2nd September 2007,
Medias, RUMANIA
It's 10.30pm here and after a long day, one of mixed emotions it has to be said, we're now in Medias. Last night we were kept up late by some raucous wedding celebrations held at the hotel in Bucharest and guess what? It's more of the same here!
This morning we were up at 7am and on the coach at 8am. But it got better: a five-hour coach journey to our first destination, Sibiel. Still, we did get a laugh on the coach at the psychopathic dogs in the garage which chased all the cars driving away from it! They even went for the bus!
When we finally arrived the first thing we did was sit down for lunch in a house in beautiful rural Transylvania (I think I'm falling in love with this country), where we served by a country girl and her young child. Unfortunately, we were forced to sit with people who only wanted to talk about nationalist politics, which made for a tense and uncomfortable meal. I was glad when everyone had sipped down their coffee.
From there we visited a small museum home to the world's oldest collection of iconographic paintings. It was nice, although I can't for one minute pretend to be an expert on Romanian art. We left the museum and headed on to Sibiu, and I have to say it was beautiful. We visited a couple of churches, in which one tombstone comically read, "This time it's me; next time it's you." Very comforting! The third church we saw was one of the finest houses of God I've ever seen, all painted inside.
Following the churches, we had some free time to wander round Sibiel. The market was lovely as were the buildings. We've got some wonderful photos (despite the gypsy who wouldn't stop hassling me while I had my photo taken) and I can't wait to show you how beautiful this land is to me. I was going to buy a statuette of a little Romanian old deer, the typical kind you'd imagine seeing in the mountains babbling away at you in the tongue of the land, but it was a touch too expensive.
Right now we've just come back from a lovely meal, a very fairly price one at that: 2 pizzas, 1 salad, 1 bowl of chips and 3 Diet Cokes - 12 euros, it doesn't get better than that! My apologies for not going Romanian culinarily speaking, but at that price sod culture!
I think it's time to go. It's nearly 11pm here, but we need to catch up on our sleep. Up till now I'm loving this fine land. Why do so many leave it?
Peter
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Monday, 10 September 2007
The Transylvania Chronicles - Day Two
1st September 2007,
Bucharest, RUMANIA
To my dear reader,
So, after what seemed a never-ending plane journey we've finally set foot on Romanian soil. Of course, no sooner had we taken our first steps and there was already somebody pushing their luck for money. To be fair, he did load my suitcase into the boot of the taxi from its spot two inches away on the ground - chancer!
We arrived roughly around 17:00 Rumanian time at the hotel. Our room is very nice, not the hell-hole we thought they might have booked for us. You know the one I mean, the 'special suite'. As our taxi cruised into Bucharest I took in the scenery. The pavements and some of the buildings are dirty, kind of reminds of my hometown a little, that kind of dirt. But other buildings were astoundingly beautiful, so Bucharest is kind of handsome by day, but dark and dangerous by night. And despite being a former Communist Bloc state and expecting there to be poverty on every corner - admittedly there is a lot- so far I've seen an Audi 4x4, a Porsche 911 and a Ferrari F40 parked up! In need of EU subsidies - possibly not!
Despite the dirty streets and the darkness (maybe Stoker's imagination didn't work overtime) the weather is warm and the walk has been pleasant. As interesting to look at the buildings is to look at the people and observe how different they are from us. They've looked after us well so far, and there are lots of people who speak English, which made life easier in the restaurant, where we had a lovely meal (beef ciorba - soup to you and I!- followed by a delicious steak), and it did not put me off having what turned out to be a respectable crack at the language. A hell of an investment that book.
We've also made a new friend, Manel, a decent type who runs his own travel agency but whose girlfriend works in Greece, I gather. Maybe he might be able to do us a discount some time! But, no, seriously, maybe he'll be able to do us a discount...
Tomorrow we're heading for Sibiu, the European Capital of Culture in 2007. It's an early start of 7:50am out the front of the hotel, so I guess some of the other guests could be in for a culture shock before we even get there, seeing as I can be a real barrel of laughs at that time of the day (has it even begun?) - if you know me well then you'll also realise I'm being ironic.
Anyways, I've said enough for one blog. Besides, I need to get my beauty sleep, something of which I need an exceptional amount, since we were up late last night and then early today.
From the "Peter Express" I bid you Napti buna (Goodnight).
Bucharest, RUMANIA
To my dear reader,
So, after what seemed a never-ending plane journey we've finally set foot on Romanian soil. Of course, no sooner had we taken our first steps and there was already somebody pushing their luck for money. To be fair, he did load my suitcase into the boot of the taxi from its spot two inches away on the ground - chancer!
We arrived roughly around 17:00 Rumanian time at the hotel. Our room is very nice, not the hell-hole we thought they might have booked for us. You know the one I mean, the 'special suite'. As our taxi cruised into Bucharest I took in the scenery. The pavements and some of the buildings are dirty, kind of reminds of my hometown a little, that kind of dirt. But other buildings were astoundingly beautiful, so Bucharest is kind of handsome by day, but dark and dangerous by night. And despite being a former Communist Bloc state and expecting there to be poverty on every corner - admittedly there is a lot- so far I've seen an Audi 4x4, a Porsche 911 and a Ferrari F40 parked up! In need of EU subsidies - possibly not!
Despite the dirty streets and the darkness (maybe Stoker's imagination didn't work overtime) the weather is warm and the walk has been pleasant. As interesting to look at the buildings is to look at the people and observe how different they are from us. They've looked after us well so far, and there are lots of people who speak English, which made life easier in the restaurant, where we had a lovely meal (beef ciorba - soup to you and I!- followed by a delicious steak), and it did not put me off having what turned out to be a respectable crack at the language. A hell of an investment that book.
We've also made a new friend, Manel, a decent type who runs his own travel agency but whose girlfriend works in Greece, I gather. Maybe he might be able to do us a discount some time! But, no, seriously, maybe he'll be able to do us a discount...
Tomorrow we're heading for Sibiu, the European Capital of Culture in 2007. It's an early start of 7:50am out the front of the hotel, so I guess some of the other guests could be in for a culture shock before we even get there, seeing as I can be a real barrel of laughs at that time of the day (has it even begun?) - if you know me well then you'll also realise I'm being ironic.
Anyways, I've said enough for one blog. Besides, I need to get my beauty sleep, something of which I need an exceptional amount, since we were up late last night and then early today.
From the "Peter Express" I bid you Napti buna (Goodnight).
The Transylvania Chronicles - Day One
31st August 2007,
Sabadell, SPAIN
"We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things."*
The words of the world's most famous vampire, from the pen of the Irish writer who put Rumania on the map. And here, at 1.20am, with my case finally packed, I ask which ways the infamous count is referring to, ways which shall become known to me tomorrow evening when we touch down in the mysterious Rumania for day one of our summer break.
I've read Stoker's novel and scared the living daylights out of myself the other evening with Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic interpretation of the story (despite Keanu Reeve's put-on British accent truly grating on me, not to mention Winona Ryder's). Both raise questions: were people in Stoker's time truly much braver in the face of mortal danger? It would seems more so than they are today, I feel. Yes, the traditional literature of the English-speaking world was one of heroes.
My other question is, what is Rumania like? Is it as foreboding and dangerous as painted by Stoker and Coppola? I know not what to expect. Stoker's work has bestown such a novel kind of mystery upon the country, the prospect of a clash between fiction and reality. Will Stoker's reality, which we imagine to be fiction, have been preserved in modern Rumania and actually therefore be fact? Or will it all have changed and his work remain the fiction we've always taken it to be?
I look forward to finding out and to sharing my thoughts with you, my dear reader.
Your friend,
P
* (Stoker, Bram, "Dracula," Oxford Uni Press, Oxford, 1995, pg 21: 10-12.)
Sabadell, SPAIN
"We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things."*
The words of the world's most famous vampire, from the pen of the Irish writer who put Rumania on the map. And here, at 1.20am, with my case finally packed, I ask which ways the infamous count is referring to, ways which shall become known to me tomorrow evening when we touch down in the mysterious Rumania for day one of our summer break.
I've read Stoker's novel and scared the living daylights out of myself the other evening with Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic interpretation of the story (despite Keanu Reeve's put-on British accent truly grating on me, not to mention Winona Ryder's). Both raise questions: were people in Stoker's time truly much braver in the face of mortal danger? It would seems more so than they are today, I feel. Yes, the traditional literature of the English-speaking world was one of heroes.
My other question is, what is Rumania like? Is it as foreboding and dangerous as painted by Stoker and Coppola? I know not what to expect. Stoker's work has bestown such a novel kind of mystery upon the country, the prospect of a clash between fiction and reality. Will Stoker's reality, which we imagine to be fiction, have been preserved in modern Rumania and actually therefore be fact? Or will it all have changed and his work remain the fiction we've always taken it to be?
I look forward to finding out and to sharing my thoughts with you, my dear reader.
Your friend,
P
* (Stoker, Bram, "Dracula," Oxford Uni Press, Oxford, 1995, pg 21: 10-12.)
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