Ok, so by request - and cause I’ve mentioned it a few times now… :) , here’s my
‘Once upon a time in Bucharest’. …
Like all these type plans, our departure from Australia happened in a whirlwind. It was one of those situations where - you’re talking about it, talking about it, talking about it … and then, all of a sudden, the departure day is on top of you. We’d run out of ‘change date’ options on our tickets and that was it. 16th May 2006, burnt into my memory like no other day. We’d been renovating our ‘forever home’ for over a year and had ‘planned’ to have it well and truly finished by then. As it turned out, it wasn’t finished and all we could do was throw the keys to our good friend and carpenter, as we ran out the door and told him to, ‘Lock up when you leave’. My Mum was there shoving the bags into the boot and saying ‘If we don’t leave now, you won’t make the flight’. We left, 2 adults, 1 child, 1 baby, along with 3 bags and a scooter - Scooter for my boy :) and the thought of - ‘Well, we’ll be back soon.’
The flight itself was a blur. A mix of emotion - not knowing exactly when we’d be back, not knowing exactly where we were going, babies and little kids - asleep, awake, walking the aisles, food coming, food going, movies, .. the feeling of total ‘unknown’ was incredible.
I can remember arriving into Frankfurt in the harsh bright sunlight of dawn. My eyes were crusty and sore from lack of sleep. We managed to fumble our way to the baggage claim and then onto the car rental desk. We’d pre-booked a car for 6 weeks before we left Australia, still not knowing exactly our plans, or where and when we would really be ready to return the car but we had friends living in Munich, so the only plan of the moment was to head there first. We brought a ‘Europe’ road map (remember those - a real live ‘paper’ Map - one that I had to unfold, read and work out while we drove….) We stopped at a little village just outside of Frankfurt and had our first ‘German’ beer… tall glass, small bubbles… perfect. It was a weird feeling of total unknown. We decided to make a small stop first just to ‘catch-up’ with ourselves… hopefully get a little sleep (harder to do with a baby), before catching up with our friends in Munich. We stopped in the beautiful village of Garmasch. A ski town in the Southern part of Germany.
I can’t tell you exactly what was going though my mind in those early days - just straight out of Australia. We had always the intention of only being away 3-5 years originally - with the ‘3’ years being more likely. I think I was just seeing the whole opportunity as an extended ‘European’ holiday. I had been to Europe quite a few times by then - back when I was 17 years old, with my Dad, again, when I travelled for 4 weeks over the summer of 1997 and then again - back and forth to Vienna when I was a flight attendant working for Nikki Lauda (Lauda Air), based out of Sydney. So, the time ‘away’ was not unfamiliar to me… just the ‘NO-plan’ was. I had always ‘had a plan’ and a time frame.. But this time though, there was ‘no’ real particular plan, other than to see friends in Munich and Rome.
This amazing one night in Garmasch was like being in some sort of time warp. We had the most amazing dinner. It was only a dish of Goulash with Spatzle, which is not a particularly inspired meal, but!, what made it so special was that we were eating this dish in its country of origin. We were dining in the place that this food had been created for. The heaty beef stew with noodles that gives you energy and stodge for the next day in the cold and snow. (We were there in May, so, no snow… but you get what I mean ). For those that have been to Garmasch you’ll know that the village has tradition, filled with historical painted buildings of Bavaria. Chalet like. It definitely had a ‘feeling’ of being ‘in’ history.
We were also just so jet lagged, we fell straight into bed after that heavy meal, but, I can still remember that feeling like it was yesterday. The mix of history, the unknown, excitement, lake of sleep, a perfect meal and a great beer. Unforgettable.
Munich was, well, just a catch up with a long lost friend from school, really. Munich is a nice big city in a very German sense. Not somewhere we had intended to stay for long. A few lovely meals, drinks and gossip, even a swim in the local lake, but onward (and downward), to warmer and sunnier weather - Italy! - where we were headed to next. I have always had a secret love affair with Italy (like the rest of the planet, I guess) and again Italy did not disappoint. We drove down past Innsbruck, through the Brenner pass, along to Bolzano and onto Verona for our first night in Italy. I can remember before Bolzano whilst still in Austria having thick and grey cloud with intermittent rain, but as soon as we crossed the border, it was like a turn of the clock. The sun was shining, the temperature felt warmer, the driving became slightly erratic and, well, lets not get me started on the look of the local Carabinieri … those tall, dark, well manicured men in high boots and hats - haha - what can I say. *sigh … We had arrived :)
Verona was beautiful and then onto Rome.
Rome was filled with history, delicious food, wine, gossip and laughter - our catch up with friends there could have lasted forever. I can just imagine myself still there, 18 years later, finding new places to see, new experiences to discover, drinking the same wine and eating the same delicious food. Rome is just one of those places, isn’t it? You just never have enough time there.
We stayed there for about a week, with some extra time at our friends country house just outside of Orvieto. The Italian countryside is magical. The food and wine, to die for. To this day we still talk about this one particular pizza we had at a place just outside of Orvieto. Seriously - OMG ! *drool.. I don’t think my written description of it here would actually do it all justice and maybe sometime soon I’ll just write a post only on my ‘Italian’ adventures, but for the moment, I’m going to continue on, as - this is supposed to be a post about Romania?, isn’t it? I haven’t even managed to get to that part yet … I’m starting now :)
As I mentioned in another post, Romania had been spoken about before we left Australia, so, we knew we were going to visit there. In 2006 the pent-up demand for anything ‘new’ was incredible. I mentioned before that anyone and anything was streaming in from the West. New Super market chains, new cars, new buildings, western European companies were sending people there on contracts to secure new 'business’ of all sorts. The ‘Expat’ life there was amazing. What these companies were willing to pay to have someone ‘there’ was, well, for many, an opportunity not be missed. There were, amongst the many - English, Americans, Germans, French, Dutch, Austrians… - basically just about every Nationality was represented there. Even from that far, far, far away land called Australia. ** Big side note here, we did not go with a pre-arranged work contract - we went off our own steam. (Some may say - ‘Well, Silly you!’ …. Yeah! - hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?… )
We had arranged for a family friend to find us temporary accommodation. As we all know, the temporary can become the permanent very quickly, and we ended up staying a year and half in that really awful 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment in downtown Dorobanti. Very central, but very awful. I didn’t have a car for about the first year, so the ‘central’ part was a godsend. I would walk everywhere with a baby in a pram and a boy on his scooter.
When we first drove into Romania we crossed the border by car at the Hungarian/Romanian border. We lined up behind all the other cars and an ominous feeling descended. Borders at the best of times can be daunting, but this particular border that had been so heavily guarded only 15 years or so prior, had the feeling of heaviness. Not much had actually changed in regards to the surrounds (I don’t think) - the concrete buildings and security check points remained the same. It just had a sense of unease as we waited there, just looking around and imagining what had gone on in that very place not so long ago. People desperate to get out of a Communist country, sneaking over the border somehow, not wanting to get caught. People being shot. It all happened, right there, where we were. Right where we were sitting, patiently waiting..
Eekkk, it was all definitely giving me the willies. We finally got to the check point where we were greeted with the ‘no smile’, almost frowning, serious, passport and 5 grunt question check, to have our passports aggressively stamped and thrown back at us through the window. .. and then - we drove in …Eeekkk! - some more :)
(I was in a slight semi - freak out until…..). We drove to the first large town which happened to be Timisoara. We had planned to stay the night here with the next day driving down to Bucharest, Romania’s capital. As we drove in to find the hotel, we stopped the car by the road, for just a minute to look at the map… In that minute the car was surrounded by a crowd of Roma children. (Gypsie children, to use the politically incorrect term).. All knocking on the windows and looking in at my two, hands out wanting money - mostly - or food. It was at this point I remember thinking - where on earth have we come to? - and perhaps, that’s when the real freak out started to set in :)
We stayed at one of the larger well known hotels at the time, right in the centre of Timisoara. We had our initiation into what our new life was going to slightly be like, right there, right from the get go. As we were a family of 4 - 2 adults, 1 child and 1 baby, we asked if we could have a fold away bed (didn’t even consider a baby ‘cot’ at the time - definitely thought that was WAY to much to expect…) but, thought a fold out bed could be something that wasn’t particularly unusual and something that would be available. Think we may have even paid an extra fee. The fold out bed never arrived, even after asking for it 3 times ……..
And there you have it.. Welcome to the Mania of Romania… :)
A country of extreme contrast. In the summer the heat can reach 40 degrees and more, in the winter it can get down to - 15 degrees, snow as high as your car. The buildings can be absolutely stunning in their Parisian renaissance style ( Paris of the East - remember?), they can also be brutalist Communist high rise ugly. Ceausescu demolished quite a significant area of the old city centre to build his Palace of Parliament - Wikipedia states it was an area of 7km square, with 40,000 people being relocated. Such a disaster. Can you imagine just ‘what’ was demolished? The contrasts also stretch to the population itself. Romania is a crossroads, the positioning of the country itself, is right in the middle of many a country with the Black Sea to the East. The lower half having a real mix of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian backgrounds, so can be quite dark in complexion whereas the top half have borders with Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova. Its not unusual to have very blonde and blue eyed people up north. Its melting pot of different cultures, along with its own specific traditions and heritage. It makes for a very interesting and unusual place, one that you could spend a lifetime investigating and still only just scrape the surface.
I’m going to have a break for a bit and continue the ‘Romania’ series with another post soon. I’m going to talk about my experiences, my observations, the funny and the not so funny. I want to gather my thoughts and actually write about what it was like, what happened and how we ended up staying 5 and a half years rather than the ‘3’ that was originally planned - haha - after the no plan at all. I still haven’t returned home (Australia). I didn’t end up returning home until 17 years later and that was only for a visit, not to stay. Its been a journey.
I acknowledge that I have had a fortunate life. I am truly thankful for it. I’ve not only ‘seen’ these countries, I have ‘lived IN’ these countries. It hasn’t been without hard work, though - remember my last post ? The continual flow of paperwork and my Nicole Marina file floating around in the cosmos somewhere? - Haha :) and that’s without your normal ‘work’. Its been an adventure, for sure, along with the ups and downs of everyday living. More on my life in Bucharest, coming soon…. Big love :) X
OMG ! 😁 - yes - Oh my God .. so happy you enjoyed reading 😍
Bonsoir Nicole.Merci pour votre récit (que nous attendions) de votre découverte de la Roumanie lorsqu'elle s'ouvrait à l'Ouest. On comprend bien que ce fut un moment étrange, singulier. Nous patienterons - pas trop, j'espère - pour lire la suite, sûrement aussi pleine de votre humour agréable.
OMD, cela veut dire Oh my god en abrégé ?
Bien à vous,
Dominique