An Intimate Group

We met our tour director and (most) of our fellow travelers at our orientation meeting that evening.  We were shocked when we walked in to only find our tour director and 10 other people.  We learned that our entire group would only comprise 16 people.  Wow!  Not what we expected.  We learned that pre-Covid, the trips had been running with around 40 people.  When trips resumed last year, numbers were somewhat down, but it was the Russian invasion of Ukraine that really drove down numbers.  I was actually shocked that they elected to run the tour with so few people, but we learned more about this as the week progressed.  Four of our 16 had not yet arrived, as our kick-off date coincided with a massive strike by Lufthansa pilots, which forced the cancellation of almost all of their flights worldwide.  Two couples were caught up in this strike, which was called at the last moment, so they would be forced to join us the following day.  A single woman -- who actually lives in Crystal City and used to work in the building where Anna lived during her last year of college (it used to belong to the IRS) -- was also routed through Germany, but somehow she talked United Airlines into letting her fly as far as Munich and then figure out how to make it to Romania on the other end.  It worked out in the end, but I was surprised she took that chance.  We had originally been scheduled to fly through Frankfurt, so I am glad we had rerouted months ago to the Istanbul itinerary, as we avoided all of that mess.

The group was somewhat eclectic but we soon all cliqued to different degrees and it ended up being a very enjoyable group of people.  There were four native Romanians in our group.  Two sisters each, and the two groups were also cousins.  Two of the sisters had escaped Romania with their family in 1960, while one of the other sisters had emigrated in 1980, while her sister remained behind in Bucharest, and she still lives there.  They had all already been traveling together for a couple of weeks before we arrived.  They'd been in Italy, as well as visiting remaining family in Romania before our tour kicked off.  They had signed up for the tour as a way to see parts of the country they had not seen, and having them with us was a real joy.  The oldest sister was 83 years old and we were all amazed by her fortitude and determination.  For perspective, at 55, I was the youngest member of the tour.  In addition to a couple from Idaho and another from New York City (two emigrants from Uzbekistan, who left shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union), we had a single man from Britain.  We'd never traveled on Gate1 with a non-American, and we soon learned that he was a recently retired tour director himself, who used to work for Gate1's office in Britain as an administrator.  It was because he worked for the company, that he was given exception to book -- they normally only allow American citizens to book tours with them.  He was really interesting and availed us of many stories during the tour.  He explained to us why he thought our tour ran, with so few participants, saying that the company has to maintain good relations with the hotels and restaurants, with which they contract for the tours.  If they keep cancelling, then they lose priority and it makes it harder to so business.  He also knew the owner of Gate1 personally, and said he shared on many occasions his belief that he was willing to lose money on some tours if it meant he could maintain good vendor relations and have satisfied (repeat) customers.  All I can say is that I was very happy we lucked out with such an intimate group.

We learned that our tour guide, Iuliana, was just returning off of maternity leave.  She had not given a tour in just about a year, and this was her first time away since having her daughter.  She turned out to be one of, if not the best Gate1 tour guide we have had over six tours now.  He laughter was infectious and she was so focused on ensuring we were all taken care of, it made a real difference.  

By the time the welcome meeting wrapped up, jet lag was hitting us.  We ate as a group in the hotel restaurant, and shared a table with the Uzbeki immigrants, who live in New York City, and it was a fascinating discussion. She is a hematologist and spent months working and living in her hospital, as it was too dangerous to go back and forth to home at night.  She had also contracted Covid at least three times over two years.  This trip was their first since Covid began and she, in particular, was incredibly excited to be anywhere other than home.  We were fading fast, though, and we were the first to excuse ourselves and head to bed.