Blog 12

All animals are equal... some are more equal than others.

Nicolae Ceauşescu was not a very good communist despite ruling Romania for twenty-four years. You see, communism aims to decrease the excesses of the elite in order to create an environment in which workers gain more access to the fruits of their labour. Nicolae thought that communism meant taking all of the money and building the world's second largest building as a personal palace. Wrong. Bad Nicolae. You fail ideology class... but excel at architecture.

In my experience, most countries that have lived through a period of dictatorial rule are grateful for their new freedom but hold out a little wistful affection for the past. Not Romania. They hate Ceauşescu with a passion and take every opportunity to publicly and officially state this fact. In the national museum of peasantry there is an entire room dedicated to the hate for this man and his regime. The are spittoons next to busts of the great man, plus Lenin and Stalin.

I can understand the Romanian sentiment. Bucharest is an ugly city, but I don't blame it for this. Every building is an ideological testament to anti-individualism, resembling large blocks of concrete stacked methodically skywards. Even the parks and squares of the city have been designed with control of the people and promotion of the leadership in mind. For example, the boulevards are excessively wide, allowing for military processions and easy crowd control while the squares have multiple entry points for easy mobilization of the army to any potential protest. The main Boulevard runs alongside the palace which is a grandiose and spectacular monstrosity overlooking a great square. Between the balcony and the square is a steep grassed hill with ample room for tanks – a constant reminder of the distance between leader and people.

In order to redesign Bucharest he first needed to knock down the old city. It wasn't until I came to Brasov that I realised just what a crime this was. Brasov is one of the secondary cities and it is breathtaking in its medieval beauty. Ceauşescu bulldozed an even grander city in Bucharest. What a twat. But hey, we can't have the people gathering in little alleyways, plotting schemes now.

Despite the poo history, Romanian people outside the capital have been delightful, helpful to a fault and remarkably adept at English. Yesterday I visited Bran castle, the once haunt of Vlad Tepis – otherwise known as Dracula. Sure, he might not have lived here and he didn't really drink blood, but he did impale people on big poles and mount them at the city limits still living so their deaths would scare crap out of invading forces so I still think he's kinda creepy. The churches and castles of the area (Transylvania) are very gothic and awesomely evocative. The 'Brasov' sign perched on the nearby mountain like a Hollywood sign is a little lame, but hardly on a par with old Nicolae's antics.

Before flying to Romania I spent a few wonderful days in Perugia, the capital of Umbria in Italy. It is a tidy university town built on a steep hill, so the layers of history are very exposed. One catches a hyper modern mini metro one carriage train ride thing up the hill and through a medieval fort to reach the most stunning views and impressive churches. The food was spectacular and I met a very cool crew of fellow travellers. It is always a little sad to say farewell but this is also the highlight of solo travelling.

The next few days will see me hike up a mountain and stay in a shack then catch a sixteen hour bus to Istanbul, Turkey.

I'm off to eat some more cabbage... and perhaps a sausage. When in Transyvalnia...

Blessings,

Matt.