April 10, 2005: Finding my Roots. Arrival in Romania

This will be short as I think I’ve been up close to 50 hours now…and I’m beginning to fade, big time…

And before I begin, I should say that my mother’s family is from Roumania and I decided to come to see what it’s like and maybe to research my family/ my roots. I don’t have a lot of information to go by, so I don’t think this will be very enlightening, but we shall see. I’m traveling with my friend Adrienne from Chicago sho agreed to accompany me on this wild goose chase. Figured it would be fun even if

Left Delray Beach on Saturday at about 5 am to go to Fort Lauderdale.  Flew to Chicago, arrived at about 11 am and had 6 hours at O’Hare…then flew to Frankfurt — plane landed a bit late and connection to flight to Bucharest was quite tight.. I managed to land the window seat in the last row of the flight to Bucharest and immediately remembered that Europeans smoke…the smell on people’s clothing was like a high dose of second hand smoke… lots of it in a small space… Arrived in Bucharest at about 3:30pm today (Sunday).. It’s now about 1 am.  

After checking in to the hotel, and unpacking quickly, Adrienne and I met up with her friend and caught a cab to the Jewish Museum..which turned out to be closed.. We learned quickly that very few people (except for some young people) speak English and the only other language that is marginally used appears to be French… Anyway, we eventually found our way back  (via a tram and a taxi) to attend a flute concert at the concert hall, which was quite beautiful but slow and sleep-inducing…  The concert hall was wonderful and apparently the scene of some resistance against Ceaușescu, with murals being painted over in white by community members so that they could eventually be restored…. After the concert (which seemed to go on forever) we went to dinner at an old bistro close by… Food was actually quite good… a little heavy but portions weren’t obscenely large, so it was bearable…

It’s difficult to get a full understanding of what’s going on without language, although Eleanor (our friend here) is teaching at the law school and she has some insight. However, I think she’s a bit tainted by the U.S. Embassy…

After a bit of hassle, I’m now functioning on the cell phone and as you can see (assuming you get this) I’m email-ready…Took a bit of clever mechanics, but it’s all working.. My room looks like some experiment — with plugs going everywhere — charging computer, the WiFi charger, the batteries for the cellphone, charging the camera, etc., etc., etc.. I guess it’s actually a fire hazard and certainly a trip hazard.

First impressions: Bucharest is dusty, clearly without any sense of zoning… filled with 50’s style Soviet housing that goes on for blocks and blocks… They have parks scattered throughout the city, which is nice, but they are not very well kept (and at this time of year, not very “green.”  Many historic buildings were destroyed or are in disrepair. The street pattern is chaotic.. Sort of a set of concentric circles and then lines radiating out A la Paris and DC, but the concentric circles are erratic and the lines radiating out aren’t straight…So it’s hard to figure out where you are and. how to get from here to there.. No one seems to be able to read maps, so having one (we brought one from the states) is pretty useless… Even taxi drivers seem stunned when you show them a map and cannot figure out where you are and where you want to go. …They either know the location or they don’t…kind of a simple process.. It’s also a lot hotter than predicted, so I’m a bit stuck with clothing for colder weather.. It was supposed to be 40-60 and it’s easily 75 today…

It’s been a hectic 40 hours…More to follow…