ocazia

Late June 2007 Days of the Ancestors and Obor Market My journey back to the UK started on Sunday evening so I had a couple of days to spare in Bucharest. One evening I went to the Athenaeum, Bucharest’s most revered concert hall. It seats only 800 people and is a beautiful little palace with slender marble columns and sweeping stairways. I was greeting with much warmth by my friends there. I however, felt tired and stressed and unable to fit back into my old life again so easily. One of the features of Romanian life is that traditions are still very strong. Something known as a Ziua Moşilor (roughly translated “day of the ancestors”) occurs periodically throughout the year. The one just before Easter is characterized by people bringing willow branches to church. That weekend ... read more

26-6-2007 Back to Bucharest The bus stop is a wonderful place to sit and wait. High on the mountain you are surrounded by the view of other mountain tops. There is a bench under a pretty tree. I had met an old lady out with two cows the previous morning who had bewailed my single state and given me directions. She sees me waiting and comes and sits beside me. We chatted and shared details of our respective families. We both agreed that you couldn’t expect children to stay living with you. Her cows circled us. They are both hobbled as are many animals in these parts. The bus eventually arrived and the driver gave me and my companion a very suspicious look. When I attempted to sit down in the minibus he stopped me and ... read more

25-6-2007 The journey towards Semenic - I turn back again I liked the look of Anina which has some pleasant 19th century buildings. However, since the maxi taxi up to Caraşova was to leave fairly shortly I didn’t have a lot of time to look round. Ioana, my head of department at school, rang to ask if I was alright and I was able to reassure her that, today at least, I was sticking to ordinary tourist activities. I bought a paper to see if I could read about Katy’s death but it is already fading from the news. The other passengers on the maxi taxi to Caraşova advised me to enquire at the new hotel on the main road where I am dropped off about accommodation. There I was told that a room would cost ... read more

25-6-2007 Oraviţa and the forest railway We arrived in Oraviţa at 6.00 in the morning. I bade my new friend a swift farewell and I rushed off to the train station to find out about train times up to Anina. I was very keen to take this journey as I had heard that it is the oldest stretch of forest railway in Romania and one of the steepest. It was built between 1847 and 1863 and the process involved cutting several tunnels and building many high slender viaducts. The journey is reputed to be extremely beautiful as it passes through wonderful countryside. The station lived up to the reputation of the line and was delightfully old fashioned. I met up with a station official whose conversation transfixed me. I couldn’t take my eyes of his teeth ... read more

24-6-2007 Melecxina Once I reached the stop I found an old couple waiting there already. I fell into conversation with the lady who is going to catch the bus and who is called Melecxina. Melecxina is a little older than me and had a mass of grey curls pinned back under her regulation headscarf. Those that had escaped nodded enthusiastically in support of her animated conversation, which from time to time takes on a confidential tone. Her husband would be returning home having accompanied her on the journey and stood apart from this woman talk, felt hat firmly planted on his head. The pair of them have walked for two hours from their village, Vale Roşii, to reach the bus stop. She told me not to worry about being unfamiliar with this bit of the world. ... read more

24-6-2007 Following the dream – Dealing with fear. As I was going to be travelling through most of the night I decided to try and sleep for a few hours in the late afternoon and evening as some compensation. I had settled down for an hour or so when my mobile phone rang. It was Mirela the director of the school I teach at in Bucharest. She was in a very emotional state. “Minna, are you alright?” “Yes, thanks, just fine! How are you?” “You’ve got to stop wandering about in the wild. Katy’s been killed!” “ Who - Katy - John’s wife? How?” “She was attacked by a bear in the mountains yesterday: You can’t keep on wandering around on your own!” “But there’s nobody who wants to come with me!” “You must come back ... read more

22-6-2007 Şopotu Nou and a short journey in the neighbourhood By 11 or so I was in Şopotu Nou and the heat was being to build up. The village was extremely quiet and I was pleased to see an open door into a courtyard where I found the village bar and shop. I sat and drank a great deal of some bubbly lemon drink and started to think about the next stage of my journey. It wasn’t long before I set off again and initially picked up the trail quite easily. As the path reached the river I was amazed to find a car drawn up with a couple sunning themselves in bathing costumes beside it. It was such an old fashioned rural landscape, their presence seemed very strange. I was in a broad valley with ... read more

21-6-2007 I set out over unmapped country An hour or so later I reached my turning and bade my fellow passengers farewell. As the minibus sped off into the distance I stood for a few minutes gazing out over the Danube and towards a very magnificent and mysterious looking Serbia. Then I turned up the small road towards Sicheviţa. My journey on foot had begun. All along the road were large mulberry trees casting great shadows stained an even deeper shade where their purple berries lay. I ate handfuls of the luscious fruit and arriving at a spring outside a church I helped myself liberally from this as well. It was a very fine breakfast. Just as I was coming to the end my mobile phone sprang into action. I was extremely surprised to discover that ... read more

20-6-2007 Get me to the Danube Damn! No places left in the sleeping wagon! I’d waited so long to start this journey. I didn’t want to retreat back to my baking 10th floor flat in one of Bucharest’s less select areas. Besides which, the amount of time before I had to leave for the UK was rapidly dwindling. Affairs at school where I was teaching out here in Romania had dragged on interminably as we tried to secure a place at another school for an unsatisfactory student. I took a seat in an ordinary compartment thinking that I could doze in there or, indeed, if it wasn’t very full, stretch out a little. As it turned out, the seats were all taken. In Romania there is seldom any question of sitting on a train minding your ... read more