Moldova and Romania- Fall 2013

This fall the Yeates family embarked on our most adventurous trip yet- Moldova and Transylvania, Romania.  I am so glad we did it- a wedding in Moldova and seeing our former nanny, and the beautiful Carpathian Mountains and castles of Romania.  I would never be able to say this trip was easy (thank goodness I married a military man who is not afraid of bad roads and crazy maps), but we showed the children two remarkable countries and to boot spent Halloween at Dracula's Castle.  Not bad for a week's vacation.
We flew to Moldova for two reasons: one, to visit our former nanny who lives in the capital, Chisinau, and two, because it was cheaper to fly there than go to Bucharest.  We were really excited to see Olesea and her family (who we had met before in Moscow) because Olesea left us in September after 4 long years of working in Moscow.  I am so proud of her- she earned and saved money in Moscow, and they were able to buy an apartment in her city.  We brought our current nanny, Irina, with us so she could visit with her family and help us with the flying. 
It just so happened that our visit coincided with the wedding of Olesea's good friends, and her and her husband were instrumental players in the wedding.  The plan was for us to land in Moldova, go to Olesea's apartment to eat, and then travel the two hours to the wedding.  Well, our plane was late and immigration was long, so we were about two hours late.  Which meant we were late for food, and late for driving to the wedding.  And do you know that because of that we held up the entire wedding for two hours?  Jesy and I felt so bad.  But to their credit, no one seemed to mind and everyone was in a happy mood when we arrived to the ceremony.  It was very short.  The first ceremony is a civil one and takes only about 10 minutes.  A week later the couple gets married in the church.  (And I have to say I was OK with missing the church ceremony.  In the Russian Orthodox Church there are no pews, and can you imagine my kids standing during a wedding ceremony?  No thank you- what a mess.)  Anyways, then it was on to the party!  And what a fun party it was.  I don't speak a lick of Romanian (the language of Moldova), but the Yeates family does know how to have a good time.  We sat at a table near the front and it was loaded with all kinds of food and alcohol.  The girls and I were invited to dance and we had such fun.  (Think a Jewish or Greek wedding and all of the circle dancing.)  I even got Colin out there at one point.  We left earlier than most people because Transylvania waits for no man, and we needed to get our show on the road.  But I was really impressed with the Moldovan people.  The bride and groom and 99.9% of the people in the room had no idea who we were.  But they welcomed us in and treated us very nicely.
Jesy and I also decided no to take any pictures at the wedding.  There was a wedding photographer, and if we get any pictures, I will post them.  It was highly unusual for Americans to be in this part of the world, so we didn't want anyone to think this was a National Geographic expedition.

After a nice rest, it was time to head out to Romania.  Like I said before, we are all so lucky that Jesy is a military man- especially a military man that did a tour in Iraq.  Bad roads and a temperamental GPS do not faze my husband.  And let me be clear, I loved Romania.  What a beautiful country.  But there are some things you need to know.  I would describe Romania as a country with one foot in the past, and the other foot in the present.  There were all of the modern amenities- WIFI, satellite TV, great restaurants, and some very good shopping.  But this is also an agricultural society, and this was no more obvious than on the roads.  Which were not that great.  Here is my example:  Jesy, like most humans, does not like a back seat driver.  Well, on this trip, Jesy encouraged me to be a back seat driver.  We travelled on mostly two lane roads, and this is how our conversation went- "Jesy, watch for the person in the road, the horse/donkey and cart in the road, the cows in the road, the man on the bicycle who has no reflectors".  It was exhausting- and I wasn't even driving.  On our way to Transylvania, our GPS took us some kooky way and it took us one hour to go 10 kilometers.  And when we finally got 300 meters (300 meters!) from our rental house, the car got stuck. We called the owners of the rental, and they were so nice.  They came and got the kids and I and then also helped Jesy and Colin get the car unstuck.
Funny story- first I had to lift all of the kids over the barbed wire, so everyone was crying about this.  As I am doing this, I am thinking, here I am, on top of a hill, at night, in Transylvania.  It was spooky.  I finally got the three younger kids in the car and the man owner started to back us down the hill.  A neighbor came out of the house and started gesturing to us.  I said to my new friend- "I think your neighbor wants you".  His reply- "Don't worry, he's our crazy person".  I must have looked a little perplexed, because he clarified "not crazy, crazy, sweet crazy.  Don't worry, you are safe here".  And now imagine all of this being said in Dracula's accent.  Ha-ha- just kidding, but that's the way I would like to remember it.

All right- let's get to some pictures and descriptions of our travels.  On Monday, we went to the town of Brasov and their chateau.  It was quite old and the kids had a great time exploring.  I have also included some pictures of the Carpathian Mountains.

John was so happy because we let him out of his stroller at the Chateau.  Now imagine trying to keep him from falling off the mountain.  The last picture illustrates my point about old and new.  That is the chateau in the distance, framed by a Ford dealership and some type of smoke stack.
The next day we drove about an hour and visited the most beautiful castle.  The girls and I decided Sleeping Beauty could have lived here.

Can you believe this place?  It was ridiculous- straight out of a Disney movie.  And notice our clothes and the great amount of sunlight.  Romania had fabulous weather while we were there.  Even the locals kept on remarking how nice out it was.  And quite a relief from the cold and gray skies of Moscow.
After lunch we drove back to Brasov, which has a lovely old town and historical district.  There is also a cemetery in the town square- to memorialize the residents that died during the country's uprising from communism in 1989.  It was particularly sobering for us because there is a six year old girl buried  there, and Amalie is six.

The town of Brasov is so quaint.  Lots of restaurants, shopping, and cafes line the streets of old town.  And Jesy had to take a photo of the temperature, 21C at the end of October!  If you live in Moscow, or perhaps some other frozen tundra (Iowa), you know how exciting this is.
I have to take a break here and share some pictures from our rental house.  This was one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.  It was so beautiful inside and out, and there was plenty of room for a family of six.  I loved looking out the window every morning and seeing cows from my window.  And the kids loved that they could play outside while Jesy got some work done.  And I did laundry.  And then hung it by the fire to dry.  So domestic!

The couple that owned the home live in the apartment downstairs and were so nice.  They gave us ideas of where to go, places to eat, and stores to shop in.  In general I found the Romanian people to be quite nice.  I was quite shocked by how many of them speak English.  To be honest, I expected more Russian.  (Probably because most people in Moldova speak Russian as well as Romanian, and the countries are so close).  The few times we said something in Russian, the Romanians looked at us like we were crazy.  Romanians are a nice, friendly people, who serve some good food and like children.  My kind of place.
On Wednesday we went to an old fortress.  I would have been happy to sit outside.  Not that the fortress was not interesting, but outside of it were weeping willow trees and those are my favorite.  If Jesy ever finds me a house with a weeping willow outside, well good luck.  I am never moving again.  The kids were really good on this trip, and there was a lot of car time.  I mean A LOT.  So to reward them we took them to a cute little water park after the fortress.

As my mom said when we facetimed her from Transylvania, "your family always finds the water parks!"  We love them.  That's John with the life vest on, Colin coming out of the slide, and Amalie, Kathleen, and Colin getting out of the pool.  I think those three would have stayed all day if we had let them.
I was never able to take my eyes off the road long enough to snap good pictures, but here is an example of the horse and cart we saw all over Transylvania.

We promised the kids that we would end our trip in Transylvania with a highlight- Dracula's Castle.  It is in the town of Bran, which also happened to be where we were staying.  The town is cute- restaurants and shops.  And at the base of the castle they have an outdoor market with all kinds of souvenirs.  I do not do a lot of fun shopping in Moscow, so I was so excited to shop here.  And while I was shopping with the three younger kids, Jesy and Colin went in to a haunted house.  Yes, because what I forgot to mention is that we visited Dracula's Castle on Halloween!  It was so great.  The average Romanian is not that interested in Halloween or the story of Dracula.  But they do get in to it for the sake of their Western visitors.  As we toured the castle we came upon many guests dressed up like Dracula.  There was even a lady dressed up as some type of frog, and you should have seen the look John gave her.  He was not impressed.
As you can imagine, Jesy took a lot of pictures at the castle.  And I have decided to share many of them.  It really was the highlight of our trip.

Isn't the castle pretty?  A little spooky, yes, but also quite pretty to look at.

All of the above photos are our walk up to the castle, and then the kids sitting on the steps leading in to the castle.  They were so excited to go inside.  The next batch of photos is inside the castle.  And can I just say how amazing those audio guides are.  Funny- I never get to use them.  (The whole watching and listening for John thing.  He almost knocked over this beautiful candelabra inside the castle when he ran under the rope.  He was laughing and laughing and I was about to die.  Thank goodness no one saw.  They are a little more relaxed in Romania than in Russia.  It would have been the end of us if he had done that at the Hermitage.)  But Colin and Amalie love those audio guides and it keeps them so occupied.  They also learn a lot, and then thank goodness pass some of that knowledge on to their mother.

Did you notice the picture where John is laying on the floor?  I really just needed a minute break from him running around like a lunatic, so when I found that little nook, I told him and Kathleen to sit there and pretend that it was their little room.  Well, John took great offense to that and laid down on the floor and cried.  And see the photo of Colin walking down the stairs?  And see the woman in green crouched on the stairs?  That was the lady dressed up like a frog.  She did not work for the castle.  She just decided to perch there.  It was quite odd, and my kids let her know it.

Now you will see some photos that capture me being a put-together mom.  Which rarely happens, so enjoy it.  I purchased these Halloween t-shirts in August- August!  All in preparation for our trip to Transylvania.  I was so proud of myself.  Happy Halloween from Transylvania!

Don't you love the way Kathleen is sticking out her stomach to John in the 3rd photo?  She must have been making some kind of point to him, but with those two, you never know.  There are many reasons why I know Jesy is the guy for me, and our trip to Romania was one of those reasons.  Jesy and I have always wanted to go there.  And not really to see Bucharest.  We always wanted to visit Transylvania, especially with the kids.  And I have to say, Bran did not disappoint.  I love when you dream about visiting a place, and it's actually better than you expected.  Well done Romania!
There was a resort about a mile from our house, and we went there a couple of times for dinner.  The food was good, the people were nice, they had a small stream and nice fireplace in the middle of the restaurant, and most importantly, there was a kids room.  (Side note- American restaurants really need to get on board with this whole kids room idea.  The Russians do it in their family friendly places, and I've noticed lots of the Europeans do this too.  It makes for a peaceful meal for the parents.  Who really need it.)  We took the kids to this restaurant on Halloween night, and the whole place was decorated.

In the last two photos I was attempting to get the kids with the Dracula castle in the background.  It was a super windy night, and Amalie was not happy with me.  The look she is giving Jesy and I.  I love it!
After an interesting (yes interesting is a good word) trip back to Moldova, we met up with Olesea and her family for dinner.  Her and her husband have two boys that are Amalie and Kathleen's age, but they were much more interested in Colin and had a great time with him.  Our restaurant served traditional Moldovan food, and it was decorated like a traditional Moldovan house.  As it was explained to me, this is how your grandparent's house would look like in the country.  Before dinner was served, we were able to go on a tour of the building.  And lucky for Jesy, they had a wine room.  If you have never had Moldovan wine, pick up a bottle at a large liquor store.  Jesy loves it!

So, would I go back to Romania?  Yes, in a heartbeat.  Would I go back to Moldova?  Yes.  Moldova will always have a special place in my heart because we have met wonderful people from there.  Would I go to both places again on the same trip?  Probably not.  The drive to and from those countries is pretty intense.  If you want to go to Transylvania, I suggest flying in to Bucharest and driving from there.  But I would never change this trip.  It was such an adventure, and I am proud of us for going, and surviving.  And having such a great time!