Romania: Day Who's Counting Anymore?

If you've just landed here, welcome and scroll down a bit ... the touristy stuff is there. Here's a few random thoughts I can share, because it's one of the few joys of having a blog.

Travelling internationally isn't all fun and games, let me tell you. For me, it's particularly difficult because I'm not wrapped up in some little tourist cocoon, being bused between iconic locations with a tour guide to cluck around after me.

I'm not staying in a hotel in Bucharest. I'm staying in an apartment block like everybody else lives in here. I don't have a car: I rely fully on public transport, like most of Romania does. I'm not eating at restaurants: I'm grabbing pastries from the patisseries that everybody else uses. I don't understand the language, but I can make a few informed guesses and for the rest just slip through it, lost in my own world of English thoughts.

Most of all, I'm not going to touristy places, despite what this blog up to now might imply: I'm standing in queues with the rest of 'regular' Romanians while my wife tries to deal with some administration related to her apartment and registering our marriage in South Africa here. I'm pressed into the sides of trams during rush hour by a throng of Romanians. I'm being hustled along on the pavements by impatient Romanians on their way to or from work. Oh, and I'm married to a Romanian woman, if not at home back in her home country (she's pretty distressed by a lot of Bucharest's decay), then at least comfortable with the language and routes.

It's an interesting way to discover a country, trust me. It opens your eyes to the country as it is, not as the tourism department would like you to think it is. From that perspective, it's exactly what I wanted, but it's also scary because it's so raw. It's a lot to process, and it's not easy.

I still keep rewinding to last week (only last week????), sitting cramped and tired in my plane's seat, en route to Bucharest. It's an amazing mental shift, going from 'Gee, I'm looking forward to Romania', to the touch-down of the plane's wheels on Romanian soil, and the realisation that 'I AM in Romania'.

Listening to myself now, it sounds like I'm a novice. I've travelled internationally before (to the UK), and flown countless times in South Africa, so I can only pencil my total sense of unsettlement down to the language difference here. It's a very primal thing: it's like my animal brain is constantly analysing all the sounds and messages and trying to make sense of it, and for the most part coming up with nothing but confusion.

You'd think you could ignore it, but Bucharest is a modern city. There is the constant flood of messages and input you'll get anywhere else ... and almost all of it's in Romanian. There are only two channels out of over 30 on TV which are English as they are imported from the US (National Geographic and the History Channel, fyi), and even THOSE are overlaid by Romanian sub-titles (my brain is used to lazily reading English sub-titles instead of listening closely to dialogue, so this is jarring).

[UPDATE (17/12/2013): Ok ok, after re-tuning the old TV I've managed to discover a few additional English-language imports on Romanian cable: Discovery Channel, CNN (News in English, yay!), MTV etc. It's still not the same, however, never mind the Romanian sub-titles - Romanian news is still in Romanian, as is all the other local programming.]

Spongebob Squarepants is there, but with Romanian voice-overs. ALL TV news channels are in Romanian (no CNN or BBC, sorry for you). All the rules and instructions on signs in public spaces are in Romanian (the guide on how to use the prepaid system for the public transport system is exclusively in Romanian - terribly useful for tourists, I'm sure). I wouldn't even be able to order a McDonalds meal if my wife wasn't around to tell me that in Romania you can actually choose wedges instead of just fries.

Fortunately for me the reason I'm in Romania is to produce an English-language research project, speaking to some Romanian journalists in English (which they've proven capable at), but given all of the above it feels wrong. I actually feel embarrassed speaking English here, because as a journalist I am used to making people comfortable and now by definition I'm asking people to speak in something other than their first language.

Talk about a wake-up call. It's a preview of what all immigrants go through, but from the other side of the fence. I feel alternately angry, depressed or just plain homesick (I'd never have expected that). Upon reflection I don't think I'd look to move to Romania unless I was in an English-speaking role with English-speaking friends surrounding me, and then I ask myself what's the point?

The funniest thing is walking down the street behind a Romanian kid speaking fluently to his mother, and feeling ridiculously jealous of the kid. Here's this kid, so much more skillful in Romanian than I am, and I'd give anything to just experience Romania like that for a bit.

I'm not an idiot, don't get me wrong. Speaking Romanian won't make some of the rude people here any friendlier. It won't take the graffiti off the walls. It won't make the drivers happier to stop for pedestrians on the roads. It won't remove the informal sellers peddling their wares on the trams and pavements with their insistent calls.

My challenge then is experiencing the real Romania as Romanians experience it, but with an additional inescapable burden of language I cannot just buy myself out from under. Again, it's not easy. It's not comfortable. It's painfully real.

Welcome to Romania.

Romania: Day 7

Ok, I'll be honest, I'm getting lazy with the blog! Here then is just a bunch of photos taken during my recent journeys in Bucharest, which add some valuable aspects to this story.

Have I remarked before that clothing is really well priced in Romania (at least non-brand imported clothing)? I bought a massive winter jacket for only 70 lei, which is something you couldn't dream of doing in South Africa. By contrast, the price for a regular Kentucky Fried Chicken meal is more expensive ... maybe it has something to do with the free choice of sauce (I recommend the garlic) that you can get, which is something we don't get in SA.

With that, the photos...

The Firemen's Tower ... now disused, apparently used to spot fires in Bucharest

I just have to add a note here, pointing out that the state of Bucharest's grafitti vandalism is really deplorable. You're hard-pressed to find a building without the lower level completely taken over by it, or by shreds of old posters. It really ruins the old architecture, but it looks like most people have given up washing it off!

Impressive sculpture outside the National Theatre

Vibrant scenes like this really pop out of Bucharest's bleak colour palette

Bucharest's doves are braver than the stray dogs when it comes to begging for food.

Romania: Day 4-5 (SNOW!)

The longer I stay in Romania, the more evident the conflict between its traditional roots and its contemporary surroundings becomes. I'm not just saying this because I visited a modern mega mall yesterday, and the Romanian village museum today (or my first traditional mici meal - alongside).

The visit to the AFI Palace in Cotroceni came as a bit of an eye-opener, both positive and negative.

Between all the usual mall tinsel like modern arcade, food court and ice-rink, I couldn't help noticing that the pricing for most things ranged from high (the laptops) to outrageous (I'm thinking here of small cupcakes on sale at 10 lei each). 

Clothing by comparison was a lot more reasonable, and maybe that's why there were just so many clothing stores there! 

Go figure that we had to come all the way to Romania to have a takeaway shwarma from a Lebanese shop for lunch. 

One other irony was that the backing soundtrack of mall music was all English Christmas classics - my wife commented that Romanian folk music wouldn't get people into a buying mood.

Something I noticed right on my first day in Bucharest was the self-important police (see my run-in with the security officer), and I was a little put out when I noticed a list of terms and conditions (all in Romanian of course) on the wall of one of the Metro underground trains and figured out that one said that photography without a written permit was prohibited anywhere in the station precinct.

On the one hand that dashed my hopes of photographing all of the Romanian public transport, and on the other hand it got me wondering why ... I mean, the entire Metro system is open to thousands of people every day, and the public parts of its operation are hardly state secrets (train pulls in, people board, train pulls out). Chalk one down to those crazy Romanian regulations everybody always talks about. I made myself feel a bit better by photographing my favourite form of Romanian public transport, a tram (take that, Metro!).

Today my wife and I met up with old friends of hers for a walk through the Herastrau park, which is remarkable mostly because it's green (but one of the regulations is that you may not walk on the grass!) and because it's a big open space in the middle of Bucharest's relative congestion. There were a few decent photo opportunities though, and as an added convenience the park leads straight into the Romanian Village Museum (that has an entry fee of 10 lei). Once again, there's a special photography restriction: you can photograph outside the buildings, but not inside.

The Romanian Village Museum scores extra points in my book for having an English version of all the descriptions of the various buildings on display. My day was made by a slab of home-made chocolate (which has the consistency of an energy bar and very little actual cocoa) and a beautifully-crafted Romanian xylophone (only 20 lei!) I bought from informal traders in the area. Like anywhere else then: good deals can be found, if you know where to look.

We wrapped up the excursion with a visit to the nearby Romanian Peasant Museum, which was interesting because it acted as the counter-foil to the Village museum's focus on buildings, telling the human story of Romanian peasants. Of course, there was a photography restriction, but with a twist: this time you were only permitted taking photographs if you paid an additional 60 lei over and above the 8 lei regular entrance fee. All that regulation effectively does is juice money out of tourists, but what I suspect it does in effect is quash public knowledge of the museum (no photos of the contents here - I've got better ways of spending 60 lei).

There was, however, a group of Romanian folk singers and dancers outside the museum ... a photograph was never going to cut it, so luckily I could shoot a video instead (for absolutely no cost!). It wasn't all cheery news with the museum, however - English descriptions were sorely lacking (one of the exhibit descriptions was bizarrely in Romanian and German), and it just couldn't bridge the gap between the distant rural past and Romania's present.

Walking out of the museum, I couldn't help reflecting that it's like somebody pushed the fast-forward button on Romania. Where's the documented middle ground? In the public spaces at present, either the 'old' days are commemorated with folk music and peasant homes, or you're swept up in the big European brands' modern displays and advertisements. Maybe it's because the middle period was dominated by Communism, and it's a section of Romania's history which everybody would rather just forget. *shrugs* Just a theory!

All of that was swept away when the first dusting of snow started falling. An hour later, larger snow flakes started falling consistently. Ok, so it still stopped after about twenty minutes, but there's definitely the sense that Bucharest will get hit soon by the heavy snow which is reportedly already visiting other parts of the country. I can't wait: it's difficult to build a snowman with only a handful of snow flakes. I could, however, take this amazing (for me anyway) video of snow falling on Bucharest:

That's it ... a mega post, for a mega couple days :) Stay warm (if you're in Romania) or stay healthy (if you're outside)!

Romania: Day 3

All good things come in threes ... here's the latest update on today's adventures, hot off the presses!

Before I start, however, it felt a bit other-worldly to read on the news tonight that Nelson Mandela died. Understandably it's dominating every single news story on the South African news sites, but I heard nothing about it here in Romania ... I just haven't had the time to tune into Romanian news, so I'm operating mostly off the grid.

Given Mandela's protracted battle with his health I think we were all expecting him to die, but the news now is just so final. He's at the very heart of all that South Africa is, if not in reality then at least what we dream to be. He's been the one and only real icon to look up to in a country desperate for them. Rest In Peace, Madiba (note to foreign readers: Mandela was affectionately a man of many names).

Piata Victoriei, complete with the Romanian Government to the left (draped in the Romanian flag - thanks C)

Back to Romania... today I finally meandered into the more affluent parts of Bucharest (Sector 1), and it is a vast different from what I consider to be the 'real' Bucharest. How do I judge the poorer parts to be 'real'? Purely quantitative: most of the people rely on the public transport, and the 'richer' people who can afford cars don't appear to be able to afford new cars (never mind luxury cars). I'd judge that the average age of most cars is ten years (with Dacia and Skoda seeming particular favourites).

As an aside, the majority of the cars on the road are also only occupied by their driver: this is something I'm familiar with from Johannesburg where we have the same thing, and it's something which is no doubt contributing to the traffic congestion here.

The good news is that my delayed luggage - that's the politically correct term for 'Whoops, the airline lost it temporarily' - finally arrived with zero fanfare at Otopeni airport. When we arrived at the airport for the first time we'd specifically arranged to be collected by car, but our faith in the public transport system this time saw us drag our bags behind us to the 'special' bus from the airport and on to the underground Metro.

A couple notes that may help other people flying in: firstly you're going to need to purchase a prepaid RATB (the public transport operator) swipecard to negotiate the public transport system. I'm guessing you'll be able to buy one of these at the airport - we bought ours in Bucharest, pre-loaded with only 20 lei (which we're STILL using - it is seriously cheap). Once you have the cards, you just look for the same orange machines to swipe them across and wait for a green light confirming that your payment has been accepted (none of this is actually explained to you up-front).

Walking: something you will do a lot of here.

The 'special' bus from Otopeni airport has the number 734 ... for whatever reason, it arrives at the airport at the departures section and does not make a separate stop at arrivals, so if you're flying in you're going to have to drag yourself and your bags to the right, and wait outside at departures (there's always a friendly security guard willing to point you in the correct direction).

Just beware if you've got a lot of luggage: space on that bus is at a premium, because it makes a number of stops along its route and picks up a lot of people.

Also you've got to bear in mind that if you're making a connection from the bus to the underground Metro - the bus runs a small route - you'll have to carry your suitcase down and up a number of staircases (so work on those muscles: dead-lifting 30kg through a rush-hour pedestrian crush is intimidating).

So what else have I learned today? There's a fairly-pricey self-serve buffet restaurant at Otopeni, but the warm home-cooking makes a nice change from the commercialised food elsewhere at the airport and is a great introduction to Romanian cuisine (random fact: chicken - or 'pui' - appears to be the most common meat in Romania), and you can also grab a table with a good view of the planes taking off from the airport.

The impressive Casa Manu-Auschnitt (another French replica)

I'm looking forward to the weekend: we've got a visit to the big farmer's market planned, and also to the big new Promenada mall.

Then there's this park that's apparently amazing nearby, and a stack of other 'to-do's' ... still waiting for the snow to build my first snow-man though! Here's to hoping this info helps somebody someday :) More updates coming.

Like anywhere else, I think you can spot the innate humour in life if you're looking for it. I finally took a break from the amazing architecture when I saw something far more obscure ... I can only guess it's Garfield's Romanian cousin, escaping from the stray dogs (which you do see regularly, as it turns out, but not in the claimed wild packs - mostly just hungry loners).

Romania: Day 2

Man, what is it about being on holiday that it leaves you feeling like you're in a complete trance? Only last week I was a contributing member of South African society, and here I am wandering around in a sea of Romanian, buying an unhealthy number of pastries, trying to not get run over crossing these MASSIVE intersections, and snapping photos of whatever catches my eye.

If yesterday was about getting set up, today is the day I finally got to tick off a bunch of experiences. Ate my first covrigi (salty!), road my first two trams (old) and one Metro underground train (new), opened my bank account at BCR (easy - just with a passport!), and learned to always look three times when crossing the road because the car driving illegally on the tram lines just might get you!

It's still WAY too early to claim that I've got any sort of a sense of Bucharest - like any massive city I reckon you could live here your whole life, and come away with a lifetime's worth of impressions - but I have noticed a few interesting things (again only 'news' for people outside Romania):

* Do you know where you find the most English in Romania? All doors literally have the words 'Pull' or 'Push' underneath the Romanian equivalent. Good on some door manufacturers!

* Ambulance sirens are LOUD. Seriously louder than their equivalents in Johannesburg, or at least that's how it feels to me.

To be fair, I think it might be because I'm hearing them for the first time while standing on the side of the road and they roar past, as opposed to just in the distance.

* I'm yet to find Romanian people, even professionally, who speak English comfortably. All my interactions have been restricted to Romanian workers saying hello to me, and then speaking about me and whatever I need with my wife in Romanian. It works for me, because my wife is good at solving problems.
* I'm impressed by the amount of technology at work in Romania: digital price-tags in main grocery stores, automated announcements on the train line, 20 MB/s download speeds, touch-screen ATMs ... you really don't expect these things given some of the other crumbling infrastructure.

* You'll never go hungry in Romania. There's a sophisticated vending machine, a corner 'minimarket' grocery store and streetside vendors of everything from car tyres to fish (literally I saw those two right next to each other today) wherever you look. Best of all, the prices of most things are cheap: you rarely see a price above 10 lei.

* It really IS better to rely on the public transport system rather than a car. Traffic is gridlocked almost wherever you drive, and cars are parked along every road and pedestrian walkway (no kidding) you come along. Trams seem to be the only mode of public transport which haven't been upgraded in the past 20 years: buses are modern Mercedes-Benz units, and the Metro trains are made by Bombardier Transport (I only know this because I happened to be staring at the logo between stations today while hanging from a pole).

* I haven't walked anywhere near all over Bucharest, but I have done about more walking in one day than I think I've done in Johannesburg in a year (where you rely on your car to get everywhere), and I've actually enjoyed it. Not a moment of feeling unsafe ... other pedestrians on the road generally just ignore you, or in my case shoot me inquisitive glances whenever I speak English and then look away quickly.

Ok, that's enough for now ... let's see what the weekend brings! Plenty of 'firsts' remaining (I'm told many are more beautiful) ...

Romania: Day 1 (FINALLY)

Otopeni's modern terminal 

December 4, 2013: mark the date. I jumped off the plane in Bucharest today … ok wait, I stumbled bleary-eyed off the plane, not having caught more than ten minute snoozes in a total of 13 hours of flight from South Africa.

Who cares about that, though? Y’all want to see the photos! It was a priority for me to take a few right at Otopeni Airport, because I’ve personally never seen any online, and after taking them I can understand why: I was immediately approached by a security guard packing a sub-machine gun who demanded to see all the photos I’d taken. Apparently they weren’t deemed too sensitive, because after showing him he wandered off happily.

Funnily enough this is in Otopeni's departures hall - a lot nicer than arrivals

I’ll admit that things didn’t start off well for me. Have you ever had that moment while waiting for your bags at the conveyor belt where your bags don’t turn up, and everybody around you keeps on grabbing their bags? Finally when you’re down to the last few people standing around desperately eyeing each suitcase, you start making jokes about your bags having been lost.

For my wife and I the joke was increasingly unfunny. We waited right up until when they turned off the conveyor belt before trudging through to lost baggage claims, where it was confirmed that our cases weren’t lost – they were just in Dubai, after not having being transferred correctly to our connecting flight (despite having been assured TWICE in Dubai that this had been done). *sigh* Hello Romania, with the clothes on our backs! Best part is Fly Dubai isn’t flying here again until Friday, so we’re going to have to go on an impromptu clothes shopping spree tomorrow.

Road infrastructure pretty good

So, first impressions … I like it! Traffic is hectic - dare I say worse than Johannesburg? - and I notice that lane markings like solid white lines are ignored with impunity. Also, the man who picked us up from the airport drove with the death-wish I’ve heard that all Romanians drive with, and I couldn’t quite get used to the steering while being on the left-hand side while sitting as a passenger in the front. Top tip here: maybe don’t try renting a car if it’s your first day in Bucharest. The roads are a warren of rather unclear traffic junctions - at least to me as an outsider.

One thing my research from outside Romania did prepare me for, however, was the number of old buildings. I haven’t had a chance to visit the modern side of Bucharest yet, but the photos I’ve included here capture the old-style blocks you see everywhere.

Vertical development: hope you don't mind small lifts

Other fleeting impressions: the paper lei bank notes have a really distinctive silky feeling and intricate patterns; there are some huge modern vending machines filled with a wide array of really tasty snacks; you drive past a picturesque forest between Otopeni airport and Bucharest proper; and almost everything is exclusively available in Romanian.

This last point is something I’ve commented on before on my blog, but it’s really in-your-face in Romania. Take, for example, that I needed to buy a sim card for my cellphone when I arrived at the airport, and I opted for a starter pack by Orange. Imagine my surprise when I opened the starter pack, and noticed that every bit of instructional text in it is in Romanian. When I finally figured it out with my wife's help, all the automatic smses the network sent to me were also in Romanian. Problem. At least the ATM I used gave me an option to select English up-front!

Not much to look at from the outside, but a lot nicer inside!

As a closing thought, it is COLD. No snow in the streets (although there was some last week), but it was quite a shock leaving the warm airport and stepping into a wind so biting cold that my breath immediately started steaming. Good thing I’d carried a jacket as carry-on luggage, and not stashed it in my suitcase! On the flip side I have to note that the radiators and insulation in the apartment blocks are really effective, so the temperature isn’t a debilitating issue.

Err, this has turned out longer than I intended, but it’s exactly what I expected: as a journalist I’m a content generator, and now that I’m finally in Romania I’m surrounded by nothing but content. I feel a bit like that robot in that movie that becomes self-aware, and runs around the city crying out ‘Input, input!’ If you’re in Romania this is obviously all old hat, but I’ll share all these early impressions and non-touristy photos to help other people like me, keen to get a ‘real’ insight into Romania.

That’s enough for Day 1. Romanian cellphone number, check. Card for use on public transport, check. First experience of soup with borscht, (tasty) check! Day 2 will bring some shopping and more hands-on experiences. Until then, signing out from Bucharest. Good night, and good luck.

ETA -2 days

It's official: my plane for Dubai takes off tomorrow evening, and then the connecting flight arrives in Bucharest on Wednesday!

It's been an epic journey so far just to get INTO the country, but it's been worth it - I don't think any 'tourist' has ever been as invested into a new country as I am. See you guys soon, if you're in Bucharest, and remember to save some snow for me!