BUCHAREST

Something I did not know about Romania before I arrived - that it is a latin country, surrounded by slavic ones. The language is not at all slavic, but closer to Italian with a slant of Russian. The people as well are featured in ways which are reminiscent of latin, and not slavic, roots.
It is as if Romania is the estranged sister of the latin world; removed and forgotten. She lives an existence of excess and tragedy; if Italy is the princess of the latin world, then Romania is the mistress - secretive, unassociated, seductive, with its own dark motives and illicit associations, whose existence may spawn violence.





Of course Romania is entirely misunderstood in the west - it is a country of folklore from the past, and a violent revolution from the recent past. The gnarled trees, old dusty gothic mansions, and misty skies create the mysterious atmosphere of Romania; where the supernatural still roams, where the unimaginable creeps into the minds of the people. A lower class of ignorant peasants, and an upper class of decadent and ruthless demons; this has always been Romania, and it still is Romania.




Bucharest is a haunted city; be it the spartan parks, the rotting Russian railcars, the packs of stray dogs, or the abandoned houses both gothic and communist, it is a tired city. It is also ripe for the pickings from American business, as the downtown is saturated with all sorts of advertising and fast food restaurants. They are embracing Americanization to its fullest; but this is no different than what has happened in Romania before.





Violent dictatorships in this country existed before Nicolai Ceaucescu; Carol II ruled during the time of Hitler, and was so ruthless that Hitler called him his favourite dictator. Romania was the only nation to voluntarily build its own concentration camps, to show the Nazis that they were more than willing to succumb to the Nazi empire, hoping to gain favour in the new world order. When Hitler and the nazis collapsed, Romania fell into the hands of Stalin and the communists, and Ceaucescu quickly moved to prove to Stalin that his little dictatorship would be a model for the rest of communism, putting hundreds of thousands to men at work building gigantic structures that no one needed or could afford, simply to assert his obsession with dictatorial grandeur. And when the soviet system fell, the Romanians have quickly moved to become little more than an economic protectorate of the U.S.A. and E.U.





Bucharest's wide boulevards, soviet style, make it much more impersonal than other European cities. Gigantic monuments, testaments to ruthless irrationalism, are dotted about the city. The most spectacular, rising out of a sea of nameless old buildings like a monolith, is Ceaucescu's palace. It is the second largest building in the world, after the Pentagon. In a country so poor, in a city so dirty, this gigantic structure stands as a massive testament to the decadence of the Romanian aristocracy. In fact, Ceacescu's wife was often quoted as calling the citizens of Romania as Worms.




There are stray dogs everywhere in the city; too many of them. Of course, empty lots are filled with garbage. But there are also a great deal of gutted cars on the sidewalks, with flat tires and broken headlights.
The city is disheveled. If anyone ever tells you it is a romantic place, they are only half right. Romania's people and civilization are locked in a story of tragic Romance; it is a classic shakespearean tragedy of lust, betrayal, and an excessively violent climax. And it's happened at least three times in the country's history.

One of the finest points of interest in the city is the peasant museum; I was expecting some silly miniature displays of old farm ranches, but instead found a giant site of full scale medieval peasant buildings from Romania.
The wooden crosses, thatch-roofed churches, ornate cottages, bathed in mist and accented by gnarled trees - here is the folklore of Romania. To live in these buildings would be to live in fear of the unknown. It was as if every element of medieval horror came back to me as I visited this museum.
But reflecting on the comparison of Romania as a mistress - she is the debutante. She is the attractive woman who will shamelessly ally herself with whomever will provide her with the most power and money; and nothing in Romania is done halfway.
"The heater is either on or off; there is no in between," Anne told me, the friend of mine whom I am visiting out here. Romania has lulled itself through many boring decades, only to jump up into violent insurgencies that baffle the rest of the world. Romania's psyche is either on or off. There is no moderation in this country. People live in excess or absolute poverty. The middle class still practice this through the extreme emotions which seem to be the essence of this country.

And think of Romania as the debutante who always chooses the wrong man to be with - she does everything in her power to prove to this powerful new man that she will be his best companion; but luck and circumstance always work against her. And in the end, she ends up tired, broken, cynical, lost, and very alone. Romania, being a latin country so far removed from the goings on of western Europe, and instead embroiled in the middle of communism and Balkanism, is an estranged and sad tale. And you can see this here - read Hamlet for an idea of Romania's circular history. And it's beginning again, as the brand new gas stations and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants and Pizza Huts start popping up all over the place. Romania has sold herself out yet again, hoping yet again for glory.

Tomorrow I will head for Constanta, Romania's second city which is a major port on the black sea. Train connections are a bit strange right now, as there is a rail strike on - workers are demanding a 70% wage increase. not likely to happen. It's misty, it's cold, and I think that's exactly the way you should see Romania.






To Constanta
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* A full account of my visit to this country is available in my yet to be published book, Means To An Exit. If you are an agent or publisher and would like to receive an outline and manuscript, please Contact Me.