"We're going to Romania"

 

"This summer holiday we're going to Romania". That was always one of Mammy's jokes when we were children. 

Romania = Remain here, we eventually realised. I suppose she got it from her father running the smallholding in Northumberland where she grew up. Pigs and chickens don't leave you many options for even a seaside trip.

And in fact we did have holidays, either with our granny in Northumberland or our granny in county Mayo. Did I mention by the way that I have 65 first cousins? Irish has its advantages 🙂

But getting back to Romania for a second, well actually I am, today. I am flying out to the East Romanian city of  Iași for three days, to see what it's like.

It is partly a revenge trip against fate, because Cro and I had a one-way ticket booked for a flight to Romania in August 2022 and her cancer diagnosis in July put paid to that. So some of her ashes will come with me to right that wrong. But mainly its because I'm interested in the country and think it will be fun, and if not fun then interesting, which is also fun. 

There is also an interesting family backstory. Both my children's mother and my stepchildren's father were born to Jewish  families that had fairly recently come out of Romania, in each case around 1900, so they had lots of family still left there when the Holocaust took place. And the city that both families came from was Iași. So I will find out any facts that they can add to the - surprisingly shared - family history pot.

In fact Iași is not all that surprising for a jumping-off point for Jewish people moving further West, as it was basically a key centre of Jewish culture for centuries. There were once a hundred synagogues in the city, and it was the location of the first Yiddish theatre company in Europe. Iași, I think was seen as a safe haven over the border from the pogroms that recurred in Russia, Ukraine and Poland. A safe haven in more enlightened Romania. So that's a good start.

I will post later about anything that catches my eye, and I'm sure lots will, but for now I must repeat Mammy's motto, because this time I am.