ROMANIA: Iasi. Days 4 and 5. April 14 and 15, 2005

Well as you can see, I am up and running again with the Internet… When I first got to Iasi they said they had Internet connection in the room, but that was not exactly the case. But now after the “IT” guy showed up early this morning, it’s working fine. Only problem is that the computer has to be hooked up to an outlet that doesn’t reach the desk area, so I have to either sit on the floor or on a little backless stool.. so this note may not be as long as I had hoped.

Hi fom Iasi–

Day 4 (from Bucharest to Iasi)

Started out quite early in the morning..(Adrienne and I now have a routine in Bucharest) — so it was off to the market to get stuff for breakfast, eat in the little park (we’re the only ones there, except for the guys who supposedly clean the park –but we haven’t seen them work yet, and the “guard”)..Then we walked for a bit in some other neighborhoods and picked up food for the train journey (which was a good idea since the trains don’t have any services).. Caught a taxi to the train station and nearly missed the train. (Driver went in circles a bit, until we showed him the map and explained as best we could that we “knew the way”… He tried to charge us about 20 times the fare.. but we paid what we thought it should be and got out of the taxi at the station…)

Train was an experience — quite packed.. not much assistance in finding your car or seat, but we managed to locate where we needed to be.. Seats are very tight and we were obviously the only non-Romanians on the train… 6 hours… managed to eat most of what we brought with us and gave the rest to a nice couple sitting near us who seemed very grateful… Train goes through countryside which is very depressed, but also picturesque…and eventually we arrived at Iasi.  

We are staying at a 125 year old hotel, which was apparently designed by Eiffel… It’s only a two or three star hotel, but it’s quite lovely.. My room over looks a main street.

After settling in, we walked to a restaurant about 3/4 mile away..not too far from the university..managed not to get lost, although we had to navigate some pretty small streets.  People were very helpful when we asked for directions. No one speaks English, so the directions need to be short and then we need to ask again and again.

The restaurant was charming, although the food was extremely heavy — laden with cream sauces..Navigating the menu was interesting (In Bucharest many restaurants had some translations on the menu either in English or in French or Italian and we could figure things out ok..not perfect, but ok..)  Here, there is absolutely no English..and the menu was one of those very long multi-page things ..I wound  up doing little drawings of a chicken, a pig, etc…and for dessert.. drawings of fruit, etc.  Seemed to work well and we basically got what we drew — just didn’t know how to deal with the sauce part (how to tell them to omit it!).  Walked back and called it a night about midnight.

This morning we got up pretty early.. I dealt with the computer guy, who at first seemed quite perplexed by the problem, but later just plugged it into another DSL connection in the room and here I am…

We walked to the city hall where supposedly I could look for records of my family..but after some complex discussions (without real language) we learned that records before 1904 are not at City Hall and you have to go to the national archives.. so we started to walk — thinking it was pretty close, but then kept stopping people and showing the little piece of paper with the address info on it… and learned it was quite a trek away (not walkable).  So some woman on the street took us by the arm and got us tram tickets and then put us on the tram (also warning me to hold my camera very tight and to zip up my purse –a warning we get all the time)..

The tram ride was actually longer than we anticipated and we were quite the attraction on the tram (also in Bucharest)…Finally one young woman on the tram heard us speaking English and asked somewhat haltingly if she could be of help… So she got us to the right stop, but she didn’t know the building.. Anyway , we arrived at the Archives only to learn that an individual cannot request this information.. only an “institution” can request it… So if I wanted any information about my family I needed to go back to City Hall and have them make the request, and then it would be sent to City Hall — in about 30 days if approved… I decided whatever information might exist was probably not worth it and it was unlikely to get from the Iasi, Romania City Hall to me in California.. so we left..

We then decided to take a taxi slightly out of town to an old Jewish cemetery…(maybe some relatives there?) We got there and saw thousands of graves  — most with markers..  It would have been impossible to find anything without a lot more information than I had.. but it was interesting.  I will say this…the cemetery location was spectacular — up on a hill overlooking the whole city…(Indeed just outside the cemetery they are growing grapes).  The woman who “runs” the cemetery was totally enamored with our coming… insisted on kissing us before we left and taking pictures with us…

Then we left with the intention of returning to town, seeing some museums, walking, etc…But the taxi driver (who had waited for us — realizing that we’d be somewhat stranded out there on that hill) had waited for us without being asked.. I think he thought we might be religious or something so he just drove us to some building in the city that is some kind of Jewish senior citizen center.. We didn’t know what it was at first.. but he suggested we go in.. and he left.. So in we went…There were a few older men — probably 70 or 80 years old– who initially thought we must be from Israel (probably disappointed to learn we were from the US..) They talked to us in Yiddish (which we could understand more than we could speak).. and mostly we learned that these guys gather in this house regularly… When Adrienne told them she was from Chicago, they got very excited and kept pointing with their fingers making gun-like shooting sounds and saying “Al Capone-e, Al Capon-e”… I said I was from California and that seemed much less interesting to them. They invited us to come to Friday night services, but we said we would be back in Bucharest on Friday.

As we left they pointed to another building which had a sign that it was a restaurant.. so we decided to go up.  Well we stumbled on what must be the “meals on wheels for Jewish seniors in Iasi”…and were served a meal –heavy on the grease…heavy on the starch..overcooked meat….good sour tomatoes… and really good honey cake!  But we professed that it was excellent and smiled a lot… Everyone there was at least 20 years older than us… The interesting thing was that the walls were filled with hand made lists  (poster size) that noted all of the Jews who had won Nobel prizes (in all categories)..and then a list of all Jews who won (or were nominated for) Academy Awards –Bette Middler, Woody Allen, Rob Reiner, etc., etc.. It was something else…

We got a tour of the kitchen so my photo archives are pretty interesting.

We left there and went to see a few monasteries which are in great supply here.. lots of Eastern Orthodox churches and priests walking around..Then we just walked for several hours ..including making a pitstop at an ATM which is definitely not ADA-compliant! Now I’m back and getting ready for dinner…We leave Iasi tomorrow morning…either at 6am on the ‘rapid train’ or at noon with the not-so-rapid train…Depends on how early we decide to wake up…

We’ve had pretty good weather until now (it cooled off a lot since that first day).  It’s raining which makes the town look more depressing than it really is… Actually it’s a really nice town with lots of hills and greenery (but no real “landscaping”), that is just beginning to show with the beginning of spring.  You get the sense that there is a lot more optimism here in Iasi than in Bucharest..but these comments are coming from no real understanding or discussion..just a sense.

Hope all is well — I’ll try to write again tomorrow…and I’ll call the office on Friday..

Fern