Revolutionary city
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
87
144
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Timisoara,
Romania
Monday, July 16, 2007
The fun part wasn't exactly over. My train car was packed with smugglers who were shuffling about the whole trip, trying to make sure they could get across the border without any problems. While they didn't give me any problems, a pair of burly blokes just about creamed me at one point when they rushed to carry a couple boxes of unknown contraband to the end carriage door. From there they waited for a signal from some guy along the route, after which they chucked the lot off the train. This was well after customs, which gave - at most - a very cursory examination of people's luggage. I love it when officials ask "do you have any drugs? firearms?" I mean, seriously, who's really going to admit it? "Well, um, yeah . . . but only for, uh, personal use."
Anyways, the problem was once I got into Timisoara, I didn't have any arranged accommodation. Well, I supposed to. I had contacted a guy on CouchSurfing, but he hadn't had a chance to get back to me as of yesterday afternoon. Since the train didn't finally pull in until after 10pm, I was hardly in a position to huff around town with my pack in search of an internet cafe. Instead I just settled for the easiest - and likewise priciest - option. After a 15-minute walk from the station, I checked into the first hotel I came to: the comfortable and fairly recently renovated Hotel Cina Banatul. The damage was a bit more than my guidebook let on. 120RON for one night in a single room. In other words, about €40. Wait a second . . . what happened to Romania being so cheap? Without a whole lot to fall back on though, I didn't have much choice but to stomach it. Better that than carry my too-heavy pack around more, I s'pose.
An unintended splurge and, it turns out, one that wasn't absolutely necessary. Upon checking in and dropping off my bag, I went for a night wander around town. Not too long after having a quick dinner, I found a small internet cafe on a side street. As expected, my host Joris had replied to me and OK'd two nights at his flat off Piata Victoriei. Perfect timing! Err . . . had I not been on a train for nearly five hours! Soon after, I gave him a quick call to explain what had happened, then met him and his other French colleagues/friends for a drink in the center of town.
So I'm in fact just spending one night at his place while here. I suppose there's some consolation in that I got a really good night's sleep at the Cina Banatul. I better damn well have, for that price in a Romanian hotel! Starting the day with a brief look around town for an hour or so in the morning, I then had a late breakfast and dragged my stuff over to Joris's place a little after noon. Since he has a pretty speedy internet connection, I decided to use the first half of the afternoon to catch up on e-mails, uploads and the like. After that, I went off to see the rest of the city that I'd so far missed.
Timisoara is often considered the most Westernized of Romania's cities. It's certainly among the most cosmopolitan in make-up - historically a very typical municipality for the Banat region, full of Romanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Germans and Jews. The population is more predominantly Romanian now than it was a century ago, but the atmosphere is much more Central European than practically anyplace else in the country. This long history of mixed peoples and outside influences also probably accounts for another event in the not-too-distant past. It was here that the Romanian Revolution erupted back in December of 1989, sparked off by the arrest and suppression of a dissident Hungarian pastor. The last time I was here (December of '98) the history was still quite palpable. Nowadays though, the city is moving forwards without much more than a glance back.
The gorgeous squares of Piata Unirii, Piata Republicii and Piata Victoriei now look better than they have in over 50 years. Unirii in particular has been almost completed restored and is now lined with outdoor cafe after outdoor cafe. Victoriei has more pigeons than any other plaza outside of Venice's Piazza San Marco, but it too has a fabulously lively atmosphere about it, thanks to the numerous outdoor dining spots and the packs of meandering locals in the evening. Lots of expats now call the town home and the people show more confidence and relative affluence than I ever remember seeing in Romania. The suburbs are still industrial and grim, but at least the industries here are productive and growing. This place is prospering, and it shows.
I'm heading off the standard path from early tomorrow and going south. Most people head east into Transylvania, but I thought I'd break from the routine. Sometimes it pays to explore less familiar territory; hopefully that'll be the case across the next week.
