10 Jun 2014 Bacau to Iasi

10 Jun 2014 Bacau to Iasi
Note: 1.  So far in the sites we have visited, there are blooming rose gardens in public spaces.  Parks are enjoyed by people of all ages.
2.  So many churches!  And people make the sign of the cross as they pass by each one whether on foot or on a bus.  Carol was amused by a guy juggling a cell phone, bags, and the repeat need to cross!
Yesterday, the hotel clerk told us there was a synagogue, or maybe a cemetery, here in Bacau (we had asked earlier).  It was a 30 min walk from the Gara.  As we looked at the site on the map, the site appeared to be a cemetery, not a synagogue.  It also appeared to be apx 1/2 km from Pensuine Ellora [the rejected hotel from two nights before].  Finally, this location was a little more than a km from the Curcanal de Aur restaurant from last night.
So we got up really early, took the bus in time to get to Curcanal restaurant by 7 am, just as it opened.  We ordered cascaval de pane (9 lei) [cascaval cheese, breaded and fried], and omelet du cabanos [sausages] (6 lei).  Also two coffees.  Total 25 lei.   Good food.
After breakfast, we walked past a market.  There we saw "fragole," teeny tiny raspberry like berries.  They were 4 times more expensive than cherries and they were sold in tiny cups worth.  But so sweet. WOW.  Within a half hour, they were deteriorating, so we stopped and finished them off.  We were lucky to have found them.  They are apparently quite rare in the markets.
Other than a short wrong turn, we were fairly quickly at the cemetery.  We were greeted by the caretaker, who showed us around.  But we couldn't find what we wanted, namely, a grave for Harry Segal, Carol's maternal great grandfather.  We looked for a while, and then the caretaker referred us to the community center at Str. Gheorghe Aposti Nr. 11, where the cemetery records were.  This cemetery had a very beautiful holocaust memorial, with fire sculpted on the top of the memorial making it all the more striking.
A taxi took us to the community center.  We walked in.  The director, a blunt, business-like man, took out the index books, and we picked out 3 possible gravesites, including one for Hersh Segal in 1928.  We were there 10 minutes.  He then asked for a donation for the lookup privileges.  Mike offered 10 lei. NO. 20 lei. NO. 50 lei was the prefered amount.  Then, he was finished with us.  No opportunity to see the rest of the center. (We later learned that we had missed seeing the Cerealistilor Synagogue from 1906,  Goodness knows what it would have cost in donations to see that synagogue.)
We took the bus back to the Pensiune, retrieved our bags.  The clerk called a taxi to take us to the cemetery, wait, and then to the Autogara in time for the 11:55 bus to Iasi.
At the cemetery, it turned out that the gravesite for Hersh Segal was so far back into the underbrush that even if we had found it, there probably would not have been a gravestone still standing.
All the errands finished, we were at the bus station with 10-15 min to spare.  The taxi fare was 24 lei ($8.25) for a little more than an hour.
The bus ride to Iasi was uneventful.  We pulled in to the Autogara in the city of Iasi, sort of across the street from the Gara, at apx 2:00 pm.  A quick taxi to Hotel Eden, one of our two choices, took 10 lei.  The room, on the third floor, was 155 lei ($48) a night.  No internet in the hotel (only WiFi), but there was supposedly a cafe nearby.  Laundry was available at the hotel, and our 4 days worth was only 20 lei, so we brought down our filled laundry bag.
We vegged out for a while, and Carol did a small sink wash of things that could not be machine washed.
After 5:30 pm we went out for a walk.  We were fairly close to the Great Synagogue, so we walked by.  There was a small guided group from Buffalo, NY, there, but they seemed not to want extra listeners hanging on.  Numerous signs said "Watch Day 2014. 12 Jun" (in two days).  In front of the site was a holocaust memorial.  The synagogue had workers everywhere, and scaffolding everywhere.  It was hard to imagine that the site would be ready for anything in two days.
Lonely Planet showed this synagogue, and then showed another synagogue 500 m to the east off the map.  So we started walking in that direction.  As we asked locals where the synagogue was, they kept directing us back to what we had already seen.  After a while, we concluded that the Lonely Planet map was wrong.
We stopped looking for other synagogues, and started looking for dinner.  Lonely Planet suggested Casa Lavric, about 1.5 miles away, for its excellent traditional food.
So we walked that way.  We walked past the Jewish Community Center, with its museum and its map of the 127 synagogues in Iasi (in 1910), without seeing it or going in.  We bought a 10 bus ticket package for 19 lei.  We passed a schematic map pasted on a bus stop, and photographed it, graffiti and all.  It was the only assistance we had as to where the buses and trams went, and it was hard to read. 
Finally, about 7:45 pm, we were at the restaurant.  Somewhat yuppie.  We ordered a Ciorba de Burta, a chicken and tripe soup, and a bean soup, a thin soup with some hard beans and vegetables.  Also, we had potatoes with Honey and Ginger.  Not bad, but not as good as the Lonely Planet hype.
After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks to an uncertain address where the internet cafe, Forte Cafe, was supposedly located.  After 30 minutes of walking around unsuccessfully, two seventh grade kids offered to take us to an internet cafe.  Thank heavens for good English students with smartphones!
So off we went, all the way back toward the beginning point, and then some.  The place was not Forte Cafe, but Starnet Internet Cafe, more a game center than anything else, and we were the oldest customers by far.
It was 9:45 pm, but we had an internet cafe.  So we spent 1.5 hours there, reserving a hotel in Suceava, and making the first blog entry.  Finally, exhausted, we went back to the hotel, and to bed.
Thoughts so far:  For a location in the arts center of Iasi, with the Palace of Culture, Opera Romania, and National Theater neighbors of our hotel, there is a distressing amount of graffiti and crumbling infrastructure.