Here's the first report from Bucharest, sent from there in two parts to minimize the possibility of disconnects or loss of contents, and combined into one message again by me. Also a separate explanation (of sorts) of the identical multiple copies of the first message I got, and the assurance that the blank message really didn't have any contents.
Ellen
First Ron says:About the blank message. Looking back, the best I can figure is there is no missing message. I had some type of problem sending the file. Because of the keyboard I had over 100 spelling errors to correct, which should have cleared up the stuff you got in the message. However, when I went to send the message it would not go. I copied a copy to the notepad, and entered it into a new message and sent again. So one of the copies could have been after spell check without the garbage. That explains the new subject line, since it had taken so long I had forgotten the original.
Bucharest Sept 16 End of first week.Hi Ellen,
Arrived after an 18 hour overnight bus ride in the afternoon.
The bus ride was like traveling in a smoky bar. People brought their own glasses for their colas to fit in the holes in the drop down trays like on an airline. And almost everyone smoked...constantly. It was so bad my eyes burned and watered. Instead of people getting off the bus to take a smoke, I was getting off at every opportunity to breath fresh air. My thoughts were that the US peddles drugs abroad while fighting other drugs at home, and tobacco is probably more addictive than a lot of the illegal drugs. There are ads for cigarettes everywhere.
I think just about everyone on the bus was Romanian, returning home, but I am not sure of this. At first they seemed very cold to me, but gradually they warmed up, and by the time the trip was finished there were several saying goodbye to me. One guy I got to know better than most and he was always dropping by my seat to tell me what was happening, what the announcement was, or if I needed to fill out the various forms at the borders. He is around 30 and has four kids between 3 and 12. He worked in Istanbul cleaning for a couple of months to make money. Before he worked a couple of years in Israel.
The scenes from the bus first reminded me of Mexico...big open spaces, mountains, few trees, brown and dry. There were huge fields of dry sunflowers with the small heads hanging down. But later, parts of Romania reminded me of my image of Poland before the war, with lots of small gardens mixed in with the small homes.
When the bus crossed into Bulgaria it was driven into this large concrete block building with some strange equipment. Everyone had to get off the bus and wait in the back, in the dark, for maybe 20 minutes. The signage said something about "disinfectant". We crossed the Danube River at daybreak. Ancient equipment, lots of aging industry on both sides of the river. But it was also a beautiful sight at that time of day.
My funniest image of the day was 3 puppies trying to get something out of the bottom of a paper cup. They would take turns sticking their nose in the cup, and pushing further because they couldn't quite reach the bottom. Then they would run around with the cup stuck on their noses until they shook it loose.
The bus dropped me near the train station and I biked to the center to find Hotel Palas, where I learned that the next day they were closing the hotel for renovations and the $6 rooms were not available. So I biked back to the train station area and chose the middle one of three hotels near the station, with a room with a TV and sink for about $11.50. It felt really good to be back on the bike...the first time this trip. There are not many bicyclists here. Most of the ones I have seen are young guys, maybe in their teens, not following any rules of the road that I understand. I know if I could figure out the sides streets and walk through some of the bigger intersections, I could bike, but the roads are horrible, large pot holes, and the traffic is a hazard, and the metro is efficient and cheap, runs most places I want to go, and then there are streetcars and buses. So, I have not biked again since I checked into the hotel and parked it in their room off the lobby.
My first couple of days were basic learning steps for a new country, culture, and city. First I had to change money, so I changed $1 at an exchange place on the street, to find out the going rate and to have some funds to buy a metro ticket. The first bank's ATM kept telling me my card was not approved for transactions. Real scary event. But a Dutch guy had the same problem, so we got directions to the head office bank, and on the way found another large bank with higher limits (some of them allow only about $30 per day) and both of our cards worked fine. He was an interesting fellow. Most guys that I am aware of find their wives in the third world, and the women want to move to the first world. But this guy is marrying a local lady and they want to stay here in Romania. He knows it will be tough to make a living, but he wants to stay.
I have ridden the metro, trolleys, bought a map (poor), bought a phone card, and found an open air market where I bought seltzer, peaches, grapes, bread and white cheese for a hotel lunch.
A lot of the young people and young adults speak English, so I have had lots of help on directions, and some conversations. I met a young couple, John and Anita, (folks at WorkSource should enjoy that set of names) who helped me on some directions, and one thing led to another, and we spent the evening together. They took me to a moderately upscale bar with some live music for a coffee, for which, of course, I paid slightly less than $3. They are both studying economics, he wants to go into marketing and have his own marketing company and she want to enter management. I enjoyed their company, they were sharp, both could speak good English, but she was more quiet. The experience provided me with some insights into the Romanian youth.
Also on the metro I meet three Peace Corps volunteers. They had just checked out of the Palas Hotel and were heading for a conference in some other city. They gave me the name of the Peace Corps volunteer in Braila, and suggested I look him up for a place to stay. I still have not figured out the trains to buy my tickets, one for me and one for the bike, for my trip to Braila. So maybe I will hang around a couple of more days before really getting started on the bike trip.
Ellen, do you remember that monstrosity of a building in Warsaw that the Russians built that looked like a multi-layer cake? Well, the palace here is even bigger, with a wide and long street that is supposed to be longer than the one in Paris, which I cannot name. It makes the "cake" tiny. Sort of hard to conceive with all the poverty here.
There are miles and miles of concrete tall long apartment buildings like in Warsaw and Havana. I would never be able to find a specific address. When I have looked for street names, I would say about 5% of the intersections have them.
I have heard the flute music a few times. Once in the metro station a guy had a pan pipe and a hat full of money. Another time on TV as background music. And in general a couple of times on the street as part of some other music.
Couple of loose ends. Reservation made for the deluxe room at the Oriental for $20 a night and free suitcase storage between visits. Please confirm your dates, fight no, arrival time, etc. Somehow I didn't bring a copy of the plan you typed. And bring more new shiny pennies.
Enough. I have not run spell check, so please correct my errors. I love you and look forward to you joining me.
Ron
Modified: 2002-05-23
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