After Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown in 1989, the world learned of the shocking conditions in which many children lived in the country’s orphanages. More than 20 years later, those children are adults – and for some of them at least, life is far, far better than it was.
To arrive in Siret is to arrive at world’s end.
The train from Bucharest – clatter-boom, clatter-boom, through the night – goes only as far as Suceava. An historic city mauled by the communists.
Immediately after the revolution of 1989 I travelled from here to Siret in an elusive taxi.
Now Catalin – with his own car hire firm and a canary yellow cap – waits for me at the station, ostentatiously dusting down his Vauxhall Astra.
mai mult / more
Romania’s orphans: Young adults leave horror behind
