Breakfast in Unirea. As well as providing one of the best hotel breakfasts, it is always a fantastic place for viewing and reflecting on the state of local society. This weekend, due to the important and huge festival of Saint Parascheva, the character of the place is very particularly orthodox influenced Romanian. However, it is now much more mixed than in the past. I also notice that some people from last night’s dining room who had an Old Style appearance, are much more informal this morning. More older style behaviour survives in way older people behave without much sense of spatial awareness when eg targeting the coffee machine…. And a few international visitors appear intolerant of what they do not comprehend. Wonderful start to the day!
All of this is really fascinating
How’s the corners doing!
Our No Kerosene group is a fascinating mix of people… some old friends, colleagues… but most have strong interest in local cultures…. ‘People and Place’ ….as researchers, educators, creatives, environmentalists, artists, musicians, community development issues…..
Our brief time in Budapest was so deeply fascinating that I’ve not yet been able to find a way of expressing, succinctly, our experience…… …. And even since breakfast there have been ‘brief encounters’ of a very positive nature….. some ‘corners’ as Bernard will understand, have been turned!
We are in Iași at festival time – and that allows more space in which to meet friends and colleagues when we known for 20+ years.
In 2023 Radu & Dana were recipients of Pasquale’s Spilinga beer which we delivered – this time we only had a small can of beer given to us on Eurostar
The meeting – over a long lunch – was very important as Radu raised an issue that had also been mentioned by other friends and partners – particularly Magda in Poland & Rosalba in Calabria
Our inclination to engage in story-telling.
This became a feature of the visit – and requires further consideration.
Later in the day we toured the city centre – as it prepared for the festival….
in the cathedral
Near the specially constructed ‘bower’ under which the relics of St Parascheva are laid
…and the relaxed atmosphere in the major street – ‘Stefan cel Mare’
Other sites featured – including the Three Hierarchs Church & Pizza Unirii
WhatsApp comments:
I remember our visit many years ago. Fantastic
I feel as I am travelling too
This image shows one of the miracles that occur at this time of the year in Iași
The town lit by a heavenly light, provided by a suspended ethereal lamp which is fed electricity directly from a cloud. The evidence for the physical reality of this phenomenon is the lamplight reflected off the cloud above.
NB. There may be other explanations for this phenomenon
Monday October 14th
We walked around the city centre simply, for most of the time, enjoying the festival atmosphere.
The celebratory liturgy was being held on a special raised platform on one side of The Stefan cel Mare Boulevard. Opposite was another platform with seating for invited guests. The huge congregation positioned themselves between the two & spreading along the boulevard.
Unfortunately, as we discovered, despite the huge stationary crowds, the boulevard was still acting as a route way for pedestrians.
We were wishing to walk through to the fare end of the boulevard… and without any real warning suddenly realised we were trapped in a very slow moving (in both directions) mass of people.
There were 3 groups.
One was stationary being a part of & sharing the ceremony
The other two groups were moving in directions opposite to the other.
There were no clear lines so everyone was simply trying to find a way through or round, those coming towards them.
Fortunately everyone was being calm… though some, being large and rotund, had an advantage of personal weight which, as they used it to move forward, increased the pressure on those around.
We both felt physically stressed by the requirement to move carefully & calmly (maybe the awareness of the danger made the experience more stressful).
It was a considerable relief when we managed to escape to the side (where we were then ‘moved -on’ by security staff …. because, by standing in the empty space in front of the City Hall we apparently constituted a security risk to the important officials seated on the raised platform).
Though there were many security staff present they were passive observers, none of them were engaged in attempting to manage the situation
The experience was claustrophobic. If anyone had fallen or had there there been any slight panic there was the potential for a very serious disaster.
An aerial view demonstrates the overall size… and appearing, in places, that the barriers were under strain.
Jacqui commented on WhatsApp
I was in that crowd with my elbow in a very large stomach
We escaped by passing behind the City Mayor’s proud contribution to the festival…. a floral peacock.
There are times when churches can offer spaces of calm – as for us, on this occasion, was the nearby church of St Nicholas, one of the oldest in Iași.
The autumn is a time for ‘Must’, a popular drink from the liquid of pressed grapes – as shown here – & is not fermented (but needs to be kept cool).
Ian will tell you all about this moment 🥰🥰
Jacqui tells me I started sermonising about the spiritual significance of a chip covered in red tomato sauce. Personally I cannot believe that Jacqui’s memory is correct
Tuesday 15th October
Our principal aim was to meet Ovidiu at Ion Cuza University.
To lunch at the university …. Which seems to have introduced new security measure
And a camouflaged campus!
The university has a newly re-acquired ‘house’ which the national government had attempted to ‘possess’. The University won the legal battle & now the place is used by staff.
We dined there by invitation of Ovidiu…… and enjoyed sharing very personal reflections about the importance & value of story telling.
Indeed, we intersected pathways and people’s lives, histories, and means of transportation… as usually, a treat!
We strolled back to the hotel
The queue to the shrine containing the relics of Saints Parascheva and Pantelimon remain… and even though the most significant day (14th) has passed devotees still crave to have physical contact. For some, iy is a firm belief that contact has a physical power which can be received directly & also transported away through use of cloths, water & other personally significant items.
For us, there is considerable physical benefit in being able to remain dry in the rain, by using the now empty sheltered paths created for the visiting pilgrims.
In the evening we met with Radu Robota & George Poede: it became and Evening of Revelation
The Journey Revealed
The Personal Significance of Story-telling
“To survive you must tell stories” Umberto Eco: Island of the Day before (chap 19)
The initial meeting & discussions with Mari, Cornel, Mihaela, Dana & Radu Robota, Corneliu on 13 &14th gained greater significance through the experiences shared at lunchtime… and were underlined by a final evening meeting with Radu and Prof George Poede.
Those meetings revealed that ‘Stories & their Telling’ was the key theme for the whole journey to and from Iași.
Stories continued to be created and heard during the rest of the journey.
Thus the deeper aim & purpose of the journey & visit lay unrevealed, until we arrived in Iași & met friends & shared the process, the ideas & ‘The Telling’ with Radu, Ovidiu & Prof George Poede.
The realisation raises question:
There is a saying: If, after being told on three separate occasions that you are a horse, then you should go and buy a saddle.
Recently & again very specifically, by Radu Robota & Ovidiu during our visit to Iași, I have been told I was a ‘storyteller’.
Now, my question to myself is
‘What kind of ‘saddle’ should I buy’?
WhatsApp comment
Your photos are bringing back wonderful memories of visits to Iasi at this time of year. I’d love to take my family on this journey one day!
A ‘pilgrimage’ to Iași?
Per ager: 2 words that combined to created ‘Pelerín’, peregrination, pilgrim.
‘Through the land’
Someone who does that…. A traveller, also with an interesting origin…. Someone who ‘travails’…. Works hard to overcome a task (eg childbirth), a word of ancient origin, implying pain or even torture. In Iasi, the element of personal struggle (to be present in the presence of St Parascheva, on 14 October) is always evident.
Our ‘travailing’ was hardly painful… slightly inconvenient thanks to a cancelled train.
But it is the ‘personal confrontation’ that turns a ‘mundane journey’ into something more significant. That, unexpectedly & through the presence of friends and colleagues, is what happened.
‘Story-teller’… so I was told!
All pilgrims need to return home… and usually as conveniently as possible.
We travel comfortably, admiring views…. But we had a 2nd purpose, another ‘effort’.
To pay a final visit to a son who was to leave his present island home (Jersey) & move to London.
Inspirational Pathways 