Casa Bilius Iasi

... to ask the ticket agent if my bus was destined to pass thru this republic. So, in the middle of the night, we stopped at the Ukraine-Moldova border, and I was stamped out of Ukraine. I think I went to sleep, or a light doze, and the next thing I knew, we were landing in the capital city of Moldova. I became pretty concerned, because we had not stopped again for the passengers of the bus to stamp ...

We arrange for Monica to give us a tour of the painted monasteries. She is trained as a tour guide. Public transportation to these remote sites is very limited and would take several days to see the top 4. We take a beautiful route through the hills. The monasteries are surrounded by farms. We visit Voronet, Moldovita, Suceavita, Humur. They were built around 1500 with their exterior walls decorated in extensive and ...

Before I leave the hostel, I get my laundry back. It has been 24 hours and the laundry is folded but is very wet. I am guessing that they had it had been drying outside when the rain hit last night. Yuck!

I am crossing the mountains to get to the Northeast section of Romania, apparently an uncommon path. There is only one mini-bus per day. The availability of such buses is difficult to ascertain until one is actually at the departing location. The hostel is able to ...

... front yards, produce put out for sale like Marketing 101 homework, potatoes and milk and… grapes everywhere! This is wine country! The bus driver smokes and chats all the way while people get on and off. Finally we pull in to Romania’s second largest city, Iasi.

The days of cheap budget hotels surrounding the bus station never happened in the old Warsaw Pact apparently. Travel is only picking up steam now, expanding ...

... when an SUV with the words Politia Frontiere on it pulled up and another nice member of the Romanian border police asked me if I needed help. I told him I was going to buy my ticket to Moldova and he told me what I needed to do. Upon getting to the ticket office, however, I was told they could not sell me a ticket for that night's train as it needed to be purchased 24 hours in advance and I was there probably only 4 hours in advance. Upon initially arriving in Iasi I had ...

... are both very educated and interesting elderly people. It was also quite an experience for Virginia to experience and for Tavi to reexperience life in one of those Communist era appartments, complete with the old 1960s Russian radios as big as a piece of furniture. We had a good time here and we marvelled at the kindness and generosity of people who were treated quite harshly by life.

... guide. The broth of the soup was spectucular, creamy pale yellow. Then I pull up a spoonful of ........... I hadn't the slighest idea. College there were mystery meats, Romania mystery parts. I eventually figured out that is was tripe. The small pieces were okay. I had the leave the largest in the bowl. If it hadn't been tripe, I would have said the soup was excellent. I might order it again, but this time I'll know what I'm getting when I order ciorba de burta.

... and artists came from here, and it still has a sense of refinement about it that few other places in the country can compete with. All these things add up to what is potentially one of the most fascinating tourist destinations in the area. That is, if you can get past the ham-fisted, oppressive civic infrastructure dating from the Communist era. Iasi was once like a "Little Vienna" in Romania, but the 1950s through the 80s saw an enormous amount of its heritage ...

... for some water and then Lehel started washing all his clothes in the fountain without consulting with me, so I sat in the shade and waited. Cycled to Voronet monastery with special blue frescos from 16th century where we had to wear skirts to cover our legs. Back to market to buy some melons and sat in park talking about future plans. Lehel still wanted to meet up with local from previous day and he had no intention of going to Moldova, so I told him ...

... auch fuer verstehen, er musste noch laenger im Gefaengnis bleiben, mit noch schlimmeren Jungs. Die Typen sitzen eingepfercht in Zellen, werden sicher nicht so freundlich behandelt. Aber er hat auch schon gute Erfahrung in krassen Sachen - mit 2 Freunden und 150 Euro hat er sich vor 2 Jahren auf den Weg ueber die gruenen Grenzen gemacht, und ist bis nach Italien gekommen, wo er ein wenig gearbeitet hat, und dann in die Schweiz, wo sein Bruder tatsaechlich wohnt (der, den er ...