a long weekend, a witty vaction
So this is a four-day weekend--kedd [Tuesday] is Nov 1, All Saints' Day, and tuesday national holidays in hungary are celebrated by moving everything that was supposed to happen on hetfo [monday] to the following szombat [saturday]. This works with mixed success, as everyone takes advantage of the four days this weekend, but then most businesses ignore the official extended operating hours to make up for the extra time off. Anyway, we're travelling for our long weeknd to Romania. It will be part ... 2, or maybe 3 (or even 4, depending on what we're counting) of the "Travel to Places we Probably Will Never Visit Again" plan. I definitely think that Romania applies as an obscure place to travel--when we visited the BP Romanian tourism office, they were so surprised and happy to see us, and we were told we needed to "tell all of our friends back home about [their] office and about Romania." Consider it done.
It also makes this part 1 of the "Witty Trips" plan, since we will be in the heart of Transylvania for Halloween (even if they don't "celebrate" it in the sense we're all used to), including visits to the castle seat and birthplace of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Dracula. Although things aren't entirely worked out yet, we may or may not be taking day trips to other towns in the area, mountain hikes, maybe Bucharest. Exciting updates to follow, I'm sure.
On the other hand, most Hungarians have told us that once out of Transylvania (which has historically been part of Hungary), the country is not so hot. Hungary and Romania have been rivals of a sort, I suppose, and it definitely shows when they describe Romanians as "very nationalistic" and "unpleasant to people speaking English," qualities which, I suppose, could both be turned a little bit back on Hungary (for the way restaurants will serve you free tap water when you order in Hungarian, but say nincs [there is none] when you use english, for the irredentism bumper stickers, attitude about Transylvania vs the rest of Romania). Now, I'm not saying either quality is particularly bad--I mean, I resent the Americans who don't bother trying to learn the language of the country they stay in as much as the next guy, and that national spirit is what's maintained a Hungarian cultural and linguistic identity for the last 800 years of foreign domination, but I do think it's funny how disparaging they are. One of my professors said, "If you leave Transylvania, go into the Eastern or Southern part of Romania, it is like stepping onto a whole different continent. Not good change, like maybe coming from America to Europe, but... something different entirely."
Well, that actually sorta piqued my interest. After all, you can see pretty small towns with church and main square in a lot of places, but there's no Socialist dystopia that's been razed and rebuilt (by Ceaucescu) quite like Bucharest, or so I've heard. We'll see, though... it should at any rate be an interesting trip (and my first overnight train (!))
For now, helo!
sam
It also makes this part 1 of the "Witty Trips" plan, since we will be in the heart of Transylvania for Halloween (even if they don't "celebrate" it in the sense we're all used to), including visits to the castle seat and birthplace of Vlad Tepes, the inspiration for Dracula. Although things aren't entirely worked out yet, we may or may not be taking day trips to other towns in the area, mountain hikes, maybe Bucharest. Exciting updates to follow, I'm sure.
On the other hand, most Hungarians have told us that once out of Transylvania (which has historically been part of Hungary), the country is not so hot. Hungary and Romania have been rivals of a sort, I suppose, and it definitely shows when they describe Romanians as "very nationalistic" and "unpleasant to people speaking English," qualities which, I suppose, could both be turned a little bit back on Hungary (for the way restaurants will serve you free tap water when you order in Hungarian, but say nincs [there is none] when you use english, for the irredentism bumper stickers, attitude about Transylvania vs the rest of Romania). Now, I'm not saying either quality is particularly bad--I mean, I resent the Americans who don't bother trying to learn the language of the country they stay in as much as the next guy, and that national spirit is what's maintained a Hungarian cultural and linguistic identity for the last 800 years of foreign domination, but I do think it's funny how disparaging they are. One of my professors said, "If you leave Transylvania, go into the Eastern or Southern part of Romania, it is like stepping onto a whole different continent. Not good change, like maybe coming from America to Europe, but... something different entirely."
Well, that actually sorta piqued my interest. After all, you can see pretty small towns with church and main square in a lot of places, but there's no Socialist dystopia that's been razed and rebuilt (by Ceaucescu) quite like Bucharest, or so I've heard. We'll see, though... it should at any rate be an interesting trip (and my first overnight train (!))
For now, helo!
sam
posted by sam at
3:01 AM
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