A Trip to Iaşi, Romania

Saturday the 17th we got to see a bit of Romania. We traveled by rutiera (small bus) to Iaşi (pronounced, "ee-ah-sh"), one of the closest Romanian cities to Moldova. We had to travel down to Balţi to get the correct rutiera, and at Balţi we met up with Mary O'Connor who traveled with us. The official reason for our travel, I'm ashamed to admit, was to check out a movie theater by seeing Twilight. Oh, whew, there I wrote it. But, Iaşi was so much more than a movie theater. While there we walked around the city a little and got to see a fabulous monument of Ştefan cel Mare (the sainted hero-leader of Moldavia around the turn of the 16th century), speak some authentic Romanian, and take a picture with Romanian scholar and monk Dosoftei. Don't judge us too harshly, but we were also excited to eat some McDonald's food. Here are some pictures from our day:

 Mary and Shelbi about to rip into some nachos.

 We were in a super nice movie theater. Shelbi was a little more excited about the movie choice than John was, but it was still a fun day out.

 The Hobbit preview with Romanian subtitles.

 Our KFC lunch. Fried chicken never tasted so good.

 This appears to be soviet-style architecture. We have some walls and buildings with those shield-looking pieces on the right in Chisinau, also.

 Here. Now. Pepsi.

 Just because it was strange to see Pizza Hut as we walked down the street.

 The church on the right was established by Stefan the Great.

 This is a part of the cultural palace.

 This is Ştefan cel Mare, or Stephen the Great. Some PCVs refer to him as "Big Steve."

 This is Dosoftei, a Romanian scholar, monk, and bishop.

 It's as disgusting as it looks. That was a Big Mac.

And this is what it did to me on the ride home. I guess Shelbi got this picture while I was in dream-land.
We are planning five days in Romania in a place called Gura Humorului for Christmas. We've talked with the owners of a guesthouse hotel/hostel and they are excited for us to come. They used to host a PCV. It sounds like there are some pretty cool things to see there including monasteries and some Christmas events. We'll write more about Christmas and New Year's traditions here later. Suffice it to say Shelbi is currently "researching" Moldovan New Year by watching videos of dancing, yelling, and singing "capras" (goats). It should be a fun New Year.