adventures in romania!
23 sept 2002
sziasztok!
greetings, salutations, and the like -- indeed, i'm writing this up after the most insane weekend ever -- in *romania*!... the funniest thing is, i had no clue i was going until wednesday last week and that's where i've been ever since =)... party in a box indeed!
first of all -- why romania? out of the 49 of us here, 3 girls are from romania, and one of them (cristina) goes to dartmouth with my 2nd apt. mate, jen,... the two of them, and two more dartmouth folks (joanne and anthony (aka jimmy)) were going there this weekend and invited a few more of us along -- deciding factors: #1, bucharest, the capital is 12+ hours train ride away, #2, the place where they were going is only 10 hours away AND cristina has family and friends there to make everything 10 times simpler, and #3, how often do you get to go to romania with a romanian speaking friend to show you around the non-touristy non-capital parts and see the rest of the country???... add those together and when i was invited tuesday, i'd pretty much be crazy NOT to go!
intro to romania
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
very brief background on romania: it's to the east of
hungary and much much bigger (maybe even bigger than
texas, whereas hungary is pretty much indiana size)...
pretty much all of the country is in the carpathian
mountains, so the views are absolutely *INCREDIBLE*
whereever you go... romania was under russian rule
until 1989 like hungary, but in some ways suffered a
worse off fate -- a full third if not more of bra�ov,
the city we stayed in, was torn down and built into
communist block apartments... budapest has at least
one of these apartments in every district, but all the
old buildings weren't torn down here to make tons and
tons of identical apts. like in romania-- it was this
block apt. part of town we actually stayed in and it
was kinda interesting to see all the austere
monotonous buildings and reflect on that... romania
also has ended up even poorer than hungary, and
resultingly the cost of living is extremely low--
while 250 hungarian forints make $1, it takes 33000
romanian lei to make a dollar and their biggest
currency is the equivalent of $15!!!!!... accordingly
the cost of living is sooo cheap -- i already had a
cheap train ticket (cerca $50 roundtrip), and even
spending liberally there for 3 days, i spent less than
$50 more -- extremely cheap.... but that also means
the people there are *extremely* poor as well... i saw
a LOT of shacks on the train ride back, but also lots
of people in traditional costume leading horse and
carriage, or shepherding sheep, etc... it was really
something else that way...
other random facts: i had no clue about this until
friday, but romanian is actually a romance language
(i.e. related to spanish, french, italian, etc., in
fact of all of these, romanian is the closest related
in latin), so for my 6 years of spanish class i could
understand suprisingly more than expected -- cristina
also taught us to count to 10, and other useful things
such as hi, bye, excuse me, and thanks. their money
is amusing because not only is there the insanely
cheap conversion rate, (so you feel rich to have 1
million lei on you, when in fact it's just $30!...)
but the bills are actually plastic so you can crumple
them and they uncrumple themselves when you open your
hand again (we were *greatly* amused by this!), and
the coins are made of aluminum so they feel like
they're the plastic coins you can buy in toy stores
when they're real actual currency!... craziness!... i
don't consider myself a picky eater, but romanian food
has some stuff that tests my bravery -- while there,
though, i actually tried tongue and stomach (both of
which have such weird textures i don't know where to
begin to describe them), and also some traditional
sour soups and another trademark romanian dish called
sarmale (probably spelled wrong from memory) which is
basically random meat rolled up inside of cabbage --
they have a common cornmeal-like side dish that was
the closest thing to grits i've seen since i left the
states, and that make me incredibly happy as well. =)
final random observations before this email actually
gets a plot: romania has LOTS of two things i can
think of besides mountains: dogs and gypsies... the
gypsies we didn't have so much problems with, but we
did pass a bear on the street that belongs to them --
apparently they stole it from the zoo and now use it
to try to make $$... but literally, we drove down a
busy street, and 2 feet from our car was a bear on a
leash, tied to a tree!... we were all sooo in shock at
having a bear so close to us that joanne's comment was
"this is impossible! what is going on here? is that
thing real or mechanical?!?!?!"... insanity!.,..
romania also has tons of dogs -- i've never seen
anything like this -- every place has their strays to
be sure, but in romania it's almost like they're
national pets -- everywhere we were there were at
least half a dozen of them just wandering and waiting
for someone to give them food or pet them... on the
street even more of them -- cute cute dogs, mostly
smaller breeds, that just live off of the street
everywhere you go!... this doesn't sound like that big
of a deal, but indeed it really was different...
you'll just have to all go see for yourself some day
=P
friday (2 palaces and an adventure and a half of an
evening)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
anyhow, onward with a plot!...thursday after class, we
took a night train from budapest to bra�ov -- we left
at 6:10pm budapest time, and arrived where we were
going at 5am romania time (4am in budapest) -- the
train was sooo cold after it got dark and we were sooo
pumped to be going that we played cards until about
2am, and then mostly fell asleep... i set my alarm for
4:45 am, and luckily so because we arrived at 5 when
we weren't supposed to until 5:30... if my alarm
hadn't gone off, we quite possibly would have slept
past our stop and ended up in bucharest instead!
once actually in the city, our accomdations were
absolutely wonderful -- cristina has a huge family and
her cousin-once-removed(?) teaches in north carolina
during the year but still has an apt. in bra�ov. this
relative's parents (cristina's grandma's sister and
husband?, i think), traveled all the way into town to
set up beds for the 5 of us, clean, and make breakfast
for us while we took a nap -- dad you absolutely would
have loved it -- fresh eggs from their backyard, fresh
milk from their cow, complete with the cream on top,
homemade sausages, and bread with the best homemade
raspberry preserves ever!... after breakfast, they
left to go back home for the rest of the weekend, but
it was sooo awesome of them to be sooo accomdating.
friday, we took a bus sinaia, which is a town up in
the mountains where pele� (the national palace) and
peli�or (a smaller royal palace) are located... on
our way up, we also stopped by an old monastary and
church which were extremely beautiful -- romania has a
very distinct style of architecture from anywhere else
i've ever been and i was sooo impressed with all the
colors and ornateness of everything... back to the
palaces: peli�or was built because the queen didn't
like the style of pele� and built peli�or according to
her tastes... pele� was everything you'd expect out of
a royal castle in terms of grandeur... i was
especially impressed by all the stained glass, which
looked more like wall paintings instead of colored
glass, and by the armory, as i don't think i've ever
actually been in the middle of a long row of fully
decked out suits of armour, and they had a very
intimidating collection!... my favorite room in
peli�or was the golden room, which, as the name
suggests, has its floor and ceiling covered totally in
24 karat gold, carved into flowery designs... quite
impressive indeed... we were also amused that to go
around the two palaces, they have you slip on funny
little slippers over your shoes so that you don't mess
up the floors... they looked hilarious, and made us
practically skate around the palaces and just hope we
didn't slip!... i guess that's one way to dust lots of
floors with little effort =P
friday evening, cristina's cousin danka, and two of
their guy friends (christi and rastvan) met up with us
to go out to eat -- danka was pretty laid back and
cool, but christi and rastvan were absolutely insane!
at first they refused to speak anything but romanian,
which left the 4 of us who don't speak more than a
dozen words totally confused, but when they did
concede they kept us laughing the whole time --
christi especially, but also rastvan, for some reason
had an incredibly fun time picking on jimmy (anthony),
and partway through dinner decided to re-name him
"tony" and speak in funny fake italian accents the
rest of the night whenever they talked to him -- who
knows, these guys were nuts! -- after dinner, we
missed the last bus back to bra�ov, so christi offered
to drive us back, only it would have to be in two
trips to fit everyone for the 40 minute one way
journey on what's been voted the worst road in romania
(very very zigzaging two lane road down a steep
mountain)-- i was in the first trip when he drove
calmly b/c cristina was in the car telling him he had
to, and i was scared of his driving already, but
apparently jen and jimmy had an even crazier time on
the second trip, so i was lucky! -- riding in cars in
romania -- here and in taxis-- has to be the scariest
car experiences i've ever had -- at some points, my
romania car experiences looked like they should have
been clips from some sort of drag racing arcade
game!!! when christi made it back with the second
trip of people, the first group of us had long been
asleep but they came in, turned on all the radios in
the house at max volume and just made a general ruckus
of things -- it was like 2am romanian dance party 2002
-- COMPELTELY insane!!!...cristina and i also had to
be up at 4 to meet more bsm people (chris and rahul)
at the train station who were joining us for the rest
of the trip -- needless to say, not much more sleep
than the 1 hour i got the night before!
saturday (dracula, bra�ov, and more)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
saturday we took a different bus up to bran, where
dracula's castle is -- actually the legend of dracula
is an embellished story -- the original guy's name was
vladimir the impaler -- he had some sort of royal
title and a castle in transylvania (the part of
romania we were in) and was pretty brutal with
punishing, usually impaling, people who didn't do what
he wanted... since he was so brutal, people started
the whole dracula/vampire story about him -- several
castles in transylvania are advertised as "dracula's
castle" and this was one of them -- its connection was
that he was incarcerated there for one night when the
hungarian army tried to capture him... cristina thinks
it may also be the castle that books, movies, etc. are
based off of --at any rate it was pretty cool to see
bran castle =)... it was complete with a hidden secret
stairway, and was high up on a mountain with lots of
awesome views yet again =)... party in a box!
after this, we met up with cristina's uncle and two
more of her cousins in downtown bra�ov so they could
show us around -- athough the inside was closed, we
checked out the outside of the black church (called so
because the inside burned at one point and the
building survived) which according to marcius
(cristina's uncle) is the oldest church in europe --
we also climbed uphill to a tower where we could see
all of town, including the different districts, all
nestled in the mountains as dusk was setting in --
completely awesome!
finally, a most hilarious train ride back all day
sunday and here i am... catalina, another of my BSM
friends here spent the weekend in bra�ov visiting her
grandfather, great aunt, and other relatives and she
sat with us on the way back to budapest, making it an
excellent 8-some and just a party in a box of a trip
back... ... after the incredible lack of sleep i've
maintained since middle of last week i'm impressed i'm
still standing! =P so yeah, those are my thoughts on
romania-- this week i'm staying put for sure, but who
knows where i'll end up after this... the usual
anecdotes are up next..., enjoy! =P
things lara has learned this week
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*what a hypergraph is! now i know and you don't! =P
*i'm in good company here -- at long last i've found
people who will actually eat my favorite kind of pizza
-- mushroom and pineapple -- with me annd not cringe,
as well as other people who consider raw mushrooms
with salad dressing to be one of the all time best
snacks ever!
*if the states want me to be a happy camper when i
come back, they will look into adding the following
items to grocery store shelves before christmas:
wrigley's honey & lemon flavored gum, schweppe's kiwi
ginger ale, orangina (the ultimate juice/soft drink:
orange soda that's 12% orange pulp -- definitely the
best drink ever invented), and fresh hungarian style
giant pretzels.... (just so all of you can pass the
word along to the powers that be, okay?)
*what it's like to ride in a taxi -- can you believe
the first taxi i've ridden in ever was this weekend in
romania???... never would have guessed *that* would be
a true statement before this week =P
*"cucumber salad" in a hungarian/romanian train dining
car really means "plate of small pickles"
*i have to watch my tongue even more than normal now!
-- chris and rahul think they can make me cuss at them
before the semester is up -- i bet them right back
that they can't =P
*the more i get into my hungarian culture class, the
more i see that hungary has some really awesome
literature to dig through we totally miss out on since
it's traditionally just published in the hungarian!...
for example, for anyone who's patiently dug through
john milton's _paradise lost_, see if you can find
imre mad�ch's _the tragedy of man_... starting on a
similar premise, the first 3 chapters tell the story
of adam and eve's fall into sin in eden, but the rest
of the book is a bizarre time travel story where
lucifer takes adam throughout different ages and shows
him the future of the fallen world, hitting on such
places and events as ancient greece and rome, the
crusades, the french revolution, and a modern
socialist society -- it's really quite the fascinating
tale... like i said, given the chance, check it out =P
or just borrow it from me when i get back -- worth the
read!
quotes of the week
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"on march 22nd, 1972, it rained all day and i
collected myself in a very pleasant place... it was my
home. many a man stepped into me, then looking back
they curesed me, swore at me, and used harsh words
which i am loathe to repeat. i was a puddle for two
days, taking the insults lying down... oh the
paradoxes of life! i dried up just when the weather
turned fine! what else shall i say? did i make a
fool of myself? did i perhaps fall short of the
expectaions of the people at 7 dr�va utca?.... all in
all, i 'puddled' for a bare two days and all that this
allows me to say is that the tone of life is abusive;
that dr�va utca is d*** windy; and that the sun is
forever shining when it has no business to, but at
least you don't have to trickle down the drain pipe!
oh boys, what holes, what depressions! bursting pipes!
sagging roads! these are great things nowadays! all
you young people, listen to me, forward to dr�va
utca!" ~istv�n �rk�ny, from "memoirs of a puddle"
as you can see, the rest of this is just abstract
nonsense ~dr. feh�r
you see, this is one of my, how do you say it?... ah
yes! prayers... (dramatic pause)... like sausages!
~christi
what is *this*? this 2000 lei looks like skittles
rolled into money... how absurd!... i mean, wait a
minute, maybe they *should* start rolling skittles
into money -- that would be outrageous! ~jimmy
somehow i don't picture you as a whole country ~jen to
joanne
christi (in fake italian mafia accent): so, tony, how
many kilos do you have?
jimmy (aka anthony aka tony... laughing extremely
hard, but confused): um, what in the world is going on
here? kilos? kilos of what?
christi: you know, pounds
jimmy: pounds? you mean like how much do i weigh?
christi: exactly yes, how many kilos you have?
(just imagine the fake accent throughout and this
quote is a million times funnier) =P
i feel like an onion! ~cristina
joanne: oh! i want to learn spanish, teach me
something!
jimmy: ok, repeat after me 'voy a tirar un pavoroyal a
tu cara'
joanne: ok, 'voy a..... cara'... what did i just say?
jimmy: i'm going to throw a peacock at your face
joanne: oh exciting! teach me more!
(fyi, this is also something i learned this week, as
this discussion on the train to romania prompted us to
see how many languages we could say this phrase in
between ourselves... so far 7!: english, spanish,
french, romanian, japanese, pig latin, and
hungarian... how insane is that???)
the rahul you know is dead, i am now grape fanta man!
~rahul, upon being picked on for ordering 2 liters of
fanta with his lunch!
see, you can interrupt me with your inner monologue
whenever you want because it always has something
interesting to say. ~amanda
"... then he let out a mighty roar. 'will you settle
for slavery?' he intoned, which is all the eager crowd
needed to hear who, not waiting for the rest,
thundered in union, 'yes we will! yes we will!' and
with that, his speech was at an end." ~p�ter
esterh�zy, hungarian writer
at an end? and so is this email -- hope you enjoyed
my sleep-deprived attempt at describing the
awesomeness that is romania... yay for that, but also
yay for being back at home in budapest =P... i
actually miss it when i'm not here!...three cheers for
eastern europe! =)
happy weekend =P
lara
=)