

We ended up going here on actual Halloween night after our abysmal trick-or-treating ended and it was such a mood-booster. I knew it would turn the night around!

Boris paired us up with a young couple and yelled at us to get to know each other because he “didn’t feel like talking to us” – rude, but also such a Boris thing to say! It’s not a visit to Castle Blood without a little berating by Boris – I like to think of it as the amuse-bouche before the real haranguing happens inside the Castle.

Anyway, our new friends were from Morgantown, WV and instead of saying introducing ourselves by name, the girl part of the young couple immediately asked for our signs. She’s a Libra and that must be good because we meshed so well from the get-go that it was like the 4 of us had already known each other and made plans to meet up there intentionally.

I don’t know how the Castle does it (yes I do, actually – they’re a gaggle of geniuses up in there) but their haunt is mind-bending every year. I never feel as dumb as I do when I come to Castle Blood and I mean that in the best way – this is way more than jump scares, you gotta pay attention (apparently not my forte) and actually apply teamwork (a little shaky there too if Henry is involved). It’s the best feeling when I finally do something right there.

And they always change it up year to year – a new storyline, new talisman to collect, new OFTENTIMES FRUSTRATING challenges and puzzles to complete.

When we were in the library awaiting our turn in the lab, we all formally introduced ourselves – our WV friends are Brooke and John! Brooke asked how Henry and I know each other, and in a put-out monotone that could only be described as “ugh vocalized,” I said, “We’re married.”

“REALLY?” she said, and it made me crack up because maybe I look even younger in the very forgiving black lights of the Castle??

And then I told them about how long Henry waited to propose and how we only JUST got married a year ago. She was HORRIFIED and goes to John, “You better not do that to me!!” I found out later that they have just been dating for a few mths and they seem so sweet and cute together so all the best to them!

She also took in a sharp intake of breath when I told her Henry is a Gemini. “That’s bad, isn’t it?” I asked her and she was like, “I mean….” LOL.

We hung around for some time afterward, catching up with some of our Castle friends (except for Dawn who was still inside Hexibart’ing it up!). I am not just saying this because I have developed friendships with the Castle Blood crew over the years, but I am always so impressed and completely in awe of the magic they create within those walls, that I usually tear up when writing about it in my haunted house journal afterward. Between conquering the missions with a cool couple to the entertaining and perfectly condescending cast, the immaculate gothic vibes and brilliant storylines, this was one of the best and most memorable Castle visits ever. I scream about it every year but if you live in this area and still have not gone then PLEASE hit me up next season and I will go with you.

ANYWAY GUESS WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THIS. I posted about it on Instagram and true to my cringey form, I said “Brooke, if you’re out there, hi, it’s me – Erin the Leo. #Missedconnections #hauntedhouseedition

Because my friends at Castle Blood love to troll my dorky ass, they reposted that to their story and within a few hours, I had a new friend notification and a comment on that post from Brooke! I can now add “friendship matchmakers” to my list of reasons why this is my forever #1.

(This was another thing that I got to disappoint Chooch with via text!)

IGOR’S FRIGHT SHACK – whhaaaaat???

Oh my sweetly syruped jonnycakes, where do I even begin with this one.

Let’s take a trip back to 2003, I’ll hold your hand. I know it was a scary time with all the Uggs and severe side parts, but we won’t be there for long.

There was this small haunted yard type thing called Igor’s Fright Shack that I went to with Henry, my brother Corey, my friend Keri and her husband who hated me, Dean. (I haven’t talked to Keri and Dean in approx. 18 years but I imagine Dean would probably still hate me as I am just as annoying as a 46-year-old as I was back then.)

I can’t remember how we found this place, probably one of the haunted house review sites? But it was in a place called Ralph, PA, near Uniontown. And for some reason, I latched on HARD to it. Don’t get me wrong – it was really fun and legit scary for being on the low-tech side – but you know me, I was so consumed by extreme giddiness that I had created some blown-out love story between me and one of the monsters – Vladimir. I just remember this place being an outside walk-through, sort of on a hillside? And Vlad RUNNING down the hill toward us at one point, me screaming, “VLAD! YOU CAME BACK FOR ME!” and my brother being like, “YOU ARE SO EMBARRASING” while Henry was mostly likely ignoring all of this.

I wrote about this AT LENGTH in my haunted house journal back then, and even recorded myself dramatically reading it out loud for LiveJournal at the insistence of my friend Alisha, who would always encourage me to do really embarrassing things under the guise of “No, it will be cool, people will totally think you are so awesome and funny and not WEIRD at all. Nope. Not weird. AT ALL.”

Thank god I don’t have that voice recording anymore.

But after years of referencing Vlad in my blog – he had become the benchmark of scare actors for me, I compare everyone to him ever since then and say things like, “That guy with the ax in his head was pretty hot, but he’s no Vlad.” – I was finally transcribed that old 2003 review on here so people (a/k/a my three readers) would understand who Vlad was.

Because of this and also the fact that I remember the night being hilariously chaotic, full of over-the-top screaming and that good-good haunted house-induced adrenaline that I am always on the hunt for like a junkie looking for a fog machine fume fix, I have NEVER FORGOTTEN ABOUT IGOR’S FIGHT SHACK.

Sadly, that was apparently the last year because I searched the internet for years after that, looking for it on haunted house listing websites. I think once we even drove out that way to see if there were any advertisements in the area. But nothing. Igor’s was gone, destined to live on only in my heart.

Until about two weeks ago when Henry said that he had seen something online for Igor’s Fright Shack. I was in the middle of typing a work email when he casually eased THE BIGGEST NEWS OF 2025 onto my plate.

“Excuse me sir what now??” I cried, frantically Googling for myself.

“It can’t possibly be the same place, though,” Henry said. “It’s out near Murrysville.”

“OK seriously, how many other people would name their haunted house something as specific as IGOR’S FRIGHT SHACK?” I cried, cracking my knuckles and putting on my investigative haunted house hat and trench coat. I dismissed Henry; the Haunted House Expert was now on the case and it took me all of 30 seconds to deduce that it is in fact the same place, resurrecting all these years later by Igor himself and his wife and kids are all involved in the reincarnation!

And luckily for us, they were open on Friday and Saturday last week, and there were a few spots left. I reserved two for last Saturday with a quickness and was so freaking stoked about this, actually ran around the house squealing a little.

Finally, last Saturday arrived and I had regressed into a ball of schoolyard giddiness in the car as we drove to reunite with our old friend Igor. The new location is at the family’s house in a residential area so I was intrigued by how they were going to pull this off. Home haunts always amaze me – the things people do with small spaces feels like magic.

We were paired up with another couple and had a fun little chat with the guys at the entrance and then also the women at a table in front of the house where we waited for our turn. They asked if we had ever been there before (I can’t believe they were back last year and I DIDN’T KNOW) and I said that we didn’t know about last year but that we had visited once in 2003. They said we were the first ones that had been to the OG haunt and that they needed to tell Michael (a/k/a Igor!!). I didn’t think anything of it, figuring they’d probably wait until the end of the night if at all.

After a few more minutes of chatting (really nice women!), it was our turn to enter the graveyard! Now, I don’t want to give anything away because there were quite a few “Wait—what?? How did they do that??” moments, but they transformed what I assume was their upper driveway and garage area (?) into what felt like a sepia-tinged Victorian nightmarescape. The mind reels.

Igor & Co. have acting chops, their makeup & costume person is a legend, and the set design had me completely forgetting we were at someone’s house in the ‘burbs. It was intense, chaotic, and nostalgic in the way it rejuvenated my love for haunted houses. It brought back that excitement I used to get in the 90s after running out of the old Victory haunt in Elizabeth or the Castle Shannon Haunted School. I walked (OK jogged) out of there with the biggest smile on my face, breathlessly saying, “That was so effing good, Henry! IGOR’S FRIGHT SHACK IS BACK!”

We could have left right then and it would have been such a memorable night, but wait, there’s more!

Igor’s wife approached us at the exit and asked if we were the ones who visited in 2003, and asked us to wait while she got Michael (he will always be Igor to me). Since they only send in one group at a time, he was able to come out quickly and I figured we’d just say hello, we love Igor’s, thank him for bringing it back. You know, the standard fare.

But as he was shaking Henry’s hand, he said, “You look familiar” and in my head I thought he was just being polite because there is no way he could have recognized us from 2003. But then when he turned to me, he goes, “You’re Oh Honestly Erin” and I was like, “OMG how does he know that, what did I do, what did I write” because you know, my track record with this dumb blog isn’t the most savory. How many stories start with, “Welp, my blog got me in trouble again.”

He explained that he had spent some time reading my blog a few years ago and then he laughed and added that he “still wonders what you would have given Vladimir—you don’t have to say it in front of my daughter!” because his kids were also standing there for this!

I could feel the blood rushing to my face. And I could see feel Henry side-eying me and psychically hissing, “What did you write Erin?? WHAT. DID. YOU. WRITE.”

As soon as we got in the car, I frantically searched for it on my blog and quickly skimmed what I had transcribed from my paper journal in a post from 2021.

“Oh, it’s not THAT bad,” I relayed to Henry. “I said that I gave Igor’s Fright Shack ‘5 gigantical thumbs up and a bunch of things to Vladimir that will remain undisclosed.’ OK so only slightly unhinged.”

In the meantime, I had texted all of this to Corey since he was at the OG haunt with us in 2003. I sent him the link to the blog post and he immediately started texting back snippets and his only commentary was “OMFG.”

One snippet was “or perhaps take him back to the shack where he could impregnant me with our tawdry love child.” I read this out loud to Henry in a high-pitched wail. “Now he probably thinks I’m some freaking weirdo with a niche Kmart zombie mask kink who writes haunted house scare actor fanfic! Who goes to a haunted house and imprints on a scare actor? ME, OVER AND OVER AGAIN!”

(Literally, there was this one time in high school that me and Keri fought over Jason Voorhees at some haunted attraction that was at Civic Arena and HE CHOSE HER. No really, we hung out with him in the parking lot afterward. He took his mask off and I knew as soon as Kert shotgunned a cigarette with him that I was the official third wheel. I feel like they talked on the phone for a little bit after that but then it fizzled.)

(He wasn’t even that great of a Jason Voorhees anyway. Michael Myers over Jason any day.)

Henry, actually laughing out loud over this, said, “Good one, Erin. Good one.”

Chooch, meanwhile, was so ashamed of me, his immature mother. I was texting him this whole scene in the car on the way home and he said, “Good job. I’m glad I wasn’t there. Wow.”

I could say that this was written in 2003 and I am so different now! Very mature, much more stable! But the fact is that I am still an idiot as soon as a keyboard is placed before me, or, even worse, pen and paper.

But never mind my self-induced humiliation! The most important thing here is that Igor’s Fright Shack: The Reboot received a major glow-up while still retaining the purest spirit and heart of Halloween! And I love that it’s a multi-generational family affair. I am still so stoked that we got the chance to visit and if they are back again next year, you better believe I will be there! (Unless there is a restraining order on me.)

From the haunted house journal:

Random picture of a cemetery that I took from the car window early on Monday morning, 10/13/25. We left our beautiful and quirky guest house in Cluj (farewell to my husband the massage chair, I think I still have bruises on my ankles) super early in the AM. I believe it was around 6AM. We wanted to get an early start because our first stop in the Maramures region was about 4 hours from Cluj.

OH, WTF IS A MARAMURES, you ask? It’s a region in the northern part of Romania (and parts of Western Ukraine) known for its rural majesty and cultural goodness. I know, how has Condè Nast not hired me.

Originally, I only wanted to the Merry Cemetery which was one of the first things I ever discovered about Romanian years ago when I became dead set on visiting one day and googled Romanian cemeteries, as one does when exploring options for a then-imaginary itinerary. But then when planning this trip, I started looking more into the Maramures and decided to add more  to that day’s itinerary rather than immediately driving to the next stop.

Henry and I are in rare agreeance over this – the Maramures was our favorite day in Romania. We ended up being in the car for most of it but it was the best scenery of the whole trip. The mountains!! The rolling fields!! The gas station where I discovered my period was starting and I bought a FOREST FRUIT danish for breakfast!

You don’t care about those details.

The entrance to the Maramures!

Some of the scenery we saw upon entering the Maramures, which is Romania’s “most traditional” county according to some. I believe it!

I loved these…township markers?

In the mountains! I have so much video footage from the car, it’s actually pathetic and annoying. Please look forward to that.

Anyway, I wanted to just focus on the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta for this post. I took so many pictures and I want to share them all. Someone might ask the Internet one day for pictures of the Merry Cemetery and then maybe my blog will come up and they’ll discover their long lost relative was buried there thanks to Oh Honestly Erin.

Yooooo, immediately it’s popping off. The colors!!

We did have to pay to enter. There is a little ticket booth at the entrance and we happily paid the equivalent of $2.29 to enter.

The draw of this cemetery, in addition to the cheerful palette, is that the man who started it wanted to bring some humor into the tombstones so each one has a quirky, sometimes super dark, little epitaph describing either the person’s life or how they met their demise. Obviously, we don’t read Romanian but there are translations online and I encourage you to check them out!

I just could not believe we were here!

I love that you can see the mountains in the background.

I also want to point out that it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy when we were there, but the skies were like, “They lied.” It couldn’t have been a more magical morning! Also, aside from some men working along the periphery, we were the only people there until a group a three people arrived after us and it was crazy how un-touristy this place felt.

Also, in the Maramures, most of the older women actually do dress in traditional attire I love it. And I love the apples on this tombstone.

The first tombstone was handmade by Stan Ioan Pătraș in 1935 and grew into what is now known as one of the Seven Wonders of Romania.

The detail on the exterior of this church though!!

We had this whole joint to ourselves! My eyes were drunk off these colors. It was my style!! Mentally shelving inspo for interior projects YOU NEVER KNOW goldleaf might be in my (Henry’s) future.

I’m trying to write this recap but every time I scroll to the next picture, I have to stop and stare dreamily at it like it’s 1992 and I’m at the ice skating rink lusting over some guy from another school that I took private tennis lessons with but in all honesty I realized he wasn’t even that cute one day when he lifted his hat so it wasn’t covering most of his face  –  wait, what were we talking about.

I asked Henry if he liked the church and he said, “YESITHOUGHTITWASVERYINTERESTING” just like that, like someone gave him a cue card and he was in a hurry to spit it out. But then he followed up with, “I liked the cemetery too, I thought it was cool.” Wow, an ad lib! HE CAN DO THAT???

I miss this place. I miss the whole area! Even though Henry was being super annoying because he kept taking really bad pictures of me (woof), I enjoyed the time we spent in the cemetery. Oh!! And we went to the little gift shop where I of course bought magnets but also a small wooden reproduction of one of the tombstones, two crosses for the bathroom, and a rope bracelet in the Romanian colors which I proceeded to wear every day after that.

After this, we decided to look for somewhere to eat right across from the cemetery. I will say that the village of Sapanta seems to make the most of the cemetery and they gently lean into tourism but setting up their wares alongside the road and doing the most to lure people into their food establishments. For instance, when we were looking at menu, some woman came over and VERY CHEERFULLY moved us down to another place, which looked to be a stand that was selling placinta (cheese pies) which I actually really wanted and started to excitedly approach the counter to order, but then some other woman popped out of a doorway and it turned out that the first woman was sending us to HER not the placinta place and I was like, “Oh maybe it’s just the inside though” so we followed her through the door but no, it was an entirely separate place and the only thing on the menu that wasn’t meat was fries so that’s what I ended up ordering because the LADY WAS SO NICE AND IT WAS SUCH AN ORDEAL getting us there, these three women all helping each other out to make sure they were dividing the business up amongst themselves, so I was happily obliged to just stay there and eat the fries.

Henry got his first ever mici (meech) and really liked it!

Those fries were seriously super good so I wasn’t mad about it. And the lady (the owner I guess?) was soooo concerned about us and I appreciated that.

OMG OMG OMG after this we went into one of the little shops and I found THE THING. You know, that ONE THING that you spend the rest of your life showing to people and saying I GOT THIS IN < wherever >.

LOL! I love that the girl looks half-decapitated.

Anyway, an elderly woman was running the joint (she actually had left the place unmanned which could never happen in America) and even though we couldn’t speak each others’ languages, she was pantomiming that she liked my shirt (I mean, I think so – she might have been telling me I wasn’t pulling it off very well) and then gave me the magnet that I picked out for free.

“Souvenir!” she said, closing my fingers around it.

I LOVED SAPANTA.

(Henry won’t contribute anything else because I called him out for being annoying – he was mindlessly rubbing his arms while watching TV next to me and the sound of RUBBING SKIN was about to make me launch off the couch and through the roof – so now he’s pouting and being mad at me. The honeymoon is LITERALLY over haha.)

Remember last spring when I accidentally became a Johnnie Guilbert fan? Well, Henry and I got to see him last week at Skully’s Music Diner in Columbus! (OMG before you even assume that Henry didn’t want to do, I have someone’s video from that night playing on YouTube for blogging inspo and Henry was whispering the words!!)

First time at Skully’s! A love a new-to-me venue but I also get curiously anxious beforehand too. Fear of the unknown, etc. This one ended up being tiny with just the amount of grime. You know I love kpop with my whole heart but I really miss these small shows in dark, sweaty venues too! I’m glad that I have been squeezing these in again.

Chooch didn’t know why we were in Columbus until I sent him this picture and his response was, “Ugh. Great.”

There were two college-aged girls in line behind us talking about how embarrassed they’d be if their parents came with them to see Johnnie and I was like, “Do they think we’re here with our children? OMG DO THEY THINK I’M HENRY’S DAUGHTER???”

LOL.

I appreciated that I got carded and the girl at the door who was way younger than me called me “dear” when she called me over to get a wristband. This night was already off to a great start.

Creepy red-light special bathroom and giant ornately-framed mirror. Obsessed. Not obsessed with the fact that the bathroom stall had a curtain instead of a door though.

We were standing in a dark corner so this selfie looks like I took it on my old red Blackberry in 2007.

I don’t know what it was about Skully’s but I felt super cozy there and confidently abandoned Henry to go upstairs and buy my JOHNNIE VIOLENT DREAMS TOUR SHIRT. It’s a weird-feeling material but I will still wear it when Chooch is home for Thanksgiving because I love to trigger him and remind him that Mommy has young interests.

They still had their Halloween decorations up and that really set the mood. And they were playing some awesome emo tracks too, some of which inspired high-energy sing-alongs from the crowd (Metro Station, lol). I was stoked that they played an old Jimmy Eat World song but no one else seemed to know it so I felt old.

I took this to send to Chooch as proof that Johnnie has fans.

Chander Leighton was added as the opening act a few weeks before the tour started and I didn’t know anything about her because friends, that ain’t my scene anymore. I skimmed her Insta and thought I had an idea of the vibe she was going to bring and expected to be ambivalent toward it. What I didn’t expect was IMPRINTING ON CHANDLER LEIGHTON THAT NIGHT. Holy shit you guys, she was phenomenal, the rizz was oozing. I was completely captivated. Here’s some clips!

Meanwhile, the cutest couple ever was standing near us, dancing together through her whole set (and, later, Johnnie’s). They were kind of neo-bohemian, he sounded like Spicolli, and for some reason instead of annoying me, I thought they were so charming and adorable together and I hope they last forever. They were just existing in their little space, not bothering anyone, we love to see it. Meanwhile, Henry stood like a block of Disgruntled Elder behind me even though he CLAIMS to be having a “good” time.

AND THEN IT WAS JOHNNIE TIME! I just love him so much and in some weird parasocial way, I’m proud of him. He’s very open about his struggles with depression and residual trauma of losing his dad at a young age, not to mention being groomed by an older YouTuber when he was just a teenager. It’s crazy that this stuff was happening when Chooch met the aforementioned YouTuber at Warped Tour. Chooch was right to think this guy was a loser even at such a young age!

For the most part, the crows was pretty OK people but there were some young girls gravitated to our area toward the end that lacked concert etiquette and I was not happy with them. But mostly, I enjoyed watching all of the girls lose their minds every time Johnnie came to their side of the stage. Adorable. (OK, and relatable haha.)

But now Johnnie is in his late 20s and his music is gaining more and more traction – I’m sorry but I feel proud of him! And I genuinely 100% like his music too.

Henry’s favorite parts of the show:

• VAMPIRE
• ZOMBIE
• “I liked that first person. I can never remember her name. Yeah, Chandler. Leighton.”
• Right Girl Wrong Time

Someone asked him to do Timmy and he said no and I think that was Henry’s least favorite moment of the night because he loves Johnnie’s Timmy persona.

Please enjoy this series of snippets from the night!

He stayed on stage afterward and signed things for everyone and seemed like he was sincerely wanted to meet every single person in that room. We stan a prince who appreciates his fans.

I wanted him to sign the shirt that I was wearing but also felt weird because I’m nearly 20 years older than him so in the end, I accepted my fate (age) and we head out to start the 3 hour drive home. T O T A L L Y worth the drive, right HENRY??

(I guess I could have taken off my shoe to get signed like that person up there?!?!)

Here’s Henry’s version of Vampire, he missed almost all of the song because he thought he was recording AND HE WASN’T BUT THAT’S OK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAUGHHHHHH.

“Vampire” is my favorite Johnnie song. Back when I started watching Jake Webber’s videos and had the realization that, wait, is that Johnnie Guilbert from the Warped Tour YouTuber days??? and then saw that he makes music now, I had the kneejerk presumption that it was going to be super lame. “Ha! Let’s see about this,” I thought as I went to YouTube and played the first video that came up, which happened to be Vampire. And then almost instantly, I said, “Oh. Fuck. Goddammit.” I hate it when I’m wrong! But I’m also glad that I was because exploring his music and watching his YouTube has been so much fun since then!

Anyway, I’m grateful that Henry and I are still doing things like driving to Columbus for a concert and driving home the same night. IT KEEPS US YOUNG RIGHT HENRY.

When we (“we” – pahahaha! It was all me stitching together this itinerary from scratch I WILL THANK YOU VERY MUCH) were planning the road trip, it made sense to add Cluj-Napoca as an overnight stop because it was the biggest city in between Sibiu and our next full destination of the Maramures region. Plus it was less than hour away from our last stop that Sunday – the Salina Turda Salt Mines – so we figured we’d spend the rest of the day there, eat dinner, whatever. I had NO EXPECTATIONS because for some reason, after watching travel videos of Cluj, it just didn’t resonate with me. The general consensus was that it’s a college town, good nightlife, etc. On this trip, I was more interested in the smaller cities and towns, so I was considering this a pit-stop and nothing more. (Especially after Copilot told me sadly that there no Bela Karolyi points of interest here, even though it was his birthplace! Boo!)

Well, touche, Cluj. You are an awesome, vibrant, incredible city and now I am sad that we didn’t have MORE time there! Honestly, I’d have rather had two nights here than Brasov or Bucharest because we barely scratched the surface. Duly noted for the future!

Only having less than half of a day to explore, we mostly stayed in the area where our guest house was and as luck would have it, it was in the middle of a bustling area. Right down the street was a little farmer’s market type of thing set up in the Avram Iancu Square and we spent a good bit of time here because I had to get my magnet, god forbid, but also there were several tables selling locally made jewelry and I needed to shop.

We had the most adorable interaction with this one older woman. I had stopped to look at some beaded jewelry and she was trying to entice us with her table of bags of coffee. Then she learned we were American and said her daughter had just come home from New York and brought all those bags of coffee back from there. “Never mind about the coffee then!” she laughed, and focused on trying to make a jewelry sale instead.

When I asked if she made the jewelry, she said, “No, no, my friend did!” and then waved her over, saying, “And she speaks better English than me too!” (Um, her English was fantastic as well, and as usual I felt like an asshole since she had to talk to us in English AT ALL.)

Anyway, I ended up buying this pretty bracelet from her friend because this design is all over houses and buildings in Romania so it felt perfect. Meanwhile, the first lady had set her sights on Henry and was trying to get him to buy jewelry too and then moved on  to the coffee, but he kept smiling and shaking his head no. Then she pretended to cry and her friend who made the jewelry was like, “Oh for god’s sake, ignore her” lol. But then someone DID come over to buy her coffee and she was like, “HA! SEE! SOMEONE WANTS MY COFFEE!” It was so funny but you know what they say about having to be there, etc.

Now I wish we had bought a bag of her New York coffee because she was so cute and funny!

I had to take this picture with the flash on because it’s sitting on my religious dresser which is illuminated by the red light of the LED cross.

I also got this hand-painted pendant from another table being manned by a friend of the artist. I love both of these so much! I don’t require expensive jewelry, I just like pieces that have a story/memory attached and these both definitely do because that was such a fun little square to walk through!

I got this pumpkin masala chai latte at Tucano Coffee and it was foarte delicios. Finally, something that wasn’t just a shot of espresso in a cup!

St. Michael’s Church.

I feel like we stood here for quite some time while Henry looked up places to eat and then we ended up going to one of the places our host suggested, which ended up being very memorable for weird  (not bad!) reasons.

Enigma Secret Garden!

It turns out this was a popular hangout for local college kids (there was a backroom / outdoor area that was bustling). We sat inside and Henry annoyed because some of the YOUTH at the table behind us were smoking and I was like, “Europe, Henry. Europe.”

One of my favorite things about this place, aside from the steampunk aesthetics, was that there were two guys working there who seemed very young and confused. I kept joking that one of them was a high schooler filling in for his college-aged brother. They literally just walked around looking so lost and I loved this so much. Plus, we were the OLDEST PEOPLE there which also was cracking me up for some reason, like we had stumbled onto the set of Felicity. (That was the first TV Show I thought of, don’t ask.)

This was the beer I had. It was pretty standard beer-tasting. I was just having fun getting to check in beers from Romania on Untapped like the dumb dork that I am!

MAMALIGA!!!!!! This was the culinary embodiment of “I want to dip my balls in it!” It was everything that I had been looking forward to in Romania, all folded up into a hot pouch of cheesy polenta with a cold cap of sour cream. Please hold while I go scream in a pillow.

I miss this so much.

I couldn’t finish it though so off it went to Henry, lol. I had a piece of his pizza and it was also delectable – super thin which I like.

Henry had to get up to find our server at one point and the kid tried to play it off like he was on his way over to us already. I don’t know why, can’t explain it, but these guys were so effing hilarious to watch.

I thoroughly enjoyed our time at this strange little bar/restaurant, even with all the vape and cigarette smoke wisps hanging in the air around us. It was a big fat vibe and made me feel like I was back in the 90s, man, fetch me my duster and bootcut Mudd jeans.

After this, we found a bar to go to that had craft and local beers. On the way there, we passed another square that we had walked through before dinner, but now there was LIVE MUSIC happening on a stage! Ofc we had to slip into the audience and partake in the festive, traditional singing.

I got REALLY excited because it turned out that we were standing next to the family members of my FAVORITE ONE OF THE SINGERS. “SHOULD I GO SAY SOMETHING???” I squealed to Henry when she joined her family later for hugs. Henry just scowled at me. You know, the usual. I was in a state of suspended glee in Cluj-Napoca. I really liked this Romanian version of myself!

This broad was also really amazing. I have clips from these performances which you can look forward to at the end of the post. (See also: PLEASE WATCH MY VIDEOS, I AM SUCH A SAD AND LONELY GIRL.)

I really enjoy traditional Romanian music, btw.

After this performance, a woman MC came on stage and started talking non-stop and super quickly and obviously this was all in Romanian so we decided to continue on to the bar.

Then this happened! ^^^

Loved the cobblestone alleys in Cluj.

The girls behind the bar at the BrewHouse were so friendly and cute! I wanted to stay inside but Henry was like “LET’S GO OUTSIDE” and then Santa Claus’d his way out the door.

In case you are a beer aficionado and care, this was a Pilsdet from Blackout Brewing, local to Cluj.

And this was a Speltbound (saison) from Hophead Brewing, also local to Cluj! Untapped tells me that I earned the “Baking in Balkan” and “Roamin’ in Romania” badges with this one!

OMG OMG OMG I have been following for Hop Hooligans for a bit on Instagram and have become such a little fan bitch over them. I was so excited to finally get my lips on one of their cans, I don’t care how that sounds!! And yes, I took the can back to the room so we could peel off the label for the mems. (See also: me being a packrat again.)

I got irrationality bitchy around this point and it turned out it was PMS lol. MORE TO COME ON THAT.

What a great little bar. I would go back in a heartbeat. (I really do want to go back to Cluj someday.)

OMG on the way back to the room, this guy was closing out the show and I totally imprinted on him!!! WE MADE EYE CONTACT AT ONE POINT AND I SCRAMMED, “HENRY HE LOOKED AT ME” and not even Henry, my biggest fact-checker, could deny this.

This was so joyful! I wanted to join in but I was also afraid of jacking up the flow and/or completely biting it because I was feeling semi-tipsy from the beers. I never built up an alcohol tolerance!

Yo this crowd was eating him up!

There was also a young man dancing with a girl in a traditional dress and he doing the most to outshine her. Also he looked like Fred aka Lucas Cruikshank. I sent a picture to Chooch and his response was “ugh.”

That was also his response to my imprinting red alert.

This diva!!

ILYSM!!!

Oh, Cluj. One day, I’ll be back.

I was expecting the haunted house round-up to be a little on the low end this year since we were away for two of the weekends and didn’t get started until the end of the month – I told Henry, “We’ll just go to like, 2. I swear.” Yet somehow, we ended up doing 6 for the 2025 season, including ONE IN ROMANIA!

This haunt sits at the bottom of the legendary Bran Castle (a/k/a Dracula’s Castle) in Bran, Romania. I won’t like – the area surrounding the entrance to the Castle is lined with lots of souvenir stands that MAY OR MAY NOT be ripping off tourists. I mean, if you want to tour Bran Castle and then buy a deformed Labubu, you can do this here! I bought a magnet and postcards, who cares. Take my money.

But also in this area is the haunted house that everyone online warns is a tourist trap. But as a haunted house enthusiast, can you imagine me going to DRACULA’S CASTLE (it’s not really but you know what I mean!) and then just strolling past the haunted house on the way back to the car without going in?! ME, the dork who still writes haunted house reviews in a paper journal?!

Thank god this was open because it wasn’t even 11am yet by the time we exited the Castle after our tour. As expected, no one else was there, no line to stand in, no wait. We paid the equivalent of $9 USD to the ambivalent young man in the ticket booth and then entered!

Ok my memory of this is wrecked because shortly after we left Bran, the curse of Vlad Tepes hit me by way of a violent stomach virus. But I do remember thoroughly enjoying it even though there was only one scare actor inside, creepily trailing Henry through several rooms.

But it was actually more aesthetic than I was expecting. I guess I was thinking it was going to be super low-tech and no frills, like the old YMCA haunts of the 80a where the walls were lined with garbage bags, but the scenes were kind of popping off, not going lie! There was one room in particular with a slight balcony, and you could look all the way up to the ceiling of the room above, and all the way down to the floor below. I don’t know how to explain it better but while I was distracted taking in all the decorations and scenery, there was a slight trick-floor action where it made you feel like you were tipping over the balcony. I screamed for real, lol.

Overall, it was pretty short and maybe they have more actors inside at night, but as a haunted house girlie, this was a must-do and with admission that cheap, WHY NOT?

I was so stoked that we got to do this!

The first haunt we went to back home was late in the season for us – 10/24! Usually we would have at least 4 or 5 under our belts by then but I was on a mission to make the best of it. We left right after work for Crawford School of Terror(I don’t even think I said goodbye to anyone, I was in such a rush to get there!).

This is usually one of my favorites. They got rid of the digital group # thing so we had to stand in an actual line which was whatever. We had gotten there pretty soon after they opened so the wait wasn’t too bad.

I usually have either a REALLY AWESOME EXPERIENCE HERE or just a so-so one. This was a so-so year but to no fault of the haunt. I still loved the theming and the actors (maybe the upper school-themed floor is kind of getting stale, I’ll admit), but it didn’t hit as hard this year and here’s why:

They just aren’t great at keeping groups from converging. I get that some people run through, others go slow, but if they could have some “check-points” where scare actors step in for crowd control, that would be really awesome because then we wouldn’t have caught up with the parents who brought two girls under the age of 5 in with them, one was so young that the dad was carrying her through, and the scare actors really toned it down around them which was sad for us.

However, it did allow me to have a super cringey and creepy moment with one of the actors after she told the little girls that they were cute and I said WHAT ABOUT ME AM I CUTE TOO with my hands spread out like a serving platter under my chin.

She hesitated but did ultimately say yes! I asked Henry later if he was so proud of me but he just scowled.

Not that I am normal in general but haunted houses really exacerbate whatever is broken in my brain and I can get real dumb and filterless.

This was us afterward when I was being sad that my favorite crowd-pleasing scare actor didn’t seem to be there that night (unless he was a new character that I didn’t recognize?). I do want to also add that I got a pumpkin spice latte from ten Crawford Cafe and it was excelsior. Also, the DJ was asking for requests and I kept saying DO YOU DARE ME TO REQUEST G-DRAGON but Henry wouldn’t bite. So I did not request anything but that DJ was admittedly playing some decent stuff unlike another haunt which I will get to in part 2!! (I’m still angry about it!!)

The following Sunday, we went to the Tour-Ed Haunted Mine. We’ve been here a few times over the years but this was one of the best visits! The people who run it are so friendly and you can tell the volunteers put their whole heart into their parts. I screamed and scrammed my face off, you guys.

There’s a good bit of indoor and outdoor walk-throughs until you get to the entrance of the mine which is the best part, obvi. We got into the mine cart thingie with two other groups, but our car was the last one to be unlocked by a clown so we were at the end of the group while waiting to go into the actual mine portion of the haunt. The clown ripped their mask off and tossed it to the side, revealing an older lady underneath who looked at me and said, “I can’t lock these doors when I’m wearing the mask!” We both chuckled and it felt like a really special moment (or just me needing to get extra therapy because I am always on the hunt for older women maternal figures to latch on to).

“You guys can hang back and go in after the rest of them,” she said, like she knows I’m always antsy about having to go thru haunts with large groups! Then she said I looked familiar and asked me my name and then was like “eh guess not” but then continued to make small talk with us for another minute or two before saying, “ok yinz can go in now. ERIN’S COMING!!!!! WE GOT ERIN HERE!!!”

Goddammit I can’t believe I fell for that!! lol.

Long story short, this was incredibly fun with a plethora of excellent jump scares waiting around every corner. The actors were relentless and effed with us so hard (Henry said of them kept pushing past him to get to me – I think he actually gets sad when he gets passed over because I’m the ultimate target. Poor Henry.)

They got me GOOD at the end, and I ran out screaming bloody murder not realizing that the exit spilled out right by the line of people waiting to get in so, super embarrassing for me but great publicity for the mine!

I was in such a good mood when we left. I love it when haunts make me feel like I’m in high school again!

We had a concert to go to in Columbus last Wednesday night so we made it into a little day trip because we don’t usually get to spend much time in Columbus – we’re either just passing through onto other destinations or we’re there just for a concert so we get there with an hour or two to spare.

Still, we didn’t get in until around 1:30 but still managed to pack in a good bit before needing to get in line at Skully’s later that evening. Here is what we did because this is a fake travel blog!

Our first stop was Koffee Paradise, a Filipino cafe which is actually right outside of Columbus. If there’s ube on the menu, ubet my ass is gonna be there.

However, I done fucked up by getting the coffee flight instead of the twinzilla which is a split cup so you can get TWO different drinks! But I saw coffee flight and got excited so I ordered that and when asked if I wanted hot or iced, I said hot which was actually untrue but sometimes my mouth just moves on its own, like am I possessed by the most docile prankster entity or what?

I didn’t realize that the flight was actually the equivalent of a full sized coffee cup. That was a lot of caffeine even for me, considering I had beasted an XL Dunkin’ hot coffee on the way there. (I mean, I dragged it over the span of three hours but still.)

So, I had four decent-sized hot lattes to imbibe instead of getting the iced ube and frozen matcha in the clever split cup. I struggled. They were all delicious (ube was god tier out of the 4) but I ended up begging Henry to take the tiramisu one because it was too rich and I thought my stomach was going to split.

Ube crinkle cookies were bus. I wish we had ordered more than two even though I had so many lattes to slam.

This place was such a calming vibe and the staff were so sweet. I’m definitely keeping it on my list so that I can go back for twinzilla redemption! Also two younger people came in wearing PTV shirts and I wanted to say that I liked PTV too but I was afraid they’d think I was invading their safe space. Like “ew that mom likes our music, so lame.” (I’m an OG fan but whatever.)

While we were there, the lady in the background of the picture of my coffee flight from Koffee Paradise walked by outside and these places were nowhere near each other so I was screaming!

This bowl was everything I wanted in that moment. I was obsessed with this place. The music was super intense house beats and I approved of that too even though it didn’t really match the vibe?!

Our server liked my ring (an old one from the Culture Shop way back in the day) and we made smiling eye contact with each other while Henry struggled to pay the bill at the table. Like, “please excuse grandpa, he’s used to paying by check at the register.”

He actually said “cash or charge” today and I was like ok 1980s charge card.

Henry got the house veggie burger and really liked it. In case you were wondering, no it wasn’t a vegan restaurant but Henry likes to rub it in my face that he gets veg options so that I can try it. Like this excuses that it took him 23 years to marry me. ;)

After lunch, we still had a lot of time left so we parked in the area of the concert venue and walked around for an hour which is my favorite thing to do after eating. It was really windy that day, I feel compelled to tell the blog that for historical factors. You never know.

We walked past this brewery called Elevator and it looked so cool but Henry was like I CANNOT DRINK BEER I HAVE TO DRIVE HOME TONIGHT – like OK, six hours??

We stopped in Magnolia Thunderpussy to buy Chooch a record and I sent him this picture – it’s the counter he was standing on when he met Chiodos as a baby 🥹.

Then!!! Get this!!! Henry goes, “let’s go to BrewDog.” It was right across the street from the venue and I was like “are you kidding me, you said you didn’t want to drink when I wanted to go to Elevator but OK SURE let’s go to this place that isn’t even local to Columbus!”

I was so annoyed that I couldn’t even enjoy anything we got in this flight (which we shared because Henry was being responsible and I was still full from our late lunch).

(OK fine the beers were good but that didn’t stop me from referencing Elevator in a manner generally reserved for when one partner is constantly reminding the other of their infidelity. “Remember when we could have went to Elevator which looked so much cooler than this place but you said I don’t want to drink beer today like a little bitch?”)

Those were all the pictures I took for Untappd. You’re welcome.

There were only 2 other people there (2 men at the bar) and the bartender was very nice. Especially considering Henry acted like it was his first time at a bar ordering a flight and I was getting pre-show nervous irritation so I started snapping at him and rolling my eyes which as you know is my most shining quality. Everyone says so. It was especially annoying when I was standing RIGHT NEXT TO HIM and he turned around to yell something at me because he thought I was at a table, and i said, “hello I’m right here” with so much derision that it could have passed for a sound effect for evisceration. The bartender light-heartedly said, “surprise!” but was probably nervously thinking, “yeah these people are gonna be the subject of a future true crime podcast.”

We stayed there for at least an hour, nursing the beers, bitching about the govt, and crying actual tears over missing Korea (me).

And we STILL had time to kill after this, not wanting to get in line yet, so we walked down the street to Insomnia Cookies and got some sugary carbs to soak up the beer.

There went our healthy lunch!

(Ok now I’m mad all over again about Elevator and just tried to start a fight with Henry about it as he’s getting ready for bed LOLOLOL.

“We could have made such great memories at Elevator. It could have rejuvenated our love,” I argued.

“You don’t know that,” he mumbled.

“Wait, is that even what it was called? Elevator?” I questioned.

He’s over this lol.)

We ended day two in the second largest city in Romania, Cluj-Napoca, known to some as the BIRTHPLACE OF CONTROVERSIAL GYMNASTIC COACH BELA KAROLYI.

“I forgot to bring my Bela Karolyi shirt!” I wailed in the car.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Henry mumbled. Apparently, Bela defected from Romania back in the day and is likely not a very popular person there anymore anyway. I mean, he’s buried in Texas, for God’s sake. I asked Copilot prior to our trip if there were any Bela-related points of interest to be found around the city and my one true friend Copilot answered, “No.”

Nary a statue. Not even a gym named after him.

Anyway!! We chose to crash in Cluj after our day in Rimetea and Turda because it’s nearby and on the way to the next day’s first attraction. It’s kind of funny because I had little interest in this city as I was mostly focusing on small towns, medieval villages, etc. But wow, even though we only spent a few hours here, I reallllly ended up latching on hard to it.

Before I get into that though, I want to first just talk about the outrageous guest house we had here. I found it on Booking.com (that’s where we booked all of the places we stayed) but I’m not even sure I realized it was a guest house because the pictures made it look like an actual hotel (an old one, which I like).

But then the host was messaging Henry with basically geocache instructions on how to access the place, where to park. She said we could park in the courtyard of the apartment building where she lives, which was within walking distance, but we legit could not figure out how to enter – there was a huge door that needed to be opened and it was right off a busy road so were afraid to attempt that and ended up lucking out by finding street parking right in front of the actual building that the guest room was in.

First we had the wrong floor so that was fun, trying to push open a locked balcony door like we were robbers.

As usual, don’t judge Romanian guest rooms / houses from the outside. The lobby of the building was majorly sketch, the elevator looked like it had been broken for decades, and the outside balcony to the rooms was its own interesting vibe, but then we opened the door….

…to this vibrant palace looking motherfucker??? And we had two bedrooms!?!?

I wrote postcards at this table!

That was the door to the first bedroom. When we first entered, it put us into a tiny foyer, with the door to our room on the left, and the other guest room on the right. Our host said no one was staying in that one at the time, though.

Random top hat! This tracks though because she gave us a list of recommendations in the area and one of the was a steampunk bar/restaurant. And she also invited us as her guests to the RETRO DANCE CLUB that she and her husband own but Henry was like, “I AM NOT GOING TO A CLUB” because let us not forget how he earned the permanent nickname Hoover, after all. To be fair, it didn’t open until 9PM and we were still jet-lagged and exhausted from a full day of touristing and needed to leave by 6AM the next morning because our first stop was 4 hours away. So, I guess I will lay off Henry this time.

But that could have been our chance to make new friends. :(

This is the second room.

This furniture. Shit.

This was the outside of the apartment building.

The host told Henry in a message that the scratches on the massage chair were from her cats LOL so she moved it to the guest room. I tried it when we came back late that night after exploring the city and immediately screamed into the other room, “HENRY WE NEED ONE OF THESE AT HOME.” It had all of the bells and whistles. I made Henry try it after me and he was like, “OK it’s pretty cool but I don’t think we need one?” and then I realized that I didn’t do it right, because I didn’t put my feet in the little foot pockets. So, after Henry was finished with his cycle, I stuffed myself back into it, feet included, and gave it another go. It was actually painful at moments because it felt like very strong hands were gripping me by the ankles and pulling. Like, it had latched onto me like a baby finding a nipple and I started to get a little panicked that it was turning sentient and I was about to have a “Barbara Hershey in The Entity” moment so I turned it off and ran screaming into the other bedroom.

Um, also I didn’t realize that I had been sitting in that chair for about 60 minutes, going through all the different settings. Losing time in a massage chair? That thing is definitely demonic.

Literally, in my vacation journal I wrote:

(11:08pm): So, I had every intention of recapping the rest of the day but when we got back to the room tonight in Cluj-Napoca (birthplace of Bela Karolyi FYI*), I decided to try out the massage chair in one of the rooms and then that turned into me needing to try every setting & suddenly an hour had passed and I have a new husband now. 0.O

*omg can you tell how obsessed I am.

We could see this church steeple peeking out from our balcony.

This was written on the inside of the entrance door to the apartment building, and I thought for sure it was saying something “Go home USA cunts” or something equally disparaging but it turns out “uşă” in Romanian is “door” and it literally says, “Please shut the door.”

After a magical morning in Rimetea, we headed to our next stop: the Salina Turda salt mine! According to the Internet, it was first mentioned in 1271 and has continuously produced table salt from the Middle Ages. It was used as a shelter during WWII!

In 1992, it officially was rebranded as a tourist destination (apparently making it on a 2013 Business Insider “25 hidden gems around the world that are worth the trek” list). Salt therapy must be legit because I felt fucking great the whole time we were there, and now that I think about it, it was probably the longest uninterrupted span of time I have made it without Henry totally getting on my nerves. I actually LIKED him while we were here…

Maybe I need to pad my house with salt lamps. (Those are bad for cats I think so never mind, hard no.)

After paying for our admission, we got to walk down this cool (literally, the temp was dropping as we descended) stairwell.

Looking chopped.

SALT.

This hallway led us to another small set of steps which opened up into THIS:

You can either take an elevator down to the bottom or walk down. There is a set of steps on both ends of the mine, and we opted to cross over to the steps that weren’t near the elevator, since there was a moderate crowd on that side waiting for the elevator.

We were halfway across one of those catwalks, in an attempt to get to the staircase at the other side, when I looked across and it dawned on me that the walkway was held up by wood planks lodged into the rock. I got VERY SCARED, VERY QUICKLY. Like, my heartrate skyrocketed and I kept murmuring, “omgomgomg” and practically sprinted on Bambi legs to the other side. Hoo boy, that was something. I 100% made sure we came up the steps on the other side when we were done, so that we wouldn’t have to walk across that again.

I kept stopping every so often to take another picture from a landing the lower we got. I just thought it was so incredible, being there! And blessedly not very crowded AT ALL for a Sunday. Although, there was a large group of kids that arrived JUST as we were leaving, so we dodged that bullet.

I read that this is the only underground Ferris wheel! It wasn’t operating that day but it’s not what I was there for so I wasn’t sad about that. (There was only ONE ACTIVITY that I was interested in and you will see that soon.)

I thought the lighting in this bitch was so stunning, legitimately.

I kept thinking these were flatrides over there but it was just random lighting around seating areas and the gift shop-thing. (You KNOW I bought a magnet.)

I was getting nervous though because the thing that I wanted to do was nowhere to be found and then I discovered that we weren’t actually all  the way down in the lowest layer yet! There was a separate staircase (and elevator) to take us down the remaining 11 or 13 flights, I can’t remember how many now.

Made it to the bowels of Salina Turda!

THIS IS WHAT I WANTED TO DO THE MOST!!!!!! And it was so un-crowded that day that we didn’t even have to wait! There were only like 5 boats out there at a time and it was so exciting!!

I was supposed to be the navigator but then I got tired of that and stopped and Henry ended up rowing us against the wall and getting his oar caught in the netting, which apparently was my fault. I couldn’t stop laughing about this because Henry was so distraught over it and couldn’t really see what was going on so I tried to convince him that he pulling the whole thing down and that he was probably going to be on the news – “the dumb American who pulled down part of the Salina Turda wall” – and I could NOT stop laughing over this. There must not have been much oxygen down there because I was ridiculously slap-happy.

I also felt a strong kinship to all of the other boaters out there with us. Especially when a boat of three Japanese girls collided with a Romanian (I think?) couple and had a good laugh, I joined in like we were apart of this, even though Henry was only colliding with fragile salt infrastructure and not other boats.

Henry couldn’t see this because it was happening behind him haha. Everything exciting happened behind him.

Salt beach.

He kept having to “take breaks” and “rest” his “arms.” Wow, OK gramps, sorry to cut into your nappy time.

I honestly was obsessed with this weird salt mine lake thing. Henry might disagree because he complained bigly of how strenuous the rowing was and of course I was like, “Wow, I’m so fat, just say it.”

Hearing the water sloshing in this surreal cave was soothing but also kind of scary. OK look, a long time ago I had a REALLY BAD DREAM that I was in a rowboat at night trying to navigate around disgusting and harrowing glaciers in Alaska and that’s why I am, to this day, terrified and DISGUSTED by Alaska and never want to go there. Oh, and the water was actually blood and this whole thing was a rescue mission because there was some awful tragedy like a sunk ship or crashed plane, I can’t remember but it was awful.

And this kind of reminded me of that! But without blood and glaciers. And I actually enjoyed it but also there was an underlying sheath of fear.  So, I was sort of confronting some lingering psychological issues that I legit dreamt up (JUST LIKE MY MOM SAYS ABOUT ALL OF MY PROBLEMS AND TRAUMA).

I love the Romanian flag a lot.

My phone lens was not a fan of this part of the trip though lol. It was on the struggle bus, trying to capture non-blurry shots for me!

Henry big-struggled every time we went under this bridge. Also, we got to do 4 laps because the guy in charge did not give a shit at all. Pretty sure we went way over the 20 minutes we paid for. At one point, Henry called over to him, “DO YOU WANT US TO COME BACK NOW” and dude was like, “Oh, no – you can go around again!”

Henry mumbled, “Great. Thanks.”

:)

These were just sitting areas but the lighting features made it feel like art installations. This reminded me of Korea a little bit!

He’s smiling this big because he’s finally off rowing duty. And probably delirious.

But now he’s just tired.

This was right before it was time to walk back up all of the steps. Remember in September when Henry had to walk up 20 FLIGHTS OF STEPS AT CHOOCH’S APARTMENT BUILDING and then CHOOCH AND I WALKED WAY AHEAD OF HIM and HENRY COULD HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK??? Well, that was training for our future day at Salina Turda, obvi.

The only thing this place was missing was A CAROUSEL. IMAGINE A ROMANIAN SALT MINE CAROUSELFIE!!

Anyway, what a hugely enjoyable visit! I’m sure our tune would have been completely different if we were here on a summer weekend, but this particular Sunday in October was perfect.

Oh, also note that the elevator to the very bottom only hold 4 people, and the main elevator only holds 7 or 8, so I can only imagine how long those lines can get. JUST SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND IF YOU ARE EVER IN ROMANIA.

——————–

Please enjoy (or don’t) a series of clips from the first Rimetea and Salina Turda (especially if you want to see Henry rowing my fat ass around an echo chamber).

Henry’s recap of our time at Rimetea: “I walked up a hill, I walked down a hill, I took a couple of pictures.” He is actually stunned that I have managed to take a 2 hour late morning stop and stretch it into three whole blog posts.

Hello. It’s me. Erin Appledale. Did you fucking FORGET?

We’re currently en route to Columbus, Ohio for a concert so I figured maybe we could collab on this last recap but he said, “No.”

So anyway! What had happened after the waterwheel detour was that we saw a rocky lane leading up toward the mountains so we decided to walk up that way and see some closer views.

This was the view facing back down toward the town.

  Me being me.

On the way up here, we passed a small parking lot where a group of people were preparing to head out on a hike. And across from them in a small clearing was a man laying down with another pacing around him and giving him what appeared to be a pep talk. I think the man laying down didn’t want to hike the mountain lol. He ended up joining the rest of their group though so good for him!

We weren’t dressed for a hike so we admired the mountains from here.

I actually love this picture so much because I didn’t know Henry was taking it and he caught me genuinely admiring the scenery. No fake smiles!

Ew.

Selfies from both directions, of course.

Chatted with this biggun’ on the way back down but then he found people more interesting in the hiking parking lot and strutted away from us. Typical.

Walked around some more, taking it all in. I just kept saying, “I can’t believe we’re here. Can you believe we’re here???”

Henry said “the scenery” when I asked him for two things he liked about Rimetea and he is either still thinking of a second one or forgot the question already because I never received a follow up.

We wanted to get langos before leaving but I needed to wash my hands first after petting so many dogs and cats during our leisurely strolling. There was a public restroom back by the church. I started to go up the steps to enter but it was a pay-to-pee sitch and the payment thing was broken. Some girl limbo’d under the barrier thing but I was like “no I’m not doing that in these tight jeans and bad back” and also there was an old woman there who also was like “guess I’m not peeing” At least I assume that’s what she was saying in Romanian.

Henry meanwhile was like, “what is the problem? Is this an opportunity for me to be a hero??” And so he walked up to inspect the payment thing and then realized that the turnstile could just be pulled open so he did that for me and then the old lady was like “!!!!” So she was also able to pee, thanks to Henry who earned his “Even in Romania” hero complex badge.

It was a nice little “breaking the language barrier” moment.

After stopping at a gift shop to acquire my magnet, it was finally langos time!! Of course we didn’t know this then but langos is of Hungarian origins – I just knew that it was a popular street food in parts of Romania so it was on my list. It’s fried dough – like a savory elephant ear that you’d get a fair – and the version we got had a creamy garlic sauce and the most delicious salty shredded cheese on it.

There’s a polarizing pizza place in Pittsburgh called Betos that notoriously tops their pizza with cold shredded cheese after the pizza has been baked and I fucking HATE IT. However, this works so well on langos and it gradually melted as we were eating it. Betos could NEVER.

I dream of this langos.

This was intentional – I wanted a picture of our feet on Rimetea ground lol.

Post office! Of course when I don’t need one (yet – this would eat up lots of time in Bucharest because me and my postcard habit) , we seem to bump into them constantly.

Took one last stroll to walk off the langos which we BEASTED.

Even the haystacks in Romania are adorable!!

It was on this street where we passed a house that had a dog that looked like Bambi :( I sent a video to Chooch and he was like OMG THAT DOG HATES YOU!!! because it was barking so angrily lol.

Before leaving, we stopped by the kurtos vending in the parking lot. I did know that this was a Hungarian treat (chimney cakes) but it was here that the vendor struck up a friendly conversation with us after learning we were American (ugh) and explained to us the history of Rimetea, how it was part of Hungary and that most of the people living there are Hungarian. It all made sense after that! I don’t know how I didn’t learn that in my itinerary-planning and appreciated that he took the time to tell us all of this while making us a fresh cinnamon kurtos. (See?? This is why I told Henry not to buy one from that guy in Sibiu. Now our first kurtos got to be an authentic & fresh one!)

This guy was so nice! I will never forget him. Or that kurtos. It was perfectly crispy and cinnamony on the outside, soft and pillowy (and piping hot!!) on the inside.

Mmm. Kurtos.

We left off at the part of the day where we paid to see some old-ass water wheel but here are some other pictures taken prior to that with the DSLR. It took me forever to edit these because apparently our computer is on its last leg so that’s cool. I almost took a sledgehammer to it last night. Many tantrums were had.

The Orthodox Church. For some reason I didn’t get many great pictures of it, but I do have it captured on video which I will post at some point.

I just couldn’t get over the architecture of these houses and that foreboding rocky slab looming in the background! Look, this was a very quiet commune. Yes, there were some tour groups (all seemed to be regional) milling about here and there but it was extremely serene and didn’t feel like a money grab. Well…until we got to the water wheel thing where we were told by the old man manning the grounds that we had to pau 20 LEI to see it, or at least that’s what we figured what was going on. There was no signage or anything and Henry said he felt like maybe we only had to pay because he could tell we were dumb ‘mericans BUT I read on a blog that he apparently does ask that a “pay what you can” donation be made to see his collection of vintage Romanian/Hungarian items and, had we been able to understand Romanian, he’d have taken time to give us a brief tour. I think now, in hindsight, that’s what he was attempting to do. Stupid fucking English. I wish we knew more languages. :(

Here’s the man that collected our watermill dues. Honestly, I was happy to contribute to the livelihood of this charming place and to see his collection.

Henry was like, “NO I DON’T THINK SO!!!” when I asked, “Do you think we’re allowed to climb up there?” but then the watermill guy guided me back in later on and made sure that I climbed up there!! I had to wait because there were idiot kids up there with their parents, doing idiot kid things. But then it was my turn and I got to see the water wheel thing from a different vantage and it was cool, especially because Henry didn’t get to go up there and see it for himself so I felt special.

Apparently, this traditional furniture was hand-painted by the watermill guy’s wife. It was all so beautiful!

Has to be haunted.

Corn is corn no matter where you are, I guess.

But no, come on.  Autumnal visuals on lock!

God forbid I end this post without including any pictures of my goofy mug.

One more Rimetea post coming up and then I swear we will move on to…the afternoon of Day 2. I’M SORRY, EVEN VIRTUALLY I AM A FREAKING YAPPER. I have only gotten to talk about this stuff IRL to 4 people: Sue & Margie last week at dinner, and then my therapist and dietician, LOL. So, I have a lot of words to expel!

“Didn’t you just see them?” Chooch replied when I texted him from the City Winery last Thursday evening, as we waited for the Cold concert to start. Um yes, we did “just” see them back in the spring BUT this was a special, intimate tour in collaboration with the City Winery, and Cold was bringing SIERRA SWAN with them.

SIERRA SWAN!!!

As someone who was big into Cold during their earlier years, I was always sad to never get to see her perform any of the songs on 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage in real life. So when this tour was announced, I tagged my pal Shawn – we were little Cold groupies back in the day! – and he said that not only were he and his wife Jess down for this, but also his brother Dave and his wife Stephanie! I reserved a table for us POST HASTE. I was so excited to get to see Cold again with Shawn – the last time was probably in 2001 (!!!!) and for all of us to get to experience this together as “big” adults.

I did just see them last spring and did my whole emo “blood on the blog” thing after that concert so I will try to keep this short and sweet, but good Lord was it ever a magical night.

I sent this to Chooch, whose response was, “Wow he’s almost smiling.”

The opening band was Edisun and it turns out that not only did I see them open for Cold way back in 2010 (I went with Alisha, when she was still living in Pgh), but so did Shawn’s brother, Dave! Dave was also at the one they did with Evanescence, and so were Henry and me! So crazy, because I think prior to this I had only met Shawn’s brother once and it was forever ago when he was still a kid and I went to Shawn’s house for some reason?! Anyway, Edisun was really great but I felt weird because I was trying to take surreptitious bites of my kale salad (it was such a great salad!!). I’m sorry but it will never be normal for me to eat during a concert!? It’s weird enough having to sit during one. (This one was 100% a seated event.)

Plus, we were only one table back from the stage! The first row of tables were a tiny bit more $$ but honestly, they were TOO CLOSE and I would have felt so weird sitting down and eating that close to Scooter Ward, even though I was done with my (SUPER DELECTABLE*) kale salad by the time they came on.

*I cannot stress this enough – it had a spicy sunflower dressing! It was so good that it was a topic of conversation the next day when I had my check-in with my dietician!

They opened with “Ugly,” prompting the tears to fall from my eyes with no preamble or solicitation. Just a quiet and salty face waterfall. Nothing to see here.

Someone posted it on YouTube! Oh, please watch this.

The whole set was so beautiful and very “Storytellers”ish – even moreso than the last one which was where they played A Different Kind of Pain and 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage in their entirety. The best part though was that it was all different stories that Scooter told this time so it felt fresh and extra special. Scooter is so funny and interesting, and when he tells a story, I hang off of every word. I EVEN HEARD HENRY LAUGHING A FEW TIMES BEHIND ME! If someone can get Henry to take a time out from watching Instagram Reels, that’s pretty major.

There was one table in the front but over to the side full of people who had quickly gotten drunk and chatty, and Henry kept mumbling, “Shut up!” under his breath. Why would you come to this super intimate show and talk?? “Everyone enjoys concerts their own way” – OK, cool, but how are you enjoying it when you’re talking over the band and creating annoying background chatter for everyone else? Call me a Concert Karen if you want, but seriously. Go sit at the bar.

Sorry, this is a screenshot from the one lone video I took all night, but this is THE SIERRA SWAN.

Setlist: (There wasn’t one on Setlist.fm for the Pgh show but I’m confident the Philly setlist is the same)

1. Ugly
2. A Different Kind of Pain
3. End of the World
4. No One
5. Another Pill
6. Suffocate
7. Superstar
8. Bleed
9. Better Human
10. Delivering the Saint
11. The One that Got Away
12. You Got Away (Sierra’s song)
13. Welcome2MyWorld
14. Quiet Now (his story on this song’s background drew tears from the eyes of nearly everyone in that room – probably not Henry – and it of course made me think of Drew and how quiet the house is without her. I am so broken)
15. Trouble Is (Sierra’s song)
16. Strip Her Down
17. Check Please
18. Gone Away

After the show, we hung back at our table and chatted a bit, letting everyone clear out. I really enjoyed our company that night, so so so much! Especially Shawn’s anti-truffle rant which caught the attention of this lady who was there alone and seated at one of the empty seats at our table. So we started chatting with her in between sets and learned she is originally from Florida and moved here with her now ex-husband. She was so nice but I regrettably forget her name because I was drinking a wine flight and I am such a light weight.

I really wanted to say hi to Scooter, after years and years and years of getting so emotional that I would legit run out of venues after losing my courage. Yes, I have two super old pictures with him from 2001 but they are awful. With Jess’s encouragement and Shawn agreeing to accompany me, I decided to try for an updated photo.

Oh you guys. I am still a mess around this lyrical genius. The way he emotes such raw and visceral pain from his entire being just makes my heart race. Even when we first got to the venue and were standing in line to get our tickets scanned, Scooter walked over to the front of the line and my heart was beating so hard that it drowned out everything else in that room. “He needs to leave before we get up there or I’m not going to be able to do this!” I cried to Henry, imagining myself fumbling my phone when trying to show our tickets, dropping it on his foot, bursting into tears and running out of the City Winery.

Typical Erin moves.

Thank god Shawn and Dave took the lead with this one and made it super casual and normal while I was standing there blubbering on about the time Scooter gave me a Starburst in 2001 in Hershey.

“I still like Starbursts,” Scooter said in his cool and quiet way, and you know I have been holding that soundbyte inside the deepest pocket of my brain reserved for all the special shit. Like:

• my Pappap saying “doopah” instead of butt when warning me not to sit on the cold porch floor.
• G-Dragon saying, “I have something to tell you,” in Newark regarding THE BIGBANG REUNION.
• Baby Chooch saying, “You…motherFUCKER!” apropos of nothing.

I’m not saying this in a sexual / lusty kind of way at all, but Scooter had his hand on my lower back and adjusted it several times and I literally thought I was going to die just because he was touching me (NOT IN A STARSTRUCK WAY BUT IN A “THIS MAN’S MUSIC HAS GOTTEN ME THROUGH SOME SHIT AND NOW HIS  HAND IS ON MY BACK” KIND OF WAY I DUNNO I CAN’T EXPLAIN IT BUT SOMEDAY MY FRIEND ALYSON MIGHT READ THIS AND I KNOW SHE WILL GET IT).

“I know,” Henry said in a soothing manner when I cried, “AND I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE WHEN HIS HAND WAS ON MY BACK, HENRY!” on the way to the car afterward.

Scooter also liked Shawn’s moustache!

Yep, you know this signed poster has already been framed. Just gotta find a good spot for it!

Oh! Henry came back to the table with this special edition Cold wine bottle after going to the bathroom in between sets! However, when he was buying it he apparently struck up a convo with the opening back, Edisun, and after the show when we were waiting to see Scooter, one of the guys from Edisun walked by, PATTED HENRY’S SHOULDER AND SAID, “WHAT’S UP, BUD.”

Ew, the gloating smirk I got from Henry after that. Sickening!

LOL it’s OK. He bought me the signed version of the wine bottle so he earned that little moment in the spotlight, I guess. This is me being a grown-up. (Don’t worry, it won’t last long.)

What an absolute banger of a night that I will never forget.

OH! P.S.! The drunk lady that fell at the last Cold show at Craft House was there, and she was actually talking to Scooter right before us. She turned around and, in the true sense of the word, HOLLERED something to her husband, causing Shawn to recoil and say, “Oh my!”

Thankfully, she was sat at a table nowhere near ours. Yikes.