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In October 2016 we flew from southern England to Romania.

Romania is a big country by European standards and not one to see by public transport if time is limited.  So to travel beyond Bucharest we hired a car and drove northwest to Brașov and on to Sighisiora, before looping southwest to Sibiu (European capital of culture 2007) and southeast through the Transylvanian Alps to Curtea de Arges on our way back to Bucharest. 

Driving in Romania was interesting.  There are some quite good motorways once out of the suburbs of Bucharest, where traffic lights are interminable trams rumble noisily, trolley-busses stop and start and progress can be slow.  In the countryside road surfaces are variable and the roads mostly narrow. This does not slow the locals who seem to ignore speed limits making it necessary to keep up to avoid holding up traffic. 

Initially the TomTom (GPS navigation device) that we now carry with us from OZ, thought we were still in England.  When it asked if we wanted to avoid ferries I answered 'yes' and was told there was no available route to Bucharest - where I was standing at the time.  Not until I asked for the nearest petrol station did it relocate itself.  I thought it was an amusing TomTom idiosyncrasy.  From then on it was invaluable.

 

Locating Romania

 

 

Visiting Romania

We saw no signs advertising lions in Romania, like those pointing to Longleat during our recent sojourn in Southern England, but our guide-book represented the local bears as being just as dangerous.

The next most dangerous thing in Romania is Dracula, who is represented in all the tourist areas in myth and legend.  That he was the imaginary character of Abraham 'Bram' Stoker, an Irishman writing a novel in the British Library in London, is immaterial to the tourist potential of the story.  To give the fictional story some semblance of real world plausibility Dracula is said to be based on the real life 15th century Romanian aristocrat and soldier Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia,  a member of the House of Drăculești and therefore known as Vlad Drăculea. 

Vlad III was better known as Vlad the Impaler for mounting his captured enemies vertically on a spike up through their body.  This was at the time of the Crusades when such behaviour was not unusual and Vlad, a Christian knight, had much vaunted success against the Ottoman Turks, according to graphic recreations, skewering quite a few.  But there is nothing whatever to associate him with the drinking of blood - unless it was at mass.

Romania is a big country and the circular 'tourist' route we took was largely within the picturesque Transylvanian region that also happens to be the wealthiest and best educated part of the Country. 

Much of Transylvania seems 'first world' with well tended houses and well-dressed healthy-looking people going about their business. Yet at regular intervals this image is contradicted by poor local farmers out on the roads with carts and other horse-drawn vehicles, occasionally tipped over in a ditch. 

 

Romania Romania
Romania Romania
Traffic hazards Romanian style

 

But these farmers are fortunate compared to the people who walk for miles.  These very poor people are in contrast to the generally late model German and French cars sharing the road with them.

Romania has one of the fastest economic growth rates in Europe (off a low base) and low rates of unemployment, yet the new wealth is evidently quite uneven in this once communist country. 

Some villages, are obviously poor and decrepit with no evident services like electricity.   Şaroş pe Târnave, in the pictures below, is a paradise compared to others we saw but didn't approach. 

 

Romania Romania
Romania Romania

Şaroş pe Târnave - Romania

 

Wealthier villages in this region closely line the roads in a side-by-side distinctive Romanian style, each with a large door or carriage entrance giving into an internal courtyard.

Farming seems to be efficient. Large fields of corn are commonplace but we also saw hops being grown on a large scale. Houses on larger rural properties are well-appointed, evidently prosperous, an Audi or BMW parked alongside modern tractors and farming equipment.

 

 

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Travel

Laos

 

 

The Lao People's Democratic Republic is a communist country, like China to the North and Vietnam with which it shares its Eastern border. 

And like the bordering communist countries, the government has embraced limited private ownership and free market capitalism, in theory.  But there remain powerful vested interests, and residual pockets of political power, particularly in the agricultural sector, and corruption is a significant issue. 

During the past decade tourism has become an important source of income and is now generating around a third of the Nation's domestic product.  Tourism is centred on Luang Prabang and to a lesser extent the Plane of Jars and the capital, Vientiane.

Read more: Laos

Fiction, Recollections & News

Are we the same person we once were?

 

 

 

I was initially motivated to write this cautionary note by the controversy surrounding the United States Senate hearing into the appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court that was briefly called into question by Dr Christine Blasey Ford's testimony that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in their teens.

Kavanaugh is but one of many men who have come to the attention of the '#MeToo' movement, some of whom are now cooling their heels in jail.

Like the Kavanaugh example, a number of these cases, as reported in the media, seem to rely on someone's memory of events long past.  Yet as I will argue below after a decade or so our memories are anything but reliable.  After that time we should be respecting the accused's legal right to be presumed innocent, unless there is contemporary immutable evidence (diaries photographs and so on) or a number of non-colluding witnesses or others who have suffered a similar assault. 

Now in the news another high profile person has been convicted of historical sexual assault.  Cardinal George Pell has appealed his conviction on several charges relating to historical paedophilia.

There is just one accuser, the alleged victim.  A second alleged victim took his own life some time ago. The case was heard twice and in total 22 of the 24 jurors decided in favour of the alleged victim, despite the best defence money could buy.  Yet, as with the '#MeToo' movement in respect of powerful men, there is currently worldwide revulsion (see my Ireland Travel Notes) at sexual crimes committed within the Roman Catholic Church, such that a Cardinal is likely to be disbelieved, just as at one time a choir boy's accusations against a bishop or a priest would have been, and were, dismissed.

Both trials were held in closed court and the proceedings are secret so we have no knowledge of any supporting evidence. We do know that the two alleged victims were members of the Cathedral Choir and at least one other ex-choir boy also gave evidence. So justice may have been served. 

Yet I'm just a little concerned about the historical nature of the charges.  How reliable is anyone's memory? 

Read more: Are we the same person we once were?

Opinions and Philosophy

Sum; estis; sunt

(I am; you are; they are)

 

 

What in the World am I doing here?

'Once in a while, I'm standing here, doing something.  And I think, "What in the world am I doing here?" It's a big surprise'
-   Donald Rumsfeld US Secretary of Defence - May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times

As far as we know humans are the only species on Earth that asks this question. And we have apparently been asking it for a good part of the last 100,000 years.

Read more: Sum; estis; sunt

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