Railway Dog

Traveling to Romania is time travel. From many young people smoking cigarettes, to hay stooks, to human train signals, to 3 ticket inspectors per 5/6ths empty train, to cash only small shops, to dilapidated brutalist architecture juxtaposed to 19th century ruins.

My initial exposure to all this was in Baile Herculane, a spa town on the main train line between Timisoara and Bucharest. I’d meant to stay over in Timisoara, the historic starting place of the 1989 revolution. It was urban and grubby, so we got back on the train and saw the train stopped this small town in the hills.

I booked a last minute BnB on booking.com, which had only a few options in Baile Herculane. It turned out there are numerous places to stay, so out of high season just turning up wouldn’t be a problem. There are taxis at the beautiful station, though my hosts came to pick me up. Romanians seem kind people.

Romanians holiday a lot in their own country. State workers even get holiday vouchers exclusively for use in Romania. So Romanians on holiday were the main people I came across, as well as a scattering of Italians, Poles and Germans.

Everywhere I went in Southern Romania there were derelict buildings and plenty of rubbish. In the popular spa resort of Baile Herculane this was a bit of a surprise. It turns out a corrupt government member bought up all the old buildings for a tiny price, and is waiting till values increase to sell them off one by one for big money. This sell up has started in the last year or two, so some buildings are being renovated.

Elements of modernity are subtle: plug sockets in some train carriages, vegan cheese and salami in bigger supermarkets, larger food shops selling fresh vegetables and refrigerated items as well as long shelf life products (but not in small food stores), large fields of yellow flowering rapeseed as well as smaller strip fields, a few places to stay being on international booking sites.

6 May 2023. 7 hours on a train in Romania from Baile to Bucharest. It is very hot and smoky (naughty young men), I am not allowed to open window by patriarchal passenger (grumpy old git). After 5 hours on a heavily vibrating floor, I let Baspie break the rules and lie on top of me – even more warmth! But I’m happy coz have my dog and am nowhere near people talking about the C word. Back in the UK ancient history is happening right now.