🇷🇴🇧🇬 Independence Week Trip

 Buna ziua!

 Здравейте!

 Cia!

 Hello! 

Learning to pack light and efficient. Yellow is my favourite!

Days after returning from his first of many trips to Djibouti, we took advantage of cheaper European airfares and spent the Canadian/US Independence Day celebrations in Bucharest Romania! We have been told stories of €25 flights but we suspect they are a relic of pre Covid days as we have yet to see them. Regardless, flying from Naples to anywhere in Europe is a steal when you're use to Alaska prices to anywhere! My cute new yellow Euro size carry on and I were ready!

Romania joined the EU in 2007. They have not yet transitioned to the Euro and society seems split on if they should or not. 

Days before we left a woman in Asia got stuck in one of these at an airport and they had to amputate her leg. We stayed clear!

For me the highlight was to visit a former communist state. It has to be the history nerd in me. For Brian it was the chance to visit a place he was suppose to see twenty years ago but didn't get to go. It was so fascinating hearing from our new group of friends about where they were jetting off to for a few days. I'm not sure that we will get use to the "I'm going to X" (Malta, Sardinia, Jerusalem, Croatia, Paris, Portugal, Egypt...) discussions when a long weekend arrives. 

View from our AirBnB. The building below is a medical school.

At the risk of getting a flood of comments about the evils of communism and history lessons from nationalist zealots, my personal reflections on being in a former communist state was deep for me and seems like the most appropriate and yet the most vulnerable way to share. Most Americans, especially those in deep red states like Alaska, divide the world, and history, into two categories: Free Market Democracies and Communist Dictatorships. There are so many issues with this dichotomy but the main one for me is that neither of those exist - anytime or anywhere - in their purest forms. The US is not a purely free market and we are a republic not a democracy in the sense that many like to use the word. Communism, in the manifestation of Marx, is completely opposite of a dictatorship. Although recognizing that all attempts at it have ended in that way. Enter the term "socialism" and the waters get more muddied especially from a current political lens. A stepping stone towards a governemntless society like Marx envisioned, or a modern Euro model, or the free and public education and fire department model or a complicated blend...

In Revolution Square. The torso of this man is riddled with injury representing the physical and mental pain of the Romanian people. His head has no injury representing the clear mind and resolve of the Romanian people.

For the entirety of my history and political science teaching career I have stressed to kids that a communist state in the way that Karl Marx envisioned has never happened. This was an effort to try and address their basic "us versus them" /"evil versus good" mentality that helps justify and explain events of the past. Just to then turn around and try to teach the Cold War, Vietnam, North Korea, and modern political terms and divides. Nuance matters in history and in reality. 

Being in Bucharest really helped bring those nuances to focus for me. Yes, a true communist state has never existed. But for the citizens of Romania, who are my age and older, communist did exist and the fact that it wasn't textbook communism doesn't matter. 

Communism came to Romania post World War II and lasted until 1989. That alone was something for me to process. I was 5. I think about my awareness of current events as an adult and then think of 5 year old me oblivious to these incredible shift in society elsewhere. While I'm grateful for my thirst for world perspectives and political knowledge today I'm just as grateful that my parents shielded me from the instabilities of the world wide stage that was the 80s and 90s.

The Palace of Parliament. It is HUGE. They use literally all the marble in Romania to build it (while the people starved) and displaced tens of thousands. It was unfinished when the Revolution started and remains that way although the current Parliament still sits there. It is so heavy that it is sinking 1-3mm a year.

I won't attempt to regurgitate what I learned of Romanian history. Primarily because I know I will get schtuff wrong. When I first started teaching I remember always being overwhelmed by how little I knew about the content. History and politics are never ending chasms of detail, perspective, nuance, and story telling. It took years for me to be able to predict student questions and then be able to answer them. I would often go down tangents of wikipedia clicks just learning new angles and facts. With Easter Europe, and specifically Romania, I felt like that first year teacher not even knowing what to look up let alone which tangents to pursue. I was a new learner - overwhelmed again. It's incredible the context and connections we create with topics and how we can feel ungrounded without the context. An entire national identity can't be neatly described in a clean dichotomy and the details in the story telling matters.

Some of the most interesting things I learned in regards to Romania and communism:

• One tour guide told us that about 50% of Romania "misses Communism"
• Confession: in my head Romania had been a state of the USSR. It was not. It was a "satellite" state but wasn't forced into communism by USSR expansion but did so on their own.
• "The world didn't just get better when Communism fell. We went from 0% unemployment to 10% overnight. Everyone is employed and contributes in some way under communism and then not so much."

Modern, French, and communist style architecture all on the same street

• privately owned homes were taken from people and numerous families now called your home their home. After the Revolution, two conflicting laws were passed: former owners of these homes had a legal right to have their homes back AND tenants during communism had a right to purchase the home. 10,000 properties are still tied up in the legal system

Communism is often represented with gray tones and much of Bucharest echos this. An alley of bright colours seems symbolic of their future moving forward. 

• Complicated relations with Russia: Russia took ethnically Romanian land after WWI so during WWII the Romanians sided with Germany so they could get their Russian claimed land back
• 👆 this history is even more interesting when we asked about local reactions to Russia invading Ukraine. It's 50:50 for who they support since they've been victims of Russian invasion in the past but have historical land disputes with Ukraine.
• Even further interesting is the perspective that Russian is doing to Ukraine what it has already done to Romania
• "contact and power are more useful than money" In reference to both communism days and today

A representation of Romania's history. A monarch era building with a modern building literally on top of it. It was built this way to represent the rich, and often complicated and conflicting, history of Romania. 

• They often substitute the phrase "Marx forbid" where we would say "God forbid." Super interesting considering in a Marxist communist society there is no religion
• Dacia car brand is Romanian and began during communist times. "Dacia" is an ancient word used to describe Romania. The symbolism was intentional nationalism. 
• The communist leader was Nicolae Ceauşescu "charl-chess-q" whose family was executed during the Revolution
• One of our tour guides remembers watching the execution on TV (so does dad)

Sunset with the massive Palace of Parliament in the back left

• One tour guide remembers the thrill of the first McDonalds in Bucharest
• One tour guide had a family dwelling bulldozed to make way for the gargantuan sized Palace of Parliament (only the Pentagon is bigger in terms of government buildings)
• Our AirBnB was in a former communist housing block apartment complex



I'm so content listening to history and stories of the human experience! 

In non communist related history, it was clear that for Romania, World War I is a bigger scar on their national identity than the Second World War. That in itself is very different than much of the world I've been exposed to. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Revolution make the connections to World War I greater. Romania has a rich Paleolithic history, Greek inhabitants, Roman occupation, Empire envelopment with the Austrian-Hungarians and the Ottomans, had their own monarchies who united ethnic Dacians, were occupied by the Germans, communism, a Revolution, and acceptance into the EU and NATO. So much to learn! 

 Other noteworthy moments:

Hanging out with the stories of Vlad the Impaler!

+ We of course indulged in the legend that is Dracula's castle. Honestly, we don't have too much to say about it because it was a disappointment. I'm comparing it to tourists being super excited to go to the Santa Clause House: makes a great postcard, a story to indulge on later, but in the end meh 🤷‍♀️ The primary difference being that the Santa Clause House is a 20 minute drive from Fairbanks but Bran Castle (as it's actually called) is a 3 hour drive from Bucharest! It was interesting to learn more about Vlad the Impaler who, in my opinion, is why more interesting, and brutal, than the fictional Dracula. 

.  

 

+ Beer tour for the win! I booked this for Brian after all my wine indulging at "home." The plan was to do my normal "sip and pass" of the beer. It's hot in Romania and with the concrete oven that is Bucharest, the beer was refreshing. WORDS I HAVE NEVER SAID BEFORE! 

Our beer tour guide. If you're ever in Bucharest check out his tour company by clicking the link 
Local Hosts: get lost with a local

Proof. I drank beer 😳 like three of them. That's a big deal.

Our guide started his own business just before Covid and sat and drank with us while telling stories of communism, architecture, and politics. An absolute highlight for sure. We were introduced to the Romanian  foods "samale" and "mici" the former being a Christmas tradition of cabbage rolls and the latter being a mince meat sausage. Both phenomenal. We also sampled "palinka" which is plum distilled liquor but the curse of the carryon bag we came home empty handed. 

.           

+ We went to Bulgaria for a day on a cattle herd style tour. It was underwhelming but the cultural differences between Romania and Bulgaria were really interesting. There are only 60 miles between Bucharest and Bulgaria but their languages are entirely different! Romanian -  having been occupied land of the Romans - has latin roots with slavic influence. Bulgarian is of slavic origins and looks (to our very untrained eyes) much more like Russian than anything we recognize. 

Definitely Bulgarian. We could recognize some words (or even the letters) in Romanian

Bulgarian street food!

The peace arch between Romania and Bulgaria

 + The primary religion in both countries are variations of Orthodoxy. After being in an Orthodox wedding, and learning more through Gen and her family, I found these parts of our tours even more interesting! The art inside the churches was incredible and I love the pre Renaissance look and feel of Orthodox art! 

.  

+ lemonade! Everywhere in Romania serves lemonade! Not Minute Maid or Simply Lemonade but delicious balanced tart, tangy, sweet ice cold homemade excellency. I ordered one basically everywhere

Much of Europe left to explore. Bye Romania! 

"priority" boarding with RyanAir! When we pulled up in an over stuff tarmac transport they were unloading the plan from the back! This is how Italians do lines.