Edition 4 - New Surroundings and Attempts to Heal
As you know, I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus on these email updates. It has been difficult to find the time to write these out but more than that, I think that the emotional toll of what I have experienced and what continues to go on in the world has made this all the more difficult.
There is a feeling of gratefulness that I made it out of Israel safely. But there are also the tears that I shed as the plane took off towards Romania.
There is a grief that I feel for all innocent civilians being caught in the crossfire. But there are others that rejoice when one side or the other falls.
There is togetherness that thrives within like communities during times of need. But there are immense feelings of division against '“others”, riddled with physical and emotional pain.
These past few months have been extremely polarizing. We have seen lies spread like wildfire. We have watched as our loved ones show no sympathy for hostages, civilian death, or destruction. We have opened up the Instagram app each morning knowing that we will see nothing remotely resembling good news. But we keep doing it because we hope that one day soon there will be a glimmer of hope and peace.
With this, I’ve decided to backtrack on my experiences fleeing the war in the Middle East and write about my experiences since. I’ve met many incredible people over the past couple of months - I’ve leaned on some of these new friends while I have been processing the war, I’ve explored new and interesting places alongside them, and I have been attempting to use this time to have many internal and external conversations to heal as best I can. With that being said, welcome to Romania!
Romania
October 12 - 24
Bucharest
I landed in Bucharest, Romania’s capital city, on Thursday, October 12th late at night. Bucharest, like many big cities across the globe, caters to a vibrant city night life with streets lined with bars and clubs alike. After my very eventful last week, I knew that I was going to spend a few days just relaxing and attempting to heal in some way. I prioritized being with my thoughts and small touristy activities but didn’t want to overextend myself in a way where I felt overwhelmed or not able to keep up. However, I also knew that I needed some sort of community for my first Shabbat exactly a week after the war began. Here are some highlights from my time in Bucharest:
Shabbat dinner at the Chabad of Bucharest where I met so many others who ended up in Romania after fleeing the war in Israel. This was by far the most comforting - knowing that I wasn’t supposed to be in Romania but was surrounded by people who understand the confusion, pain, and loss that I was feeling was almost calming. I even met people that I had mutual friends with, the world is so big but alas it is also so small.
Free walking tours filled with insight, education, and history (ask me about the rolling churches of Bucharest!).
Morning coffee and pastries with new hostel friends.
Brașov
I trained myself to Brașov on Tuesday, October 17th at around mid-day. Brașov is a town about 3 hours north of Bucharest - it is much less touristy and attracts many backpackers with a knack for hiking or an interest in nature. From the second I entered my hostel in Brașov, I was greeted by other backpackers who later became great friends. We explored the fun yet relaxing night life, we hiked until our (mainly mine) blisters didn’t let us anymore, and we took road trips to areas nearby which had some spooky history. Here are some highlights from my time in Brașov:
Scouring menus to find the 1 or 2 vegetarian options.
Finally buying some pants and long sleeve shirts after leaving a desert with only shorts and t-shirts.
Small free walking tours of only 3 people, making it easy to make friends and invite them to lunch.
Road trip to Sighisoara to see beautiful lookouts, adorable towns, and more incredible gothic architecture.
Climbing ladders and hiking 1,635m each way just to have donkeys attempt to eat my lunch
Playing Monopoly Go in outside bars one night and hiking to the BRASOV sign in the morning, just a few hours later
SO. MANY. CASTLES.
Changing Experiences and Cadence
Skipping ahead a little bit, in mid-November we found out that our fellowship will be restarting in January 2024. This fellowship will be slightly different than the one that I initially signed on to participate in this year - it has been revamped and rebranded as The Crisis to Community Resilience Fellowship to meet the current needs of the communities within Lod, Rishon, and Haifa. Unfortunately, because of many reasons, I have decided not to return to this revamped fellowship. I still support everything that Yahel as an organization stands for and the amazing work that they do - I cannot wait to see what the returning and new fellows accomplish over these 6 months. They are also accepting new fellows if anyone is interested :)
With that being said, what am I up to now? My goals for this year focused on cultural immersion and volunteer work, so I’ve decided to backpack and volunteer in Europe for the next 5.5 months. I am excited to keep these Emma’s World Adventures newsletters going with a bit of an updated cadence. Knowing that I will be going through pretty consistent location changes over these next few months, I will need more time to write these newsletters out in a way that is organized, consistent, and still allows me to look back at my year. With that being said, I am now planning to send out these newsletters by country visited (soon after I have left) with each email dedicated to my experiences in each individual country.
Where will the next newsletter be set? Ireland! See you there…