Around the World in 80 Dates ❤️ (my travel show pilot)

i'm coming

so

it all began on my 2016 ninth day of

being single when i grabbed my

philosophy book and paperboy cap out of

my suitcase and had a new message to

deliver here i gotta tell you something

come here

get something sweet some sweet come here

real quick

you're mistaken if you thought this was

gonna be yet another food themed travel

show

so hi

my name is damon dominique and i'm here

in the middle of romania in a parking

lot in front of a

apartment block

looking for love and clearly

all the wrong places

what's your name damon

his name is damon and he's dating

[Music]

so hang tight to see where this goes

romania don't make me repeat it again

i've only taken 13 romanian classes you

see my parents named me damon which

happens to be backwards for nomad and

ever since i've been cursed from birth

with the never-ending desire to travel

learn foreign languages and

date anyone who doesn't own an american

passport so yeah i got a type

not american the thicker the

accent the thicker my attraction it's

precisely why i now live in paris and

also i was inspired to make a show like

this after dating a french guy for uh

six years

yeah dating someone who wasn't my

nationality exposed just how influenced

we all are by the culture we grew up in

like our values our beliefs our taboos

and it's a decision we get no input on

as we're born into one after all how do

you know you're born into the country

that best suits you until you've

explored what else is out there

and that's precisely how we ended up

here with mama tika but before i can

explain how i got here to mama tzika's

farm in transylvania because i got

ghosted by this really hot muscular dude

that i met at a gas station at 2 am both

drunk by the way yeah let's backtrack to

48 hours ago when i was getting a love

spell made in a witch's house

so the time was 11 11 and there was only

one place to be in romania having my

love life blessed with the love spell by

some of romania's most powerful witches

the minkas

welcome to our outside

if you can get it up you use this ritual

you can't if you can oh then you use

this we don't need that

we don't need that i'm good

we're good in that aspect

[Music]

and there i sat thinking let's just hope

this isn't the only place the magic

happens for me in romania

[Music]

and just like that i was invited for

lunch

i'm about to eat

whatever something like that uh

oh

wow just hope she doesn't ask me to eat

the tomatoes

oh my god this is every traveler's worst

nightmare i mean how many times can i

move this tomato chunk around before

they catch on and despise this vegetable

ah

vegetarian ah

i know it's

okay yeah i told her you don't like

tomato

what are you talking about i ate the

whole thing no you should try i already

ate it i already ate the whole so the

mink is our roma gypsy family how do i

say she's got the gold teeth

so although the various roma gypsy

communities account for less than 10 of

the population here in romania you can

be 100 sure that the mere mention of

these groups will polarize armenians

while some believe we could learn from

their nomadic ways as they tend to live

apart from society others don't find

their non-conformity so charming either

way i'm fascinated

do you

ask for like magic

no i don't need you you don't need to i

don't have any magic myself

but uh because we are from the family we

are like protected you know being with

my mom all the time and living here

there's this like aura that protects you

from like curses and stuff i feel that

good energy sometimes look i gotta keep

the minka family on my good side well

when they had the house built my mom uh

and did her rituals and enchantments to

have it protected you do it before the

house is built

they later showed me that they each had

260 unread messages people are popular

i'm with the cool crowd so who's calling

is the client

yes what do most people want

uh it depends special love problems they

have a lot of love problems it's because

of tinder yes because it's in there

there's so many dating apps these days

so most of the time it's positive people

want help they're not trying to curse

other people

they

yes

that sounds kind of petty okay they do

this too yes are those ones more fun

um

no no okay how would the people want

because we cannot do like kill someone

or anything like right yeah

kill someone let's just hope you can't

kill these love prospects either because

it's time to put the man in tallis man

[Music]

one more bite

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

i missed it but hey in a car heavy city

like bucharest i could just blame it on

the traffic i mean after all i do still

need some time to change and floss this

pretzel out my teeth

even if it is a romanian stable food

[Music]

despite speaking for the romance

languages i realized i wasn't picking up

romanian as quickly as i had once hoped

you see if you've ever studied french or

spanish you would know that they're a

part of a group of languages called the

romance languages but these languages

aren't called romance languages because

they're romantic but rather because

they're from the romans in fact the

whole reason romania's even called

romania is because it was once the land

of the romans was that my stop

hey andre

alex sorry there's so many alex's and

andres here i have so many on my phone

already no i think i'm at piazza

victoria uh no not the famous one victor

won't mean they're all famous but like

if you all would stop building these

huge boulevards and huge blooming

buildings maybe i wouldn't

be late

i'm sorry but i'll be there soon okay

i've worked as a flight attendant for

the last alex was a flight attendant

that i met from tinder and i knew it'd

be a good match because i have yet to

join the mile high club okay and there's

so much graffiti even earlier i saw like

an american gang sign why i gotta bring

that up first thing

like there's so many of these kind of

places here yeah the whole country is

like this abandoned

full of this kind of place but what's

going on like why nobody has interest to

do anything but why not it's sad there's

so much potential it's probably been

like this for the last 30 years at least

since communism

so in 1989 the romanian people revolted

after some 40 years of deteriorating

conditions under communist rule the fire

was already hot in romania since another

city timmy sawada had revolted days

before so in this speech which would

eventually be his last ceausescu

condemns the revolt that just happened

and as the crowd moves louder and louder

the media is told to cut the broadcast

and to display the public disapproval as

an earthquake to viewers at home

you know it seems as though as soon as

communism fell so too did public trust

in government

let alone a desire to rebuild romania

and in 2007 when romania joined the eu

where the 27 countries maintain open

borders much of the youth moved abroad

leaving romania with even less

excitement today it seems romanians are

still waiting for a breath of fresh air

the thing is when i moved to portugal in

years ago that's when i realized that

people don't know much about romania

i was in this huge community of foreign

students and every time they would hear

romania they would know just about

dracula

bucharest a bit and they know about

gypsies as well and as he spoke it just

reminded me of how we all have

preconceived opinions about other

countries but these cultural stereotypes

are based mainly on other people's

experiences not our own

it's about cheese

yeah but not a cheese spot what is that

juice

that's juice

hot oak for now but maybe later bottoms

up and it cleanses like

you'll feel it in a bit it's coming oh

i'm feeling it alex had me on the

original juice cleanse the alcoholic one

and it struck you

37 this is 50 alcohol

oh

in this one you can feel the difference

yeah that one was a lot that's polinka

wow

[Music]

people he didn't build that right no

oh he built it

yeah okay romania is like a it's a

decently sized country but like do you

need that much of a building for

government like i think that's probably

bigger than america's next yeah

well they say it's the second largest

administrative building after defending

i wasn't expecting communism to look

like this

[Music]

nor was i expecting it a monument of

such great importance for the first

review on google maps to say that the

stairs are good for cardio

wait is that why he brought me to all

these stairs

to work on these turkey legs okay well

i'm sorry alex not everyone can have the

beautiful legs that you do

but to be fair turkey was the key word

for the club he took me to afterwards

where the turkish music scene definitely

dominated and actually just when things

were starting to heat up between us

alex left me cold turkey

oh but don't worry i still stayed alone

[Music]

or at least i thought i was gonna be

alone

[Music]

i'll drink anything

wait are you from here

no where are you from i'm from food

oh okay

what would a typical romanian person

drink right now

because i'm really bad at beer usually

they just go for beer great

for this one

why that one

i used to drink it with a russian friend

oh yeah yeah have you been there uh no

we met in london oh i feel like there

are a lot of russians and romanians

anyways okay so this one yeah

that's what i'm going to russia

russia since i know approximately like

three people in romania and actually one

of them is a witch a real witch let me

give you my number a real witch no for

real please send me all the remains for

you in the morning everything i need to

know about romania please

you know what to do his name is orlando

and right on brand for a romanian he

spent the last 10 years abroad in london

all right i'll give you a call

please i need help she's in my city i

need help here please all right see you

later

you know there's a very specific feeling

i wish everyone could experience at

least once in their lifetime it's that

feeling at 4 42 a.m when you're

scootering a home alone in a foreign

country

drunk you feel so rebellious and yet so

alive

is how i feel did you know damon that

you actually don't have to drink that

much every time you go out

oh maybe they got those puffaletsi

things here the corn puff snacks okay

i've got to get my vegetable serving

somehow

oh my god this looks right

see here's the thing though

i actually prefer coming into mini

market stores like this because i feel

like it's more representative what life

is actually like here instead of a

top-rated museum which is cool by the

way but uh

this speaks more to what life is like

here like what's available to the

romanian people

you can't get this in those dates so i'm

gonna get this in a

tea i guess

gosh

i just cannot understand delay like

20 lay like is that a lot of money is

that a lot i don't

thank you i'm gonna really enjoy this

now all right thank you little did i

know i shouldn't have just bought one

but

two

what is that

puna

like

did you see the ceiling like

tots

this is one i should have studied paid

attention in romanian class um

[Music]

why is every trash can full

i have not seen one empty trash can here

everyone looks like this

we're all just eating too much casa

exist

uh

this is gross why am i saying this to

her she's so adorable cockroaches

exist

trash

exists

[Music]

the sculpture will be presented to the

armstrong air in space

sorry of bad eyes

cool

why would she paint why would she school

[Music]

a few of these programs included a

celibacy tax for those who didn't

procreate like in the hopes of

increasing the romanian workforce and

also secret police of average citizens

to spy on others for the government

think the neighborhood watch system um

but getting paid for it

[Music]

that's something no one talks about how

if you grow up speaking english

it's a privilege already like i can

travel around the world and always find

a book in a bookstore i can go to any

movie theater around the world and watch

a movie

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

um when you're walking around bucharest

it's like a hodgepodge of architecture

like at one point it was little paris

then ciao this romanian dictator we've

been talking about said what y'all care

about design i'm giving you state

sponsored housing

now get your ass in the factory damn

ah but it's just interesting that in the

city that's been visually marked by

various architectural arrows there's

still someone like duam namaria

sculpting away at enlarged facial parts

and still thinking that buccaneers was

beautiful

well aside from all the hot trash

[Laughter]

and speaking of hot trash it's exactly

how i felt sweating my ass off without a

seat placement on the 12 15 train to

transylvania maybe the minka family's

magic was wearing off

all right well

everyone told me to rent a car in

romania

and i did

until i had to cancel it one hour ago

because my international driving permit

that's supposed to accompany my

california driving license never arrived

it's a bunch of hullabaloo mom

yeah it's ridiculous i don't understand

either but i'm gonna make it worse

i get really frustrated when these

systems papers get in the way

of modern global citizens i didn't have

to take any extra tests i just had to

pay for a certificate

what

i disagree

hot and bothered i did what any season

traveler would do and directed my

pent-up energy to the transylvania

tender pool look someone's got to use

this international data plan but

ultimately it was orlando from the gas

station who sent me this text saying

that if i want a glimpse of another side

of romania i could take a taxi to visit

his grandma in the carpathian mountains

of transylvania um as i spend my life

savings on taxis because my

international drivers manage

the world is not ready for international

bible

no but the region of transylvania is now

known to most for the legend of dracula

wait you wanna dracula means

dragon right

devil but historically it's gone back

and forth between romania and hungary so

in many ways there's still some cold

blood there too

and our taxi driver is way over there

looking for how to

get through okay if i had a car how

would i get through here

up the freaking hill

and over the river into the woods i went

trying to look for somebody to help

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

i don't know where anyone is but i'm

gonna take a picture real quick

don't know where i'm going but at least

i look damn good doing it all right

let's go

so i did what i had to do and i carried

and carried

and gave me some more this consistently

overweight luggage down a massive

transylvanian mountain

it didn't matter that the street was

blocked she didn't have a driveway

either

but i did finally meet the family who

told me in spanish our only language in

common to no film just enjoy it

is that you

i've arrived i just entered romania

fashion week

the epitome

of romania fashion

everywhere you look is decorated this is

my dream house

would you look at how cute this cup is

what could you fit in this cup

surely not an american-sized coffee okay

but for real this is what i'm trying to

look like every day

this is

gonna hit

the streets of brooklyn by next year

or the streets of transylvania in about

one second when i put it on

too much personal touch i haven't felt

that in a while

exactly you know sometimes you do feel

the solo in solo travel so i thought i'd

give my good friend mazaka a call

halfway across the world

in mexico

i couldn't see you

that's probably for the best

wow you're moving at approximately one

pixel per hour

exactly what do i got to do

what do i have to do to get the world to

keep up

people want to travel the world

and well that's precisely how we ended

up here

[Music]

so last night mama tiga asked me to wake

up at the crack acid on to help her

co-seat or make hay in romanian but i

thought she was talking about the house

was cozy so i said yeah of course cozy

um

you grew

okay that's actually really cool yo she

makes the clothes herself

that is some fashion hot couture

[Music]

like where do you get your inspiration

mama ceca and now with the hay set out

she wanted me to say hey to a few more

members of the family

hi stella hi estella

i'm just as thirsty

but in a different way i'm playing

let me help her with a stella i'm very

awkward with animals

do what

okay there's just two cows coming my way

and there's no place

come get a drink

your water apa

apa plata

another thing you might not have

realized about romania is just how hot

it gets and the women of transylvania

have found a solution and frankly i

don't give a lick about gender roles so

here we go

oh this is already better

oh i see the appeal i'm telling you they

are top level of fashion over here baby

[Music]

come on who needs an international

driving point when you got the original

horsepower right in front of you

they're about to give their hat back

i'm gonna keep this and impress my next

date

after the carriage carried me away to

brush off i filmed the sunset as a

secondhand chain smoked the cigarettes

from two teenagers they look cool what's

y'all smoking it's called nigel negro

not him yo

no i don't actually know how to smell it

is that big here

is the both big here yeah yeah a lot of

it where did you learn english really

funny so

i didn't have a really good teacher so i

learned it from bad girls club that's

the best teacher yo that's why i have

this accent what do you guys do on like

a thursday night

how studying studying it's really hard

in our country to

you know

walk get somewhere you know

it seems like so many people have like

one foot out the door in romania yeah

yeah yeah like most people are trying to

go somewhere else do you guys like

romania

no no

why the the stigma especially

especially for us like

people you know very hard in romania

but yeah i've been trying to find people

for this episode it's difficult me as a

boy you know wearing earrings and all of

that and going out scared that i may get

killed once by hate crime right so you

know even in high school i was bullied

like they cut my hair out in public and

she's like yo you know a lot of us are

really shy and all of that and besides

you know are looking down on us

basically

okay that's on period

okay so what should the rest of the

world know about romania then then we

need a lot of help oh

it seems like okay the united states

where i'm from

we have a little too much confidence

sometimes i think

all right

like i know i said hello but damn and

you know this is something i've been

noticing here more than in any other

country i've ever visited it's like the

most disliked country by romanians is

romania thank you guys for talking to me

okay smoke them cigarettes and that

whatever else you smoking over here

it was my last morning in romania and i

thought i'd go for a nice little jog

under brashov's hollywood sign but

that's when my type fell right in my lap

i looked around

and looked back

what would mamacika do

[Music]

seriously how you got a body like that

when all there is to eat here is like

mama liga and donuts

[Music]

focus focus focus okay put the phone in

your pocket you can do this you can do

this all will be good as long as you

just don't blurt out you come here a lot

oh my god what

can i borrow these

just for one just for one it's quick

because i

uh i'm vazut ooh valisa

yeti

un monte like

piramonte

today

leg day

leg day is important

never skip leg day and i sure have

how can i use this for leg day romanian

deadlift is this right

but not with this obviously i could do

look i'm not fluent in kilograms either

but i knew that 10 kilograms is for the

bros who don't even lift

boom boom booty boo

and a lot of americans know romanian

deadlift we do facing romanian deadlift

he wanted me to focus but how can i

focus with all these tattoos

you're a leo

jesus christ hold on that can wait jesus

can't uh sg christiano

[Laughter]

when you laugh extra hard cause they're

cute here in romania

lots of churches

many people pass the church

a lot of the time yeah

and lord help me right now because

wow okay

let's

more weight more weights

can we

you go

okay

hold up where's my phone let me look up

how to say how to say you look like a

vampire

boom boom booty boom here we go again

you know you look like a vampire

you look like a vampire

no and i look like a pirate on a ship

pirate

okay

he looks like a vampire this is why it's

difficult it's like

before you're gay

hold on figure this out i'm a libra son

in leo venus so how long will it take me

to figure out his venus or wait better

get his peep

what do you eat as a trainer it's a lot

of butter and sugar

no sugar no no sugar like uh

maybe that means he wants to go eat

something oh my god stop i think he's

doing this thing that i think he's doing

okay

i'll help you let's go eat what let's go

eat simon come on

[Music]

look why the cute ones always gotta be

taken and straight okay all right

well mutsumezk

romanian deadlifts

oh and now he has the audacity to

critique my romanian time

all right well

i see you here tomorrow well i can't say

i'm surprised it's been a general theme

i've learned living in europe

european or you're just gay i mean i get

that

i can't even think straight

so romania i guess this is goodbye and

it's always at this moment that it hits

all at once you're scrolling through an

internal camera roll flashing through

all the new people laughs and memories

these memories that for me will exist as

deeply vivid stories but for others will

appear as bite-sized instagram stories

you know i came to romania looking for

love but it turns out it wasn't exactly

the whole mania i was expecting if

anything it was more bro mania

but that's okay because at least i got

1d

no no this documentary oh but okay dear

future lover um

i wish you were here

but trust me i'm still having a damn

good time regardless

[Music]

welcome

i guess it's just me and you boy

he's a romanian philosopher by the way

oh wow only one thing matters

learning to be the loser

all right we get it we get it

i didn't find love in romania

you know what if anyone needs me

i'll be in the next country

zimbabwe

jamaica

lithuania

bangladesh

his name is damon and he's dating

around hope this romantic not stopping

till love's found but really find it

nobody knows so hang tight to see where

this goes

his name is damon and he's dating around

[Music]

i'll be fine

dangerously