Travelling becomes even more special when there is emotions involved and when you are visiting your boyfriend’s hometown, naturally you get curious to know more about it. It’s always tricky when it gets the time, if you are in an intercultural relationship, to travel to your lover’s hometown, because you might or not like it.
Last December I went to his city for the first time, Iasi in the northeast of Romania. Honestly, my first impression wasn’t really positive, because it rained continuously for two weeks. Everyone there said I was unlucky and this is an extraordinary event, since it snows more than it rains, but I guess Iasi didn’t like me either the first time. 😁
Now this second time, it was a whole different experience. The springy, sunny weather in Iasi, made its beauty bloom just like magic. This remind me the old saying “don’t judge the book by its cover” and I thought that was only applied to people, but clearly it doesn’t. By the pictures bellow and video more ahead, you’ll understand why I enjoyed so much the last two weeks discovering my boyfriend’s hometown in spring time.
The Palace of Culture 
Stephen The Great Boulevard 
Stephen The Great Boulevard 
City Hall 
Mitropolia Moldovei – A Cathedral Campus on Stephen The Great Boulevard 
A bar in the Bouleavard, where people can enjoy spring during covid times 
The National Theatre 
The Eminescu Library 
Golia Monastery Tower – My boyfriend is standing on the left, new vs old generation 
Golia Monastery 
The Museum inside Golia Monastery dedicated to the famous 19th century Romanian writer Ion Creanga 
The bust sculpture of the Romanian writer Ion Creanga, in Golia Monastery 
Golia Monastery 
Golia Monastery Tower seen from the inside 
Bojdeuca Ion Creanga – The 19th century house of the Romanian writer Ion Creanga 
Copou Park 
Another bust sculpture from the famous 19th century Romanian Poet Mihai Eminescu, inside the Copou Park 
A monument dedicated to the well known Romanian poem from Mihai Eminescu called “Desire” 
Traian Hotel – architecture from Gustave Eiffel 
Traian Hotel
Iasi has so much history. The Palace of Culture, for example, is an iconic monument inaugurated in 1925, considered to be the representation of the Neogothic style which shows the end of Romanticism in Romanian architecture. Another important historical monument is the Golia Monastery, being a 17th century late Renaissance style church. This Romanian Orthodox monastery is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments and in 2012 was awarded with the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage. One of the main attractions as well, is the Traian Hotel, because it was one of the first constructions of Gustave Eiffel, built seven years before Eiffel Tower.
When I was walking on Stephen The Great Boulevard, I loved that at the weekends they have people entertaining the streets. Under you can watch a video of one talented performer that impressed me.
Let me mention that if you like shopping as much as I do, then you will love Cream Outlet! It’s an outlet of Zara, H&M and Guess. I bought like 6 items and everything was only £100! They have several around the city.
This store was located in Stephen The Great Boulevard.
My boyfriend is a crazy adventurer, always up for something unthinkable and hilarious and he made us visit the city in a Renault Twizy (picture below). Even though, it was spring, it wasn’t hot enough to be in this urban electric compact car without windows, on a speed of 80km/hour, so it was surely an adventure touring Iasi with my body freezing, but still having a smile on my face whilst filming everything with my phone and everyone around looking at us like if we came from another planet. 😂
Let’s jump now to my favourite subject: food! How would I describe Romanian cuisine? A very rich, fatty, intense flavour cuisine where pork and sour taste are main ingredients and part of a Romanian identity, especially when close to Moldavia. Still, Mediterranean food is also popular, so you can always opt for something lighter and healthier.
My top 3 restaurants where we ate are:
- La Castel – The food here is delicious and the Romanian traditional dishes are cooked a la carte.
The front of La Castel Restaurant 
The Dining Room 
The Garden where you can enjoy a meal “al fresco” 
Traditional Romanian sauces to dip the bread – sour cream, garlic, red pepper sauces and bean hummus 
Ciorba di burta – Tripe soup. My favourite Romanian soup. The tripe has a very mild taste and the creamy velvety soup blends perfectly with the tripe 
Goat meat with sheep cheese, polenta and sour cream 
Pork joint leg with sweet cabbage
- Blue Acqua – This beautiful restaurant serves delish fish dishes, supplied from the Danube River and Black Sea. It also serves meat, if you are not a fan of fish.
The terrace at the front of Blue Acqua Restaurant 
The interior of Blue Acqua Restaurant 
Blue Acqua’s cork menu – Love it! 
Rapane – Whelk from the Black Sea. This dish is really yummy! 
Danube perch dish 
Saramura de Peste – A traditional dish of fishermen along the Danube River. The fish used for this dish was also perch
- Veranda Restaurant – The rooftop of this restaurant is stunning! Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the food, but you can eat everything from Romanian, Mediterranean food to even sushi. Although, you can still see how the rooftop looks like.
Onto the next theme, I couldn’t have visited Romania and not talk about wine! If there is something that in Romania is essential is drinking wine, beer or whatever alcoholic drink whilst you’re with friends or enjoying a meal. Sometimes drinking water is even considered a sign of disrespect or having a weak personality. Crazy, right?! Nonetheless, one of my boyfriend’s friend owns a winery called Gramma in Iasi and I had the privilege to have a guided tour. It’s the most followed brand from Romania on Instagram.
Gramma has a visionary concept of how to produce, distribute and marketing wine. The winery is built with top technology appliances, that make sure the wine is kept at the right temperature, no matter the weather fluctuations. The box where the wine is commercialized is high quality, you can see in the slideshow bellow. The way the wine was distributed was totally different from what people thought it was possible. Being a small winery in Iasi, the expectation people had of becoming a renowned brand was low, however its reputation grew immensely, since its taste is exquisite. Gramma wines are so good, that they slide down your throat like honey! Hence it’s name Gramma, it makes your grammatic vocabulary flow so easily, that any conversation suddenly becomes easy and enjoyable. 😊
You can see also a video of me pouring wine directly from the cellar wine filtration.
Gramma Rose Wine 
Gramma Red Wine 
Gramma’s cellar wine filtration factory 
Gramma Wine Box, pack of 4 bottles 
The wines included in the box 
The small house is part of a visionary project where several of these small houses will be built, being part of a new concept of tourism where you are surrounded by vineyards 
The vineyards had been harvested when we went there
Done with wine😋, I want to talk about someone that I consider the best masseuse of the world. Well, it’s still in the context of relaxation, but diverse ways, lol. If it would ever happened you’d visit Iasi, I’d totally recommend you to contact Lavinia and book a massage with her. She will identify all your trigger points of tension and release them bit by bit. By the end, you feel like you can fly! She also corrects body posture.
Here is her Instagram, just in case.
Hope you liked reading the post!
Are you in an intercultural relationship too like mine? Have you visited your partner’s origins? If so, did you like it or not? Leave a comment below. Thank you Xx
