Ian’s first visit to Romania was 2 years ago, when he and I rented a car in Frankfurt and drove 6,000 km in about 22 days, crossing through much of Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary on the way.
I was very happy he was able to join my parents and me on a 10-day visit at the beginning of June this year. We mostly hung out in Târgovişte where I was born, in Galaţi where my dad is from, in Văcăreşti where my maternal grandparents live, and we also spent a night on the edge of Piatra Craiului National Park in a nice chalet. Ian got to show off his ever-improving Romanian language skills and we had a good time visiting family.
There are loads of photos on Flickr, but below is a quick selection and a list of things to remember if you are going to Romania.
- the traffic in and out of the airport (BBU) and all around BucureÅŸti is horrendous. I’m not sure how you could avoid this – maybe a helicopter straight to your destination? We spent more than 3 hours driving the 70 km to my home town, but it was nice to catch up with my aunt who was driving. Ian enjoyed seeing the numerous Vulcanizare shops along the way (which he calls “the vulcanizer” – basically, flat tire repair shops).
- you may wonder why there are so many Vulcanizare shops around, but it will quickly become evident once you see the roads: they are on average awful – narrow, full of potholes, uneven and sometimes unpaved, and full of crazy traffic: horse-drawn carts everywhere, tractors and other farm vehicles on main roads, and last but not least, crazy drivers.
- working-age Romanians continue to leave the country in droves. There are lots of grandparents around, watching young kids – but the middle generation is mostly absent. It’s odd. We had a couple of conversations with different Romanians about foreign investment in Romania and the economic and social future of the country – most were very negative and did not see a future for themselves in the country. Yet supermarkets are mushrooming everywhere, as are huge terracotta-coloured McMansions, the GDP per capita is increasing, so the economy can’t be that bad; but the EU continues to issue dire warnings about corruption and the justice system and the EU standards Romania is failing to meet; the fertility rate is one of the lowest among European countries, the population growth rate is negative, the pension system is basically bankrupt, and fields lie fallow all over the country. Ack, depressing.
- on a more fun note, Romanians are really into their storks (barza) – it’s a good omen to have them nest in your neighbourhood. My grandparents are very proud of the couple nesting in their garden, on a pole raised by my grandfather especially for this purpose (but unfortunately their nest was attacked by another stork and their eggs got knocked to the ground, so it remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to lay and hatch new eggs before they fly away for the winter):
- the summer months are ridiculously hot and mosquito-ridden. We had a hard time sleeping for more than a couple of hours at a time and got hundreds of mosquito bites between us, some swelling larger than ping-pong balls. Romanians use a plug-in mosquito repelling machine – I’m sure whatever chemicals are in it are not good for you, but I highly encourage using it.
- agriculture remains the way of life for much of the country, with few modern improvements – people still use horses and carts and do a lot of the work by hand, but new developments such as the introduction of the Roundup herbicide have occurred. It was great for us because it meant we got to enjoy very fresh “ro-ganic” produce straight from the source.
- newly-hatched chickens are very cute! sadly this one and all his siblings died (all of them, suddenly, overnight) a couple of days after we arrived.
- people are so hospitable and nice. My dad’s cousin (whom he hadn’t seen in 7 years and rarely talks to, and whom I’d never met before) let us sleep in her bedroom when we had nowhere else to stay in GalaÅ£i – she slept in her son’s bed.
- if you are female and planning to visit a monastery or church, especially while a service is going on, do wear a skirt and a head scarf. We got admonished by a priest while visiting a monastery in the hills, and he refused to bless any of us.
- however, nothing stops you from dressing up to look like an idiot everywhere else:
- there is nothing tastier than a cold slice of watermelon on a hot day. We went through half a dozen 20-pounders while we were there (thank goodness for globalization, most being imported from Turkey – Romania’s Mexico).
- bribery and corruption remain the way of life. At the end of our Turkey trip, our bus crossing of the border from Bulgaria back into Romania was facilitated by a several hundred USD bribe to the Romanian policeman/customs officer. He had threatened to pull everyone off the bus and spend hours searching our luggage for contraband and goods subject to import tax – the bus steward came around to solicit a contribution from each passenger. Conversely, knowing the right people can be very helpful. We got to stay for free in a fancy chalet near Piatra Craiului courtesy of high-up former co-workers of my dad’s.
- traveling with my parents was quite helpful (they knew people everywhere, and they instinctively know how to navigate the societal norms I’m somewhat rusty at), but sometimes it was a bit too cute! My dad marched us all over GalaÅ£i to show us their ceremony and reception sites for their wedding, and they posed, recreating scenes and photos from their wedding day. Altogether now, AWWWW! =)
- if you don’t speak any Romanian, you may find it difficult to travel outside of the major tourist centres (BucureÅŸti, SighiÅŸoara, BraÅŸov, and to some extent the Black Sea – but there is lots more to see outside those). Rumour has it that easyJet will start flying to Romania in Sep 2007, so hopefully more tourist infrastructure will be in place soon.
Stay tuned for posts about the really awesome Turkey trip.