Though my Romania research is only a little more than half completed (I return July 9th for three more weeks on the road), I’m long overdue for a positive post about this country just to pacify those of you that are undoubtedly wondering why I keep coming here.
Lists are nice. Let’s do that:
• The countryside: parts of this country are so unspeakably beautiful that your brain tries to reject it as a hallucination as a defense mechanism so you don’t go insane, like during hostile alien invasions. Driving through northwest Moldavia into Maramures (specifically between Gura Humorului all the way to Vadu Izei) I wanted to stop the car every 30 seconds to take pictures. As it was, I only stopped once. The instant I fished out my camera clouds descended, but I took the picture anyway.
• On that note, the villages in Maramures are just so infectiously quaint and peaceful that you have to wonder if there might be a Valium factory nearby, pumping 50 tones of byproduct into the air every day. If they had reliable internet, I’d probably never leave.
• Wine: so good and cheap that I’m surprised the EU hasn’t outlawed it. You can get a perfectly good bottle for about 3 euros (about US$4.50) – and it gets even better in Moldova.
• I never get tired of simply strolling around cities like Sighişoara, Braşov and Oradea. They’ve got this living museum effect, like Venice without the flooding.
• I would almost live in this Podunk village just for the name alone. (NSFW)
• Ţuică: Dangerously lethal plumb brandy moonshine, but if you get the good stuff from Maramures, don’t ask me why, hangovers are surprisingly mild.
• The women: you’re all so heart-breakingly, bug-eyed, lip smacking beautiful. Every time I leave the country I want to pop out my eyes and put them in a jar, so if some accident should befall me before I return, the last thing I ever see will be your faces (and stuff).
• Parking: with the possible exception of Italy, Romania has the most lenient parking restrictions I’ve ever seen. Though I’m sure the law books say otherwise, in reality the only restrictions are that you’re car must be at least 3/4 of the way into the space and you must move your car before 8am on July 12th, 2017.
• With very rare exception, the hostels here are great and getting better. They should send every HI hostel owner in France, Italy and Spain to Romania to teach them a desperately needed lesson.
• Oh no she di’in’t! (NSFW again)
That’s all for now. Part 2 in July will take me to the clothing optional utopia that is the Black Sea Coast. A hail of purely accidental Not Safe For Work images are sure to ensue.
Well, chicken in a bucket. That’s my take on your last bullet point.
I’ve always heard Romania was very beautiful and cheap. Any chance of seeing more of your photos?
That’s a naughty name of the town but would be great to tell an english speaker that’s where you live!
I am reminded of a trip through Denmark and Sweden when my mother giddily had me photograph her next to signs that said “Middelfart” (Denmark) and “Slut” (Sweden) while my children looked on in confusion.
Good times.
Happy birthday! Boy I’m glad you have twitter! I love hearing the updates! Also: I hope both of your legs feel better!
And the romanians are doing quite well in Euro 08! That’s another good thing!
Happy Birthday? you twitter with humility, a good quality. Well I hope your legs don’t wither away on that NBA playoff pew you call a couch.
Ed – You, me, alcohol, you explaining the ‘chicken in a bucket thing’. If it’s a pop culture reference from the past five years, then I’m clueless.
Matt – I’ve got more pics of Romania than the tourism board. Perhaps I’ll put together one of those cyber collages to music after I return at the end of July.
Jamie – Is you mom single?
Mary – I saw the 0-0 tie with France. Arg. I bet there was an hour of horn honking and drunken screaming in Buch to mark the occasion anyway. I’m still walking funny, but at least I’m walking.
Martin – I may drink your wine tonight. If the phone rings at 2am, it’s me.
and “stuff”…?
leif – the 1-1 draw with Italy was much, much better. Look at the comments from Guardian, it starts with “Romania attack (no, not a misprint)” and ends with “That’s it! What a game – for my money, the best of the tournament so far.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jun/13/euro2008.euro2008groupc2
Not too much celebration, though :), romanians are somehow optimistic about their chances now but still “realistic” – no big celebration so far.
BTW, I am surprised you didn’t mention Sibiu. About the “good stuff” they say nothing beats Transilvanya’s “palinca de Bihor” (not the one manufactured by ‘European drinks’! The real stuff, from Bihor). Also, many Jidvei and even some Recaş wines are in my opinion better than most of the Moldavian wines – but hey, I am biased here, I’m from Alba Iulia :P
About Romanian mountains – the really breathtaking places are those where you can’t get by car…. unfortunately, lots of poor-quality romanians spoil even the most beautiful places if they can get there by car. I’ve taken some of my friends on a mountain walk, in “Apuseni”, through an unmarked path in the forest, to climb on a “bald” cliff which opened the view over the entire valley (one of the few places I know where you can regularly find edelweiss) – and one of them stopped suddenly and was literally speechless for half minute, I initially thought she was afraid of the heights but she simply did not expect the view to be so beautiful. And Romania has some very nice caves, too (also in Apuseni).
But on the other hand, mountains are no lesser spectacular elsewhere in Europe… at least, from the pictures I saw from Slovenia, and from the lonelyplanet guide…. it seems much better than Romania :P
Fact is, you shouldn’t be looking for beauty in the communist cities from Romania. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of nice places.
Everything I’ve read about Romania makes me want to go there but it’s good to read a “real” experience from a “real” person. Lately I’ve been getting into travel books that are written by normal people rather than professional writers. I feel like I’ve getting a lot more honest view of places that way.
I’m reading a great real life travel book at the moment called Chasing Sunsets by Lawrence Pane and his family. He, his wife and young son took off on a six year circumnavigation of the world by boat and the book is a documentation of their adventures.
I don’t know the first thing about sailing but after reading this book it made me want to learn – what an adventure! What I found most appealing was the fact that it was written by an average guy, not some salty sea-farer, and so I could relate much more to what was going on. After all, this was just an average guy and his family who took off around the world. The photos were great too.
Everything you’ve ever had to say about Romania can be summed up with this:
http://politics.propeller.com/story/2008/06/16/village-re-elects-dead-mayor?icid=200100397x1204266469x1200186112
Village re-elects dead mayor.