Romania
The wild ride that is bucharest...
I met a woman in budapest (who has a boyfriend, don't worry!) who was supposed to spend 6 weeks there.. budapest (in hungary) is a great city but i suggested that she is slightly nuts to spend all her time in one place.. And so the short of it is that she asked to travel with me, and we ended up flying to bucharest, capital of romania. It was great to have someone to travel with and ended up being a total life saver, when, at bucharest airport (decided to skip the 12+ hour train ride) i discover that my bank card does not work.. i have never gotten into teh habit of taking out huge sums of money because its so easy to just hit the ATM. i also did not have a return ticket, 1 way, in order to be flexible with where i go next. If i hadn't been traveling with her, shirley, then i would be pan handling at the airport, now still.. I did end up figuring out a way to get money out of my credit card (there is 1 bank big enough which allows you to withdraw on your card at the bank counter). phew. I, we, stayed in a great hostel called the funky chicken. The accomadations were okay but the people i meet were great. Talked with 2 germans, 3 guys from holland (where if you are 6ft in height, you are considered short, seriously), dave the rave from UK (wonderful guy), 2 brit women, and a bunch of others, including a guy from finland who lives in argentina but has spent the last 3-4 months in bucharest. Also randomly meet a german (who lives in vienna) on the way to see the palace (see below). People drank, played chess, read books, watched english language TV :) Wonderful. Some short images to describe Bucharest: loud, dirty, poor, congested, smog, communist style concrete buildings, huge "palace of the people", wonderful othrodox churches, friendly people, a lot of stray dogs.. This is definitely Eastern Europe. Budapest (hungary) had 1/8 of the eastern feel this place does. Mixed heavly into the commie vibe is capitalism booming strong, with huge billboards on the old communist built apartment complexes. very odd constrast. The major redeming factor of this place for me was visiting the orthodox churches, experiencing the people practicing their religion: everyone makes sign of cross when passing the church, they kneel on the stone/marble floors (ouch), their are no pews, big golden pictures of religious figures which are touched and kissed, huge lines of people writing down prayers and offers to be said by multiple priest all at the same time..
Also today and yesterday i spent a day and night in Brasov, 3 hours north bucharest. This is second biggest city, wonderful place, reminds me a bit of old town in prague. In the morning we paid the hostel owner, a wonderful man named gabrielle to drive us to Sinaia, 1 hour south to see the castles (thanks maryann!!). They were fantastic, ornate decorations, a lot of gorgeous carved wood, marble, all types of design. Couldn't take pictures inside, so look up Sinaia castles or something (they actually have different names but you'll find them). Then he drove us back to bucharest so shirley could get a flight back to budapest (and eventually back to california where she is from). There were no flights going to ukraine or Poland and I decided to skip Turkey because my bank card won't work their either.. (my bank doesn't support a few countries, including the above mentioned.. small detail i forgot about, will be fine once in poland). I'm also skipping ukraine until further notice because the visa details are still a little sketchy and the airport women said they may hassle if i don't have a return ticket (and i only book 1 way!). I'm also skipping Republic of Moldova and Trainsdneistr after speaking with an ex-pat who said the visa price will be infalted because i'm American, he paid 130 euro to get entry. So I am heading to Poland, Warsaw, tomorrow afternoon. I'm back at the chicken hostel for tonight. It was good traveling with someone for a few days but i am well ready to get back on my own.
Look, me! in a photo! Standing in front of the gienormous "palace of the people" built by last commie dictator of romania (who was overthrown and put to the firing squad in 89). This is the 2nd largest building in the world, the first being pentagon.
Ortho Christian church. I don't think i took any pictures inside, but wonderfully different from the churches of western europe. very dark, heavy painted walls with designs and pictures. Most are black inside from soot from being light by flame before dawn of electricity.
This is also bucharest. Perhaps one of the worse looking buildings, but things generally don't get too much better.
Another shot of the palace
Another concrete apartment block. Go communism!
In green, dave from england, others: from holland, clockwise: a journalist, a nueropycsh doctor, a medical doctor. Spents a few hours talking about english language dialects, politics and life. wonderful.
Our tour guide for the palace, an awesome guy. A native of bucahest. He always asked us "why do you act like this is a funeral?". Everyone was very quit on the tour.. I felt it was partly because of his... voice.. attitude.. mannerisms. which i've found to be typical of the city. He gives off a vibe of being serious, perhaps monotone at times.. but then he cracks jokes and other stuff and you see he's really not like you first thought. Its slightly hard to explain.. In the end , i really liked the romanian people.
These are two models of the Dacia automobile company. WHen the communists were in power, everything was controlled, rationed and manufactored by The State. You want a car? You go on a waiting list to get a Dacia. I learn later that only one model was made at a time, for a run of several years. Our host in Brasov could tell us how old any car on the street was just by the model.. You wouldn't of even had the choice between the two above, or color. Just CAR. On top of all this, they are pieces of junk and feel like a tin can. That was all was available during the communist rule. Nothing else. So really, not to sound cliche, and not that i like everything about the US car market or capitalism, but this alternative sucks.. period. It was very eye opening.
Another wonderful church.
I met a woman in budapest (who has a boyfriend, don't worry!) who was supposed to spend 6 weeks there.. budapest (in hungary) is a great city but i suggested that she is slightly nuts to spend all her time in one place.. And so the short of it is that she asked to travel with me, and we ended up flying to bucharest, capital of romania. It was great to have someone to travel with and ended up being a total life saver, when, at bucharest airport (decided to skip the 12+ hour train ride) i discover that my bank card does not work.. i have never gotten into teh habit of taking out huge sums of money because its so easy to just hit the ATM. i also did not have a return ticket, 1 way, in order to be flexible with where i go next. If i hadn't been traveling with her, shirley, then i would be pan handling at the airport, now still.. I did end up figuring out a way to get money out of my credit card (there is 1 bank big enough which allows you to withdraw on your card at the bank counter). phew. I, we, stayed in a great hostel called the funky chicken. The accomadations were okay but the people i meet were great. Talked with 2 germans, 3 guys from holland (where if you are 6ft in height, you are considered short, seriously), dave the rave from UK (wonderful guy), 2 brit women, and a bunch of others, including a guy from finland who lives in argentina but has spent the last 3-4 months in bucharest. Also randomly meet a german (who lives in vienna) on the way to see the palace (see below). People drank, played chess, read books, watched english language TV :) Wonderful. Some short images to describe Bucharest: loud, dirty, poor, congested, smog, communist style concrete buildings, huge "palace of the people", wonderful othrodox churches, friendly people, a lot of stray dogs.. This is definitely Eastern Europe. Budapest (hungary) had 1/8 of the eastern feel this place does. Mixed heavly into the commie vibe is capitalism booming strong, with huge billboards on the old communist built apartment complexes. very odd constrast. The major redeming factor of this place for me was visiting the orthodox churches, experiencing the people practicing their religion: everyone makes sign of cross when passing the church, they kneel on the stone/marble floors (ouch), their are no pews, big golden pictures of religious figures which are touched and kissed, huge lines of people writing down prayers and offers to be said by multiple priest all at the same time..
Also today and yesterday i spent a day and night in Brasov, 3 hours north bucharest. This is second biggest city, wonderful place, reminds me a bit of old town in prague. In the morning we paid the hostel owner, a wonderful man named gabrielle to drive us to Sinaia, 1 hour south to see the castles (thanks maryann!!). They were fantastic, ornate decorations, a lot of gorgeous carved wood, marble, all types of design. Couldn't take pictures inside, so look up Sinaia castles or something (they actually have different names but you'll find them). Then he drove us back to bucharest so shirley could get a flight back to budapest (and eventually back to california where she is from). There were no flights going to ukraine or Poland and I decided to skip Turkey because my bank card won't work their either.. (my bank doesn't support a few countries, including the above mentioned.. small detail i forgot about, will be fine once in poland). I'm also skipping ukraine until further notice because the visa details are still a little sketchy and the airport women said they may hassle if i don't have a return ticket (and i only book 1 way!). I'm also skipping Republic of Moldova and Trainsdneistr after speaking with an ex-pat who said the visa price will be infalted because i'm American, he paid 130 euro to get entry. So I am heading to Poland, Warsaw, tomorrow afternoon. I'm back at the chicken hostel for tonight. It was good traveling with someone for a few days but i am well ready to get back on my own.
Look, me! in a photo! Standing in front of the gienormous "palace of the people" built by last commie dictator of romania (who was overthrown and put to the firing squad in 89). This is the 2nd largest building in the world, the first being pentagon.
Ortho Christian church. I don't think i took any pictures inside, but wonderfully different from the churches of western europe. very dark, heavy painted walls with designs and pictures. Most are black inside from soot from being light by flame before dawn of electricity.
This is also bucharest. Perhaps one of the worse looking buildings, but things generally don't get too much better.
Another shot of the palace
Another concrete apartment block. Go communism!
In green, dave from england, others: from holland, clockwise: a journalist, a nueropycsh doctor, a medical doctor. Spents a few hours talking about english language dialects, politics and life. wonderful.
Our tour guide for the palace, an awesome guy. A native of bucahest. He always asked us "why do you act like this is a funeral?". Everyone was very quit on the tour.. I felt it was partly because of his... voice.. attitude.. mannerisms. which i've found to be typical of the city. He gives off a vibe of being serious, perhaps monotone at times.. but then he cracks jokes and other stuff and you see he's really not like you first thought. Its slightly hard to explain.. In the end , i really liked the romanian people.
These are two models of the Dacia automobile company. WHen the communists were in power, everything was controlled, rationed and manufactored by The State. You want a car? You go on a waiting list to get a Dacia. I learn later that only one model was made at a time, for a run of several years. Our host in Brasov could tell us how old any car on the street was just by the model.. You wouldn't of even had the choice between the two above, or color. Just CAR. On top of all this, they are pieces of junk and feel like a tin can. That was all was available during the communist rule. Nothing else. So really, not to sound cliche, and not that i like everything about the US car market or capitalism, but this alternative sucks.. period. It was very eye opening.
Another wonderful church.
posted by newt at 12:41 PM
2 Comments:
wow, romania. who knew? i want to go!!! seems that i have gravely pre-judged the romanian peeps. reading your discriptions makes me want to nuzzle up with them. that building's hugeness is blowing mind. MAN, i'm jealous of you! isn't post-communism surprisingly lively? keep on rockin' eastern europe. go, brother, go.
I love the last church! Romania seems like the best adventure. More pics of you in front of stuff! It proves you were there. Kim, you are way too cool. mOre comments from you.
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