This is our last port of call in Romania. A three hour drive from Sibiu with a private driver was the easiest way to arrive in Timisoara, the town that has been designated European Capital of Culture for 2021. It’s impressive with some very beautiful European style buildings cloistered around three distinct squares. We stayed two nights to soak up the rather grand sights of this northern Romanian town that attracts its fair share of visitors.
Timisoara is well known as the town that started the 1989 Revolution which successfully ousted Ceausescu and his wife. The Revolution Museum provided an excellent lesson in the way in which the Timisoaran protestors (referred to by Ceausescu as the Hungarian Hooligans) fuelled a mighty fire of revolt throughout Romania within the space of a week.
Simmering in the background though were years of suppression and hunger under Ceausescu’s harsh dictatorial rule, Gorbochev and his welcome Glasnost doctrine, Hungary and Poland with their successful revolts for freedom as well as the longed for collapse of the Berlin Wall. Plenty of fodder to fuel a mighty revolution which culminated in the shooting of the Ceausescus by the military.
We have been in Romania for two weeks and it’s simply not long enough. This country is huge and there are so many other sights to see we realised after talking to a friendly waiter over last drinks.
We were impressed with the sights, the food and the accommodation. Bus and train travel was not always direct, so we opted for a private driver which was easy to organise either through our accommodation owner who had a friend or mydaytrip.com. Language was sometimes an issue but Google Translate worked wonders in removing any barriers.
Tomorrow we cross the border into Serbia.
