Timișoara

The trip from Milan has been remarkably good, despite not having slept altogether. No crying kids (but an annoying group from Brescia) and a smooth transfer once landed. Timișoara is a pretty city, despite still showing the wounds of the Ceaușescu regime. Notably, it's the city where the revolution that ended communism in the Romania began, in 1989. A curiosity, it was the first city in Europe to have electric illumination, in 1884. The first in the world was New York. Unfortunately, I lost my SD card adaptor, so I can't really download pics from my Lumix, until I either get another one, or I find a way to transfer them, so my photos here will be limited to those taken with my iPhone, which aren't that bad anyway.

Before meeting with Silvana, my CouchSurfing host, I wandered around a bit, taking random pictures and listening to people talking in Romanian (it's unbelievable how much similar the language is to Italian, mostly when read, but also heard).

After me and Silvana met we went at her place, where she introduced me to a local spook, the Wandering Woman, an ancient woman who patrols the building ground floor, without any specific purpose than scaring the hell out of people, especially when she pops up from behind a corner. I am not that surprised anyway. It's Transylvania, right?

Silvana is a great host, she has an extraordinary culture and we share so many things (mainly music) that it can't but reinforce my idea of choosing your hosts (and guests) with care. We then went to the supermarket, cooked some food and spent the rest of the night talking about people, CS and music.

The day after I decided to live the city in a slighly less touristic and more local way, so after a couple of obligatory church-checks, like the Catedrala Sfântul Gheorghe (St. John Cathedral) and obviosly the Orthodox Catedrala Mitropolitană din Timișoara, I just walked around, sat by the canal and relaxed in a cafeteria.

Unfortunately, the Halloween party that I we were supposed to attend got canceled in solidarity with the victim of a Bucharest accident, where around 30 people died in a club fire. No Transylvanian Halloween party, but we will find somewhere else to go.