Some thoughts on this whole thing, as I sit in this Western atrocity of a Pizza Hut grabbing a quick bite to eat before returning to squeezing my brains out into Powerpoint.
I could quite enjoy becoming a travel author. I might not be particularly original or full of deep and meaningful insights, but this life is definitely something I could get used to. Throwing myself at random foreign countries, playing on my Englishness to get by where I don't speak the language ... it's a blast. Though it probably says something about my method of enjoyment that I can now say "cheers" in more languages than is entirely reasonable.
So last night, over beers with the guys I'm training, I learnt a great deal about this country. I'm sure much of it is muddled by the amount of beer involved, but I'll try and recount it with some semblance of sanity.
The roots of the language are predominantly Latin then French. Back in the 1800s-1920s when Bucharest was "little Paris", the upper classes used to send their children to French finishing schools, hence the heavy influence. I can practically count 1-10 in Romanian by using French with a heavy accent.
They have a large number of electric busses and trams here. This surprised me ... but it turns out that in the time of Ceausescu, he attracted a lot of foreign (particularly Saudi) investment which was spent on big infrastructure like hydroelectric dams. Apparently, they got the cost of electricity down to practically free. They also have a Canadian nuclear reactor. I don't quite know where that fits into things.
Road design and planning hasn't progressed from 30 years ago. The city is grinding to a halt with congestion. Feels like home.
Crossing signs are funky animated dudes with a countdown timer to the next light change. Will try and grab a video of that ...
Some things never change. Taxi drivers here shake their heads at bills of large denominations, in just the way they do back home. I'm tempted to call out a plumber just to find out what the Romanian equivalent of a sharp intake of breath and "it's gonna cost you" is.
Which brings me to another subject, wallet anxiety. I get nervous if I don't have the equivalent of two meals in cash in my wallet back home, but turns out that to carry more than 100,000 lei is considered a bit daft by the guys over here. I didn't like to tell them I had closer to 2 million lei in my wallet at the time. I now check my wallet is with me every 30 seconds.
These guys I'm training are like sponges, soaking up knowledge faster than I can throw it at them. They are all young and still studying at university, and last night I think they drank rather more than they are used to - judging by their overall appearance this morning (the joys of the metric system - I'm used to pints, so was depressingly sprightly this morning). Despite their general malaise, they still managed to kick me mentally around the block several times, and by the end of the day I was totally wiped out. I think they are going to be first class Cocooners.
Their upbringing has some interesting contrasts with my experience in the UK. Over here, they are very much encouraged to rely on parental support until late in life (like, over 20). The guys range from 21-22, and still receive cash and food parcels from back home, and aren't expected to get even temporary jobs for quite some time. It seems strange at first, but they explained it as being a throwback to the tough times in the Communist era, where everyone had to rely on their relatives for support.
In restaurants over here (in a random sampling), they don't seem to sell "post-mix", syrupy reconstituted carbonated drinks. All fizzy drinks come in cans. It seems to be something of a marketing manoeuvre as much as hygiene-related, but it must surely hurt profits.
Being on my own has many inconveniences. The lack of scintillating conversation over dinner, no-one to bounce my deranged ranting off of before blogging, to name two examples. The one I feel most grievously though is the lack of another body to share a bottle of wine with. Wine by the glass is not an option here, that I've seen. Really, a whole bottle is too much for me in one night, unless I plan to sit in a restaurant for many hours on my own and oversleep in the morning. Apparently Romanian wine is exceptional, but I don't quite know how I'll get to find out except by bringing some back with me.
Mobile phones are big business over here. Of a population of 22 million, over 1 million rushed out to get mobiles in the first year they were available. Apparently it was the fastest take-up in Europe. (My numbers may be wrong, as they are subject to alcoholic reminiscence on my part and possible exaggeration by my Romanian informants). Calls are cheap - a bill is not likely to be more than a couple of dollars a month at most. Many people are getting mobiles as their very first experience of a phone over here. Another way to look at it: I could buy a car here for what I spent on my mobile phone last month.
They sell beer in McDonalds apparently. Fantastic. Would you like beer with that?
I'm going to don the closest I've got to a linen suit tomorrow, and try the restaurant where all the embassy folk hang out.
Cost of tonights meal (bruschetta, pizza, 2 beers): £2.98 (not including tip).
Pizza Hut *and* Powerpoint - Man, that's a hard one ;-)
I've been to Romania before and also found it fascinating. So similar to our part of Europe in some ways, yet so different at the same time.
The thing that struck me most at the time was crossing the border from Hungary to Romania (we drove there). In 1993, the difference between the two countries felt like going 100 years backwards in time over just a few kilometers.
Posted by: Bertrand Delacr�taz at August 25, 2004 7:59 AMi dont think you'd make that bad of a travel author, you're doing an excellent job so far! Shamefully lacking sordid sex stories and tales of hedonistic cheap beers but still, not so bad :-) Cant get round the pizza hut powerpoint though, surely you could give it a rest and savour the tastes of western pizzaria....
Posted by: what music gifts at August 26, 2004 10:47 PM