In Eastern Europe

Photos: Transylvania

alanblake — Fri, 1 Aug 2014 10:49:00 GMT

ROMANIA

alanblake — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 10:45:00 GMT

....DEAR PATIENT READER, I HOPE you may still be with me.

Can't yet figure out the technology to get our photos up there so shall continue with

the text We were at Bucharest station.

Travelling through miles and miles of suburbs to the north of Bucharest. Am trying to

follow progress on our map. Tthe train is not full and we've a block of two plus two

seats end of the carriage. On the railway sidings are acres of recent-looking but now

obselete carriages and locos. Its all a bit sad.

Scenery is - what you might expect in E Europe: farms,fields and woodland in the middle distance but - the wagons

on the roads are horsedrawn. Orthodox towers in each hamlet. (photo will follow)

An hour out of the capital and we are rising; woods, beeches by the look, and the stream beside us

has been brutally diverted by concrete-encased piping in places and running parallel.

Again - abandonned factories, as in Bulgaria. And, this is something new: v. crude concrete watchtowers

at intervals. We can't imagine what crops they might be used to store (well, I can).

BRASOV - and its misty. I get out to photo an xtra electric loco being added to the front ( reminds me of

the Rimutakas).

vide LONELY PLANET for good material on this town.

THERES A GARALOUS middle-aged woman got on. And the nervy skinny guard; he's like something

out of Zille's Berlin Types lithographs. ( I wish i could get my sketch of the fellow onto this journal

and share it ). This woman's endowed with a good heart and not too much in the intelligence dept.

She's berating the poor guard for the train being late, and is in constant contact w her mum (!- the

mind boggles as to mama's character ) on a shiny pink cellphone. Its all q an amusement to certain of the other

passengers, one of whom we've befriended by the time we reach CLUJ at 10.30pm. Her name is Anka, she's

getting off too, and generously gets her boyfriend ( native of Cluj) to actually drive us to the hostel.

( photo to come).

Later on - like after midnight - and we're at a student/young peoples establishment not far from our

hostel ( photo will come). Again - its v noisy and v cheerful and wd have been impossible under the

former regime.

Good soup and beer and then to bed. Comfortable tho rather spartan in the blanket dept - and

decorated interestingly in turquoise and blue.

thanx for staying w me - I'll continue later this week. Vide LONELY PLANET for Cluj.

AlanBlake

TRAVEL IN ROMANIA

alanblake — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 09:53:00 GMT

In September last year sarah and I were for two weeks in RUSE on the

Bulgarian border with Romania. We subsequently travelled thro Romania

by train and what follows is the journal I kept at the time.

Dear reader - its largely in note form; but this was what I wrote and wish

to share it. Photos will follow shortly.

SAT 21 SEPT. NEDILO THE LOCAL TAXIDRIVER WILL TAKE US ACROSS

TO BUCHAREST FOR 47euro. THIS IS ACTUALLY THE EASIEST WAY TO

TRAVEL. THERE IS only one passenger train and its too early.

Fonds farewells and photoshots at the Guesthouse. Other participants

to the festival are going in the same way so we form a convoy of two

cars.

We go across the FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE built 1954, wh is the only

connection for some 400 km between Bulgaria & Romania across

their common border ( ie the danube). Marshlands below and Ruse

townsfolk fishing ( its a fine saturday). This is a rail and road bridge.

Controls are on the Romanian side.

Our convoy stops inside the Romanian side and we get out. Drivers

collect our passports. Lorenzo in the other taxi is nervous about making

the 2pm flight from Bucharest.

Actually not too much of a holdup and we're on our way. Climate and landscape

the same as the other side. Its perhaps 40 mins to the southern outskirts of

Bucharest. Sarah remarks on the abundance of consumer goods on the pavement

stalls. This would have been impossible under the former regime. There's a lot going

on in the street - buses trams and cars too.

Arrive at GARA NORD and thers already a tout ready to open the door & carry our bags.

The little runt wants money of course - I dont blame him for that. We like tipping when its called for

( like giving the bulgarian taximan 5 lev instead of 4 wh the meter shows) but this is

obscene.

Outside the vast station sarah manages the ticket finances: Romanian lei for the tickets

plus some for Cluj, our destination.

We actually settled for a Subway meal inside GaraNord. The refreshment accomplished we

set out to utilse the subway restrooms, one of us at a time w the other guarding the luggage.

Hullo, theres a code-lock to the toiletdoor. And hullo, theres a pintsize tout quite ready to

open the door w anticipation of a gratuity ! He's apparently got the code written down on a

scrap of card. I don't bite and go back along the counter to enquire. Counter wants ( how many?)

lei for the privilege of using the toilets but I must have made it sufficiently clear we expected that as

part of the deal; and the guy comes along to open up. I actually push the wizened little tout out

the back door and the staff guy reinforces this......

Life in post-communist Romania and other parts of E Europe is very tough for a lot of people.

Those at the bottom need the mindset and resilience of streetfighters.

Patient reader, I hope I may still have you with me - and shall continue this tomorrow. Really

we had the time of our lives. Of course not everything was a bed of roses.....