Thoughts on Romania

It was with much anticipation, a little trepidation and a whole swarm of butterflies in the belly that we crossed the Hungarian border into Romania. As children, it's fair to say we both were quite in awe of the whole Count Dracula, Vampire thing. But as adults, we (well, specifically me) were quite taken by horror stories of a different kind - the travel ones. Before we left many people were more than keen to share their own doom and gloom stories of travelling in Romania, warning us and wondering aloud why we'd even want to go there, especially with the van. But funnily enough, this was all from people who'd never even been there! Our new English friends Kim and James had been through there last summer with their motorhome and had nothing but encouraging words to share. The only thing of any dodgy 'interest' they wanted to point out were the border formalities, which included being made to drive through a pool of disinfectant and being made to pay an 'ecology tax' - more thriller than horror don't you think?!

As it was, things had moved on very fast since Romania (and Bulgaria) joined the EU on January 1st this year. Gone was any sense of border as it was, and the only one at home was a single border guard - either Hungarian or Romanian, we couldn't even tell! There we were, left to our own devices without even a single quesion or (more importantly!) a stamp in the passport! To be honest, I was a bit put out actually.

Welcome to Romania! Our first sitings of the ubiquitous horse & cart

Now, the other thing that everyone had been bleating on about before we left was the state of the roads. But it must be said, that with a couple of exceptions, we found the roads perfectly adequate - better even than Poland and Slovakia - and a hundred times better than some of the roads in Ireland back in 1999. So on we drove through the absolutely beautiful rolling pasture land of Western Romaina - much of it reminding us of parts of the North Island in NZ (except for the horse and carts) - and onwards towards the much anticipated destination of Transylvania!!!

Western Romania or the North Island of NZ?

Now one thing we debated on as to the similarity with the North Island was the driving. It can get pretty bad in NZ, but it didn't take long for both of us to reach the conclusion that the driving here is a million times worse. Talk about 'death wish'? These guys must have been on the highway to hell! We must have seen at least four rather serious accidents on the first 3 hour drive to Sighişoara, all pretty fresh, yet it just seemed to continue all the way until we got to the coast. And When we say 'death wish' - check out this series of photos I snapped out the window...and concentrate on the distance to the oncoming traffic!!! (for NZ/UK readers, remember you drive on the right here).





Poverty is another thing that Romania is rather 'famous' for, and something we'd heard that travellers find quite difficult to stomach. While there certainly were areas that were certainly deprived (especially in the cities), and Romania is certainly one of the poorest nations in Europe, on the whole this wasn't as overwhelming as we'd expected. The land looks really abundant, with local produce for sale along the roadside and fields of sunflowers and newly harvested wheat stretching out as far as the eye could see. But I guess it depends how you define poverty. I've heard people wax on about the horse and cart thing - sure these people are using fairly ancient farming and transport techniques, but given their age (most of the villages seem to be home to the older generations while the youngies are off in the cities) and their experience and expertise do you really think such farmers would suddenly embrace state of the art tractors and combine harvesters? And plus the horses are some of the best looking ones I've ever seen. In my humble opinion I think they'd be quite happy to carry on as they've always known. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

Depressing sights in the city

Hope it wasn't a car accident

But look at the gorgeousness of the countryside!!!

A way of life in these parts

No tractor needed here?!

Blue skies and hay stacks

Fields of gold

How do you like your honey?!

More horse & cart action

Something that was really quite sad to drive past though were the numerous Communist era chemical plants, all blackened out, dilapidated and deserted. They say they were so dangerous to local communities that until the early 90s, some two thirds of children in these areas showed signs of mental illness.

Driving and (former) industrial pollution aside, Romania was a real treat. Everyone was really friendly, the roads were totally fine, and the toilets (at least the ones we experienced) aren't bad either. We weren't overly impressed with Bucharest - but then who's really into a large sprawling former communist captial city 'enhanced' by totally oppressive meglomaniac anyway??