Roman, Tom, and I are quite the trio. Tom knew Roman from the first time he lived in San Francisco (about 13 years ago when I'm sure they were involved in some shenanigans I'd rather not know about) and, when we returned to SF together in 2004, I was quickly introduced to Roman. His giant personality was overwhelming to a newbie like me but, over time, I couldn't help but love Roman. This was no more evident than the time about 5 years ago when Tom told Roman that he and his cat could move into our apartment with us for a few months without consulting me. (Roman had just bought a condo in the city but needed to leave his rental before the condo was ready, so needed a place to stay.) Of course, I gave Tom a stern talking-to for springing this on me without asking but, mostly, I was excited. It was during these two months that we really became the Three Amigos, the Three Musketeers, the Three….Little Pigs? What I mean is that we perfected the art of staying in, ordering take-out, and making games out of whatever was on TV. We had so much fun together, and we were all sad to be apart when Roman moved into his new place. It was also during this time that Roman became as much of
my friend as he was of Tom. So, to say that I was happy to see him when he
FLEW OUT TO VIETNAM FOR MY 30TH BIRTHDAY is an understatement. I was over-the-moon! The best part about our time with Roman was that the three of us got to be together again. But another great part of his visit was that we took 2 really great day trips. The first day trip we took was to Hoi An, which was amazing! We'll write more about Hoi An later. It was so fantastic that Tom and I went back and spent almost a week there after Roman went back to the States, so we'll combine our stories and photos from both visits into one post - coming soon! Another day trip we took was to Huế (pronounced "Whay"). Huế was the capital of the Nguyen dynasty and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of impressive monuments, including an impressive Citadel that we toured.
