on the road: Thanksgiving in Bucharest

After our massive Moldovan pre-Thanksgiving, we headed to the capital to have another Thanksgiving, this time with the new US Ambassador to Romania and his family. Since we hadn’t really had an opportunity to sight-see in Buc, we made a short list of places we’d like to visit. Along with our pals Gretel and Courtney and some unseasonably warm weather, we hit some interesting cultural places:

Yes, we know. You’re thinking, McDonald’s? David and I had sworn off McDonald’s and most fast food in the states. But being so far from home, we see a McDonald’s and we think….. yummy processed cheese…. fountain soda (made with real sugar)….. clean bathrooms with toilet paper. So yes, we indulged several times. And it was a cultural experience.

Our first real cultural stop was at the National Museum of Art. There are two rather large galleries in the monstrous building (the former royal palace). We opted for the Romanian gallery and weren’t disappointed, particularly since our IDs got us in for free. OK, so there was a TON of iconic religious art. But there were several rooms of modern art that I quite enjoyed. At the museum’s website, you can check out some of their collection. Definitely warrants a trip back to check out the European collection.

Next on our quick sight-seeing tour was the new Holocaust Memorial. While were were wrapping our training up in Targoviste, this memorial was dedicated. Romania’s history concerning Jews and the Holocaust isn’t very pretty and probably should be left to a future blog post when I know more. But the memorial is serene, stark, and moving. It has some nice sculptural art and has less trash and grafitti than you’d expect in these parts.

Before heading to the Ambassador’s for a meal, we stopped by the Peasants’ Museum. Again, we lucked out on getting into the museum for free. This museum again has tons of iconic religious art and we were asking ourselves: “Which is your favorite Jesus?” (I think man-boobs won.) But after a sufficient number of icons, there were some pretty cool rooms — one with an actual village church, another with a grain mill, rooms filled with peasant costumes, and one basement room chronicling the communist years. Our Lonely Planet said that it has one of the last portraits of Ceaucescu and several of Stalin. There were notebooks that had the detailed “criminal records” of Romanians who were sentenced by the communist regime. Definitely an education in a building.

We spent Thanksgiving evening at the Ambassador’s residence. It was a beautiful meal — probably a bit high-brow and fancy for our down-home tastes, but still good and tasty. I don’t think you can really have too much turkey and stuffing any time of year, much less around Thanksgiving. While the food was good, the company was even better — a table fun of good people and several rounds of (probably expensive) tuica. Definitely helped with warding off the homesickness.

So that was our quick Thanksgiving trip to Bucharest — a little bit of home (through food) and a little more Romanian culture. I’d say that’s exactly what the Peace Corps experience is all about.

Check out all our pictures from this trip here and here.