Elisabeth-
It was hard (and very sad :-(, for my part) to sort out the Eastern European cities, main reasons for this decision were that there are not enough local people to help and the difficult travel situation for people from overseas even when the offers looked very beautiful.
There should be no reason for sadness. The criteria you listed are very important for what is to be a world-wide meetup. However, given that the Romanian Wikipedia in particular has put a lot of effort into this, I think they would be a prime candidate for a "Wikimedia Eastern Europe" meetup. Wikimedia meetups can be organized on all levels, from the very global to the very local. As Meta becomes a more visible place in the Wikimedia community, I'm sure we will see this multi-level approach develop further.
Regards,
Erik