For every kilometre that we passed in the car, the landscape unfolded as if the years were peeling back and we were moving back through time.
The cities and towns in Romania are modern with enviable fast internet connections and the best technology. Cars are often top of the range; BMW’s being the preferred brand, high-end fashion labels were visible everywhere and it appeared that the cosmetic surgery industry was flourishing.
Not so far out of the city limits the highway became a single lane in each direction where all driving rules went out of the window and it became a free-for-all and a series of near-misses in an attempt to pass the convoys of huge lorries, or for that matter, anything else that was moving in the same direction.
I breathed a sigh of relief as we turned off the main highway and we started our drive up the road which would take us an hour and a half over the mountains, and this is where our hire care seemingly turned into a time machine.
As we approached the first of the many villages that we would drive through I couldn’t believe that I was seeing traditional haystacks in the fields. I was used to seeing hay strapped up in big rectangular bales or rolled tightly into gigantic plastic coated wheels but here, the haystacks were straight out of my childhood storybooks. Great mounds of loose hay were piled up against a central pole and often next to them were the rustic wooden frames where the grass would have been hung when first cut.
The majority of the houses in these villages have a (large) small holding at the back, often containing a pig or two, maybe a sheep or a small cow and a pony. We passed houses with horse and carts tied patiently to the gate post and in many villages each front garden boasted a well. Like the haystacks, these were often straight out of a storybook with a little pitched roof and a bucket, or with a pole and pulley contraption to lift the water.
Firewood was chopped and neatly stacked against the walls of the houses, bundles of fruit vegetables were often hanging from front gates for sale and chickens would be scratching in the grass verges at the side of the road.
Unlike villages in the UK and most of Western Europe which tend to be constructed around a central point, the homes in Romanian villages straggle along the road which passes through them. Some may be more than a kilometre long but the street that you drive along is the only street. There are churches everywhere and everywhere there are new churches under construction. Many of these churches are Romanian Orthodox and are ornately decorated with spires and cupolas and have graveyards which are dominated by imposing angels and crosses watching over the heavy marble graves.
On the roads between these villages the forests stretched on seemingly forever and occasionally a fox or a deer would dart out from between the trees and pass in front of us. The road wound its way up and up until we broke free of the tree line and we could see the plains far below. Wood smoke curled lazily from the chimneys of the houses and the distant mountain peaks glistened white with snow.
Over the course of several visits to Romania I was able to learn first hand how remarkable this country and its people are. If you have read my previous articles you will know how I love to dig below the surface of a place as I try to understand the history and to learn what has formed the culture and the character of the people who live there. At this current stage in my life as I travel for shorter periods of time I can bring you even more depth and insight into places. For sure, Romania is one of the countries that I will definitely be returning to and I also have plans to explore more of Spain.
Romania has swathes of forests sprawling over huge mountain ranges, rivers and a people who regularly set out into the countryside to forage for mushrooms, nuts and berries. There are wolves, bears and lynx and a rich cultural history of music, castles, traditional clothing (which are often worn daily and with pride) and food. Oh my god, the food!! The food deserves a place high up there with the best cuisines of the world. In my opinion Malaysian food still can’t be beaten but I am lucky enough to live with my Romanian partner who loves to cook so you can look forward to more descriptions of food and drink in future articles.
Romania is not what you may think
Growing up in the UK I was of course aware of Romania; it was that ‘poor’ country behind the Iron Curtain whose people were controlled and everything looked grey. I avidly watched the news each evening in 1989 and 1990 as one by one the Communist countries that had been linked to the USSR fell and Chouchescou, the cruel governing dictator and his wife met a swift end at the hands of the people. I was next aware of Romania as some horrifying and sad pictures came out of the country showing abandoned and neglected children in the orphanages and then later again when the international borders were relaxed.
Whilst the Polish people seemed to be encouraged to come to the UK to work, Romanians seemed to be less desirable. We were informed that many Roma people would flood in to the country and would cause problems, and they, together with the Bulgarians at the time were deemed to be less of a benefit to UK society.
I have never listened to government rhetoric without questioning what lies behind the message and why, nor and I have ever signed up to the belief that any people in the world is lesser or better than any other.
Instead of flooding into the UK many Romanians chose to move to Spain looking for work and a better quality of life, although interestingly, many are now returning to their homeland as the economic situation changes. Romania has the largest population of Roma people in the world and similar to the Irish gypsies and the Spanish gitanos they tend to live on the fringes of society and have a very separate identity and culture.
On one visit to the Sighet Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Sighetu Marmaţiei I was shocked to learn how the Roma, political activists and many other ‘non-desirables’ were hunted down and persecuted during the second world war but also how this continued until 1977 under the brutal Communist dictatorship.
From my personal experience, Romanians tend to be hard working, polite and respectable and they have a strong moral and ethical base. They are forward thinking embracing modern technologies and they have contributed much to scientific progress. A pancreatic enzyme (insulin) was discovered for treating diabetes and Timişoara was the first city in Europe to have electric street lights. The language has many similarities to Spanish and Italian being a romance language and there are huge Hungarian and Turkish influences in the country.
You can learn more about this fascinating country in future articles which will include a travel itinerary for the north of Romania, an introduction to the cuisine and more chapters in my nomadic story. Follow my travel articles here on my website, on social media or on the Buy me a Coffee platform.
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