Roads of Romania and Beyond

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Day Five. Another day, another museum. This time, to make Cris happy, I picked the National Museum of Natural History. First we took a short stroll through the southern part of Central Park. We passed by the pond – I wonder what happens to the ducks in winter? 🙂 (This was my attempt of a literary joke) – by some baseball fields full of activity, and finally by the Strawberry Fields and John Lennon memorial. The museum was pretty crowded, given that it was a Sunday. Cris got upset when he found out that the IMAX theater was closed. He was looking forward to seeing a movie at IMAX. Instead, we got tickets for the Cosmic Collision, which turned out to be a 20 minutes movie narrated by Robert Redford with some nice special effects. It showed the importance of cosmic collisions and I learned a few new things (about solar wind and how Earth is protected by it by the magnetic field generated by its iron core). After the show we spent most of our time in the Rose Center for Earth and Space. Exiting the big silver globe that is the Planetarium you can descend via a spiral platform that traces the history of the universe. From the Rose Center for Earth and Space we went up to the fourth floor to see the dinosaur halls. Huge dinosaur skeletons dwarfed everything in the room. We left at the closing time regretting that we didn’t have more time to look around. If I were to live in NY I’d probably come here more often.

My morning bagel:

The Central Park Pond:

John Lennon Memorial in Central Park:

Museum of National History, entrance hall:

Rose Center for Earth and Space, Museum of National History:

My diet was too severe:

One of the dinosaur halls:

Dinosaur hall:

Dinner:

The Globe at the Trump Tower, Columbus Circle:

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Day Three. This was the day we decided to visit the Met mostly because it was cloudy outside and it looked like it’s going to rain. We started with the Egyptian wing so Cris won’t get bored. He tends to do that when we visit art museums but he likes history a lot more. The museum was full of school children making fascinated noises at the sight of the mummies: “Miss, is it a real person inside?”. As expected, Cris found the whole wing fascinating and he was trying to read about the Egyptians while I kept interrupting with my impersonation of the Bangles “Walk like an Egyptian” which Cris said he didn’t remember. I was trying to make him remember so I even did the dance. Finally I left him in peace and went upstairs to the Modern Art section which proved to be amazing. I wonder if they own more Impressionists painting than Musee d’Orsay. Room after room filled with Monet, Manet, Renoir and some of the most famous ones too. “The Garden of Sainte-Adresse”, “The Regatta at Sainte-Adresse” and “Grenouillere” by Monet, “Boating” by Manet, Picasso, Van Gogh etc. I even found a painting by Gaugain that my mom liked – she kept a reproduction of it in her bedroom. I had no idea it was displayed here, I tought it was in the Louvre since my mom visited Paris but never been to New York.

We stayed in the museum until closing time, had dinner and headed for the crazyness of lights that is Times Square. I like Times Square, its hustle and bustle, the noise, the crowds, the flickering ads, the cheesiness. Once there we were deeply impressed by the sight of a banner that said “Bun venit”, which means “Welcome” in Romanian. There were Welcome banners in different languages all around the square.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egyptian Wing:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Temple of Dendur:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Temple of Dendur:

Gaugain, a picture that my mother used to like:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, entrance hall:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, facade:

Delicious Italian food:

The Italian restaurant we ate in (“Erminia”):

Window display, Upper East Side:

Upper East Side:

Times Square at night:

The “Welcome” sign – in Romanian – in Times Square:

Times Square at night:

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We’ve been planning a trip to New York for a long time but kept postponing it for different reasons (birthdays, weather, relatives visiting). Finally, about a month ago we bought the plane tickets and decided to leave on May 5th, right after the May 1st holiday in Romania. About two weeks ago the swine flu story broke out and we hesitated asking ourselves if we should postpone the trip once more. We watched the news on CNN for hours and in the end decided to go ahead with the trip.

Cris and I have been to NY many time before, back when we were grad students at Rutgers University in central New Jersey, about an hour by train south of New York. For this reason Magda, who had also been here before, and I decided that this trip will be more of a “get back in touch with the city” sort of trip in which we would do a bit of tourist stuff but we would take it easy; we’ll try to enjoy things and activities that we didn’t have time to enjoy back when we were running to cross all must-sees off the list. This time we would enjoy sitting in cafes and watching people, we would eat in good restaurants, we would shop a little. We won’t climb the Empire State Building or go to the Statue of Liberty. We’ve done it before and we don’t feel the need to do it again. We’ll probably go to the Met, see a musical or a movie, try to meet friends who live in the city or close by.

Our first night in the city, for example, we went to eat Indian food, something that we miss in Bucharest where there aren’t many choices in terms of Indian restaurants. Magda got out her magic Zagat map that she bought on her last trip to US and we picked Chola on East 58th street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. The restaurant was crowded, noisy and the decoration a bit kitchy as any respectable Indian restaurant would be and the food was very good. I asked for the usual – samosa, chicken tikka masala – while Cris decided to try some new stuff. We ordered a bit too much – I guess we forgot about the American portions – and asked to take home the leftovers which were about half of the meal. Walking from the subway to the restaurant I felt some familiar smells rushing back at me: the ominous smell of food that you find in an American city and – because this is NY – a faint smell of garbage.

On a different topic, we’re staying with friends on Roosevelt island right in the middle of East River. It’s one subway stop away from Manhattan on the F line.
A view from the Roosevelt Island towards Queens:

A view from Roosevelt Island towards Manhattan:

Manhattan Midtown East, Lexington Avenue:

Manhattan Midtown East, Lexington Avenue:

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Easter came and went, leaving me with three extra pounds. We made the family rounds as we always do when we return to Romania. We’ve met a few friends and I ventured downtown Bucharest a few times. Our president was suspended yesterday.

On Sunday we’re leaving for Israel, visiting family for two weeks. I’ve been there before in October 2005 and I liked it. I found Israel as I read somewhere, a “small country with big sites”. I feel that’s the best way to describe it. I grew up under a communist regime so I’m not a religious person. I guess I can call myself a nonpracticing Christian. I only go to church once a year, on Easter night. I don’t read the Bible. But even someone like me feels something when stepping into Nazareth, or at the Jordan River. It feels like you’re breathing history, old or recent, it doesn’t matter.

When I tell people in Romania that we’re going to Israel, there’s one question that everyone asks “Aren’t you afraid?” I also remember getting the same question when I was getting my green card in 2002 (because of September 11). Aren’t you afraid to go to US? “I’m already living there” was my answer, “just that I had a working visa and not a green card. Nothing will change for me.” Two years ago I was contacted by a Swiss who wanted to visit Romania. He’s seen the news reports and was afraid of being robbed. He was asking me if he should carry a paralyzing spray while visiting. I told him there’s no need for that and after his visit he was laughing remembering his fears. Same when we traveled to Argentina, some of our friends were marveling at our courage to visit a country in South America. The media’s representation of a region doesn’t always tell the whole story. Most of the time our fears come from our ignorance about that particular place. And in today’s world, can you be sure that you’re completely safe anywhere in this world? Do you think that you’re safer in your own home town? Did anyone expect the tragic events that took place at Virginia Tech just a few days ago? I have friends who interviewed for a professor position there. It sounded safe at that time. One of the victims was a Jewish professor born in Romania, who survived a labor camp in WWII and the totalitarian regime in communist Romania. We’re never safe from random acts of violence and unfortunately that’s a reality we have to live with.

I feel like my post doesn’t have a point, like it’s missing something. I guess my point will be, don’t stay home just because the outside world seems less safe. Of course I don’t advertise going into a war zone. I don’t want to tempt fate in any way. Of course I’m a bit afraid too when I’m traveling to a place with a history of violence like Israel. But my belief is that in most places the overwhelming majority of people just get along peacefully on a daily basis and they are simply interested in living their lives, earning a living, and being normal people.

These are pictures from my previous visit to Israel:

Acre

Golan Heights

The Jordan River, the site of Jesus’ baptism (complete with gift shop)

The Sea of Galilee

Nazareth, the Grotto of the Virgin inside the Basilica of the Annunciation (this site is believed to be the place where Virgin Mary was announced by an angel that she was to become a mother)

Baha’i Gardens, Haifa

Elijah’s Cave, Haifa

A Coke bottle

The Dead Sea

Us floating at the Dead Sea