spent Saturday 9 December resting up, except for a visit to the Peasant Museum (formerly the History Museum of the Romanian Communist Party) near Piata Victoriei. Over the weekend there was a special sale of peasant handicrafts there, organized by a U.S. organization, 'Aid to Artisans'. It was intended to benefit the craftsmen and women by having them receive the revenue from their work directly. I bought some painted eggs from Bucovina, a small red tablecloth from Maramures, and a fur hat from Transylvania (weal Womanian wabbit fuw--heheheheheh). Saturday evening I went out on the town--to Pizza Hut. The pizza was great, just like in the U.S., except for the toppings. I deliberately chose the Taraneasca (Peasant) pizza. It had sausage, corn, and onions, but no cascaval, unfortunately. The iced tea, however, looked and tasted just like apple juice. Oh well...

n Sunday, I visited the Art Collection Museum and the National History Museum, walking around the major sights in between the two. Piata Revolutiei was, as its new name implies, the center of events in Bucharest in December 1989. On the western side of the plaza is the former Royal Palace; on the northern side is the Athenee Palace Hotel (currently under renovation by Hilton--bless their big fat wallets); on the northeastern side are the Athenaeum (for concerts) and the University Library, which was heavily damaged during the 1989 fighting. On the southeastern side is the infamous Communist Party Central Committee building, where Ceausescu made his last public speech on 21 December 1989. The crowd that day began chanting "Timisoara!" and the look of shock on his face was shown on live TV before the broadcast was ended. This building became the headquarters for Iliescu's National Salvation Front, now renamed the Party of Social Democracy (PDSR). Plus ca change...

here is a memorial cross on Piata Revolutiei and another one on Piata Universitatii, where the students were attacked by the miners in June 1990. A graffito at the latter site names it "Piata Tien An Men II". Going south along Calea Victoriei (Victory Avenue), I passed the Police/ Securitate headquarters, the Army Museum, the Trade Hall and the National History Museum (the former Post Office). Most of the main boulevards such as Calea Victoriei are regularly cleared of snow, but the side streets and sidewalks get the short end of the plough. In some places, particularly on big streets such as Bl. Republicii and Bl. Carol I, the snow on the side of the street was shoulder-high. Countless pedestrians had trampled the 10 cm of dirty snow covering the sidewalks into a beige-colored powder which actually felt like sand under my boots. I'll just pretend I'm back home in Los Angeles at the beach. Surf's up, dude!

was able to see the House of the People and the Civic Center socialist wasteland in a little more detail this time. There are empty skeletons of buildings with cranes towering over them looking east from Piata Unirii down Bl. Unirii (the House of the People is looking west from Piata Unirii). It may be years, if ever, before these blots on the urban landscape are ever completed. On the brighter side, Piata Unirii itself is turning into a sort of Times Square of Bucharest, with the biggest of Bucharest's three McDonald's, a department store, and bank and airline offices. Personally, I preferred Piata Universitatii, with the new Apollo shopping and food court complex in the underground Metro passage (it opened last October) and the nearby bookstores and the International Herald-Tribune available every day in the Intercontinental Hotel (it is NOT available in Iasi!).

was doing fine until Tuesday night, 12 December. Returning to the Metro after dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, I slipped in true banana- peel fashion on some ice, and fell flat on my back. I banged my head pretty good, and my shoulders ached for the next few days. Needless to say, I walked much more carefully after that. I had fallen a few times before (all in Bucharest in the previous few days), but this one was a doozie. A word of advice to those of you coming to Romania in the winter: snow and ice removal is not practiced regularly here, and in fact the young people delight in making ice runways to slide on. So watch your step VERY carefully.

side from my spill, I enjoyed Bucharest in December. This time of year seems to be one of the times when 'Big Bertha' (the nickname I have given this city) is at her best, gaining some charm and losing some of her roughness. My guess is that May or June would be another such time. Perhaps it's a combination of the holiday cheer and the reminder of the glory days of December 1989 when everything was possible and the world was watching.

he trip to Iasi on 14 December was uneventful. I had caught the flu while in Bucharest (probably on the Metro), so I spent the trip blowing my nose, coughing, and generally feeling sorry for myself (I wouldn't be going anywhere for Christmas or New Year's). The route to Iasi went through Ploiesti, Buzau, Focsani, and Marasesti--the site of a historic battle in 1916 (World War I) which the Romanians won--before turning east to Tecuci, then north through the Birlad river valley in the Moldavian Plateau to Birlad and Vaslui, and then to Iasi. Near Vaslui is the site of Steven the Great's historic 1475 victory against the Turks, which temporarily halted the Turkish advance into the Balkans.

nce I got home, I piled on the blankets, plugged in the heater, and slept through the weekend...