| "Romanian traffic" |
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| Hotel Cismigiu |
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Eighteen million Australians share 60,000 km�s of coastline. The Romanian coast is
245 km long, and is shared by 23 million people.� No wonder it was crowded.�
Getting to the water was a massive effort in itself.� Clambering
over beach towels that are placed so close together there is only room for one
foot. And if you trip and fall the risk of embarrassment is doubled by the fact
that women bathing topless are the norm rather than the exception.� Some
Romanians have acquired the skills to pass through this web of beach towels mayhem
without causing any harm.� These young entrepreneurs are making quite
a good living out of selling sweet corn, soft drinks and ice cold beer right to
your towel.� Unfortunately some people make a living in a less honest manner.�
Carrying baby monkeys, lion and leopard cubs along the beach, and charging
tourists to have their photos taken with them. On the way back from the beach Madalina and I paid full price for train tickets only to find the train so crowded that there was standing room only.� As the conductor passed, the hundreds of ticketless students returning from the beach pleaded their poverty stricken cases to him and bribed him a fraction of the full price to let them stay.� Having learnt my lesson from this experience I proceeded to pay for a standing room only student ticket on my next train trip.� When the conductor asked for my student ID I gave him 25,000 Lei (A$1.50) and he let me and my travelling partners sit in first class for the rest of the trip. A friend of mine completed far less study then his peers in a subject at university, however he achieved a far better mark.� Of course there is no way of knowing for sure, but his results may have had something to do with his father being a good friend of the Dean who�s wife is the lecturer in charge of the class. REM. Bribery in Romania extends far further then train conductors and university lecturers.� I was told that a Regional head of Public Schools was offered $50,000 USD from the Romanian branch of a multi-national computer conglomerate to accept their first offer to supply public with computers and not take the contract to auction.� Police Officers and politicians are also known to take more than the occasional bribe. Nobody pays full price in Romania everybody expects a discount.� So far I have signed contracts with an Irishman, a Lebanese man, a Dutch woman and two Australians.� I am yet to convince a single Romanian. The Sydney is the place to go after work.� It starts filling up at 3, and the terrace is full from 5 until the early hours of the morning.� Although it supposed to be an Australian theme pub, it is more like Hooters than any Australian bar I�ve been too.� I was told the number 1 criteria when hiring waitresses is their ability to speak English, but I think that might come in at number 2. So you have found yourself drinking at an Australian Bar in Bucharest, Romania.� Kosovo is a couple of hundred kilometres to the left, Iraq is a couple of countries to the right, and Chernobyl is just up the road.� Kind of reassuring eh? Sydney Bar and Grill. Travelling home on the bus with a friend of mine Magda, we were approached by a drunken security guard, intent on taking her home for the night.� When Magda was asked she would like a lift home in his car we began to get a little paranoid, jumped off the bus at my stop, and waited for the next bus to come, so Magda could make the rest of the trip home. Pulp. It doesn�t stop with just the poor treatment of women.� I was shocked to witness a priest hit his son because he had forgotten to bring a bottle of Vodka, at the blessing of Razvan�s church. The two US trainees Collin and Kevin, were stopped three times within a matter of minutes.� Firstly by Mormons, �Excuse me gentleman, we're spreading the light of Jesus�.� Then by thieves, �You guys are Americans right, I have got a great exchange rate for you 25,000 Lei to the Dollar.�� And finally by a pimp, �You�re Americans aren�t you?� Have you got girlfriends?� I have got very beautiful ladies for you.� Very clean girls, very, very clean." Universal Joke. With the amount of time I spend complaining, you may be thinking that I am not enjoying myself.� This is simply not true.� Romania has a lot to offer, unfortunately the most rewarding sights are outside of Bucharest. On one of my frequent trips into the countryside, we stayed in a holiday house on the side of an unspoiled mountain that the owners had recently purchased for US$2000.� At the bottom of the mountain there were several salt lakes for the summer crowd to swim in.� Due to the salt, the density of the lake was such that it was impossible to dive under the water let alone sink, and as you left the lake you found yourself white from head to toe, covered in salt. My favourite part of the weekend was the time we spent inside the Unirea Salt Mine.� We boarded an elevator that predated Christ and began the 250-metre journey.� As the elevator rattled and shook further and further underground you could literally feel the air temperature drop and see the light that once flooded through the cracks in the wooden door dim.� The doors flung open and I lifted my head up and up and up in search of the roof. There, some 200 metres above me, was a big old communist red star, complete with Hammer and Sickle.� The mine was large enough to hide an aircraft carrier.� I felt like I was in an episode of X-files.� To give you some idea of the size of it, hidden in one of the back corners was a soccer pitch. Last weekend I travelled with the other trainees and a herd of Aiesecers to a medieval festival in Sighisoara.� After seeing the sights, watching some jousting and visiting the occasional gift shop.� Kevin, Collin and I thought we would sneak away from the herd and find ourselves a nice, terrace to enjoy a relaxing beer.� As Collin put it: Of course what Collin doesn�t realise is that in reality we are the three nerdy exchange students, the foreigners that nobody likes, but keep tagging along.� We found this bar that looked like it had been built on Friday, so that it could be taken down again on Monday and made ourselves comfortable.� We ordered our first round of URSUS at 2.� Eight and a half-hours later Kevin and I stumbled out to go see what was left of the concert.� Collin had a little more stamina and kept on drinking until 4 in the morning with our new found friends.� Fourteen hours drinking a sterling effort, especially for a yank.� The guys that we were chatting to were the directors of a Sports Marketing company based in London.� They had European Football marketing rights in Romania and had branched off into many other things, including bars (the one we were drinking in) and the manufacturing of hemp. Kevin and I did make it back to the concert in time to see Vama Veche headline the festival.� The field was packed full of drunken Romanians singing along with the band.� The highlight was hearing Vama Veche play a cover of the Eagles classic Hotel California � Hotel Cismigiu, the abandoned Hotel on the edge of the park that I walk across every day on the way to work.� And watching a very drunk Kevin tell a pickpocket to �Fuck Off!� when he caught him with his hand inside his pocket. Or just twenty thousand people standing in a field. Pulp. Bucharest is often described as the most depressing city in the world, but it does have something�s going for it.� The people are nice.� For example the cashier at the chemist didn�t have the correct change, she was short some 500 Lei (4 cents), so she gave me a single aspirin to make up the difference. What is left of the old city, the parts that Ceausescu didn�t tear are really quite stylish.� The House of the People is the second largest building in the world, and just like Paris, Bucharest has it�s very own of Arch of Triumph, saluting the 1st World War heroes. I found a store that sells Ultra Puff 2 ply toilet paper.� It costs 5 times more than the regular household brand, almost A$2 for a 4 pack.� But I have never been so excited about going to the toilet before. |
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