Chihuahua, Mexico + Bucharest, Romania
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Alison is obsessed with the tidal wave hair curler. If that sounds familiar, it's because it was her wishlist a few episodes ago. Wishes do come true, people, even if you have to make it happen yourself - Alison bought the hair tool herself. She loves how fast this gives her beach waves! Lulu is obsessed with ear savers, the mask extenders that keep the back of your ears from getting sore. The problem is her ear savers are getting tangled in her hair. So she needs a contraption that can ease up the ear strain without the hassle.
Alison is really wanting an air pump for her car tires, she doesn’t want to drive to the big air compression things at her local gas station. She is surprised to discover that you can get a compact portable air compressor. Lulu is wishing for Drop It Wine Drops. They remove the tannins and sulfites from your wine, which means NO MORE WINE HEADACHES!
We love a good getaway to Mexico! We’ve “been” to Guadalajara, Riviera Maya, Mexico City, Isla Holbox, Punta Mita, Tequila and Tulum… we even took a cruise out of Ensenada in our most popular episode to date!
Alison is excited to book a castle on Airbnb when she reads “You’ll have the castle to yourself”!
Except not exactly. Not even close. The quality and size of Alison's accommodation - and whether it can be considered a castle - is up to interpretation. Literally, the name of the listing is in Spanish. As soon as our producer - who has a modicum of familiarity with the Spanish language - reads the title of the Airbnb listing, she laughed out loud. Snort laughed, if we're being honest. The title of the rental roughly translates to "one bedroom in a house centrally located". Yet somehow this listing with no reviews costs $2,000 a night. There's a drill in the bedroom picture, a used cleaning towel in the picture of the bathroom. This is just not making any sense.
The same host does have this gorgeous 4-bedroom home with a pool set in a vine-covered courtyard for $266 a night. So perhaps stay there. Except both of these Airbnbs are located in Alamos in Sonora, a whole different state in Mexico that is a 12 hour drive from Chihuahua.
Just like its neighbor to the north, Mexico is comprised of states, 32 of them to be exact. Well, 31 with Mexico City being the capital of the country and considered the 32nd. And in case, like Alison, you are unsure of its pronunciation, Chihuahua, both the city and the state, are pronounced like the dog, which is named after the state where it was first noted to appear in the 19th century. Now that you have all that information, you can find some great accommodation options that are actually in Chihuahua, where the rest of Alison’s day takes place.
Alison's first stop is at El Brunch. Guess what meal they serve? The fact that all of their omelets are “accompanied” by other meals - refried beans, chilaquiles, toast and roasted salsa - means Alison is loading up. Plus coffee, of course.
Alison’s next stop is La Popular Store to see La Pascualita. No, it's not a person she's visiting... or is it? The mannequin known as La Pascualita has been featured in the storefront for over 80 years. Myth and intrigue surround her because parts of her are so human-like, down to the thick eyelashes and veins in her hands. It is believed that she is the embalmed corpse of the daughter of the original store-owner, who died from a black-widow spider bite on the day she was supposed to get married... in March of 1930. What is it with March, am I right? Yes, this mummy mannequin has been offering shock and awe and evoking curiosity to onlookers and shoppers for nearly a century. Eager to get it on the action, Alison buys a vintage wedding dress from Etsy, applies some foundation a few shades lighter than hers and stands by the store, as still and stoic as she can.
Standing still can be exhausting, so after awhile Alison gets changed and heads out for lunch. She is more than ready for some of the artisanal gastronomy promised at Época. She tries their Executive Menu which looks like a real treat with a plethora of authentic Mexican dishes, margaritas, and wine offered!
Next Alison visits the former home of the famed bandit-turned-revolutionist Pancho Villa, which is now a museum in his honor. The Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution houses a plethora of personal artifacts belonging to Villa and other relics of the revolution, including the car that he was assassinated in. 10 pesos, or 49¢ USD will get you in the door! Enjoying her dress-up experience from earlier, she continues her costumed appearances via a brief (too brief) search on Etsy for a "revolutionary war" costume. She gets this 18th Century Revolutionary War coat, which while beautifully made, is from the American revolution...of the 1700s. The Mexican Revolution took place in the 20th century, from 1910-1920.
A fun-filled time is sure to be had at Museo Semilla, an interactive museum for kids, and the kids-at-heart. The "Seed Museum" has all kinds of exhibits covering physics, technology, biology, astronomy, and the like, aiming to educate while having fun! You can lie on a bed of nails, see inside a volcanic cone, walk over tectonic plates, program your own robot, and feel like an astronaut in a gyroscope chair! Because Alison's research led her to an inactive Facebook page, she was worried it doesn't exist any more (it does - according to Google it still has operating hours). So she creates HER OWN MUSEUM! Okay, more like a roadside attraction version of the museum. $5100 and an abandoned lot and she’s set:
BED OF NAILS - a miniature version will still be cool, right? She gets this one-foot sized bed of nails from Etsy - $230
VOLCANO CONE - she gets this at-home volcano kit from eBay - $42.08
TECTONIC PLATES - slightly misunderstanding plate tectonics, but kind of getting it, she buys a Rosenthal Mid-Century Porcelain Dinner Set to layer and walk all over - $1412
ROBOT - she buys a seriously professional eerily capable Misty II Enhanced Robot. It can can recognize faces, engage in conversation, and is capable of up to 2,000 square feet of Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM). - $3,299
GYROSCOPE CHAIR - she couldn’t afford a gyroscope chair, so she got this Water-Walking Giant Inflatable Ball - $124.99
After all of the fun of building her own interactive science museum, Alison decides its time fore a delicious dinner, and a lot of it at that. She heads to Los Mezquites for all things carne. Their menu does not list prices, so Alison plans to drop over 2,000 pesos (~$100 USD) on filet mignon and a few Micheladas.
Lulu is headed to the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel in Bucharest Romania. The exterior and the homonymic name are giving us some serious Grand Budapest Hotel vibes. This 5-Star hotel is an oasis of luxury, with form and function meeting in its vast and beautiful space. We love that the hotel’s design features a lot of Romanian colors and motifs, and pointed details like their “multifaceted mirrors that represent Bucharest, Romania's many compelling perspectives” show how much they appreciate the culture. Lulu skips the Presidential Suite, the Senator Suite, even the Business Suite, and goes for the Deluxe King Room for $250 USD a night. This well-appointed room is relatively spacious and features a marble bathroom with separate bathtub and shower.
Lulu’s taking some cues from Alison’s Halloween-inspired trip to Romania, and is going to find Dracula. Well, she is going to find the resting place of the real-life Vlad the Impaler, Snagov Monastery. The demure monastery has a somewhat lavish shrine-of sorts with all kinds of information and claims that “herein lies Vlad” who was the real-life inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Whether or not he is really buried there is questionable, but the myth brings a lot of tourists the hour’s drive distance from Bucharest city center to this island in the middle of a lake. Sounds cool right? Or like a creepy place to get stuck…
Lulu hires Las Vegas comedian/balloonist/stiltwalker Andy Thogersen through Gig Salad to act as a Dracula impersonator, and be her date to the maybe-Dracula-monastery. She gifts him this What We Do In The Shadows T-shirt from Etsy to wear after he tires of his undead blood-sucker look, as well as these Gucci shearling-lined loafers. They then head to Curtea Veche - or Old Princely Court - where amidst ruins and construction you can see a large bust of the infamous Vlad/Dracula.
The duo head to “don’t-miss-it” farm-to-table lunch spot, Maize, where they enjoy a seven-course tasting menu. She also orders them EACH a bottle of wine. Makes lunching with a stranger easier. To thank him she gifts him a lot of professional grade balloons so he can make balloon animals for all the Bucharesters he encounters, as they are now parting ways.
Lulu gets Blacklane car service to take her three hours north to the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Zarnesti, a home to 100 brown bears rescued from dangerous captivity and endangerment. She takes the Super VIP Tour for $607 USD, where you get to visit with the bears up close, and possibly (definitely) connect with a bear that you can “adopt”. Lulu decides to contribute funds to the monthly care fees for Betsy, the first American bear to make it to this sanctuary.
Lulu heads to Manuc’s Inn, the oldest hotel building in Bucharest, built in 1808. It served as a catch-all for anything travelers would need, and now has restaurants, bars, stores, coffeeshops, and more all in a massive complex centered around a courtyard. She has dinner at one of the restaurants and wanders the complex for her evening’s entertainment.
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