On the Road Again...to Brasov, Romania

Day 2 in Romania (from Friday, March 12th)
Today is Friday. The Pensione Giardino, which makes me think of my friend Jim Giardina from the AP Reading, was perfectly clean and comfortable. I like pensiones, or guest houses. It seems that every third house in these towns rent rooms, some much nicer than others. I like most of them, however, bc it provides an opportunity to get to know the owners.

The man who runs this pensione, Mircae (pronounced Meer-cha) was a delight. He teaches English and German, used to be a tour guide, is highly knowledgeable about the history of his country, gave us insight into the days of Nicholas Ceaucescu, and was so helpful. He told us his father was a political prisoner for one year in the late 1950s and was very hopeful when Ceaucescu first came to power. He mentioned that Ceaucescu started out as a popular leader in 1965 But then, in 1971, Ceaucescu visited China in the midst of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution and returned to place Romania on a radically different path. In 1971, in the midst of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, China under Mao Zedong was emerging as a world power. There was a split in Sino-Soviet relations (love that I came to Furman as an American historian asked to teach world history bc this is how I learned this stuff…I basically learned it to teach it). Ceaucescu decided to side with China in a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of way. When he returned from China in 1971, he wanted to subdue the church, destroy old buildings and create new housing structures without kitchens so everyone would eat in a cafeteria together. He immediately changed the kind of films that were shown throughout the country. That is considered the genesis of his journey to the dark, or darker, side.

Here is the ceiling of the Suceava train station:

...and the tiny shampo travel packs I saw for sale across the street. I have become a champ at packing lightly.

I must write, for purposes related to my own memory of these experiences, that my 6 seat, 1st class train compartment with 4 people in it is an absolute sauna. It is in the mid-twenties outside and it is probably 80 degrees in here. Of course I am wearing long underwear on top and bottom, wool socks that come up to my knees, and a wool sweater. I am a very cold natured person normally but this is ridiculous. This is the first extended day train I have taken and this one from Suceava to Brasov is 8 and one-half hours long.

So, I just returned from the train bathroom, which is always an interesting experience. Several internet sites described even first class train bathrooms in Romania as unbearable. Those wimps need to take the second class Ukrainian train that I took from Kyiv-Chernivtsi if they want to know what unbearable is. Did I blog about that experience? It has become one of the moments of this trip that has been burned into my memory. Thankfully, the smell was not burned into my senses. For the 90 seconds I was in that Ukrainian train bathroom I must have gagged 6 times. No amount of disciplined positive thinking could combat this smell that truly defies my written abilities. My BFF Courtney knows I am rather sensitive in regards to such things…Court, this was bad.

This Romanian train bathroom was far from pleasant and was downright filthy but as long as there is no repugnant odor I can deal. No toilet paper, of course (that is a rarity on trains and in many bathrooms in eastern Europe). Unlike Ukrainian trains, this Romanian train bathroom empties right onto the track, and thus it was cold in the bathroom. I didn’t care bc I was HOT having been in this train car. I was determined to return to the train compartment without my long underwear on but equally determined not to touch any part of this train bathroom with my body or my clothes.

Thankfully, I have had decades of ballet classes which have evidently improved my ability to balance on one foot on a rickety Romanian train. I took my right foot out of my boot, and cursed the fact that Gap’s black skinny straight leg jeans are somewhat difficult to take off. I did it however, and returned my foot into my boot, repeating the same exercise on my left foot. Now I have jeans in my hands and 2 feet in boots, and I’m starting to get cold. There was no way I was going to put these jeans to rest on anything in this bathroom so I tied them around my neck. I became a little warmer, which was nice. I then removed the long underwear in the same fashion, never allowing my socks to touch this nasty floor. I tied the long underwear around my neck, untied my jeans, put them on while again carefully thrusting my foot back into my boot before I lost my balance, and finally, triumphantly returned to the train car having touched as little as humanely possible in that whole in a floor of a bathroom. I immediately hand sanitized, of course. Thank goodness for that genius of an invention.

We are going to spend the next several days hopping by train amongst the central Romanian medieval towns of Brasov (pronounced Bra-shov), Sigisoara (pron Sigi-shara) and Sibiu ( pron Su-bee-you), which are located in the infamous Transylvania region of Romania (yes, the same one where Dracula lived). We are headed south so I am hoping for less snow and warmer weather. I’m still loving this country and the people I have met here thus far.

Today, I have seen more chickens, horses, and today I can add sheep to the list.

I have had conversation with a few Romanians about the importance of faith here, where 87% of people are Orthodox Romanian. I’ve noticed that there are small, tiny (as in maybe 4 people could fit in them) chapels spread throughout the countryside and in villages. Their patriarch is in Bucharest, where a new cathedral is being built. I was told that Romanians have held onto their faith during times when they were conquered and treated badly by the Austrians, the Germans, and the Russians. Romania was never a part of the USSR, but had a communist dictator in Nicholas Ceaucescu. Communism and faith don’t play nicely together. I was told that when Ceaucescu pondered subduing the church after his return from China, Ceausecu’s father convinced him not to mess with that. Evidently he didn’t, but did try to bring in the church as one of his main informants, bc church leaders knew what was brewing amongst the people.

Mircae told me that when he served as a tour guide during the days when Ceaucescu was in power, the police would come visit him moments after the tourists left. Mircae said that tour guides never revealed what the tourists had said or not said about Romania, the government, etc. I asked what would happen if a tour guide decided to break the tour guide code and tell the police details about what some tourists had said about the government or it leaders. Mircae told me that the police would find the tourists and escort them out of the country immediately, considering them personae non gratae. The government didn’t want anyone here, even visitors, criticizing them.

Some final thoughts:
If you can handle the weather, travelling in the off season is the way to go in terms of pricing, availability, and a less-tourist corrupted experience. People have told me that the places I am going to here became overridden with tourists in the summer, and vendors selling tourist crap (Dracula paraphernalia ad nauseum) clutter up these medieval squares. Very glad to be here when there is a reprieve from that, and the few and often only tourists around these places are us.

Romanian trains are safe. I have heard stories about the Roma, or gypsies, stealing on trains and constantly harassing people to buy things. I’ve only been silently propositioned once by a gypsy and when I refused the man went away. I've only been propositioned by a homeless man once as well. The other people in the car ( 6 of us at that time) just ignored him and when he kept talking one woman got up and shut the door and he moved on. Just after that I heard the train conductor yell something at him to get off the train. So, if anyone is thinking of Romanian travels, it’s cool. (Caveat: my opinions about this change over the course of my travels throughout the country so stay tuned.In the North, I felt safe; in the central and southern parts of Romania, I didn't always feel super comfortable.)

If you’re wondering why these blog postings are so long, it is bc I have been on a day train for 8 hours travelling from Suceava to Brasov. Ah!

So, we arrived in Brasov around 8 or 9 pm and walked around to check out the Bella Muzica and another place that had great reviews on Tip Advisor. I immediately licked Brasov. The center square was lively, clean, filled with cute clothing stores (not your rustic kind of styles you frequently see travelling smaller towns in eastern Europe) and an alphabet I could make sense of. The guesthouse owner was quite polite but mentioned that he had not had a guest since December. The off season here is very slow. We returned to the Bella Muzica and decided to splurge. I have to say, it was nice to have a hot shower where I didn’t have to light the fire to heat it myself. It was also convenient bc we had planned to eat at their restaurant, which advertised Mexican and Romanian food. Odd, combo, I know, but I didn’t care. I rarely have access to Mexican, and Romanian food is very similar to Ukrainian food, so one night of something different is refreshing.

The restaurant was great. They greet you with a welcome shot of the famous Romanian plum brandy (tuica, which I did not care for), chips and salsa (salsa and pico de gallo), and a music menu, from which each table gets to pick one song to hear. I picked Bruce Springsteen. I ordered tostaditos and rizi-bizi (which reminded me of David and Judy Church), and the tostadito turned out to be nachos. It was a welcome change and I thoroughly enjoyed dinner there.

Then I walked around. It was cold and I wanted to get up early so I walked back to Bella Muzica.