Arad, Romania will be our home for the next few months. We will springboard to our journeys across Romania from here.

As we walk through my husband’s hometown for miles (or more correctly, kilometers!), I hear Bruce Springsteen’s My Hometown playing in my head. My husband points at the familiar buildings: the former schools, the swimming pool, the theatre, and the ice skating spot near the boardwalk. We weave through old neighborhoods which he navigated with his bicycle, as he shares secret routes through old alleyways with their quiet courtyards and large trees. He shares vividly of the 1989 Revolution. He shares of communism with food rations, lines and fights for bread, the frequent shortage of hot water, and the jeans hawked from western Europe and sold at the flea market under Ceausescu’s reign.

We experience the smells and sounds of the market (piata)! There is everything from woodens to woolens and fruits to vegetables and breads to meats to fresh cheeses and bathroom to automobile supplies! The market is a very special part of Romania for me. It reminds me of my first journey to Romania in the summer of 1996 and also a bit of the old farmer’s markets of my childhood in Vermont.

Then we discover new businesses and restaurants and in a few cases are stopped by old friends who have not seen him in years – it has been more than 13 years since he left home for the States. Those of you who know him…realize that his youthfulness still remains!

Throughout our journey, we will highlight Arad County or post events we have attended in Arad City. Stay tuned! - HSR