This morning after breakfast we said goodbye to Transylvania with heavy heart and two mysterious fang marks in my neck!   |  :|   It has been a great pre-trip and we were so lucky with the weather. The people before us had to put up with snow storming and wind...we just had beautiful snow-covered trees and bright blue skies. Those afterwards had to contend more with slushy mud and missed the beauty of the snow tipped trees. Still we both had the beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows in the foliage.

On the long trip home Irina taught us so much. I'm going to include some of these discoveries, because it is always so important to hear it from those who lived it. Of course Irina was only four at the time of the revolution, but living with her parents and grandparents for many years gave her a real feeling for it all. Also she knows so much about life in Romania as she has lived here all her life.

Firstly, the leader, Nikolai Ceausescu (Cho chess kuh) had his pictures plastered all over Romania. To make himself look little (he was young) his pictures were sprayed with the color which made him look a bit weird. He and his wife had come from very humble beginnings in very small villages, but very soon he became enamored with communism and pushed the party at 15 years of age. He was not an educated man; in fact both he and his wife had only three years of schooling. Both of these people, however were very power hungry and it did not bode well for Romania! The secret police had informers spying on families, schools and factories everywhere.

His wife would have the secret service travel to the countries they were to visit and get them a credential so when they arrived they had a masters to impress. Other countries were afraid to refuse because they were so powerful and vindictive. His wife Elena decided she wanted to visit the states. When the secret service came back they said only one small school in Illinois agreed to give her a honorary degree! "That will not do!", she said, "If I cant get a degree from a big university in the states I won't go there!" Boy did we dodge the bullet! Remember... she was the chemist who talked about "H-twenty" instead of H2O!

He was paranoid, obsessed that people were trying to poison him. He was as well as feared germs and always wore a gray tailored suit. What people found out later was that he wore a gray suit for one day and destroyed it and the tailor would have one ready for him to wear the next day. He took his own sheets with him. He surrounded himself with people who professed to love him ....feeding his delusion. He refused to let any of the government offices have air conditioning believing it would push out poison air; instead all windows were closed and curtains pulled. Everyone was living with very sporadic electricity, long food lines, and meager salaries; he and Elena were living it up.

They believed they had saved the country and that the people loved him. Since people were imprisoned who spoke against him, everyone waved and threw flowers when he passed.

Eighty percent of the people in Romania are Orthodox religion and the rest are a combination of Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim. Of course during the communist time people were encouraged NOT to go to church. Nikolai and Elena were both atheist and of course he believed he was the most god-like in the later times of his reign. Although the churches were not destroyed or made into offices and swimming pools as we saw in Russia , the people were almost afraid to attend services. The party organized Sunday morning movie premiers on TV to discourage people from going to church. Nikolai was afraid that if people went to church, it would be too easy to form alliances together against the government... a meeting place to discuss anti government stuff! Priests were killed or put in prison if it was thought they were speaking against the government and every school, church, or factory had informants who would report any such activity and extreme consequences would occur. Many divorces occurred after the war when one member of the family was found to be an informer against the family! Of course some were forced to inform or their family would be harmed! I just can't imagine living in such fear and suspicion!

Elena was really awful to the people! She treated them like servants....worse yet, like rats. It is said when they were shot, she got ten bullets for every one he got. They are still not certain who actually killed them as there were many in the army that shot and no body would admit it was them. Nikolai believed that he would be free. The people believed he was shot so he wouldn't tell the names of his accomplices. They believed those were still there ready to step in and it would be business as usual.

These are the "paid" supporters who waved flags to make him feel loved and wanted.

He wanted women to have 8 to 10 kids, no legal abortions. Because families were already struggling to support the family they already had, there were illegal abortions or abandoned children...especially those children with disabilities. In 1966 these children were put in despicable orphanages where children were kept in beds all the time and they were not adequately fed or bathed. When they were sick they were injected with medicine...all using the same needle! As a result many developed HIV. After the revolution the people found about it and many we're adopted...she said America adopted many children and gave them a good life. Sadly other countries also came to adopt. Later they found that some were harvesting the organs of the children or using them in bondage and the government stopped adoptions. Now it is a very involved process so they know the child is well cared for...psychologically, physical testing and the like...not so easy!