Day Two

Day Two: I awoke before the alarm,showered,and checked out. I arrived at the airport and checked in...Paid the excess baggage charge as KLM failed to mention the charge for the second bag on flights originating in Europe, no big deal 25 euros and off we went. I met up with Stephanie, one of my students and we were off. The inflight meal service was just wonderful on KLM again which featured clotted cream with fresh blue berries. I sat with a gentleman that works in the Detroit area but is from Romania. The plane touched down on time and came to the hotel which was built for visiting Soviet dignitaries during the cold war era. The rooms are the older European type of accommodations but the Air Conditioning was wonderful. There was serious construction along the highway from the airport but things began to get better and you can see how the city was once called the Paris of the Orient. Admittedly, some of the infrastructure needs work but some of the older architecture is amazing and many are awe inspiring. It was interesting to speak with some of the people who told me just how important the Voice of America was during the pre revolution and Soviet days. The Soviet block style architecture is mixed together with the beautiful Romanian architecture. Some older churches set back off the street and one must wonder if the previous government used this technique to take the population's collective mind off of religion. What ever the case may have been, it clearly did not work as the city's many churches were filled with the faithful at the 7PM mass on a Thursday night. I attended Eastern Orthodox services tonight at a monastery in the center of Bucharest which is hundreds of years old, an almost mystical experience. After the service we drove over to the building that is now used for the government offices. It was built previous to the 1989 revolution and is almost as large as the Pentagon.
Dinner was a wonderful affair with the Chair of Theatre and Culture of civilization in a restaurant called LaMama. The meal was a Romanian meal with a salad course with the best smoked ham on the plate that I have ever tasted. Thia was followed by Romanian Glumkies and farina and a large hot pepper. Peter bit into it and it took the fire department to cool down his burning throat. We used liberal amounts of Romanian red wine to put out the fire.The derset course was perfection; what appeared to be a baked apple was in actuality a wonderful pastery covered in clotted cream and blackberries in a light syrup. All of this was followed again by a round of Romanian red wine; not too sweet, not too dry, and just fruity enough to dazzle the palate. The driver returned us to the hotel. As we drove up the drive I have to wonder who might have stayed here during the cold war days. When I was a young lad my father gave me a short wave radio and this was my introduction to Eastern Europe and the then called Iron Curtain. It is a very unique feeling to walk the streets of a place that you heard on your radio in your youth.
Well, I have had enough Romanian Red to sleep now; tomorrow we are up at 8AM and off to IASI, seven hours to the north near the border with Moldova and the Ukraine.

A side note. They publlished a brochure for out journey around Romania and published all of our names, a very nice touch by our Romanian hosts. I somehow feel like a foreign correspondent sitting here in the lobby of the hotel filling my dispatch to you all as a fan turns lazily on the ceiling. I look at the desk clerk and dream of the days when he recorded everything and held your passport. Oh for the old days
Good Night from Bucharest...
Mark