Road to Jina

Our conference in Romania started a series of field trips today and the first destination was Jina via Saliste and Orlat. We were looking at village life and farming systems and I'll say a little about these as we perceived them. Orlat and Jina are high in the Carpathians which, in this part, lie up to 2500m asl, which is over 8000 feet. Suffice to say that scenery was often stunning. En route we took time out to visit two local governments (in Saliste and Jina) to talk to mayors and their offsiders about life in mountain communities and the problems of delivering services and development. And we also had a delicious lunch at Jina. So all in all this was a perfect day.

Let's start in Saliste located astride a picturesque mountain brook. The fourth picture shows the council chamber where we met the mayor.

After climbing a long mountain road through meadows and forests we reached Orlat shown here below our lookout. These villages are in fact quite sizeable and would be called towns in Australia. Indeed, they are sometimes strung out for kilometres on either side of a single narrow road and the Carpathians support a much denser rural population than in, say, my home region, Armidale, NSW.

A flock of sheep near Orlat. We were told that the countryside you are about to see supported a large number of sheep and cattle, but the landscape was almost bare of animals which we were told were on high mountain slopes. Instead the numerous small fields were used for cutting hay for winter feed and the hay was stored in traditional small mounds like those shown at various points below.

Yes, this is still a mode of transport in the mountains and lowlands alike.

Look at these gorgeous views on a crystal clear day.

Our approach to Jina, quite a prosperous village with its council chamber where we met another mayor and staff.

More gorgeous scenery, which talks for itself. Notice the small round hay-stacks, which provide necessary animal feed for the long winter months with their 2-meter snow drifts.

We had a lovely lunch of local cheeses, meats and polenta, which you can see brewing in the pot. It was then smothered in yoghurt  to make a tasty meal.

After that, we saw even more stunning scenery!

Then we returned to Jina to stroll around the streets and see some of the traditional mountain architecture and a huge orthodox church.

And so to home. I'd like to return to this country with its wide open spaces!

AS

Watch Out Versailles

A few years ago I had the pleasure of walking around Versailles and its grounds and today I had the dubious opportunity to walking around a modern seat of government that puts Versailles a little in the shade - the second biggest building in the world after the Pentagon. It is the Parliament building in Bucharest ... commenced by Nicolae Ceaesescu a few years before the revolutions of 1989 swept communist governments from power and led to his own execution. The following external views show the something of the dimensions of this monumental folly - were not allowed to photograph the interior. We visited it from the nearby university where my second conference started this morning - I gave a keynote address.

Before the pictures, I'd just like to say that everything about this building is over the top. It has dozens of ornate rooms with massive floor-spaces (including a ballroom the size of a soccer pitch), guilded walls and ceilings, gold leaf in many places, intricate wooden floors, huge carpets, marble everywhere, enormous chandeliers, huge corridors, grand marble staircases, artworks and statues, and so on. It cost billions of dollars for a poor country and has absolutely nothing to do with communism as a philosophy. Rather, it reflects the megalomania of one deluded imbecile who had visions of personal grandeur. It makes no sense now; nor did it in the middle of the 1990s when completed.

Well here it is. Enjoy, or should I say deride. Here's the monument itself.

And the views from the roof across Bucharest. Note the boulevard and other formal gardens radiating from the communist 'palace'.

Not to forget monumental and simultaneously forbidding facades:

And for shuddering moment I stood on the balcony, similar to the one the Queen uses at Buckingham Palace, and imagined that I was Ceaesescu addressing the adoring crowd about the wonders of socialism. At this point I remembered that he was booed and fled to his death in a helicopter!

At this point, I sobered up and took a few more pictures of grandiose columns.

What an embarrassment for the locals!

AS

Walking Through Jewish Krakow

Numerous walking tours start from Krakow's historic main square and after my conference finished on Friday Irit and I went on one of them. We were both travelling to Bucharest the following day and Irit, an Israeli lady I've met at conferences for some years and I decided to walk through the remains of what was once a vibrant Jewish community, Kazimierz. We were staying at the same hotel, so it was easy to meet up and walk to the start of the tour only 3 minutes away. It was an interesting excursion as these pictures show, starting with an old and historic synagogue that survived the second world war. 

The market square nearby was lined with stores owned by the local Jewish community and embedded in it was a second synagogue shown here with its inscription.

The square also contained an Israeli Restobar, whatever that is and a holocaust memorial.

Then there was a third, ultra-orthodox synagogue in the street.

Nearby was a Jewish community centre funded with some support - financial and otherwise - from one Charles, Prince of Wales - heir to the British throne

The next move was to another market, in which Krakow abounds.

This led to a film set for the production of Schindler's List. If any of you have seen the film you might recognise this picture which is of a real place. The story, Schindler's Ark, was written by Australian author Thomas Keneally, and adapted for film by Steven Spielberg winning many Oscars.

The walk then headed to the Vistula River, the main river of Poland flowing down through Warsaw. Even here, hundreds of km away it is broad and placid. The bridge across it shown in the coming slides is famous for several things. It leads to the site of the former Jewish ghetto, is famous for its padlocks which are placed there in locked position by newly married couples - we saw this being done, and the bridge somewhat resembles the Isambard Kingdom Brunel bridge across the Tamar at Plymouth.

 
 And so on the ghetto past street paintings like this bell ringing over the heads of people in a crowd to see a point where some lucky people escaped the ghetto and avoided transit to Auschwitz - Birkenau or similar locations and a horrible fate. The assembly ground for deportation is now covered in metal chairs (a work of art) facing the deportation office. And the plaque shown is on the wall of the ghetto.

And our final destination was this innocuous building where Oskar Schindler had his factory in which men from the ghetto worked and were eventually saved by spiriting them off to Slovakia.

All in all this was an interesting historical walk and well done our guide for explaining the detail of what I've said above.

AS