Trampelling Over Tourists

Tourists.

I've heard Brasov described as a touristy place, and I tend to agree. It's normal to see people walking around with cameras and guidebooks, and testing their memorized Romanian phrases on passersby (my favorite is when they approach me, and we both struggle through directions in Romanian before realizing English would be easier). Since one of the favorite tourist sites (Mt. Tampa) is accessed from my street, I run into several tourists every day.

Another reason I think of it as touristy is that Brasov is a fairly lively place, yet the people who fill out the town in the evening are not students. In order to "go out" in the center you've got to have the money to pay for a good time. This is because the scene revolves mostly around bars and restaurants. With the exception of the theatre, there is no venue in the centre for culture. The (good) cinemas are at the edge of town, the opera is a good 15 minutes away, and the symphony has performances only on Thursdays. My impression is that people head home in the evenings, and that this is where the fun is to be had. So, the people I see are the tourists and businesspeople.

But after my trip to Budapest over Easter, I have a completely different perception of what a tourist is. The thing is, most American tourists don't make it as far east as Romania. A lot of people seem to think that going to Budapest fulfills the "doing Eastern Europe" adventure. And a lot of tourists just aren't interested in Romania. As it turns out, this is a blessing for people like me who have a new found disgust for large numbers of tourists.

Budapest was literally crawling with tourists. Apparently all the Hungarians hid away for Easter, because as I walked the streets of the city I more often heard people speaking English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch than people speaking Hungarian (a.k.a. people speaking a language I don't recognize while not carrying a camera or a guidebook). Every single person had a camera, most of them fairly big cameras. In the other hand, a guidebook. It was obnoxious, and I felt ashamed. This is why I don't have a lot of Budapest pictures and why we walked around aimlessly while the guidebook was locked safely in the hostel.

Budapest was also filled with market stalls selling everything from, well, everything to everything. Let me explain. Over the weekend the Budapest Wine Festival was held. It was outdoor and basically entailed taking your glass around to different stalls to taste any Hungarian wine you desire. Understanding and appreciating Hungarian wine is apparently very hip is today's Budapest. Sadly though, the wine festival was overrun with loud, drunk tourists stumbling around trying to find the cheapest glass of wine.

Down the street from there was the Easter market, which was a comprehensive collection of traditional Hungarian trinkets, pottery, clothing, jewelry, palinka, honey, food, and even furniture. Everything was of a very high quality, to the extent that I felt absorbed by it, a feeling I haven't yet felt in Romania. By absorbed I mean that it was all so full of life and pretty that I kind of wandered from one stall to the next thinking how much I wanted everything and looking at everything that caught my eye. A marketing dream come true.

We happened upon a photo exhibit in a park. It was called "100 Faces of Transylvania," and included photos from a photo contest. Being outside, it was free, and people were clamoring around it to find their favorites. My photo doesn't do its popularity justice - I intentionally tried to get one without people.

Another random stand we happened upon was a box office for the Budapest Spring Festival. Taking place over the second half of March, it was a performing arts festival, with everything from symphony concerts to operas, West Side Story to the Blind Boys of Alabama, and for the lucky ones, Hungarian folk music. The festival events were spread across the city's finest venues. I wanted to take Gordon to his first opera, but the show that worked out for us was called "Metamorphosis." When we bought the tickets, we didn't know what that meant or where the Palace of Arts was; we just knew that we spent $6 each on tickets in the first row of the third balcony. It turned out to be a concert for the Hungarian folk group "Meta," along with the various ensembles that members of Meta have played with. So the evening was filled with not only Hungarian folk music, but also a folk/jazz fusion, Transylvanian folk songs, Irish trad., and something called "HeavyMeta." The venue turned out to be down the Danube from the center, and apparently a millennium project. The building was ridiculous. From the inside, the closest comparison I can make is to the Scottish Parliament building. I can't attempt a description and I didn't have my camera, so just look at this: http://www.danubiusmagazin.hu/magazin/tortenelem/mupa.jpg

After we left town, the Budapest Fringe Festival took up another two days. So, culture in your face. It's hard to escape. Meanwhile, we must not forget the tourists.

Since I got back to Brasov, it's been interesting for me to consider the lack of both here. Well, do have tourists (it's not that I was imagining them before, after all). But they are Romanian tourists, and British tourists, and usually Spanish tourists. They come in small groups. They are not American college juniors studying abroad. They are not old American men traveling with their buddies. And they do not outnumber the locals.

Still, the locals shy away from coming out to play. This weekend, our new American Culture Club put on its first event. This club started basically because there's no American culture to be found in town. This contrasts with other cultures - we have the French Alliance and the German...place, which put on events and offer language classes. Our first ACC event was a Multicultural Film Forum, in which we played and discussed four films over two days. The kids (meaning students, about eight of them) worked really hard to publicize the event - they put up posters all around town, visited all the high schools and spoke to their English teachers and the students, passed out fliers between classes at the university, and invited their teachers, friends, and classmates. Yet on Friday our audience consisted of 5 "independent" people whom none of us knew, one American Studies professor, two friends, and 5 boyfriends of the students putting on the event.

My Romanian colleagues and students explained this limited turnout by telling me that people in Brasov are not accustomed to cultural events like this. Especially not free ones. Someone said people are too lazy to come, some said the weekend is a bad time for such an event, some said evenings were a bad time, some said mornings were a bad time, some that afternoons were a bad time. Some said people are scared because the event was in English. But the general consensus was that people didn't come because they aren't accustomed to going to events like that. So, our mission to bring more "American culture" to town is not just a matter of bringing it, but also getting people to want it. And no, Hollywood movies at the cinema do not count as American culture.

Anyway, blah blah blah. Basically, in a place like Budapest where tourism is developed and where some sort of sophisticated culture is appreciated, everything costs more. Here, tourism is cheap. People spend less money. This idea of "culture" takes a different shape. For me, the price is appreciated, but I miss cosmopolitan life. I just hope our efforts over the next few months bring about some little change.

Running around Romaina

Cluj and Brasov, as opposing anchors of Transilvania, are not exactly neighbors. The train ride from one to the other is a scheduled 5.5 hours with a usual half hour added bonus. Yet I've found myself on this 6 hour train ride several times in the past few weeks.

Two weeks ago, I went to Cluj for a presentation on U.S. study. This was possibly the most intense 24 hours I've yet experienced in Romania. Mihaela, the woman who runs the Fulbright Educational Advising Center, apparently lives this intensely every day. After checking into my hotel room, I met her at 7pm to head to dinner. The first thing she asked was whether I minded walking fast. Of course not, I love walking fast. But she meant really really fast. Like practically running. I should have taken a hint from her speed walking - the next 27 hours went equally fast.

The workshop was for high school students considering applying for U.S. colleges. All six hours of the workshop were held in the American Corner in Cluj, which is such a beautiful space. I shed a few internal tears as I contemplated everything Brasov misses out on without an American Corner. In addition to the workshop, we had a meeting with the head of the library, a press conference with newspaper journalists, a radio interview at the station, and dinner at a food-sickness-inducing Romanian restaurant. After finishing my salad and half a glass of wine,
I was whisked off to the train station by the library director's driver. My 22:03 train chugged its way into the station, and I climbed into my 6-seat compartment with all the old men making the overnight journey through Romania.

This week, I again boarded a train in Cluj, but this time five hours earlier (but still half an hour late to arrive). Rather than a private car, my ride to the station this time was what the Lonely Planet calls a "con artist taxi driver." LP goes on to say that people like him "unfortunately give Romanians a tainted name across the region." After using up my few words of Romanian, he realized I wasn't from the area and slyly changed the meter dial to reflect a 6,99 RON/KM rate. It's usually in the 1,99 range, or the 2,50 he had posted on the car door. When we pulled into the train station he asked for his 89 RON. That's just under 40 USD, for a taxi ride that usually comes to 6 or 7 USD (15 RON). We yelled at each other for awhile and eventually I got my bag in exchange for 40 RON. This was just 3 lei less than my train ticket to Brasov. Damnit.

But on the train I met a Romanian student who's been studying in Cologne, and our discussions helped to pass the time. She is an economics student, taking her classes in German, but also learning Spanish in Germany because all of her Erasmus friends there are Spanish. So she learns Spanish in order to hang out with them. It was really interesting to hear her perspective on Romania developing - everything from cutting the pig's neck to Germany's excessive recycling to the kids from her home town - basically she thinks it will take 100 years for Romania to be like Germany and Holland. Meaning ridiculously clean and efficient.

She's not someone who wants to escape Romania by going to Western Europe, but she loves being a student in Germany because her professors are approachable and she's learning for the first time in her schooling years. She also pointed out that she can make the same amount working one night at the Irish pub in Cologne as her friends in Medias make working at a bar for a month.

Also, something that suggests Romania is smaller than you might think: She knows my Romanian tutor, as they are from the same town. Our conversation was enjoyable and her stories of the international student scene in Cologne brought back memories of my time in Amsterdam. But my favorite thing that she said was that when she is at home in Medias, her friends call her "European" when she wraps her chewed gum in paper and throws it in the trash rather than simply spitting it out.

There's nothing quite like climbing onto the 51 or #4 bus to pull out of the train station and make my way back to the center of Brasov. I like coming home.

A Suggestion: Come Hither

Currently accepting applications for a travel partner:

Description:

• Travel to Ukraine (April 28-May 2), and/or Bulgaria (in the second or third week of June)
• Extensive train time
• Roughing it
• Eating P&J sandwiches, or equivalent, as available
• Hostel accommodations
• Little sleep

Qualifications:

• Sunny disposition
• Experienced traveler, or willing to learn
• Ability to depart from or return to Romania, or somewhere along the way
• Adventurous and spontaneous

Perks:

• Free lodging in Brasov, Romania before and after trip
• Free "welcome drink" or similar substance for long train rides
• Lots of photos posted on Facebook (you know you want it)

Come if you can, or tell someone else. Mulţumesc mult!

Starting the Semester

Last week, the new semester began. With it came the usual slew of new responsibilities and projects that pop up in transition periods. I think I've previously complained about the lack of planning leading up to the semester - not only did classes start last week, but from my perspective, so did administrative business. The first week of class is not really the first week of class. The first week of class is for figuring out what is going on.

This means that just because you think you have class in a certain room, doesn't mean that no other instructors think they have class in the same room at the same time. Just because you think you have the same group of students every week for the semester doesn't mean that the students think they have you every week. And when you only have students one day a week, every other week, missing the first week of class seriously affects the semester.

With all of this in mind, I should have forfeited my organizational tendencies to the norm and left the semester break as a break. Yet I decided to take the time to plan my courses. And that was a mistake as I've now confused the students with all the changes as I had to make to the schedule in response to all the changes with our classes.

But, everything is going to be alright.

This semester I have two really great classes. I'm teaching both to the same students - two groups of American Studies first years. One is a Communication Techniques course, Effective English Writing. In this class we're starting off with boring things like mechanics and punctuation, then moving on to more exciting things like clarity and rewriting, and focusing on different types of non-fiction composition. The students have to write a few drafts of three essays: one autobiographical, one a critique of a news article about Romania, and one with a little choice. I keep telling them that writing is not easy, but serious business, and I think they are starting to believe me.

The other class is a seminar for Discourse of American Media. Let me explain first: the classes are either a practical course (like Comm. Techniques), a course (basically a lecture class, with many students), or a seminar (basically a discussion group, with half the students). So I'm teaching the seminar and a professor is teaching the course. She is giving them an overview of the American press throughout history, talking about the changing form and content, and especially focusing on the language used by the press. I am making them watch TV shows and listen to radio, read some online newspapers and magazines. In the seminar we're asking: How do American media portrayals affect different groups in American society? Since we only have 6 more meetings this semester, we're focusing on different types of groups for each week. We're looking at political groups, interest groups (a broad term which includes anyone trying to effect change in society, not just through politics, including social movements), religious groups, and professional groups (meant to let students find portrayals of everyone from military groups to bureaucrats to educators to artists).

The students seem to be open to more responsibility this semester. They are asking their professors what material they'll be tested on and what the format of exams will be, how they'll be graded and how they can make up for missed classes. I'm glad to see that - I think that since they made it through their first semester, they have a better idea of what's going on, and luckily seem to have enjoyed their first semester enough to be excited about what's coming next.

More Church Business: Going Churching in Brasov

Apparently Romania has many weekends to celebrate the dead, and this weekend (also the first days of March) was one of them. On this day they make cakes for the dead. They're made out of wheat, and the idea is that this completes some circle (circle-of-life-like) with returning the wheat to the earth (where the bodies are). When we visited our last church yesterday I saw the cakes and thought they were for a wedding. We asked if that was the case, but of course they weren't - they were for the dead.

My previous post on religion/buildings made me realize that I've neglected a lot of houses of worship here in Brasov. I've had my eyes set on the synagogue for awhile, but the gate seems to be locked usually, and of course no one I ask seems to know whether I would be able to visit it. But I have clearly been ignoring the plethora of churches in town which I see but don't really notice.

After a weekend's worth of sinful activities (not true - just lots of Romanian wine and beer, which are hardly sinful in a Romanian context), I certainly needed a lot of church. So instead of a Sunday sleep-in I got up for church. However, I have to say that had it not been for my two companions (one a NC/Romania jumatate via Oxford visiting from Bucharest and one a British volunteer from Birmingham via Senegal) I would have opted for the "lie in."

We aimed for the Black Church, literally the biggest target in town. According to a guidebooks, the Lonely Planet perhaps, it is the largest Gothic cathedral between Vienna and Istanbul. Like many Brasovean things inside the walls, The Black Church harks back to Saxon days. But unlike many other things, it remains in (ethnically) German hands. It is a Lutheran church, with its services and signs in German. I wanted to visit over Christmas, but they closed it to tourists for 4 days. They also had a guard at the door to keep out people who might try to sneak in with the regular church-goers.

This Sunday we got there at about 10:02 for the 10 o'clock service. But the padlock was already on the gate. So we moved on.

We went to the main downtown Orthodox Cathedral on Piata Sfatului. It was an awesome experience. As I described before, the service lasts for several hours and people come and go during that time. The old women clearly dominate, but as time passed people kept coming until there was hardly any more standing room. The entire time we were there (about 1.5 hours, I think) there was a choir singing. So basically the service consists of several chants, prayer recitations, and songs. The clergy direct the rituals but there are never any obvious pauses. Transitions just kind of happen.

After leaving the cathedral, we walked down an alley way, which happens to house the Hungarian Catholic Church. We sat for a few minutes of the noon mass, in Hungarian, but then moved on for some lunch.

In the afternoon, we visited several other churches. Too late for services, we simply popped our heads in. The Roman Catholic church, another Orthodox church, and then the beauties - two more Orthodox churches in Scheii that I've visited before. One is St. Nicolas, and the other one is nameless according to me, but has a stunning cemetery packed into the valley.

So, I went churching. It was fun. It's nice to know that in a little town like this (not actually that little), one can find so many church communities and has so many language options - Romanian, Hungarian, German (as this is Transilvania, those three are normal), Latin bien sur, si ook engels avec los americanos.

My camera seems to have gone into hibernation or to heaven. Basically it no longer responds to me (and yes, I changed the batteries). So these photos are from back in the day, the fall. Hopefully Cam will be back soon.

What happens when the ice melts?

I am currently suffering through an incredible euphoria. Somehow, the weather here is so predictable that the school year calendar (standard at all Romanian universities) perfectly coincides with the weather. So as the new term starts this week, we're having sunshine all day and temperatures are creeping up - today it got up to 70 (Fahrenheit, of course).

Last week was the one week semester break, and included the following weather:

Monday: Freezing temperatures, overnight snow.
Tuesday: Snow all day.
Wednesday: mid 50s, melting snow dripping off of rooftops.
Thursday: mid 40s. Nothing special.
Friday: Cold but sunny.
Saturday: Cold but sunny, with rain at dusk. (Not cold enough to snow)
Sunday: mid 40s and sunny.
Monday: mid 50s and sunny.
Tuesday: 60s and sunny.
Wednesday: 70 and brilliantly warm sunshine all day.

I've heard that now that the days are getting longer, the good weather is here to stay. "This is the best time of the year," I was told today. Sweet...

So, what happens when the ice melts?
Feet jump into roller blades and roll through pot-holed sidewalks and empty lots of dirt. Bodies of all ages jump onto bikes and pedal on pedestrian streets. Old people and others lacking full mental capacity roam through lanes of busy traffic while horns honk and cars swerve around them. The cool kids come out to play. Young men don denim shorts while walking dogs. Old men go running in black spandex suits.

Somehow I find all of this incredibly invigorating - not the shorts or the spandex, but the people outside doing things. So even though the old people who stare at me are still staring the same way, I somehow smile back instead of getting frustrated. I think it's just because it's so much easier to be outside now! And I really do love being outside - this country is beautiful!. It's not freezing, my fingers won't fall off, I won't get bruises from falling down icy trails...these things are important.

So as much as I enjoyed skiing and watching the dirt and potholes get covered in the whitest snow, I'm stoked that the ice has decided to melt.

Now, the only problem is the brown trees on Mt. Tampa. When does spring turn green?

Religious Matters

I've been debating whether or not to write a post about religion. Reason against: I don't have much to say beyond my own limited encounters. Reason for: I like the photos.

Photos win. Perhaps this post is more aptly titled something like "Buildings I like: Houses of Worship in Eastern Europe." But getting on with it...

When in Romania, start with the Romanian Orthodox Church (right), of course. The majority of Romanians identify as members of the Orthodox church. It's interesting to see how that plays out in people's lives. For many people, going to church, etc. doesn't seem as pressing as other parts of daily life. Yet people still seem to incorporate their faith by explaining things that happen through a spirituality.

It's interesting to watch Romanians that I know as they visit a church or monastery - they usually light a luminary inside or outside and approach the icons. Usually inside the church there are many elderly people and some young ones as well, coming and going or simply sitting and contemplating. The most noticeable practice outside the church is something I see all the time - whenever people pass a church (walking, or on the bus, etc.) they cross themselves three times. I like watching people on the bus as they clean off the window to see when the church is coming. You have to know where they are, and which buildings are churches, after all! I've only been to part of one service, which was at the Patriarch's Cathedral in Bucharest. There were several priests standing near different chapels inside the church. Groups of people crowded around them in order to be blessed. It was interesting to see how the crowd would move if a new priest arrived. Someone (I think it was a student of mine) told me that services are generally "come and go" like this; services might have a starting time, but the only people who arrive then are the old women. In the hours that follow, more people show up. There are no pews (and relatively few Jews - sorry, that is a joke I swear but maybe not in this context); instead everyone stands. Traditionally the men stood on one side and women on the other.

Other Christian groups I've encountered include Jehovah's Witnesses (they come to my door regularly and one of them knows my name), Seventh Day Adventists (I wrote about this in October) (above left, tall building), Mormons (mostly Americans), and the evangelical Christian student group. Most of these churches have ties to Americans, either directly (having an American minister), with clergy trained in the U.S., or affiliated with American congregations.

Now let's leave Romania. Watching the Serbian protests on CNN this week, I saw the protests at Saint Sava, the huge white "temple on the hill" that is a symbolic landmark in Belgrade (white church above right). I was just there a few weeks ago - it's so strange to think of how different it must be now. When I was there, at the church specifically, there were a few groups of people walking in and out, but inside the main action was the construction (above left). The church is almost completed but there is still some interior work to do. Outside it was just like a park with families playing and abandoned leaflets blowing in the wind.

In Istanbul, there was a mosque - or five - in every possible direction. The Blue Mosque was the only one we visited, if my memory serves me correctly (small photo above right). The Blue Mosque attempts to out do the Hagia Sophia (which was converted to a mosque with the addition of minarets, among other things), and from the outside it definitely impressed me more. But the interior of the Hagia Sophia is just awesome (and cold) (small photo above left). So, like I said. I like buildings.

When It Snows, Photos Say It Best

It's snowing again (finally), and this is why I'm excited:

Above: My back yard in Brasov (sometime pre-now)

Above: Busteni - I'm going up there soon! (Dec. 2007)

Above: Brasov from Mt. Tampa (Dec. 2007)

Above: Brasov, from the walk to the White Tower (Dec. 2007)

Above: Skiers at Poiana Brasov - me soon enough! (Jan. 2008)

Tales from the Train

Last Friday morning my 5 o'clock cross-country train pulled out of the Sibiu train station. Two hours later we rolled into an anonymous station and the conductor left the train. The employees of CFR, the national train company, had gone on strike demanding higher wages. As I sat with the other passengers, wondering what the rest of the day would bring, one woman nicely summed up the general sentiment with her statement that we could be waiting there ten minutes, three hours, or three days. Naturally, some of the passengers made motions to organize a bus ride to our destination, while others crowded around the door to make sure the arriving media crews would hear their opinions. They encouraged everyone to join with invitations of "come, come!" Three hours after stopping we started moving again with the apparent resolution of the wage dispute. So that was that.

The recent surge in my time spent traveling may need an explanation - it's currently semester break. Well not really; it's currently the exam period. Exam period lasts 4 weeks, but most exams are held during the last week of class, or the first two weeks of Exam period. So next week is the actual semester break. But, for most, it's a 5 week break from class or anything related to school. Many students head home as soon as their exams are over, and few are interested in spending this time period learning about studying in the U.S. (interest is particularly low when it comes to learning about standardized admissions tests, which is what I had scheduled for this week). So, I have some time.

One way to fill that time is to plan for next semester's classes. Unfortunately, just like in the fall, I won't know what I'm teaching - or who I'm teaching - until possibly next week. I just hope that unlike in the fall, I find out before the first day of the semester. I'm planning nonetheless.

But last week I went traveling. In addition to Belgrade (below), I hit up Sibiu for a few hours overnight, Timisoara for less than 24 hours but including some sunlight, a trip to their massive mall, and dinner at a Greek place, as well as Bucharest for a whole 3 days.

If you look at a map of Romania, you'll see that traveling to these cities on the same trip doesn't really make sense. That's cause sometimes, that's just how we roll...

But here's my story, in trains:
Thursday night: Brasov to Sibiu, 19:30 - 21:01
Friday morning: Sibiu to Timisoara, 5:00 - 13:00 (delayed half way through for above strike)
Saturday morning: Timisoara to Belgrade 6:03 - 8:54 (one hour time change)
Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning: Belgrade to Bucharest via Timisoara, 15:55 - 5:39
Friday evening: Bucharest to Brasov, 18:50 - 21:27

No, no, that's not a story. My apologizes. The highlights from the train rides include the strike, which Nicole and I (en route to Timisoara) slept through for an hour before I woke up, read a text from Meghan, and realized that we hadn't left the station we pulled into an hour before. With our phones and other passengers we pulled together the story, which included that Cristina's train (Bucharest to Timisoara) had also stopped, like all trains across the country, but hers unfortunately stopped in the middle of a field. (Luckily, she speaks Romanian.) The strike was apparently announced the night before because a few people knew it was going to happen, yet most people on my train had no idea.

Another highlight - the overnight adventure (indeed) from Belgrade to Bucharest. There were a lot of uncertainties heading into this trip - would Meghan and I get into Romania with our temporary residence permits (pieces of paper with writing)? Would I be able to go all the way to Bucharest, even though I'd originally bought a ticket to Timisoara? Would the customs agents check under our seats for smuggled blue jeans? Do we actually need seat reservations even though the ticket agent said we didn't?

Questions we should have been asking were more along the lines of:

Are we waiting at the right track? (A: no)

Does this train go to Timisoara? (A: yes, but only after traveling west for 5 minutes, stopping at another Belgrade station for 20 minutes, then proceeding east toward Timisoara with another 20 minute stop at a teeny tiny station a few minutes outside of Belgrade)

Why does this train take 5.5 hours to travel just over one hundred miles? (A: why??)

What's it like to travel 2nd class overnight on a train to Bucharest? (A: freezing cold or stiflingly hot, depending on whether you've crossed the border yet)

Do we actually need seat reservations even though the ticket agent said we didn't? (A: undetermined)

The Belgrade ticket agent said we didn't need the seat reservations. On the train, we had to buy seat reservations because the conductor said we needed them. We grudgingly scraped together our remaining dinars as they scribbled on official looking receipts and assured us we were all set. As our train pulled out from Timisoara, the Romanian conductors came through and informed us that the reservations were no good. And yet, we didn't have to buy another. That's one of those times when Romania makes you feel good.

As for smuggling blue jeans (or other things), we didn't get accused, although it would have been fun. Basically, the seats on these trains lift up and apparently there's some storage space below. The customs agents checked the seats in surrounding compartments and the ceiling of our car, but left us alone. When one guard came through (I can't remember if he was Serbian or Romanian) he looked at my passport, and saw that we were American. In English, he asked (allegedly), "Do you have anything to declare?" but as I didn't hear that at all, I stared at him blankly, as did my traveling companions. He then looked suspiciously at my passport again, peered at me oddly and slowly said, "Do you speak English?" Oh yes, of course. "I asked you a question." (You did?) "Do you have anything to declare?" Oh oh sorry, um, no.

The last "highlight" was my trip back to lovely little Brasov from Bucharest. Being so close to Bucharest, I've traveled this route many many times before. This train originates in Bucharest (like everything) and heads all the way to Budapest. Nicole was joining me in Brasov for the night, so we bought our tickets together and made the journey to our car. Wagon 1. 1 of, I dunno, 20 or so? The last one was 462, but I'm pretty sure there weren't 462 cars. Our trek to wagon 1 took a good 5 minutes at a fast pace - that's a long time to get to your seat. But sadly when we got to wagon 1, the hallways were crowded and our seats were taken. We peaked next door and found seats in a nearby car, only to be uprooted by a distraught Romanian woman a few minutes later. We considered kicking people out of our seats, but instead found two seats in a car with a few other passengers. I'm not entirely sure what happened during the rest of the trip (I was in and out of dozing after a nearly sleepless night before this), but basically I was woken up 1o or 12 times as our fellow passengers climbed over us to get out of the compartment and into the hallway, and back. In the hallway they joined dozens of young Romanians (mostly men) sipping stinky beer and clustered into piles around suitcases. When they returned to our car, they would stare at Nicole and I, who made no attempt to appear anything other than American (by having a conversation in English). We were glad when the train pulled into Brasov at 21:30 on the dot. Nicole commented that of all her train trips, my "ride from Bucharest to Brasov was the most interesting." I assured her this was not normally the case.

Overall, train traveling this time around was a success. Basically, if you make it to your destination, it's a success. And don't take that as a complaint - I'm just being optimistic. After all, it's not like Amtrak's got anything on Eastern European trains.

Beyond Moravita and the Border

I sort of unintentionally ended up being invited on a trip to Belgrade. So I was lucky. My travel companions had their own reasons to go: living a few hours away, a best friend who lived their for several years, a course a few years ago in Serbo-Croatian, not to mention the exciting election they were all looking forward to. So I boarded the train with them and headed off on my first international train adventure since arriving in Romania.

Belgrade, it turns out, is beautiful (which tends to be my opinion of any city I visit). The people are ridiculously friendly – I felt like someone visiting the U.S., awestruck by the comfortable anonymity combined with the overwhelming approachability of the people around me.

We spent two days (well, one day and half of the next one) wandering around the city, stopping in restaurants for massive meals of meat, cheese, yummy bread, and lots of tomato and cucumber salads. Somehow, being vegetarian became an issue and every Serb I met told me I wouldn’t find anything to eat. But cheese revealed itself as a true staple of my eastern European diet, in every form. Srpska salad, svopska salad, and Greek salad also pulled through once again. But to be honest, I wasn’t there for the food…

Belgrade has this strange combination of feeling like a totally developed city (compared, at least, to Romanian cities) while demonstrating a visible history of degradation. In spite of the fact it was bombed less than a decade ago, its churches, theatres, government buildings, and squares glitter in the sunlight. Families fill up the parks surrounding them, playing with “guns” (twigs from trees) or on playgrounds. The fortress (which we unfortunately did not get to visit during daylight) somehow explains that resilience – its strategic location in a way shows how Belgrade has survived as a city for so long. Yet in spite of all that seeming glory, there are some remnants of bombed buildings.

The thing that really attracted me to Belgrade is the construction that I saw everywhere. This is the same thing that attracts me to Berlin, which is an entirely different city but I think this link is somewhat enlightening. Both of these cities have fluidity to them – the construction signals change. In Berlin it’s on an entirely different scale, but in both cities you can tell that people are not giving up. People have a claim to their city and have somehow created the energy it takes to carry out all those projects.

With those thoughts, here are some photos from the city – mostly street art and sunlight.