Before Dogma, Andrew and I visited Rakia Bar which was a great way to try the different varieties and styles of (Branko) rakija side by side. Our favourite was the aged apricot, but we also tried the traditional plum rakija, non-aged apricot, lavender, quince, and walnut, which was Andrew’s favourite. We also stopped into Bitters Bar for a couple of tiki cocktails.
Dogma was a little out of the way, but worth getting to. It’s an awesome brewery with a large garden and good food, and it was great to catch up and relax. CarGo wasn’t responding to our request for pickup, so we ended up braving the buses, it was an adventure! The buses were arriving every 15s or so, and the doors stayed open for less than half of that time. Once on, we hung on for dear life then decided to get off when the bus took a wildly different direction to its route, but the walk home was a welcome way to burn off the beer and cheese sausage. We resisted the urge to go to :Null Bar since the main event was the next day!
The main event, the big day of celebrations for Olga couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. We all gathered at St Michael’s Church for a beautiful ceremony which involved singing, anointing, waving of the thing with the smoke, and a little water being sprinkled on Olga’s head, and she did not say a peep! Except for asking for the egg hung on the chandelier. Iva and Olga looked beautiful in their coordinated (Zimmermann) dresses, Michael looked very sharp, and Nena was beaming with pride, so lovely!
Lunch at the Writers Club could have been an all day event and it would have still been more than enough food. Iva and Michael gave a wonderful welcome speech pointing out the many countries and locations people came from to celebrate Olga, and it was heartwarming to see the huge tribe around her! The lunch was incredible, I was so full but couldn’t stop eating. The cheeses, ivar, lamb, roast vegetables, pastries (I tried a little of each), and kremsnitsa was divine. Olga had a wonderful time playing with her balloon and the little rocks.
We said a sad goodbye to everyone, including all the lovely new people we met and walked (very slowly) home to take a rest before going out again to finally try :Null Bar with a little group who were still up for a drink. The cocktails were incredible, every single one was so clean and flavoursome; we went out for one, and had 3 or 4 each!
On the way home, we took a photo recreating our puzzle, we’re such dorks! You can see the little Souvenir Shop sign behind the building works, and the Adidas shop is somewhere in there too. Wish we had a red umbrella.
We’re now at the airport having a variety of drinks (a coffee for Andrew, G&T for Claire, and one last Dogma beer for me), next stop, Bucuresti!
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