What is there left to do when your world is changing fast, against your will? When everything is going from bad to worse and you feel powerless, forgotten and betrayed? Shop, party and plan a vacation, of course!

Therefore I headed for Iasi with my mom on Thursday night or Friday morning, as you prefer. We left at 1 a.m. while it was raining/snowing outside, on a road I had never been on. I was a bit tired as I had slept for one hour only, but all in all the trip was awesome.

I was expecting a longer drive, as it was night and stormy at times, but we got to Iasi in 7 hours (during which we had two pit stops, one of them to also eat). As the anniversary class was at the university in Iasi, but three hours later, we had to walk a little into the freezing cold.

However, I finally found a Montherlant book that I had been looking for at least half a year. And the second part of Anais Nin’s journal. I then took part in the famous class, got kissed and hugged by most of my mother’s colleagues (they’re all lawyers or legal advisers of different kinds as she is a Law graduate).

As it suited me so well, due to the rough week and long drive with no sleep, I had a major breakdown that afternoon. And after a few hours of sleep under my mom’s close watch and an extremely long shower, I suddenly started to feel a lot better. And headed for the dinner organized in a nearby restaurant.

I had brought this nice dress to wear. But I decided it was not warm enough for it (actually, it was, for normal people, not for heat loving lizards like me). So I decided to wear a more comfortable and warm outfit and let the look wonderful part to my mom. I saw people dancing and having fun, being a family and being friends, being warm and kind and interesting. Then headed to our room, to get some sleep. I didn’t as when my mom came back at 3 a.m. I was still watching movies on my laptop.

The second day was full. We got up at 9 am and by 10 o’clock we were having our breakfast and coffee downtown. We started doing some shopping at about 11 and by half past 12, I had spent so much money that my head was twisting. But who cared when I had chosen such beautiful looking clothes/boots.

I then met Ryan, took my mom to the hotel for her lunch with her colleagues and Ryan needed to go through the pain of walking around the whole city of Iasi with me. I will give you more details and photos of the beautiful places to visit in Iasi in my next post. They are too many to squeeze in this preview/overview.

We also stopped by his place for a quick glance of the Internet world and for me to transfer some movies and music. We shared an extremely good pizza and talked a little more about everything. Given that we had previously met online only and that we became close when we were no longer colleagues in BitDefender, I have to tell you he seemed in person as great as he seemed online. One more reason to regret the old team!

Another important aspect of this day was a long morning chat with my mom. The result: I decided what to do with my winter holidays: instead of feeling sad and lonely as I predicted before pulling myself out of the bad state I was in, I will be spending the winter holidays in Cairo, Egypt!!! Yes, my Egyptian friends, I am coming there and I DO expect to meet all of you. Even you, Haal, like it or not! I am sure you will all be willing to meet me, given that you do not want to start a world ending volcano eruption. Just kidding…or am I?

After two nights with little rest, I fell asleep at 9 o’clock on Saturday and only woke up at 7 am the next day. We headed home at 9 am, we first got to Ploiesti where I left my mom and at 5 pm I was back in Bucharest. I did not get lost in Iasi! Did I tell you how proud I was of that? I actually managed (sometimes with lots of struggling involved) to get to the places I needed to get to.

Sunday evening, after half hour of checking emails and blogs, my good mood was starting to wear off. So I talked t Cris and Alex and we all went out. We had something to drink at the Amsterdam Café, talked and laughed and I came back home again, happy and prepared for a new week.

Tags: Iasi, Romania, Travel Destinations, Alina, Alina Popescu