Parents’ Visit: Romania
Burke and I had Friday, Monday and Tuesday off from school, so of course as the travel planner I made sure we went to a country I’d never been to before: Romania. On the agenda was Timisoara and a quick stop in Oradea. Burke and I know an adorable Romanian family living here, and they actually are from Timişoara; so they recommended a few places for us to check out.
This is Victory Square, aka Old Town
Timişoara isn’t actually in the mountains, but it is in the Transylvania region of Romania. We kept and eye out for Dracula, but he probably doesn’t like tourists and was in hiding.
One of my favorite things about Romania was how drastically different it is from Slovakia (does it sound like I always say that?). I suppose my preconceptions of Slovakia and its neighbors were that they were all rather similar. It’s not true. Despite the country being the middle of a Slavic area, Romanian is a Romance language. We were all surprised how much English was spoken by everyone. My mother just loves speaking with people, so she asked them how they know English so well, and several of the responses were that they learned the language from watching Cartoon Network. Pretty ridiculous.
While we were there we walked over the whole city, seeing churches, squares, churches, parks and shops. One morning we went to a huge market. The first part of the market was my favorite where people sold random things- purses, hats, and boxes of scarves! Some of the vendors in the market thought the best way to get people to look at their things was to shout at them. It didn’t work with us, but it did appear that the most boisterously advertised merchandise was in the greatest demand.
I didn't really think this was that special, but Burke took about 20 photos of it so I included it just for him:)
Another noteable event we attended was the “Wine Festival.” It’s really quite a misnomer because it was no more than a huge carnival complete with circus rides and games. We got to watch some traditional dancers and sample a few Romanian fair foods.
I really liked the drive through Romania. They have no highways, so all along the way you can see the townspeople and farmers living their lives.
Our last morning in Romania was Halloween. After breakfast my mother talked to the receptionist who she befriended on our first day. The lady admitted that all the hotel staff/guests were excited to see what costumes the Americans would be wearing for Halloween. They must have been pretty disappointed to find us in our everyday clothes.
Our stop in Oradea was only for lunch and to peer down the streets we walked. We went to the first vegetarian restaruant in all of Romania and ordered completely blind from a menu with no English version. I was very grateful my parents were such troopers.
We continued the drive for the next few hours and you’ll have to check back to see where we landed!
Douglas Falknor:
Thanks, again, to Lizzie & Burke’s help with our visist. They were as efficient as tour guides. Booked our flights, reserved our hotel rooms. It was a great trip. We walked some castle ruins and visted many city “centrums,” their downtown malls–no traffic, just millions of paver stones, the stately old buildings and endless shops, cafes and restaurant.
The biggest surprise awaiting us in Slovakia was that Lizzie can cook! We were treated to a series of unique and delicious meals that were all made from scratch and were quite labor intensive.
Burke chaufeurred us from place to place on the longer treks. And so efficiently that I am convinced no one could have made the trips faster!
We went off on our own during Lizzie & Burke’s work days. On trip we lost our better map and relied on the Garmin (GPS), but it took us up into the nearby low mountains and told us to turn a couple of times when there were no other roads, then it would U-turn us to go the other direction. When the Garmin wanted us to cross the mountains on a goat trail, we decided the destination wasn’t that important.
Weather was far better than we had any right to expect. Sunny almost every day and mild, so we walked a lot of those centrums. It was common in every city to find an archway between the impressive facades that would lead to an atrium or courtyard of several more shops & cafes.
English was everywhere. On advertising, in the shops, and many menus and waitpeople were accomodating that way. We’re lucky that English is the international language of business. We especially enjoyed those two sessions with the business people tht Lizzie & Burke are tutoring in English as it gave us an insight into Slovakia and the region that we wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Another thanks to Burke & Lizzie who not only put us up for many nights, but put up with us as well for just as many nights.
And, OH, that cat!