La Multi Ani!

For New Year's Eve, I joined Oana, Aida, and five of their friends at the Estate bar. We each paid 125 lei (around $40), for which we received a couple of reserved tables, trays of snacks, bottles of whiskey, vodka and mixers, and champagne at midnight. Like most clubs/bars in Romania, Estate is located down a steep staircase and has thick brick walls and low arched ceilings. Pop music, mostly Romanian, played. Everyone was in fine spirit, dancing, singing, laughing. The camaraderie here is palpable: never have I sensed the sort of competitiveness or animosity among men that you get in The States. At midnight, we flowed upstairs and out into the street, where some guys were setting off firecrackers and fountains. Overhead, the big show started, explosions that rattled windows. We toasted "La Multi Ani!" and then everyone smashed their champagne glasses.
I need to correct myself on something I wrote in an earlier post: there are definitely people here who know of independent/underground music. Like anywhere else, the majority listen to the worst stuff available, but dig deeper and you find fans of really good music, the stuff that's not made by corporations strictly for money. Recently, I've discovered Maria Tanase, a Romanian folk singer who recorded mostly in the 1940s. She pours her soul into it, a Romanian Billie Holiday. Her voice digs into my bones, and I cannot shake it loose. Outside, big flakes are coming down, goose down, dreaming its way to earth. La multi ani.