Postcards from Romania

On the beach of 2 mai

In a train station near the Black Sea coast

New block rising between the sea and the sunflower field

Why I love the train

Couple of days ago (more like a month), a friend asked me about some old  articles I published on the web which I’d forgotten about.

Here is an article I published on the blog of Productive International.  They have a great blog about Romania which you should check out http://www.productive.ro/blog/

At that time, my description sounded like this: ” MB is a student of politics at Bucharest University and an intern at Productive International. She has worked on our website, developing documentary films and renewable energy projects. Her photos can be seen here.”

The best thing about this article is the comments I got for it. I posted some of them underneath the article (thank you technorati for being so useful and saving them!). Though, read my article too, just to get the context :)

I write this article for all those who pity me when I tell them I have to spend eight hours on a train, to get to my home town of Botosani, which is in the North East of Romania. Until I came to college in Bucharest I didn’t use the train; whenever I couldn’t go by foot, my father was always there to take me with the car. Before moving to the capital I went by train only once, and I was enchanted!

Nowadays I get the train home at least once a month, and those hours are one of the best things that happen to me. And here’s why.

I always lose so much time on silly things, or things I could do in a minute, but for me can take ages. For example, when I should be reading I waste time looking out of the the window, checking my email or Facebook account to see if anything interesting has happened. With the first opportunity I will drop the boring book and do anything else instead.

I want to edit my photos. I have some old photos forgotten on the desktop which are waiting to be edited. After then I have to upload them, find titles for them and make nice comments. That’s taking some time and finally I get bored and surf the Internet about internships or low cost flights, I read my friends’ blogs.

So you see, on the train I don’t have any of these distractions. Indeed, I get dreamy and meditate on the meaning of life or just on what should I wear at some party. But that didn’t stop me on my last journey from finishing a 200 pages book I had to read for college, quite boring and useless. I also feel blessed with my little ipod, on which I listen to new music and look out of the window at the plain, the abandoned industrial sites (how I like them!) and the sky.

So much sky; I just can’t believe it. In the city you can forget to watch the sky, or you can’t see it because Bucharest is just wires and holes and cars on every square centimeter. In the parks people don’t look at the sky, they look at other people.

Back on the train time passes differently. Usually eight hours is nothing; I get up, have a shower, eat, go to a lesson and they are gone. On the train you just sit. If you’re used with a stressed life like I am, you can’t just do that. You begin to read, you do some Sudoku. I saw a girl the other day working on a muffler. You want to move so you get on your feet go into the hall and watch the view. Maybe it doesn’t seem very romantic (on the way to my home the panoramas are quite depressing) but there is always something new during those 500 kilometres. Look, a cemetery of tanks! And what’s with that fire there? And those hillocks look so funny!

You might also meet interesting people. But not always. Once I had to assist in a discussion between two old ladies about how pigs died and were eaten by rats, or the truck driver who almost got killed on several occasions.

But you can probably guess what’s most important of all: the feeling that you’re going home to your family to get some rest in your old room, full of silly things that Mom would throw out if you didn’t protest very harshly. She doesn’t understand that it took you years to make it like that!

Maybe the greatest experience I had on the train was in the sleeper. It was a very strange night. A tall, extremely polite but suspicious man waits for you at the entrance to the wagon and takes you to your small but warm cabin. The cabin, lined in cheap but impressive imitation wood, gives me the feeling I’m living a century ago, during the reign of King Carl. I am a rich lady from the court.

I am lying on the white sheets, watching my coat dance on a wooden hanger, listening to the train make weird noises and sudden movements. The light coming from behind the mirror brings a touch of serenity over the gloomy air.

Suddenly, my mind jumps to Poe’s detective stories. Alone in my cabin, the dark, the freakish but still delightful sound of the moving train and the stiff guard outside. The perfect atmosphere for a mysterious murder.

In the end, I got sleepy and my eyes couldn’t take the light anymore.  Sleep killed me.

COMMENTS:

Tomi

By reading this post, I got to realize why it is that people like trains so much. They are probably represented, at a more or less subconscious level, as shapes willing to grab whatever meaning comes in the mind of the traveler. And as this wasn’t good enough, you get to be speared the possibility to make the worse decision of all – since that is already in progress: just sitting, traveling and doing nothing. Besides that, if we were not to be very critical, we might actually conclude that the worse of the worse is not that bad – as, obviously, in a train you can’t be all adrift and, whether you like it or not, – you are hinting somewhere.

Quite often I hear that people tend to consider trains refugees for reading. I used to believe that those buildings – which they call libraries, were the best places for having a quiet books-moment, with no disturbing elements: no cigarettes, no laptop, no food and – thanks God! – no talkative people around. I expect it is reasonably clear for everyone: the Library Era has come to an end and a new generation of readers is growing more and more prominent – the train reader. It might be that the protection against interruption offer by trains is a bit radical, since in libraries the worse thing you could actually do is changing your book. Well, let’s just say with trains you’ll have to pay more attention when choosing your book right from the start. But this is a good thing too, right?

What a wonderful invention, isn’t it? As I very optimistically see it – the bright future is somehow in sight, intellectually speaking. Not to mention, of course, the economical aspect, as the money paid for getting a share of this emancipatory practice would greatly enrich the state treasure. I would ask, legitimately and without annoying too many people – I hope, who needs highways anyway? Why to ruin Romania’s cheerful future?

P.S.: I am faithful that the eventual readers of this comment would reflect upon the meaning of some words used here and would not just take for granted the first meaning given to them by dictionaries.

Rupert

I use the train when crossing Romania (or Bucharest) as it is the most relaxing and ecological form of transport, and combined with a bike you can get anywhere (and CFR have just legalised taking bikes on trains, which is a shame as I enjoyed smuggling mine on). Not only is it a great place to read, write, think, sleep, listen to music and chat, but it is a creative space. Travelling makes you more creative. It is also the future form of mass transport as it is immune to Peak Oil.

last time I got the train to Montenegro it arrives 10 hours late. I was prepared for the delay and had books to read and articles to write. But most people really don’t have anything to do. It’s incredible. Some have those really shallow popcorn magazines, which they flick through, others lose themselves in their mobiles, many chatter endlessly about nothing and the Montenegrians seem resigned to a lifetime of patiently waiting for something interesting to happen; they seem immune to delays and the idea of complaining was as alien as a visitor from Mars.

Julian

This is a pleasant article to read, indeed it is a good reflection on how one can use time on a train journey as a pause and refuge from the hectic lives that we all seem obliged to lead.

I used to enjoy the latter part of the journey on that route, from Dolhasca up a shallow valley where the pace of life appeared slow and gentle, beechwoods crowned the ridges, and the train had more of the character of a local service in the far provinces. The last hour to Botosani took the traveller almost to the main streets of the villages, wound through fields and around hills, and was indeed a step back into a quieter and simpler past.

One can just hope that others will appear who love and appreciate trains. Perhaps there will be a long term future for the forest railway at Viseu de Sus? Maybe the historic line from Sibiu to Agnita, now derelict, can be restored for future generations to use and enjoy?

Alex

Poe’s detective stories feature in the poem ‘Mysteries’ by Terence Winch which you can read here: http://washingtonart.com/beltway/winch.html

(you have to scroll down)

Peter

Jack Kerouac is smiling somewhere, marvelling at the luxury of your white sheets and dancing coat. The train trip, a mobile mini-movie on our one way ticket. I have a fond memory (and video) of Rupert, Luca, Emmanuelle & I with the Roma villagers on the Brasov – Bucharest line last February.

Gavin

Great train blog. I want to buy a ticket now and jump aboard. It doesn’t matter where. That’s part of the adventure. The show starts at A and ends at B.

Manuela

Julian, you mentioned about how great the train route from Dolhasca to Botosani is. Well, just 2 days ago, in the morning, when my train arrived in Veresti (next stop after Dolhasca), there were some crows looking for food on the edge of the platform, just like they would in the middle of an empty field. And when the train started to move, the railroader who gave the green signal, waved at me (probably because I was starring quite insistent in his direction). Where else do you get that?

Julian

Manuela, I am glad that you appreciate my comments. You could in fact enjoy some pleasant moments and meet some friendly people on the numerous heritage railways which operate in Britain (and indeed in other countries). In fact, if you head to Wales, you will even find Romanian locomotives and carriages (”liberated” with the aid of some “sparga”, naturally…..)

Even on the national rail network, if you travel on the more rural lines in northern or western England, Wales or Scotland, you will see nature coming right to the platform and lineside, and meet people not so stressed that they cannot wave and be friendly. Ireland too can be like that. The narrow gauge lines in the Harz mountains in Germany are special too.

It helps, of course, that passengers over here don’t usually throw their trash out of the train windows. I remember some passengers for Suceava desperately trying to force open the windows on the air-conditioned Intercity train so as to throw trash out – even though the carriage had ample rubbish bins. Then they blocked the air conditioning vents with paper towels because of the great Romanian battle against “curent”. Perhaps steam trains, wooden seats, and glass bottles that had to be returned to claim a deposit were quite enough for passengers on that route?

Oana

I couldn’t agree with you more on the subject of long trips by train. Especialy since we share the same route. As a reading experience nothing compares with a cosy place in an empty compartiment, in the swing of the train. And to rest your eyes by taking a glimpse at a fugitive landscape on the window. More than this, I think I did some of my best exam studying in those 8 hours of voyage and that’s something when you have to deal with advanced mathematics and quantum physics. Also I think we’re lucky we got accustomed with long voyages. Some people become fidgety and anxious if they spend more than 2 hours travelling. But we’re beyond that … Great stuff here and I expect more!

De la munte la 3G

Sunt in gara in Arad. Nu prea inteleg cand si cum am ajuns aici. Tocmai mi-am cumparat bilet(e). Trebuie sa schimb trenul de trei ori pana acasa.

In noaptea asta dorm din nou pe calea ferata. Sper sa primesc si o priza. Daca nu, o sa termin de citit o poveste japoneza sau mai vad care e treaba cu antropologia. Sa ma apuc sa scriu despre saptamana in Transilvania? Nu stiu, acum pare nefiresc. Mai am si pozele de developat.

Update. In ultima saptamana, telefonul meu se chinuia sa prinda o linie de semnal prin munti. Acum am conexiune cu viteza 3G. Intr-o ora au trecut pe langa mine mai multi oameni decat am vazut in ultimele 3 zile.

Cald, lene, dor de carari de munte.