Unirea 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 ...

... and amongst themselves.

We discuss the economics of the hostel. Roughly, she pulls in $1,000/mo in revenue. $600/mo pays her rental costs. She has another $100/mo in utilities. It is enough to pay her bills and in Romania, she is doing pretty well. The extra $ comes in from tours and she freelances as a limo driver for one of the big hotels. She had a 3 AM airport pickup later this evening. She works really hard.

... me with the info on the one bus and calls to confirm that it will be running. Until this point, I was not even sure that it was possible (without backtracking way South to get around the mountains). Valerie, the only other person at the hostel, is on the same bus. The bus is an experience. It is a 7 hour trip and apparently such luxuries as shock absorbers are skipped. The music is awful, a mix of 50% Romanian folk, 30% urban, 20% euro-pop. The ride itself is beautiful. The ...

... blurry and unfocused, so I dig out the vitamins. That’s why I carry them. Three days without fruits and vegs and I can’t think straight. At least my digestive system has leveled out. That’s the flipside of the exotic consumable product equation.

I got a hundred channels on the tube, but not much of note. Everything seems to be catered to the local audience, so it’s mostly rerun movies, the same ones again ...

... out the distance I travelled in that time. The two trains combined travelled a whopping 117km. So it took 5 hours to travel less than 120kms. Plus it was raining and cold outside and the trains didn't have any heating. Not exactly plush travel standards as you can tell, but they were both Personnel trains, which means local trains and are mostly used by locals not crazy tourists like me trying to travel halfway across the country. In Salva I had to wait nearly 2 hours for my ...

Iasi is one of the larger cities of Romania. We got here on the heels of an adventurous car road trip of about 400km, which took about 8 hours to do, due to the vagaries of driving on Romanian roads. It is prettier than Bucharest and has a certain provincial charm, though it does not feel at all like a small city. Tavi's godparents live here and it was a pleasure to visit them, as ...

... 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 they're a delight to stroll. Most of the buildings could use more than a lick of paint, of course, and others still are really hurting for some serious restoration. But the many busts of famous Romanians that once called the place home, the bustle of the large, leafy university district, and the artists peddling their work outside the National Theater show that Iasi remains in many ways the cultural capital of Romania. In fact, there is restoration work going on ...

Thursday 19 July Woken up by horse as a family had arrived to load the hay onto the cart from around us. Went to monastery as it opened at 8am, but Lehel was worried about going in as nun was praying on the ground near entrance. Eventually plucked up courage and paid the entrance fee, past preying nun and went round impressive frescos and up lookout tower after I'd used the public toilet, a hole in the ground - must improve aim. Went to railway ...

... faehrt also eine bunte Truppe aus Chisinau (sprich "Kischinäu") nach Falesti (sprich "Fälescht"). Franco, 58, ist mit seinem alten Passat aus Pisa gekommen. Und ist langsamer als der Bus. Langsamer als ein moldauischer Bus. Nun ja, es sei der carborator, erfahre ich dreissig Minuten nach Franco's Ankunft bereits das fuenfte Mal. Was ist das auf deutsch, haben Autos wirklich sowas? Mit seinem recht guten deutsch versichert mir Franco: "Karborator!" Jungs, wenn einer von euch ...