Moving through Romania

Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009--Bucharest

The mosquitoes were bothering me again last night. Gabby told me it is because of the lake in the park that is just a block away. Fortunately, the bites are small and do not seem to be itching.

There is a museum here that is quite nice called the Museum of the Peasant. The guidebook said it would be good, and I really liked it. It concentrates of the works created by normal people--what might be called naive art. Inside are costumes, ikons, weavings, pottery, carvings, a whole church, a whole house, etc. It is really a special place.

Beyond the museum is the Bucharest version of the Arc de Triomphe. Then beyond that is Herastrau Park. I continued walking that way and exploring. There were many people at the park. It is a larger version of the park that is near my hotel. People were enjoying the flower gardens, boating on the lake, etc. What I especially liked is that a band was playing pop music from a bandstand beside the lake.

From the far north, I then needed to be in the far south to explore "Ceausescu" Bucharest. One of the things he had been doing just before being deposed as the communist leader was rebuilding a huge section of town south of the center. A new parliament building, the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon, with a balcony where he planned to make his appearances was constructed, but so were many buildings to house government agencies, apartments, shops, etc. Included was the construction of a street he planned to rival the Champs Elysee in Paris called B-dul Unirii. I did not like the parliament building, but I found the other buildings not to be so bad. In time, if they don't crumble or if they do not look bad due to neglect, they may give the appearance of a grand avenue of buildings. They were constructed to hide the churches and show only the accomplishments of communism. Just behind them can be found wonderful old buildings, however, such as the Antim Monastery. The whole project, however, reminded me of the clearing and reconstruction of old neighborhoods in Beijing I observed last year. Much character is lost when a neighborhood disappears or is rebuilt to be "better" than before. Already, this new construction has dirty and abandoned storefronts, grafitti, crumbling and cracked sidewalks, buildings that are being altered with the addition of enclosed balconies, etc., that detract from its appearance.

Monday, Aug. 17, 2009--Bucharest to Constanta

I have two months remaining before I will be back in San Antonio. I have now been traveling for about 3 1/3 months.

I was so glad to leave Bucharest because of the mosquitoes. Last night, I slept completely covered through the entire night even though the room was a bit warm. I hope that Constanta doesn't have them. This is the first place since I began my travels in May that I have faced a problem with mosquitoes!

Checking out of the hotel was a bit strange. I still owed them 1 Euro as a balance, because I only had a 2 Euro coin and they did not have change. I now have local currency and could have paid them 4.25 lei (with 1 Euro equalling 4.21 lei at their exchange rate), but they did not want the local currency. They went to great trouble to get someone to go out and find change so they could take my coin and give me a 1 Euro coin in return. My guess is it happened because hotels have notoriously bad exhchange rates and 1 Euro is worth more to them when they go to the bank than 4.25 lei. But the different would not be great enough for all that trouble!!

Unfortunately, my train was a "local" one. It didn't really stop everywhere, but it was not an express or rapid train. That means it took 4 hours rather than 2 1/2 hours to make the trip to Constanta. It wasn't bad, though. The time passed fine. I was in a compartment with a family returning home to a town near Contanta. It was a full train, however, with people sitting in the aisle outside the compartment. Most people, like me, were heading to Contanta as a part of a vacation. What worried me most about the extended time for the trip was that I would be arriving with no reservation and needing to find a room.

As my guidebook said, there were people at the station hoping to rent their rooms. The first woman I met wanted way too much, and she looked like she would not be a good hostess with a face that showed what looked like a grim personality. A man wanted to take me to a place for 50 lei, but he was a taxi driver; I just didn't want to deal with paying him and for a room. I went wandering on my own, but unlike the other places I have been there are no signs for rooms for rent on houses. No one I asked could help me. Therefore, I returned to the station where I met a perky gray-haired lady. She quoted 60 lei--$20 U.S. and probably 10 lei more than I should have paid. I went with her and it was fine, so I have taken it. It is a room in the home of her and her husband. They are pensionists with her being 64 and him being 74. The room has a good bed and a large TV with cable. I share their bathroom with them. They have another room for rent for a couple. I'm hoping they won't rent it, because it could become noisy and crowded if she fills it, too.

Southern Romania is flat and not very attractive. It's quite rural with many people traveling in horse-drawn carts on rutted roads. There are big grain elevators. We passed several rivers as we neared the coast. The train whistle had an interesting sound like a donkey--haw eeee hawwwww! Constanta itself, is not very attractive either. Varna in Bulgaria is a much better destination for tourists going to the Black Sea.

My first stop after getting settled in my room was at the agency that sells international train tickets. My guidebook had said there were two trains per day from here to Chisinau in Moldova. Unfortunately, there are now none. I learned I can take a train from here to Iasi. From there, I could get a round-trip ticket to Chisinau on the train going from Bucharest to there. It was complicated further by the Bucharest-Chisinau train traveling only 3 days a week. Anyway, we worked it out. I will stay here until Friday. I will go to Chisinau for 4 days--going Friday night, arriving Saturday morning, and leaving Tuesday afternoon. Now I must deal with planning where to stay, especially is Iasi, since the train from Chisinau will arrive there near midnight on Tuesday.

By then, the day was gone. I stopped at a kebob place and got a wonderful one stuffed with lots of meat but also with lots of salad and dressings. I felt as if I had eaten a salad and a meal. Then I stopped at a supermarket and bought a bottle of Romanian merlot produced by Zestrea Murfatar, a company recommended by my guidebook. I returned to my room and watched Titanic again on HBO. Unfortunately, neither BBC nor CNN (nor any other English news) is on cable here!