Dora needs a hip replacement

Change of plans at the last minute. We won’t end our travels in Romania by trekking in Retzeat natural park, as we originally planned. The weather doesn’t look good. We are going to Timisioara instead.

Timisioara is the hub of the Banat region, which is located in western Romania. For centuries, this region belonged to the Austro-Hungary empire. Because of this geographical position, it has closer cultural ties with Serbia and Hungary than with Romania.

It is, therefore, for this reason Timisioara enjoys a multi-cultural ethnic diversity. It was also here where the Revolution against Ceausescu commenced in 1989. Such an interesting town? And we were about to miss it?

Also, it would be the best place to take Dora to the GP. For a few days she has been making noises around her front right tyre. We thought it might have something to do with her shock absorber. We got distracted from this noise whilst dealing with her puncture. But now that her spare tyre has been repaired, our worries have come back. After driving along the Transalpina, the noise sounds much worst. Washing the absorber and sparing some oil has not made any difference. So, we will try to find a  mechanic in Timisioara who, hopefully, speaks English.

As soon as we enter Timisoara, we come across a sign towards an industrial area. We try our luck.

The first mechanic we pop in to can’t speak English.

The second one can, but they don’t deal with Fiat. They recommend us a Bosch car service down the road.

The Bosch car service would look at her, but they won’t be able to repair if there is any problem, as they only deal with Citroen. That will be fine. It may not be anything serious. Dora has been booked at 15.30.

It is 13.30. We have some lunch at the car park and do a bit of IT.

Dora’s check up has lasted only an hour. They gave us the diagnosis: her shock absorber is dead, she needs a new one. Poor Dora! They know the guys at the Fiat car dealer at the other side of the town, so they call them for us and book her the next day at 8.30 am. These guys are so helpful!

We leave really happy with the service but also really shocked. They have charged us only ROM 45 (€10) for checking her out. That wouldn’t pay for 10 minutes of labour cost back in the UK. It is ridiculous.

It is quite late in the day to now go into town so we drive to the Fiat car dealer and find a nearby place to sleep.

 

The mechanics at Fiat are waiting for us.

At first we get a bit of a sob story, ‘two mechanics are on holiday, one is ill, but we will try and fit you in’. GDR

The new shock absorber will only take a couple of hours to deliver and it will take an hour to fit it. Dora will be ready by noon. Really? Here is us thinking we might have to postpone Serbia for a few days.

So, whilst Dora is in hospital, we visit Timisioara, as we had originally planned. There is one problem. There is no public transport to Timisioara from here. However, the owner has to go to town. He drops us off to the nearest bus stop. This is amazingly smooth.

We take the bus which goes directly to the centre. We get off near to what looks like a cathedral.

We are both underdressed today. I am in skirt and short sleeves T-Shirt and Gary is also in shorts and short sleeves, and worst in sandals!! It is 12°C outside. With so much worries about Dora we’ve forgotten to take warmer clothes. It will be a long day.

Me with my arms inside my T-shirt. It looks like I am wearing a straightjacket. At least it will keep me warm.

Sometimes I think maybe we should be in the asylum! GDR

Through the park, we get to the Metropolitan cathedral.

Apparently, it has electric bells. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to hear them. It has just passed the clock.

There are no signs so we take a photo of the interior, the usual excess of gaudy gold. Not much giving to the poor has occurred here, more the other way around, the poor giving to the wealthy corporations, the church! GDR

Immediately in front of us, there is the Piata Victoriei, where thousands of demonstrators gathered on the 16th of December 1989 against Ceausescu.

The square is beautiful, and big enough to accommodate all of the people rebelling against the communist regime twenty years ago. It must have been fascinating being here at the time.

Majestic view of the cathedral behind us.

The square is dotted with fountains and parks, and lined with shops and cafes, which gives the city a dynamic, lively and modern look.

Gary takes a photo of Romulo and Remo feeding from the wolf. This is the third replica we have seen in Romania so far. The original statue is held in Rome.

What is this all about? Perhaps I should know. Seems a bit of a strange fable to me, and produces quite creepy sculptures. GDR

Imagine thousands of people, shouting: “Ceausescu out, now”, more than twenty years ago.

The square ends with the National Theatre and Opera. Everything seems almost to be set up for some kind of festival coming this weekend.

Now this we were almost tempted to buy and put on our mantelpiece , such a beautiful vignette depicting a typical Romanian landscape. Then I remembered we don’t have a mantelpiece which saved us from spending hard earning cash on this hideous and ugly memento! GDR

Down Str Alba Lulia, Timisoara’s high street, we pop in the tourist information office. A quick visit. The woman doesn’t seem to be in a mood to receive customers. She gives us a map and circles a couple of museums and two main squares, one of them we have just passed. She goes back to her computer.

On the same street, we find a box-shape, linear, concrete fountain. Very unusual. A queue of people are waiting to fill their plastic bottles. We wonder why it is so popular. Maybe the water has some sort of healing properties.

At the end of the street, we come across a pedestrian, mega square.

However, there is nothing here for people that encourages them to stay and enjoy such a large space: no benches, no green areas, no fountains.

Gary and I have a discussion.

I like it. All the streets that end up here are narrow and poorly lit. Coming up to such a large space brings up a sense of freedom.

Gary disagrees. For him, it is unnecessarily big. But let’s listen to what he has to say.

Sometimes I think spaces could be too big, yes they maybe good for a revolutionary demonstration, but they hopefully don’t come along too often. This one is particularly interesting. There are no cafes or restaurants, no trees providing shade, no places to sit or relax, people just wander through. It seems a bit of a waste, underused, vacant and lonely. Too big. GDR

We now visit the old fortress which has been converted into a square full of cafes and fashion shops.

We find this transformation very aggressive; using an old building for modern use, there are no remains of what it used to be like. At least locals get to use it more.

I agree, you have to have several glances before you realise this is a refurbished space, almost too brutal, no essence left of what used to be and therefore you might as well tear it all down and start from scratch, at least then you have a clean sheet of paper! GDR

We now get to the other big square in town: Piata Unirii. A picturesque square, although now being renovated.

The most remarkable feature is that two big churches, a Catholic and a Serbian one are facing each other. We enter the Catholic first.

Outside, dozens of pigeons seem to be eating the grit they fill the gaps between the stones with. Apparently, they need small pieces of a some type of hard material to digest their food, as their stomachs lack of enzymes and bacteria to break it down.

From memory it is something like this. We always feed the finches and canaries with grit. They seemed to love it (or need it, it didn’t look to tasty!) GDR

From here, we can see the Serbian church in the distance.

We can’t really appreciate the beauty of this square, only its size, another super-square. But let’s not start that debate again.

It look like they are taking the Greek approach. Lets start everywhere. Everywhere is a bit of a mess, but nothing is finished. Why not do a small bit at a time, finish it, open it to the public, next bit. Pedestrians are doing so much damage as they walk over the half constructed paving, such a waste, paid for by the EU, us that is! GDR

The square is endless.

There is the Catholic church from the other side.

Interestingly, most Serbians are orthodox, but they seem to have created their own version of it, as they call their church ‘Serbian church’.

We now head off to what we are really interested in: the Permanent Exhibition of the 1989 Revolution.

On the way up, a bar has put up a convincing sign on its window to attract customers. We laugh. We may come back later for lunch.

The Permanent Exhibition of the 1989 Revolution is currently held in an old army building. They could not have found a more suitable premises. The building looks old and derelict. It looks like one of those clandestine buildings where the opposition to the regime used to meet.

A Serbian woman welcomes us and tells us briefly how everything started.

The Revolution is still an important event for Romanian history. The team who runs the exhibition are committed to ensure that it is not forgotten, to make the new generations aware of the significance and implications, to ensure it won’t happen again. That is why they have organized a few exhibitions around Europe and they arrange day trips with schools to visit the centre.

She proudly shows us a wall full of drawings made by children just after the revolution.

Sculptures representing the suffering, oppression and killings are also displayed.

In fury and anger, people cut out the communist symbol embedded in the middle of the Romanian flags. Those flags are kept in this exhibition.

It seems a shame the new flag doesn’t have a hole in it as a permanent reminder to Romanians of the struggle and sacrifice the country went through rather than papering over the cracks, ‘filling in the holes’. GDR

We are then taken to see a short film about the revolution. It is quite interesting. As Timisioara borders with Hungary and Serbia, people had access to European channels and knew what was happening in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Thereafter, a great number of Romanian towns and cities followed, including Bucharest.

After the film, we went through the exhibition pretty quickly, as it contained similar information provided by the film. Only one section was interesting: the story of how Polish came here to support and fight against Ceausescu’s regime.

A piece of the Berlin wall is held outside the museum.

We have seen everything we wanted to see in Timisioara. We have time for a quick lunch before we pick up Dora. We are quite out of town, the only food option would be a shopping centre nearby.

There are still these old bits of industrial legacy littering the town. In some ways beautiful bits od sculpture, a reminder maybe of the communist or dictatorial past.

Maybe these are soon destined to be demolished, replaced by sparkly new shopping centres. Maybe they should be incorporated into the sparkly new shopping centres! GDR

Not ideal, but it is not practical to go back to the bar we saw earlier. From here, we can pick up bus number 11 that would take us close to Dora.

A supermarket within the shopping centre offers a menu today; meaty soup and then typical Romanian pork in some sort of sauce with ‘Mangalika’ semolina. This is what Gary has. I have gone for salad, some sort of croquetas and aubergine pate, I love it.

A much better option than the overpriced fast food available on the upper floor of a typical shopping centre. However we could have had; Asian, Italian, Fish, American, Turkish but I don’t remember if we could have had Romanian! GDR

The bus ends at 6 kms from where Dora is. From here we take a taxi. And there she is, waiting for us outside. The hip replacement has cost us €300.

This is amazing value and if it is a result of us doing crazy roads, well worth it. GDR

Oh well, these things happen. She hasn’t given us major problems during the ten months we have been travelling, really, considering how much we use her.

We drive down to the border for an hour or so. It has been a delightful and smooth drive; no noise, no complaints… We stop outside Deta, a village 10 kms from the Serbian border.

Tomorrow, a new country.

SM