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| Romania
- Simply Surprising! |
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Pros: beautiful buildings
Cons: none
Bucharest,
Romania
Saturday, Feb 12, 2005 13:47
A visit that was primarily made to facilitate at a conference turned
out to be much more than that...
“Romania, truly
mania”
This is how an Asian friend described Romania. She obviously took
it from Malaysia’s tourism campaign – ‘Malaysia,
truly Asia’. I never quite understood it. Actually I still
don’t but at least I tried by visiting the land of the Dracula
– Romania.
Actually the catch line promoted by Romania’s tourism department
is ‘Romania – Simply surprising’. Based on my
experience there I can only agree with this statement. Even though
it wasn’t because of the country but my time in Romania was
simply surprising.
I was there along with the rest of my team in February 2005 to facilitate
at the second biggest international conference. It’s a conference
where the current and elected national presidents of over 90 countries
come together to elect the new AIESEC International team and create
a global plan that guides our activity for the next 2-3 years. Interestingly
I was responsible for global planning – a responsibility I
unwillingly accepted. I was told that it’s a matter of pride
to be asked to coordinate global planning. I didn’t feel any
pride but the thought of making 150+ individuals agree and create
a prioritized plan for the entire association was daunting to say
the least! ‘Surprisingly’ it went off very well!
The direction recommended by us for the association was accepted
without major surprises. It was the addition of a sixth additional
director that surprised most of the delegates but more about it
in my personal notes! :o)
Unlike previous presidents’ meetings, this one had happening
parties with people boogying till late at night. I decided not to
miss any party and joined in the fun.
As a country, Romania didn’t surprise me a lot. I was expecting
it to be similar to other central-eastern European countries where
people who know you are extremely cordial while the people who don’t
know you are vary of you - often mistaking me to be a gypsy. I must
say that I had the right expectations. Like other central-eastern
European countries, not knowing the language was another big handicap.
The good part was my ability to spend my Dutch salary here. Romania
is very cheap as compared to the Netherlands but in my excitement
I ended up spending as much as I usually spend in the Netherlands.
Since the currency is extremely devalued, everyone gets the pleasure
to be a millionaire in Romania. 30 euros will get you over 1 million
Romanian currency.
My stay in Romania was limited to the city of Bucharest. Its also
known as the little Paris. It was hard for me to understand the
reasoning behind it but if you are initiated in French architecture
then you might agree. In the downtown Bucharest, French architects
or Romanian architects tributary to the French school designed entire
neighborhoods and some results are still here with us today. I must
say that I did notice a few statues of babies in the balconies.
That makes it a little Parisian it not entirely! :o)
Most of downtown Bucharest follows no single rule in terms of urban
design. There is no obvious delimitation between styles or periods,
as there is no delimitation between people. The people here live
in so different conditions that the poles are two worlds apart.
The Communists have of course left their mark as always! A lot of
houses are near ruin because of neglect. It's obvious to anyone
that they won't last very much time from now. I'd contend that the
whole country resembles these houses: beautiful yet ready to collapse.
But things have changed since the Communists were thrown out and
they are moving in the positive direction.
I saw a number of beautiful buildings – the names of which
I don’t remember. The food was in some way similar to Slovakia
including the sparkling water. A note of warning: never ever try
this traditional side dish made of corn. It’s called Mamaliga
and it’s like a hard yellow coloured disc that can easily
be used as a good replacement for a Frisbee. Obviously you shouldn’t
mention your dislike to Romanians as they might insist that you
try the “home made version”. I have personally decided
to never try it again irrespective of the version. I’m ready
to start a worldwide campaign to prevent gullible foreigners from
falling into the trap of trying anything that looks and feels like
a Frisbee. |
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