ROMANIA – Transylvania
MOSNA
[work in progress so excuse]
Here I am again and being reminded of the beauty that is this country. Bucharest and west to Medias not quite so pretty but once in this area, the green hills which just rise up out of the ground so steeply and which had been terraced many years ago for grape growing and step down the hills, are glorious and I wonder that anything or one can move safely on them – so steep they are.
And I am visiting my family Schuster again and being welcomed in with their many guests and visitors. Last time here it was summer and I\’d actually forgotten that. With the winter, wet, winds and snow on Erraid I was conditioned to life\’s seasons being only one – cold and wet. It So it is much more carefree for me with the sun out and temp higher than 3o, and I am wearing today only one or two layers, the temp outside got to 19o – a delight. An evening can get down to 4o but inside much warmer as Lavinia lights the kitchen fire to warm the kitchen and make the home very comfortable.
On my arrival the family had a guest from France for a couple of days; a local woman from about 100ks away living temporarily with them mainly to learn to speak Romanian [she comes from a Romanian Hungarian village where Romanian is not spoken so her quest is to learn to speak it- the village is in Romania!]; and also there is a cousin of 18 visiting; add me to make 4.
The last 4 days had taken their toll and I was extremely exhausted when I arrived at 9.30pm and my condition was contributed to by the usual difficulty I had in Bucharest (lack of english, no signage in english and trouble getting information and/or help about anything) and from the airport. However I managed to get to Gara de Nord the main station for the train to Medias, which left I thought at about 3.15pm. I picked up a couple of english speakers along the way and got to the station more comfortably with enough time to buy a ticket. However using the public telephone was yet another, and consistently so in any city and country, almost impossible hurdle to jump. It turned out that I wasn\’t able to call Schusters to confirm the train arrival time but had emailed previously ETA and trusted they were aware.
What actually happened was the train was about 15 minutes late into Medias and no pick up. So I thought to self, why not phone? Asked a couple of people on street for help – no english. But a public phone right there. But – phones in Romania [I now find out] take only cards. Where to get card? Little booth open, but no sell phone cards. Imagine self catching taki out to Mosna, about 8ks. Asked man with a mobile if he spoke english, yes, and could I pay him to make a call for me. Eventually we got through to Schusters and Willi collected me. May sound – so what? but when this happens each country, or town, it is nigh on impossible to get where I am supposed to be, get information, directions, or help with ease. I find this the part about travel that is more than a challenge -it drains my energy and motivation sinks. When I get what I want it seems such a small price to pay, but that\’s the same in retropect in any situation.
TRAINS
The train was called the \’Rapid\’ but a 6 hour journey and we travelled about 150kms stopping at larger and not so stations for 10 to 15 minutes. There is also the \’personal\’ and ….trains. They are no faster or slower. The Rapid new, clean, plastic, colourful and bit hard to sit in with no foot rests, takes 6 hours. The thing about the UK and here, including the typically Virgin trains in UK,[ same as their planes, cattle class], almost no luggage space, no conductor assistance in getting off and on, fighting to get to and into one\’s reserved seat because if it is occupied it may well stay so, narrow aisles, no foot rest and lots of seats going backwards and some with tables in the middle. I wonder how they trained the population to tolerate this style and remember when the XPT first ran the north coast line at home, it had the same seating arrangement. Do remember also the newer trains with foot rests and no tables. Whomever copies and orders these trains seems to be persons who drive and/or don\’t know what the locals think is necessary for a 14 hour train journey. But that was my opinion of Australian trains – my lack of understanding of the locals tolerating these trains beats me-\’cept the trains are all pretty and new and sleek looking. Give me comfort any day.
MOSNA
What a lovely place it is. And also in a month the local council elections take place. So guess what is happening in this village and all other villages around, work is being done on the roads. No different to Australia. I went into Medias yesterday to visit the Post Office, go to vegie market with Lavinia, and to the supermarket. The food in these is probably worse that what Oz offers, no organic or \’special\’ (read whole) foods. And just as home, thousands of crazies shopping for the Easter break. Romania is Orthodox Christian and their Easter recognises Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The family I am with had their Christian Easter and now share this Easter.
This is an organic farm which I have spoken about earlier in my blog. They have a few cows about 8 or so and milk about 5 from which milk they produce quark, yoghurt, cream, ricotta, fetta and other hard cheese. Most sells in the organic shop in Sibiu to which they travel with their produce x 2 per week. It has taken about 3 years for this shop to be known and now everything they offer in the shop is sold. They tell me also that people in Bucharest want to obtain this quality produce and so a lot goes to Bucharest one way or the other. There are very few organic shops in Romania, actually this is the only one I believe, and at last the message is getting out to people that there is an option now in Romania to eating contaminated food.