Spring Break!

Spring break kind of snuck up on me this year. It was the last week of March, and I had dreams of spending my week off of school on a beach somewhere away from the cold...but that wasn't very realistic. I ended up making some last minute plans to head back to Krakow, Poland and visit my old friends.

Getting there was kind of tricky. I seem to be very good at being really lucky in making my bus and train connections. I nearly missed my train out of Bucharest and had to flag down a taxi at 5:30am. There aren't many taxis out at that time. I made it to my train, but then had five minutes to switch trains in another city. Thankfully I made that connection too and ended up in Budapest 15 hours after leaving Bucharest. I spent the night in a hostel and then tried to get the bus station in time to catch my bus for the seven hour trip to Krakow, that was supposed to leave at 7:00am. I have taken this particular bus route several times before, but somehow I always manage to have problems. This time I had trouble buying a subway ticket to get to the bus station. I only had paper money, and the machine refused to take it. Another person came by and offered to buy me a ticket, but they only had paper money too. No stores were open so I couldn't buy anything to get change. I was stuck. In Budapest they have guards watching the entrances to the subway, so I wasn't going to get past them very easily. I finally gave up and walked up to the guard and shrugged saying, "I really tried to buy a ticket, but I can't." I don't know if the guard understood me or not, but he waved me through. Unfortunately, by this time I was already 20 minutes late, and sure that I had missed my bus. I walked up to the station and miraculously my bus was still there! There was some kind of a delay with another connecting bus, so I didn't get stuck in Budapest. Thank you Jesus!
I had a good time catching up with a few people in Poland and sharing with them what I am doing in Romania. It was funny being back in the city that I used to live and see how things have changed. There are so many more foreigners in Krakow than in Bucharest. I heard English and German almost more than Polish. The weather was beautiful while I was there, and I really enjoyed my break. Apart from all the travel, my time in Poland was a much needed restful vacation.

My trip back was just as long, but thankfully I did much better in making all my connections and made it back to Bucharest alive.

Happy Easter!

 I realize I am a little late. Sorry! I have been busy with school and breaks from school and life in general. I will try to get you caught up this week on the things that have been going on this past month. I had spring break during the last week of March and traveled to Poland. I also attended a wedding and celebrated Easter...sort of.

 Easter in Romania was actually this week and not last week, as you probably celebrated. That  is because Romania is primarily orthodox and they celebrate Easter a week later than everyone else. Easter is a very important holiday in Romania and it's even considered more important than Christmas. See, there were even Easter lights up in the city

I didn't learn everything about Romanian Easter, but I did learn a few special traditions that orthodox Romanians observe. On good Friday people usually attend mass and walk around the church and under a table three times to signify Christ's suffering and death. On Saturday all orthodox Romanians attend midnight mass. (I am much more a fan of this then early sunrise services, for the record). I attended midnight mass with a few friends just to see what it was like. Literally everyone goes and police are out in force to direct traffic. The subway also runs at special times so everyone can get to mass.

 

The mass is held outside and unfortunately it was raining, but we made it through. The main goal of the mass is for people to receive light from the priest. So everyone brings candles. The priest sings some kind of liturgy and everyone sings an Easter hymn. The light is passed around the whole crowd, and at this point most people leave and the rest of the mass is finished inside the church.
One really special thing about Easter in Romania is the greeting that everyone uses during this time. You can say this to anyone and everyone you meet: Hristos a inviat  and they will respond with: Adeverat a inviat, which means Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Although sadly most people in Romanian do not understand what Christ's resurrection really means, it is exciting and makes it so much more real to be able to say that to everyone you meet.
The rest of my Easter wasn't that exciting. I had Chinese with some friends and attended midnight mass, out it. One thing I really missed, and will make sure to get once I am back in the US, is a giant brunch with french toast, eggs, bacon, etc. Now I'm hungry.