August 10, 1996

We can't help it. In Eastern Europe we just seem to have money troubles. Since every country's currency is worthless outside its borders we've been forced to spend. In Romania that's presented a bit of a problem. To begin with, there's really not much to buy. When there is, the prices are so low we can only manage to change paper into coins and coins into smaller coins. But using it up? Never. We tried in Sinaia. We walked into the department store but the few display cases sitting under unlit bulbs held so little it looked like the store was going out of business. Last week in Budapest, Hungary when we asked where we might buy a swim-suit the reply was, "There are no bathing suits;" Of course we found that hard to believe; in all of Budapest not one suit was for sale? Here in Romania however, those words are probably true.

But while shower slippers, antiperspirant and wool socks are hard to come by here, fruits and vegetables are not. The outdoor markets are packed with eggplants, sweet peppers, garlic, tomatoes, berries, peaches, plums and melons of every kind. At last. This was our opportunity. But it wasn't to be. Two green peppers weren't enough to even make the scale move. The man selling them loaded us up with seven and plucked a 1000 lei note from the ones I had fanned in my hand. That was only equal to about 30 cents. We had to buy three eggplants and throw in two plums just to spend 22 cents and more tomatoes than we can eat was barely 15 cents. (Looks like it's going to be ratatouille for a while.) We loaded up on grapes too; 2 Kg were less than 60 cents. John's taken to boiling them down to make hot grape juice - yum! But how we're going to eat up the equivalent of 18 dollars is beyond us.

The reason for all this is the collapse of the Romanian leu. In 1989 there were nine lei to one U.S. dollar. Today there are 3300. Each day we pass an exchange office we notice that the posted rate is a little higher. Our pockets are sagging from so many one inch 100 lei coins; each only worth about three cents.

Today we opened our money belts again. But two haircuts, a melon, four yogurts, postcards, stamps and bread used up only six dollars. The campground depleted us of another 3000 lei (90 cents) and a movie chewed up another 66 cents each. The chair lift rides into the Berguci Mountains were the most expensive purchase so far. Three rides cost us ten dollars. We'll fill up on bread and vegetables again before we pass the border and pour some lei into the gas tank. Even then I expect we'll be left holding a 10,000 lei note or two. I'll sift them into a stack of ones when I get home and see how many eyebrows I can raise.