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.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
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