What I ♥ about Romania

  I've been here in the old Eastern Bloc for nearly 3 years now.  Yes there are things about back home that miss, mainly my family, the rest of it...meh.  But here's what & why I love living in Romania.

1.  Romania is peaceful.
      Romania has a long history, with it's share of violence, but none that she herself started.  Since it's inception, WAYYY back in the day.  Romania had 1 thing on her mind:  how to live a good and peaceful life.  She never sought world domination.  Instead she was attacked and plundered by the Ottoman's - who she eventually overthrew (the only country I know of that did that during that time) thanks to Vlad Tepes, a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, or for you 'Twilight' freaks - Dracula.  Then came the Romans, who were in this country only a short time - the shortest of all their occupations.  Then later came the Soviets and the only way that they really kept Moscow out of their business was to be even harsher in their policies than the Russians themselves.  And now - the E.U.....but I'll save that for another post.
     Romanians have a mentality of "let those fools take care of themselves, we've got ourselves to think of".  And in that I think they are right.  They don't want to get involved in physical or cultural wars.  They just want to live a good life, one that doesn't involve scraping by, or constantly fighting.  For this they have an enormous amount of my respect.  But this has also made them weak in the sense that it allows countries and politicians that are perceived as more wealthy or powerful to prey up on this intrinsically rich country.

2.  Romania is old fashioned.
      Travel through a little village (Satu) here in Romania, and you will still see horse drawn carts, horses and mules being used to plow fields.  The old ladies cutting funny looking plants to boil into a tea to cure an ailment.  The ways of the past live on here.  Yes technology is here as well, otherwise, well I wouldn't be blogging now would I.  But it doesn't permeate every facet of life here, and for this I'm grateful.  I don't have to rely soley on whatever crack-pot calls themselves a doctor here (at least in Tulcea anyway), I can talk to the old ladies in my neighborhood and they will tell me exactly what I need to do in order to cure a cold, or kidney stones, or liver or kidney problems - and they work!  LOVE THEM OLD LADIES!!!!

3.  Romania is Beautiful
     Romania has some truly gorgeous landscapes.  Granted the sovietic style architecture detracts from the beauty to be found along the coast of the black sea, and in the cities.  But out in the country, there are mountains, hillsides, everything.  It's untouched.  Now there is a MAJOR problem with littering here.  For some reason or other the people here have no qualms about leaving trash on the streets or sidewalks.  I don't understand that.  It makes the country look poor and ugly, and it's really not.  Another thing that would help, especially in the cities, is if they learned what landscaping is.  Yes, the blocs of apartments are old and ugly, but some fresh paint on the buildings and fences, put in some grass, bushes and flowers, and you could really make it pretty.  Everyone in the building could chip in to renovate the outside to look as good as what they've renovated inside their own apartments.

4.  Romania is "Centrally" located.....
     ......well at least to all the places in Europe I have always wanted to visit.  Italy is only a 2 hour flight away.  Germany, about the same.  Odessa, Ukraine is only a few hundred kilometers by boat or car. I want to see the city with my name, mainly so I can steal the sign that says "Welcome To Odessa", even if it is in Cyrillic! ;p  Turkey, specifically Istanbul is just across the black sea, or a 1 day trip by bus.  France isn't too far either.  Ireland - I think I will save the home of my ancestors for last, cause I really want to take my time there, and enjoy it.  No I won't be having a pint of Guinness - that stuff is just awful, but I can pour you a perfect pint!


There is more to this list, but this will have to do for now.  I've stayed away from the C.T.'s cause I think most people, well Americans anyway think I'm nuts when I start sharing those!  ;p  Speaking of Americans.  I will soon follow up with a "How To Behave When In Europe" .... my last trip to Italy, made me embarrassed to be carrying a U.S. Passport, thanks to some College girls from the states.  Oy to the vey!

Desensitized ???

  So 80+ teens and young adults were ruthlessly gunned down in Norway by a lone gun-man.  But what REALLY got our attention as a society.....

....Amy Winehouse found dead in her London flat.

  Don't get me wrong I loved the late singer.  She could croon with the best of them, and had an awesome back-beat in her songs.  But, I mean c'mon, was it really all that shocking.  Ever since she made it BIG she's been in and out of rehab, making a complete hash of her live performances, and let's not get started on her marriage.  Yes, she seemed to be doing better, was looking healthier, and staying out of the press.

  But still, SHE took precedent in the Media over this incident in Norway.  Some friends and I were having a discussion regarding these two events over on Facebook.  Granted I won't go into the one about the whole conspiracy theory of it all......and yes believe it or not, there are some theories out there.  But I'll save that for another post.

  The thing we noticed is how desensitized we've become over things like this.  I mean 30 years ago, if someone would have said they were gay, HOLD THE PHONE!  Now, famous actor comes out and says their gay, gay marriages, Tibetan monk eats fetus in public, etc., etc.  NOTHING shocks us anymore.  We've become so desensitized by the media that absolutely nothing gets to us anymore.  Not knockin' the gays, just trying to make a point.

  We are constantly being bombarded with craziness and horror to the point where things that should make us gasp and cry, and start building bomb shelters in our back yard (film: Blast From The Past), but instead, we change the channel from the evening news to South Park, where even more despicable things are displayed, but oh wait....that's just a cartoon.....no harm there......

....and we wonder why our kids are so violent?!?

Animal vs. Humans....what's the worth

  So we none of us got raptured Saturday - big surprise!  That was sarcasm!  But I did come across a very interesting video the same day about the horrible things the Romanian people do to animals.  The Brits wanna know what Romania is doing with the Millions of Euro given to it to help the animal problem here.  Well within the past week, it has come to the attention of not just the Brits, but us here in Romania as well, in the protected national park of the Danube Delta area - not far from me here in Tulcea, that the wild horses that live in the park, are being rounded up, beaten, starved, etc., then sold to companies in Italy or elsewhere for food.  In case you didn't know it, they eat horse in Italy-supposed to be very good.  Sorry I ain't eating horse!

  Anyway, this video on YouTube made it out like this is all the people of Romania do, is mistreat animals.  Now, that is NOT true.  There are a lot of wild dogs here, due to when Nicolae Ceacescu took power he seized land of the farmers and people living in the country, forced them to leave their homes and move into the Blocs of apartments he had built.  The people had no room for their animals so they had to leave them behind to fend for themselves - hence the now overpopulation of dogs and cats here. 

  I don't know if the E.U. is really giving that much money to the RO government to handle the problem, if they are, I'm not sure what they are doing with it.  I will say, that when we first got here 2 and a half years ago, there were dogs running around everywhere here in Tulcea.  Not anymore.  There are hardly any dogs roaming around any longer.  They have been humanely taken care of here in Tulcea city.

  Another thing the Brits were saying is that the RO governement pays like 15 euro to a person who kills a wild dog.  False, false, F.A.L.S.E.!!!  The politicians here are NEVER going to give the people anything, not even a 1 cent coin, let alone 15 Euro - 15 Euro will buy food for a week, possibly two!

  The instances of animal cruelty do exist here, like anywhere else in the world, but it is NOT the norm here.  People here are outraged over what is happening to the wild horses here in the Delta area. 

  The Brits are proposing to picket the RO embassies there in the U.K. on May 26th.  You know what - you guys do that if you will feel better, but here's my question - what is better to take care of, animals, or people.  Cause the people here have a hard life, much harder than the people in the U.K. or elsewhere in Western Europe will ever know.  And why is that, well because countries like the U.K., and Germany, France, Belgium, basically all the 'Schengen' countries of the E.U. are too busy 'raping' Romania economically.

  If you guys are so worried about all the animals - especially the dogs who run in packs and attack people unprovoked, get you some big buses or vans, come over here, round them up and take them back to your countries with you and find homes for them, cause the people here can barely afford to feed themselves let alone take care of an animal they way you think that they should.

  I'll be happy when Romania shreds herself of the notion that she needs organizations like the E.U. or the U.N.  She is strong enough to stand on her own - history shows that, and she is richer in more natural resources than most other countries in Europe - which is why Brussels gives her a hard time whenever she tries to do something to benefit herself and her people.  Hai Romania!!  Tu pot facut orice!!!