1,500km around Romania-Part 6

Craiova-Timisoara-Arad-Oradea- Cluj Napoca-      Baia Mare-Sigisoara-Brasov-Bucharest

Naturally, next stop for us was Baia Mare. But first how we got there…

It was raining (couldn`t be the other way). On our way to the hitch-hiking spot we saw some competition. Okay, only one guy with a sign “BM” (if my memory is correct). So, we crossed a bridge, stood in the rain for some minutes 10;20;30.. ..A guy with his wife stopped. And who also was in the car..The guy we saw before with the BM sign. Funny. Also it was funny to drive with the car because the wheel was on the other side. Never the less the funny things were not over! For ~2 hours we had to listen to Romanian popular music. Don`t get me wrong. It`s not that a don`t like this music..But for 2 hours?! C`mon. I was getting so aggressive.. It was killing me softly. Okay, not softly but as brutal as it can get. And that was not it. The guy at the wheel was freaking crazy. Who drives like that..WHO? Especially on that kind of road-with sharp turns, going up and down, with some endings on the other side.. God! It was terrible (well not as terrible as our ride from Brasov to Pitesti).

Let`s skip the other details, like a hay glue sniffing woman in Baia Mares bus station and so on.

Why did we go to Baia Mare. The only reason was to visit our fellow volunteers whom we first met on our on-arriving training in Predeal. Stars of the day were Robin from Belgium, Paulina from Poland and for some hours Predrak from Serbia (I don`t really know how to write his name correctly, sorry for that). So, we walked up to the 5 or 6 floor to put our small bags in the apartment (the lift was broken, of course). After having a dinner with Justine we went to meet them again (they had to go to their office to have some meeting) and had a tour around the old city. Pretty. What can I say. Let`s skip the details about the architecture.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo. In the evening we had some Polish vodka, vine and vine. And basically that sums it up. Great time & company!

Ah. Yeah, If you read the previous entrance, also Baia Mare was included in the joke. Why? Because in Romanian Baie is bathroom.. So Baia..Baie.. Maybe now you will get a bit the sense of the joke.

Gata!

1,500km around Romania-Part 5

Craiova-Timisoara-Arad-Oradea- Cluj Napoca- Baia Mare-Sigisoara-Brasov-Bucharest

And here comes time for Cluj Napoca. Also this city was supposed to be full of volunteers, but we didn`t have the honor to meet any of them.

So, from Oradea after an hour of hitchhiking a Hungarian/Romanian man stopped. We continued our trip. The at one point he picked up a Hungarian/Romanian woman and..Let the fun begin. All the time the woman was saying for 5 times “yes” in Hungarian to every sentence that the guy said. Justine was barely holding her laugh in. And good thing that she succeeded, because otherwise the guy would have thrown us out in the middle of nowhere.

The guy left us somewhere in Cluj. The only thing that we knew, that it`s up the hill. So, Justine called our host to ask where we can meet and tell him where we are in order to know where to go now. At that moment I was eating my beloved paprika with a sandwich which we prepared in Oradea the day before. So, we went down the hill to the Botanic garden to meet Sam-our Cluj Napoca host for 2 days.

My surprise was that he was an American guy who was living in Romania for the past 10 years. My first question in my mind was-why Romania and why for such a long time.

It turned out that he was a writer. He wrote a book about stuff in Romania-cities and other things that you have to know about this mysterious country.

Time passed. We put our bags in Sam`s house and wanted to start our tour around the city, but our first target in the end was the botanic garden. Sam gave us GPS thingy and he had put it in Latvian. For me it was a bit strange, because I`m not used to technology in Latvian, but, why not. We went to the botanic garden to walk around. It was pretty, with pretty statues, but.. I don`t know. I definitely would have enjoyed it more when the flowers had been ready. But, still. Yes, It was pretty pretty.

What happened next.. .. .. I don`t really remember. Did some sightseeing, of course. And the..Oh, then we had the best pizza ever (even now thinking about it I`m getting hungry). It was soooooooooooooo tasty. Oh, sooooo tasty. Our mysterious chef with his mysterious dough.

Ah, yes, I forgot to mention his two adorable cats. Yes, now I mentioned them.

The first day in Cluj was going to be gata soon.. Almost. We went to a bar to drink something. Something like Jagermaister with something else in it (no drugs, just in case you had some bad thoughts in you), don`t remember. Okay, after this the first day ended.

I almost forgot again something. I think it was the first day.. Or maybe the second, but it doesn’t really matter, because I`m going to tell you about it anyway.

Soo. We were sitting on a couch, surfing in draugiem.lv. Then we saw a video about Salacgrīva. Yeah, for some strange people.. :D Okay, for Sam “Salacgrīva” sounded (probably still does) like a disease. And then we started to joke around with the names of “Salacgrīva, Cluj and Napoca”. Let`s not go in to the details. Just to know-it was funny, very, probably (definitely) only for us.

The second day, oh, yes, the second day.. Well, actually the same stuff. Sightseeing and in the end a bar (free beer for some time-that was a great thing to experience, besides all the touristic stuff).

Next stop…

1,500km around Romania-Part 3 & 4

Craiova-Timisoara-Arad-Oradea- Cluj Napoca- Baia Mare-Sigisoara-Brasov-Bucharest

Why these two city`s together? You`ll see.

So, we woke up, had some delicious magnificent breakfast from Flavius dad (thanks a lot for that) and continued our trip to the next city- Arad.

Arad was supposed to be full of volunteers, but of course we where there when everybody was on vacations, so we had to figure out where to sleep.

But at first the city.

We didn`t really see much because it was raining, only the center, Mc Donald’s (because of the wi fi) and a pizzeria, that’s it.

So, due to the fact that we didn`t have a place to sleep, we decided to go to Arad. Maybe somebody will be there to host us..AAAAANNNKKK. No, not really. Amigo (Miguel) was in Spain and we didn`t have any other options that to stay in a hotel. Poor 50 leis had to leave my wallet.  And it was raining again. Jey.

The good thing was that a cute army guy picked us up from Arad (we were standing in the rain being miserable) and took us to the hostels entrance. On the way he told us about all the things that we could have seen in Arad but didn`t. Yeah, feeling after that wasn`t so good. And of course about the Sensation White in Bucharest-for the first time.

Okay, here we are in Oradea. We put our bags in the room, went to buy something to eat and then took a map of Oradea and went to find and explore the city center.

I have to admit, the center is quite beautiful, maybe because of the river in the middle of it..

A cow made Justines ass wet. And so on so on.

So, we did some sightseeing and then looked for the way back. So. Ātros vilcienos this is it about these two cities. 

1,500km around Romania-Part 2

Craiova-Timisoara-Arad-Oradea- Cluj Napoca- Baia Mare-Sigisoara-Brasov-Bucharest

After a long and exhausting way we finally got to our first target-beautiful city of my favorite Romanian beer-Timisoara. There we met our host for the night-Flavius.

Soo. After 5 hours of travelling we were pretty exhausted. Went to put our bags at our hosts place and started our first tour around the city. Okay, it was Justines second time in Timisoara, but, she was kind enough to visit it again because of me. Thank you, Žustine, for that. :)

Where was I.. .. .. .. Yes, we visited some places.. There is no need to describe them all because it would not be so interesting for you and you probably saw some pictures on Facebook or draugiem.lv.

Two favorite places were the square with the yellow church (yes, I am sorry that I don`t remember the name of it..Big mistake was to write this blog entrance so late after the trip itself. And even now I am writing this for many days because I don`t have the inspiration to write, but I will force it to come because I need this for my memories.) and the “café” ,or whatever it was, under the bridge.  And there, if I`m not mistaken, the ghetto joke was born. Never mind the joke..Let`s continue. Soooooooo. After a glass of lemon juice and some ghetto style pictures we were ready to continue walking..Oh, no. Actually driving, cause Flavius got in touch with one of his friends to come/or the friend wanted to come. So we went upstairs to wait for him.. We waited and waited and waited..Learned some bad sentences in Romanian-Flavius fault! Then the friend came at last and we continued our tour to the zoo, which was unfortunately closed. And on the way there we passed a big big big metal beer cup and the factory of Timisoarana.. The big + was, that he also took us to no touristic places.. To see the real stuff. :D

After the architectural city tour, time came to see some bars.. Hihhihihi. Unfortunately after 4 days in children camp I was exhausted and.. Yeah we had to go home soon.

To be continued..

1,500km around Romania-Part 1

Craiova-Timisoara-Arad-Oradea- Cluj Napoca- Baia Mare-Sigisoara-Brasov-Bucharest

Where did it all start from? One day Justine was pretty depressed and so on. She called me and said her worries. What I did-I said to her not to think about it the whole day, better to plan a trip for us. Yes, like this. “Asa!”

First I had to spend 4 days in the mountains-Winter Camp for the kids from our communities.

Ahh. I was just exhausted. Directly from there I went to Carcea (Justines community) to spend the night there so we could start travelling the next day.

Of course, we had to open our trip with a glass of beer. Said it-did it! Next morning at, I don`t know, early we began our 1,500 km hitch-hiking trip.

The first stop-Timisoara..How many hours on the road? ~5h.

We were so sooooo lucky because for these kilometers we got one car which took us the whole way.

LET THE FUN BEGIN!

Fu*k pollution once a year

This is an old event. Yes, yes, you read it right. Romanians fu*k pollution very very hard only once a year when most people from Dolj(if I am not mistaken) go in their yards and burn some pretty little cute tires. Hell yeeeaaahhhh! I am not going to judge them because I am not the greenest thinking person in the world.  I am the one who always says that we should burn some plastic in our soba in order to start it better. So, yes. Shame on me big time, right?

Well, actually I have nothing more to say about this. Yeah, I could talk about how they don`t really care that much about collecting garbage, but, as I said before, I am not the one who should judge.

In that Sunday (after this came the worst Monday eveeeeer) we cooked some pork, listened to some music, danced and the best moment of the evening was when I fell down on my ass on concrete-ice ground. Yes, as sadly as it can be, this was not the only time when the concrete ground has called me to hug it and chat a bit. After few weeks when somebody will ask me if I am more like my mother or father, I will say-more like the concrete ground at our activity room. Bow wow wow!

So, yes, I think this is all I had to say. Bine, bine.

Midnight in the church

I could never imagine saying this-“I was in a church after midnight.”

But, guess what-I was in a church after midnight.

Sounds intriguing, funny, strange, like a cult thing? Yes, it kind of does, but it wasn`t. Romanians have this tradition-yes, another one (one of many many many) that to me-a Latvian-sounds strange.

So, I was standing on a stage and a priest was cutting my wrists to collect my blood to summon dead spirits..

Wowowow. I`m just kidding. Yeah, but one thing was correct. No-nobody was cutting my wrists.

But, first, how I got to this point-standing with Praise and my mentor and experiencing one of many Romanian traditions.

Here it goes.                                                                                  

A normal day in Segarcea.. As usual we were stealing Dan`s WIFI, surfing a bit and, of course, working.  Suddenly doors open, my eyes were not sure what I was seeing, but, yes, it was Praise. She came to visit us and Iuli(our mentor). Greetings, greetings, chitchatting, and finally Praise and I went to surprise Iuli. Anna and Sara as usual vent to Craiova to let off some steam by breaking the dance floors all over the big city.

So, we entered our third house (home home, our home and Romanian mama`s home), haha, no surprise, she was sleeping. On the TV was “Mireasa pentru filul meu” -Iuli`s favorite TV show.  So, Praise woke her up and the conversations started. After few hours we decided to go to Texas. After 10 min we were there. What is Texas? It`s a place where you can buy the best pizza in Segarcea. Om nom nom. Of course, each one of us had one. Sooo, after our tummies were full of deliciousness we went back at Iulianas.

One thing lead to another.. Iuliana told us that she has to take mamaie (mother in law) (translation-grandmother) to church after midnight. Ha. Imagine our faces when we heard this.

-Whaaaaaat? Why?

So, I`m sorry, but I`ll have to disappoint you. I don`t know the full and detailed story, but, what I know is that women write names of their family members-dead and living- on a piece of paper and take it to church along with a basket full of good stuff-cookies, cakes, vine etc-to give to the priest, who will pray for the dead and living.

We entered the church and in front of us was an unseen sight, many mamaies standing along the walls, baskets with the good stuff and lighted candles on the floor and we could hear the priest saying some prayers and other guys singing…

Of course for some minutes the attention from ladies was turned on us, but that`s fine, because after this Iuliana explained that it is unusual to see other people, that was already there, coming to this event, because the visitors are usually the same mamaies .

Okay, we stood there, made some crosses (had to switch hands after few crosses, because my tactic wasn`t correct), listened to the priest and then went home to sleep. Before that we found out that there is a room in the church where no woman can enter… The natural reaction was-I want to break in. But, yes, the mystery of the no-woman-room will be there for a long time.

Oh, I almost forgot. They do this thing not that often. One month before some celebrations, like Easter etc.

And it`s a pity that I couldn`t take any pictures (my morals didn`t allow it). But, I can say you this- the sight was amazing, also because the church was old and the drawings on the walls and ceilings were very beautiful.

And so our day ended with one more story to tell.

…