Travel

A crowd gathered and took their seats in the courtyard of the Elie Wiesel Memorial House. Postcards with historical images of Jewish Sighet and others with different culinary Yiddishms lined the trees, stretching alongside the picket fence separating the museum grounds from the sidewalk.

“Don’t eat the challah before saying the blessing” reads one with a picture of a presumably naked woman covered by a challah. “If you’re going to eat pork, eat it till your mouth drops” reads another. My favorite? “When a thief kisses you, count your teeth.”

Guests listened attentively to the evening’s hosts. They were giving a background on Jewish food, explaining basics like the laws behind kosher eating.

But I was busy in a makeshift outdoor kitchen, cooking up some kasha varnishkes. I couldn’t remember if I volunteered or was asked to help, but it didn’t matter in the moment. I had a professional chef next to me watching curiously, asking me about the dish and how to make it. I couldn’t screw it up.

This trip, my visit to Sighet, had been a long time coming. I originally planned to visit in May of 2020 after learning that my great-grandmother, Bertha Lax, was likely born in the northern Romanian city back when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I’d been looking forward to it ever since my first Jewish heritage trip to Bardejov, Slovakia.

Then, the pandemic happened, and leaving Germany for any kind of travel beyond an emergency seemed like a bad idea. When countries started to open back up the following year, I determined to make it happen knowing how quickly things could change. I booked a flight to Cluj-Napoca, took the bus up to Sighet, and spent the better part of a week in town before taking the overnight train from Sighet to Bucharest.

The overnight train from Sighet to Bucharest isn’t the fastest way to cross the country. But for me, the 15 hours on the train overnight beats driving 9 hours––by a long shot.

The overnight train leaves Sighet once a day, departing at 4 pm and arriving in Bucharest at 6:30 am the next day. Train schedules will make it look like there’s a transfer in Beclean pe Someş in the middle of the night, but the train simply changes its service name. You don’t actually get woken up to switch trains.

My ticket for a private cabin was 292 RON or about €59 / $67. That’s about what I was spending for my lodging in Sighet and Bucharest per night. For me, it was worth it to ensure privacy, especially since it was still pandemic season and the prospect of sharing would’ve been exceptionally unappealing.