Hugh and Hummus

The sun gently sets on the first day as we casually meander our way to the old town for a few beers and then home to bed nice and early as it has been a long old day. Or so we thought...... Walking into the old town we should have realised there and then that the night was not ours to own, Bucharest smiled at us and welcomed us with open arms. The conversation was light and witty, later it would degrade into sounds of baby monkeys crying excitedly over their first banana and erratic pointing at hummus covered kebabs of loveliness. Jimbo had picked our first bar hours before, it was a corridor surrounded by scaffolding something was drawing him in, the thought of the unknown. The unknown introduced himself to Jimbo moments after our first beer, he was Kosovan, he thought we were in the army, he knew we were english by the way we smiled without smiling, Jimbo had been abandoned by Shaun and RP who were busy arranging the meet up with Hugh Laurie later, Jimbo looked scared, it was time to leave. Next up a penalty shoot out, a tense game with both James and Shaun confident that RP was going down, the 3 shots were lined up ready for the first penalty taker Jimbo called it, his years of support for the mighty O's proved invaluable, the jaeger moved to Shaun. 3 minutes later Jimbo had two jaegers in him and Shauny had the third, cursing those bloody lefties. Bucharest had started to slowly wrap those welcoming arms around us, still nothing back from Hugh. Our money was flowing through our fingers as Bucharest wrapped its arms a little tighter and it was time to replenish the magic whip. Usually a straight forward affair, in Bucharest it became more of a challenge to reach the steady heights of the cash machine, Stevie B would not be getting a drink in in this city, not without a step ladder that is. We hadn't noticed the clock consume the minutes and the hours as one bar invited us in just at the point the previous had finished with us and cast us aside.  It was moving into the morning and the city was just beginning to wake. We sat down at the next bar to take in another crisp ice cold, local beer, Jimbo turned sharpish, a sudden aggressive movement had caught his eye over the road, like a meercat he reacted, false alarm it was just someone dancing the morning in, JD relaxed. Shauny G walks out of the bar and returns to the table, he is also caught unawares by the sharp and controlled dance moves over the road but Jimbo nods in reassurance, Shauny relaxes and makes a statement, a statement that changes the night, the bar in there is off the chart and it was, there was even dancing on the bars and tables which RP felt he needed to be a part of, we left with SG declaring he would return tomorrow and it would be Dom Perignon for everyone. Bucharest squeezed us tightly to its bosom, still no word from Hugh, we we're getting a little concerned. We bounced off the next few bars like a pinball in an arcade, with every stop RP's dancing got faster and faster leaving the cameras shutter speed behind. At one of the bars, we went to a party, we weren't invited, we were asked to leave, so we did using a form of expressive dance that turned a few heads. Still no word from Hugh. As Bucharest held us so tightly we struggled to breathe, a place so beautiful and perfect appeared in front of us, 3 hungry men devoured 3 beautiful kebabs, kebabs with hummus, yes hummus. So good were the wares of this foreign and beautiful land we had another, with a parting photo for the kebab man to remember us by we made our way home, dodging the live wires, insane drivers and stevie B sized craters in the side walk, finally as we lay our heads down on the bunks Bucharest released her grip on us, at least for a few hours whilst we slept. Hugh Laurie you missed the best kebab in the world, you are dead to us.