The first McDonald's in Cluj opened today. People were lined up way into the streets, standing out in rain all day long. The crowd was huge even then. You could get nearly 85 lei to the dollar on the black market in '89. Today, the lei is 7,400 to one dollar.
Inflation is rampant.
Last year in October and November when we were here, a gallon of gas was around 30 cents. Ever since writing to everyone about the beggar woman without a face, I can't get her out of my head. It kills me that people like her are not given some kind of care. I don't know what can be done. I've been told on more than one or two occasions that the elderly are treated worse here than the orphans.