Romania : Back to the past

Here we are, in Brasov, Romania. A more detailed version of our trip, in French probably, will be posted later in the hiking and travels folder when we are back. For the time being I will only write down the main lines.






We are here to attend the wedding of Adriana who spent a year at home as an au pair and became the eldest sister for our children and our eldest daughter.

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We arrived in Romania rather frightened. Expecting to be had by almost everyone. The reputation of Romania weighs heavily in the prejudged opinion. It is a pity because the greatest number of Romanian doesn't deserve it.

It is quite difficult to give a real opinion in a so short stay and having been hedged by Adriana's family.

So far we have visited Brasov, of course, and some places as Sighisoara, Sibiu, Bran, Poiana Brasov, Sinaia, ... They are very interesting and in a very contrasted comparability.

If I disregard the villages and focus only in cities or big towns, they seem to be in a permanent rebuilding frenzy. There are workings everywhere : buildings, pavements, roads, ... so many that it seems impossible to find enough people to work in all of them and probably that, and a lack of funds, makes that a great part seems to be abandoned.

At times I have the impression to be in Spain in the forties-sixties period, with the external addition of some commodities as mobiles, cars, television, supermarkets, Internet and some other modern tools that didn't exist at those times but the kernel remains the same. By the way I hadn't seen for years to work in the fields with horses or children playing outside simply with stones.

The most impressive, I think, are the concrete buildings that have grown everywhere (in the "new" part of cities) and the Romanian's driving manner. I had never seen such a self-will and form of passing.

In the other hand, something we should definitely import to our cities is the countdown system in the traffic lights. It is really very useful.

People, even if the great majority have limited financial resources, dresses-up correctly. There is a slightly difference between generations. Young people doesn't differs at all to any other country while elder people dresses humbler. Going for a walk to the center I noticed that most people wear no watch.

I have been told that the average salary is not very high. The cost of living is, and when you enter to a supermarket as e.g. Carrefour you do not see much difference between here and a Brussels one.

Well, that were some of my thoughts while being here I will try to be more detailed in the French version, not because it will be in French but because I feel more comfortable with that language.

In the mean time here is a selection of the pictures I have taken : http://travel.webshots.com/album/563586391rYLuic?vhost=travel

The diary is being written at http://vlirbo-ro.blogspot.com/2008/06/introduction.html