Wine Festival

People come from all over the world for the annual Chisinau wine festival so I was surprised that it's held for one weekend only. I walked up on Sunday morning when it wasn't crowded but never got to try any wine. I decided to walk the length of the wine tents and was going to buy wine on the way back but I got sidetracked by the craft and food booths. The crafts were not traditional but just stuff you can buy at most craft shows. I wanted to take food to Nicole but there were only huge plates being served. No takeaway.

By the time I tried to get back to the wine, it was too crowded so I left. I walked the mile up and back without getting lost. This is a city I can understand.  It has blocks, not small windy streets. The names of the streets are usually on actual streetsigns.

The performance at night was Trapdoor's last on this tour. Matei Visniec, the author, was there so camera crews came. They tried to interview me but I refused to give my opinion...in Romanian. Another standing ovation. They've been invited back to every festival they toured.

The American ambassador's assistant came and admitted he was afraid they wouldn't show up. I guess because he thinks Americans are flaky. The festival had promised to give Trapdoor 5000 euros. Then they asked the US embassy to give it and they agreed. They admitted they were making the contribution only because they had excess money that would be deducted from their budget if they didn't spend it. The next day, Beata had to sign the contract.  It listed the reason for the Americans coming to Moldova as "American football."  I guess supporting theater would be suspicious to the US  government. 

Yesterday,  we went to see another Visniec play by a troupe from Bucharest.  Even Visniec didn't want to go but he was the guest of honor. I woke up Nicole from a much needed nap and made her go. I don't know why but it never occurred to me the play would be in Romanian. I just laughed when the woman behind me did.

I'm flying to Bucharest tomorrow and home the next day.  I am concerned about getting to Bucharest.  The lighting director's plane was late to Warsaw and he had to spend the night there. I have a Tarom flight that is a separate reservation from the Delta flight and that's the airline that canceled one flight and didn't notify me. I've been looking every day and so far it claims it will fly to Bucharest.

My original plan included seeing some of Chisinau but that's not happening since I can barely move. I learned a valuable lesson on this trip which is I'm too old to eat dinner at 10 and stay out until 3 a.m.

See you in Cincinnati.

Crossing into Moldova

The performance in Iasi was great. 200 people.  Standing ovation. But after the show, they had to take down the set and load it in the trailer.  That led to a big search for a pizzeria open til midnight.  It was a long walk but I was glad I did it because we were in a nice section of town which I hadn't seen. Pedestrian street, flowery displays of cabbage every few feet. Cabbage bushes. I thought the whole city was like my neighborhood but I just lived on the wrong side of the tracks.

I had tried to go to the Palace where there's an art museum on the first floor and historical museum on the second but you had to buy tickets in the store where an entire 3rd grade class was buying stuff. One little kid pushed me; he probably heard about the time I pushed the kid at the Dracula castle. I waited around for awhile but didn't have time to wait for hours so I left, right when another class was coming in. Good decision.

We left Iasi on Saturday for the 3 hour drive to Chisinau. 

The crossing would have been anticlimactic except for the hassle crossing the Romanian border. The agent came on the van and matched our faces to our passports and took them all to stamp. Another agent had looked at the trailer but didn't ask for it to be opened. Our passports were gone for a long time but other vehicles were moving slowly too. Finally,  he came out with one passport. Beata's (the artistic director). They couldn't find the stamp when she arrived in Romania. That stamp was in her Polish passport which she usually uses in Europe because she lives in Barcelona.  She gave that to them and they didn't have to honor it since she had listed her US passport number in our official travel papers but they did. Good thing because I would have had to play her part and she has a 10 minute monologue.

There was the possibility Moldova wouldn't take that passport but it seems they didn't care how we got into the EU or out of it. The bus driver took our passports into the building,  came back with them stamped and they didn't even look at us. The US and Moldovan embassies were supposed to have called to say let us through and I guess that worked, along with the money we paid to ensure the trailer wouldn't be searched.  The driver had to buy an additional certificate to add to his mounds of paperwork but that was it. Meanwhile,  the line of trucks going into Romania was at least a mile long. Everyone was being searched.

Unbeknownst to me, I had booked an Airbnb 2 blocks from Trapdoor's hotel. They never know where they're staying and eating until the last minute. This tour is mostly funded by the individual festival. They are the first American group to be invited to perform in Moldova.

Also going on this weekend is the 2018 wine festival. Moldova is supposed to make some of the best wine in the world.  I haven't tried any yet because I was too tired and hungry to go anywhere other than the closest restaurant,  Andy's pizza. I had a hamburger and a Pepsi. Luckily,  the Hypermarket was next door so I could buy laundry detergent.  I have a washer and separate dryer in my apartment in the Luxury Apartment complex. This apartment is huge, has everything you need but is tacky. There's mood lighting of different colors in each ceiling. Plus there's this shower. It's harder to understand than European washing machines.

Iasi

On our last day in Suceava, we walked to the fortress that a prince had built in the 1300s when he made the city the capital of Moldova.  The other people took taxis but the 1 mile path to it is right across the street from my apartment.  My tour guide had told me that and I double checked with the play director so there were two men who didn't say yes, it's across the street but don't take that path because there's a million steps to climb.

It wasn't the worst mountain I ever climbed but it was difficult. We later found out that the director had told the others it was too hard for him to climb so they had to take taxis.

The fortress has a lot of displays to appeal to children. There are hologram knights, video games, and a digital photography booth that dresses you in a medieval outfit.

We ate lunch at the restaurant at the top of the mountain and people left at different times and got lost in different ways. Nicole and I thought we had chosen the same path but it was different and turned out to be 100 times easier to walk. Of course, it was downhill but this path didn't have the sets of stairs. There were some steps built into the ground. It was much flatter than the other path. When we made it to the street,  we were just a couple of blocks to the apartment.

The next day, we left for Iasi (pronounced Yahsh). It's supposed to take around 2 hours but it took much longer. Traffic was bad, the van needed fuel, the driver has mandatory breaks, and the city is confusing so it took much longer. The good news is the driver drove much slower than he did before I was in the van because he was reprimanded for driving carelessly.  We ended up in a full parking lot when we got to the theater and had to unhook the trailer with the set, back out the van, rehook the trailer and drive to a separate parking lot.

When we finally got to the Airbnb, it turns out it's not as centrally located as advertised. The streets are narrow and confusing.  I have to take a taxi to and from the theater because the GPS doesn't really work here.

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Trapdoor performs tonight and tomorrow is the scary border crossing into the Republic of Moldova.  There's a chance they won't let us in or at least not the trailer even though the bribe money has already been paid and both the American Embassy and the theater festival people are supposed to call border control. If we get searched,  the set is illegal to bring into the country. The director is going to say the trailer contains props and suitcases. Everyone has been warned not to speak, smile, or make a joke. It reminds me of border crossings into Communist countries in the 70s. I think the young people are a little apprehensive but the main thing to fear is an intensive search.  We could be there for hours. Send positive thoughts.

Suceava

The first full day I was in Suceava,  I stayed in bed most of the day, proving once again that spending time in airports is more tiring than climbing mountains. Suceava is not a pretty town, mostly because there is no Old Town. My Airbnb host said,  unlike in many other Romanian towns, the Communists tore it down.

I have a luxury apartment in a high rise for about $53 a night. It has beds for 7 but my host prepared only the twin room since I said Nicole may or may not stay with me instead of letting me have the other bedroom which I obviously deserved.

The second day, I took a tour of 4 of the 8 painted monasteries. All 8 were painted by a father and two sons over 500 years ago. Parts of the outsides have faded but the inside colors are close to the original. All they've done is clean the candle smoke off the painting.  The paintings show various Bible stories and there's complicated symbolism.

Most of the monasteries are still occupied by nuns. My guide said they're not nice enough for the monks.  Romania remains one of the most chauvinist societies in Europe.  This guy kept telling me what to do and I had to follow in his footsteps.  My guide in Slovenia was much nicer. This guy was nice enough as long as I did what he said.

On the other hand, he knows everyone at the monasteries so he took my phone and took pictures in the interiors even though it's forbidden.  You pay 10 lei (under $3) to photograph the outside of each building but I just paid that once. He got tired of watching me try to take pictures since I know nothing about lighting or angles.

For lunch, we stopped at a resort and he ordered my lunch but he made good choices. Cream of mushroom soup made of mushrooms from the forest, a piece of chocolate cake, and a liqueur made from wild blueberries.  Everything is homemade there. There were blueberries at the bottom of the glass. Blueberry liqueur is also one of the traditional liqueurs of Slovenia. 

Driving through the mountains is beautiful when there's no snow or rain

Nicole and company left Brasov at 3 a.m. for the 8 hour trip to Suceava.  They have a small van and were terrified by the driver who drove like a maniac through the mountains.  Romanian drivers are always scary.  They pass each other when there's a car coming the other way but somehow usually miss a head on collision.

The last time Trapdoor performed here, they performed in a gigantic bar but now there's a new theater. The director of the theater said she missed that bar. This theater is fabulous.  The actors had a little sleep but the tech crew was up for 24 hours and didn't have time to eat. But the play was a big success. There were 240 people in the audience which they managed to seat in about 5 minutes. They leapt to their feet and yelled Bravo. The woman sitting next to me was the sister-in-law of the theater director.  She started explaining to me about the playwright and how famous he is, but of course,  I got to say I know him. He is going to be at the Chisinau festival since it's named after him, the Matei Visniec International Theater Festival.

After the play, we ate at the finest restaurant in Suceava,  Latino. It's an Italian restaurant.  There's  also a pizza place in town called Taco Loco. They didn't want to serve us because it was so late but they did. The food was great. And it cost about $80 for drinks and about 10 meals.  It is truly cheaper to visit here than stay home.