Sunday, September 5, 2010

Thousands of Miles Away

I'm visiting family in Romania this month and the experience has me musing about how much the country has changed in twenty years. I vaguely remember my first trip back in 1990 after the exciting and violent events of the Christmas before. We rented a car in Vienna and drove east through the night eager to see people we had left behind a decade earlier. The streets were pitch dark and there were very few cars on the road. The village houses barely had running water and outhouses were the norm. There was a sugar shortage and the stores were empty. Locating a gas station was a real feat. Yet the people were warm, inviting, and hospitable. Twenty years later, there are still horse led carriages in the nearest town, but so much has changed. Highways have been built, buildings have been renovated, stores of all kinds opened. The changes have been gradual and I have been lucky to have witnessed them over the years. I hope that my experiences here will serve me well as I live in and travel to new places in the near future.