21 Jun 2014 Timisoara
As we spend our last days in Romania, two thoughts:
1) We need Mezzo TV in the US! We have feasted on uncut productions of "Billy Budd," "Turandot," Ariadne Auf Naxos;" long jazz sets; intelligent interviews, etc, etc. Add this to the folk channels and you almost wish for rain.
2) In some mythical past, there must have been "Ioan Cherrypit," who wandered Eastern Europe planting trees, just like Jonny Appleseed. Hope we will encounter Djon Cherrypit when we leave Romania.
Our lodgings are uniquely decorated in hippie, folksy style. This owner family has put a lot of thought into this property. One of the women running our pension has told us that Timisoara has a greater collection of old historic buildings than any other Romanian city. According to her, under the current mayor it has just been putting its priorities on developing industry and "building new" instead of restoring - though this has begun to change. Like several other Romanian cities we have visited, Timisoara has embarked on a campaign to become a future Cultural Capital of Europe. Best luck to all of them.
We get a late start. Breakfast in the pension. Nice meal, accompanied by the squawking house parrot. Out at 9 to catch a tram to downtown (even though our hosts tout taxi as the cheap, reliable way to get around town). We walk around and come to the downtown synagogue, the Great Synagogue. A sign outside identifies it as "The Synagogue of the Reformed Mosaic Cult." Quite a building. Gated and locked.
Around the corner is the office building containing the Jewish community offices. We get inside the main front doors and discover that it too is locked.
In the block or two nearby, we see the following historical buildings: "The Weiss House: The House with Lions;" "The Serbian Cathedral" (which we are able to enter); and "The Roman Catholic Cathedral." The whole downtown is torn up for reconstruction.
Luck is with us. In front of the Great Synagogue, as we come back to it, is a small tour group. We ask the tour guide where there might be an active synagogue. She says "Iosefin." We see it on the map, and hurry to get there by tram. It is in a neighborhood fairly close to the train station. We had considered a hotel near the station, but rejected the idea for fear that neighborhoods of train stations are sometimes rough. Now that we see it, it seems like a very interesting neighborhood, sort of like Queens. Oh well! But we are staying at a good place.
The tram we get on has two signs: No smoking! No ice cream cones!
We get to that synagogue around 11:15 am. It is closed. Behind is a house. We knock. A woman living there has a key, and lets us in to look around. She says that the active synagogue of Timisoara is in "Fabrik." We won't understand what she is trying to say until later in the day.
It is 11:30 am. We are near the bus station and the train station. We need to find a way to get to Belgrade in Serbia tomorrow. There is lots of confusion on this point. The European Rail Guide shows trains at 07:48 and 16:13. Each takes you to Vrsac in Serbia, where you transfer to a Serbian train taking you to the Beograd Dunav Station. Lonely Planet says there is one train at 5:45 am costing 70 lei each, as does some of the Timisoara tourist literature. Casa Leone says there is no reliable train and offers to arrange a door-to-door minibus for 110 lei each.
The bus station confirms that, indeed, there is no scheduled bus to Beograd. At the train station the stated information for the one-transfer trip is exactly as the European Rail Guide states. We buy 2 through tickets at 45 lei ($15.50) each. Later we show the tickets at Casa Leone. They are unbelieving.
It is time for lunch. But first quickly downtown to the "Memorial of the Revolution 16th-22nd December 1989." It is open only on Saturdays, and only until 1 pm. The tram works, but so does the 11 bus, which we take. It gets us right there.
The museum is alternately fabulous and questionably curated. Timisoara was the beginning point for the revolt in Dec 1989 that toppled the ruler Ceaucescu. On Dec 15, 1989, the authorities were attempting to evict a popular priest. A crowd gathered to protect him. Each day the crowds grew bigger, with some violence. The workers at each factory (Fabrik [aha!]) bravely rallied. By Dec 20 nearly all the cities in Romania had protests. The Dec 21 protests turned violent, esp. in Bucuresti, where the police fired live ammo into the crowds, killing hundreds. On Dec 22 Ceaucescu and his wife were arrested. They were tried and killed a few days later. All this is represented in the museum with pictures and contemporary newspaper articles. The protesters made new flags by cutting the Communist symbols out of the old flag.
The museum has dozens of these modified flags. It has a wonderful 30 min film. The warning that the film is not suitable for young viewers is correct - some very grisly scenes. But the museum also details everything possibly related to the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1989, including such things as a map of the gulags in Russia. It also has a piece of the Berlin Wall planted out front. The museum also has a room devoted to the help the Poles gave to the Revolution (probably because the photographer donated his material to the museum). The finishing touch was the ABBA music playing in the background. Really!!?! We left with a map of the artistic memorials to the Revolution found all around Timisoara.
We are out at 1:45 pm. New guests are coming in (so much for a 1 pm closing). We are across downtown from an internet café, and we need to (a) reserve a room in Beograd, and (b) find out some good things to do and eat in Beograd.
Our walk there takes 45 minutes. We seem to have gone the longest way reasonable to get there. But we have another lucky encounter. At the end, we ask questions of a local. He guesses we are Jewish, reveals that he is half-Jewish, and tells about the Fabrik Synagogue, the cemetery, and other interesting facts. He walks 100 m with us to the internet café.
We finish our internet searches around 3:45 pm. We eat some indifferent pastries and drink some coffee, which sort of revive us. Mike gets a little more money from a money exchanger, and Carol visits a tourist info office.
We stop at the Metropolitan Cathedral. Very grand inside. Outside are memorial plaques for the child chorus that was gunned down on the steps during the Revolution.
A quick tram ride to the synagogue at Fabrik follows, which we can now find. Locked tight. If there were any services, maybe they were on Friday night? Sort of doubtful. But we have seen 3 formidable synagogues today.
Nearby is a church that is holding back-to-back wedding parties. One party is just leaving, while another bride and groom are waiting. We see a whole lot of weddings wherever we travel - it seems to always include a photo taking session in a beautiful setting, a wedding service, and a party. Glad that there is all that hope.
By now we are really hungry. A tram ride, followed by a long walk through an old neighborhood, and we are at Casa Bunicii ("Granny's House"). LP recommended. It is just 6 pm and the place is packed with yuppie families getting ice cream, coffee and beer, and some eating full meals. One family is holding a birthday party for a toddler, complete with a lovely birthday song and a dunk into the icing. We needn't have worried that we would get there too early.
The design of the outdoor eating area is pure genius. A large well-equipped playground is part of the property, just beyond a hedge that provides a bit of a shield.
We order a cherry liqueur, an elderberry soda, duck soup, chicken breast in sour cherry sauce, and a grilled trout. Spectacular. We could have eaten more, but Mike's guess of how much money we would need left us with this amount. It is really important to end up at zero before exiting the country. How many lei do you want when you get back to the States, and what will you do with them? However, might have been nice to have had a little cushion for some appetizers, sides and desserts at this restaurant.
We walk back downtown for a 1 1/2 hour internet session, and then back to the pension. We have an early start tomorrow. On the same street as the pension is Loolish Gaming (sic), which also functions as an internet café. Across the street is the old municipal abattoir, which has been renovated (as a hotel?).
To bed. In lieu of a breakfast, the pension has agreed to give us a "to go" breakfast package.
Note: At some point during the day, we are talking about Romanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, etc. Our interlocutor says that Serbs are violent. After all, she says, the Mafia in Budapest is not the Russian Mafia, but the Serbian Mafia. Be careful, they are dangerous. What about Bosnians and Croatians? They are just as bad. She tells about a Bulgarian hotel owner at a fancy hotel on the Black Sea. A Romanian friend had driven there in his fancy $70K car and parked it in the hotel garage. He came to get his car. Not there. What car? the hotel owner said. You never had a car in our garage. This friend had good insurance, but if not, you go with a 5 figure cash reward, and miraculously the car usually shows up. Romanians don't do such things, but the others . . .
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