Christmas 2008

Christmas in the hostel was really good! We celebrated on Chrismas eve (as is the European way) with many friends and then again on Christmas day!

It was a very electro Christmas indeed!

My most recent painting

At the weekend Beatrice and I were very kindly invited by our new friend, Bogdan, to go with him to his home in a place far from anywhere. His father collected us from the station at Bistrita and took us to their home. They were very kind, showed us lots of photographs and fed us well. It was very quiet and peaceful there and on a clear night its beautiful to stand beneath the stars that hang in the sky like fragments of dreams.

In the morning we went to collect mud for building their new stove, with Bogdan and his huge dog Rocky. I spent the afternoon taking photographs and filming. Bogdan's mum told us a bit about communism in Romania and her views on Romania joining the EU. I was all very interesting (what I could understand). She also helped me to talk Romanian. I need all the help I can get! . . . Then we finished the evening with a very intersting game of scrabble where the words could be in English, Romanian or French!

The next day we saw some art and I was in my element with all the lovely walls in Bistrita! I now have lots of material to work with!

My most recent drawings are taken from walls and buildings and I have been looking in particular at the textures. Each layer of paint and plaster are memories of the past and microcosmic images emerge over time.

Today is Romania's national day and there are lots of people in the town centre. There are fairy lights everywhere and tonight there will be a firework show. The moon is beautiful this evening!

Today I went with some others from my class to the screening of the 1 minute films we made. It was a week workshop with a woman from Holland but for me it was more of a self motivated project with some help from Emrah, the Turkish guy who stays in the hostel and knows his stuff when it comes to film editing. Apparently I wouldn't be given first priority as I missed the first day as I was still in Budapest. . . That, I thought, was fair enough but it would have been nice if she just sneaked even a tiny peak at my film before the screening! However, now I am fluent in Premier Pro thanks to Emrah! And I received a mug and a DVD (Romanian version of Solaris) for my efforts!

This weekend I was in Budapest with Martin. We took the bus (16 seater) at 5am from Cluj centre and arrived in Budapest just after lunch time. We planned the trip to go to see Extrawelt who were playing the release of their new album, but Budapest has so much more in store! After we found a hostel and left our bags we went out for a late lunch. It was delicious! Cheese soup served in a bread and mulled wine. We took the metro and went to see some parts of the city. It started to snow very heavily so we made our way back to the hostel stopping at an outdoor market on the way. Extrawelt was a great end to the evening but the next day I didn't feel too hot at all! My head was thumping and nothing seemed to be helping so we took our towels and swimwear and made our way to the thermal baths! Wow! They were amazing! I could have stayed longer! However, we were both looking a bit prunelike and decided that two hours was enough! It was a bit of a challenge getting out of the water though and into the freezing night air!

We stayed for another night and visited some galleries the following day. There seems to be a good art scene there and some of the work by new artists was really good.

I went with my room mate, Ana, to her grandparents house in a small village called Ghindaoani near Peatra Neamt. We arrived in Peatra Neamt late in the evening so we stayed with Ana's friends in a small appartment near the centre. This was after we visited a bar where they had a Karaoke evening. The songs were some sort of traditional style with a backing track that sounded like it was played on an mini casio keyboard! After several hits it was nice to go to bed. In the morning Ana and her friend took me to see the town. We took a cable car to the top of the ski slope that overlooked Peatra Neamt. It's a very cute town. We also visited an old church that was erected by Stefan Cel Mare in the 15th Century.

Around lunch time we took a small, packed minibus to the village where Ana told me that they only made the road accessable for cars last year. Before this the minibus would drop you in the highway and you would still have a two hour walk ahead of you, unless you know someone with a horse and cart who is willing to collect you. Ghindaoani's water supply comes from various wells which means the toilets are outside and most people there keep animals and grow their own fruit and vegetables. We took some rabbits that Ana's grandfather gave us and we also took some homemade wine and t(s)uica which is a traditional Romanian spirit that apparently everyone in Romania knows how to make!

That evening we headed to Iasi and spent two nights there with some more of Ana's friends. They were very hospitable and Stefana made sure I didn't go hungry!

I went to church today to see what the Orthodox mass consists of. For 1 hour (mass lasts for 2 hours) I sat at the back of the church while the people infront continiously made the sign of the cross and chanted away in response to the priest. As the service went on people came and people went. When the priest walked down the central isle blessing the people, everyone wanted to touch him. One lady took out a hanky and rubbed it on his white cloak with then folded it and put it back into her pocked. The popstars have taken on this role back home. Infact off of the top of my head I can't think of any young people who attend the church regularly or even at all. Yet they still choose to get married there. . .

People in Romania visit the cemetery on 1st November. Its quite a sight to see the whole place glowing with candles.

Everyday when I walk to the video department I pass the big houses where the toffs live. They all have large fences and everyone has a dog so I am constantly being barked at! I have now taken to walking on the road. Sometimes though, when it is dark, I forget and a dog catches me unaware!

There are so many houses here where people grow their own fruit and vegetables. It's really nice to see people utilising the land and making the effort to grow their own produce. When we first arrived here in Cluj, the man who lives in the house next to the hostel was shaking his tree and then collecting the plums in a big basket. Sometimes it's the simple things in life that are the most wonderful.

We with Paula went to the gypsy village today. The children ran to her when we arrived and were calling her name. Then word spread and more and more came. They wanted to see the photographs she had taken on her last visit. The children like to pose. Even some of the adults wanted me to go into their homes to take photos.

The people of the village live an alternative lifestyle. They don't like to work and live like town folk and the children don't go to school. It is built beside a rubbish tip and the small makeshift houses are amongst mud and debris. I was surprised when I entered the first house, to find that it was incredibly warm! The stove burning in the corner doing a fine job and seeing to that. The woman held her baby and asked me to take a photo then she asked her husband to prepare himself for another photo. I was almost done but outside there was another woman waiting to take me to her house and do the same for her! The woman held their babies and the young boys posed like warriors. Everyone was wanting a piece!

Paula and Monica took me and a some others to the saltmines in Turda today. The patterns made by the formation of the salt are very beautiful. We stayed for a long time and played football with a Romanian family we met there. It was like being on another planet!

Its nice to be a bit more settled in Cluj. I went to the painting department and also to the video department and I am begining to get some ideas for my projects. The architecture in Cluj is striking. In the centre the buildings are painted all sorts of colours and demand your attention! There is a huge contrast between those which are beautifully constructed and the starkness of the communist constuctions in the city. There are many churches in Cluj and it is common to see people, young and old, making the sign of the cross gesture when they pass a church. The first time I saw a lady on the bus doing it I thought she maybe thought I had a bomb in my rucksack! The other thing I see a lot of in Cluj is the old style Dacia's. They are quite a car it appears!

We passed some beautiful scenery in Greece and Macedonia. The train Journey was terrible! It took 15 hours to get from Thesaloniki to Belgrade! We had to move carriage as a Greek woman who had been refused a seat in 1st class arrived with 2 men and was making an awful fuss about if in unbearable high pitched Greek! The new carriage was empty except for the occasional visit from the man next to us who brought us Serbian whisky stuff, biscuits, lots of nuts, which were very nice, and a lighter that I can wait to show off! We had a problem with the heating that wouldn't go off so we shed a few pounds during the night but we made it to Belgrade at around 8am. It was Sunday and the city was still asleep.

We decided to move on to Zagreb in order to arrive there in time to go out into the centre. I'm not quite sure whether is was because it was Sunday night or if it was just too late but at 11pm when we arrived in the main strip places were closing up and there was not much sign of life! We walked a little further up the street when we saw a man holding his head and looking like he was having a really good think. I was just finished commenting on this to Martin when he fell into a load of wicker chairs just out of view of the police man who had walked passed only a moment before. I think this image will stay with me for the rest of my life! We found a pub that was playing reggae then returned to our hostel in order to get up early and see some galleries the following day.

We made our way to the first gallery to find it was closed so we moved on. The woman we asked for directions informed us that most galleries are closed on a Monday! We hadn't really considered that! So we took some photos and visited an ethnographic museum. I jokingly said to Martin "imagine we got to Venice and the galleries were closed on a Tuesday there!". . . . The expression "never tempt fate" springs to mind! . . . . You know the rest! However not all of the galleries in Venice were closed. Infact we managed to see some really nice work. The streets in Venice are beautiful. The old pink and orange buildings that are surrounded by canals and the narrow alleyways that open into big squares with market stalls. I'm not quite sure if it would be possible for me to live there though! I think you'd need to leave for work very early in order to make it in on time! You can't just take a taxi and waiting for the next water bus is something that is very frustrating when your late as I was to find out when I realised how far I was from the station when my train was due in 20 minutes! The streets are so narrow and the buildings are tall so its possible to just keep walking and walking without realising where you are or how far you have walked, as we did.

We arrived in Milan on Tuesday evening. It was nice to get away from the coach loads of tourists and back to the open city. Martin and I had already decided that we would split up and go our separate ways. I originally planned to make my way back towards Romania but I'd missed the train from Venice to Vienna so now I was on my way, in the completely opposite direction, to Bercelona.

I travelled overnight the following day arriving in Barcelona on Thurday morning. I booked my next train ticked, took a map and went on my quest to take in as much Gaudi as I could! . . . Barcelona was a complete inspiration! It had everything I was looking for. Music, beautiful architecture, the fantastic Gaudi park and Galleries where I found some great new artist experimenting with texture. And I didn't even need to try! It was all there waiting for me! I would have liked to have stayed longer but fulfilled and happy with how much I had acheived in a day, I boarded the train to Zurich.

In the morning the mist was rising and the mountains peaked out of the tops of the clouds. The galleries in Zurich all open at 1pm and my train to Munich was due at 1.20 so I had to look through the windows. Being there was like being in a chocolate box picture. It was also very clean. But I had another train to catch.

It was beginning to get dark when I arrived in Munich so I tried to see as much as I could before the night fell. There is the contrast of old and new buildings and the people busy shopping or socialising in the many bars. I joined the latter whilst I waited for my train to take me to my final stop before returning to Cluj-Napoca.

I didn't have lots of time between arriving in Budapest and taking the train to Cluj but I had long enough to see some Art Brut that was being exhibited in the national gallery and quickly make it back to the station. I was quite excited about returning to Romania as I was feeling quite keen to begin working. I arrived back at the hostel just as a party was getting into full swing and I even managed to get a piece of Carlos's birthday cake!

Travelled with Martin to Greece. We took the train to Sofia to find out that there was a train strike in Greece so we could only go this far! . . . A bulgarian man offered to show us, and an Australian man, where we could take a bus. It was all a bit too hectic for the Australian who'd left his wife upstairs! After sweating about it somewhat he went to collect her but told us very clearly that he had met the man first and that if there were only two seats left they were his! Hee Hee! Then we had to hand over our passports to the lady who organised the buses until we received our tickets! . . . Oh it was all a bit too much for the Aussies, much to our amusement! But alas! We reached our destination and before long we were on the Ouzo!

In Athens there are ruins everywhere. Having looked at images in books and on TV where the ruins are isolated within a rectangular frame its strange to just stumble upon them in the middle of a busy street, but quite beautiful. Whilst we were looking for a place to stay we passed old ruins, modern trendy shops, outdoor restaurants and cafes. Then we, unknown to us entered a prostitute area where we were offered a room for 10Euros. It sounded cheap until we realised it was only for 1 hour! We marched on and turned the corner into a street where we had to make our way through a crowd of Asian guys who had taken over the road! Who knows what they were up to. Maybe this is just their daily business but one of them offered Martin a phone. It was not far from here that we found our hotel. We checked in and got ready to go out for the evening. We checked the balcony door as we were leaving to find that it didn't lock but we decided it would be okay and left. We arrived on the street just in time to witness a junky trying to help up another junky who was lying crumpled on the ground, and get eyeballed by a strange guy standing on the corner. I'm still not sure whether he was looking to buy or sell but we knew then that we'd picked a cracking place to stay!

Today the town of Cluj-Napoca has been taken over by Chelsea fans!

We met some fans in Janis's in the afternoon then went home to get ready to go to see Turandot at the theatre. After the theatre we went back to Janis's to watch the rest of the match and hang around with some really drunk but good natured Chelsea supporters! Haa Haa! What a funny day!

Martin and I arrived in Cluj-Napoca, Romania at 2.00am and took a taxi to the hostel on Strada Albac where we were told to go when we arrived in Cluj. The taxi driver was very nice and tried to help us to find the entrance. After spending some minutes fumbling around in the dark I decided to try the other side of the building and alas we found it on the opposite street! I rang the bell and a man anwered the door and told me that I should come back tomorrow. This didn't sit too well with the taxi driver so he went back to the door and tried again! Still we were told to come back tomorrow so the taxi driver took us to another hostel and waited to see if we could get a room. After some knocking on the door we eventually managed to wake up the guy and he said we could have room! At last! We struggled with our bags up the two flights of stairs that we will have to move again in the morning but for now all we care about is eating and sleeping!

Journey to Romania

Arrived at the Ferry port just before boarding closed to discover that I had booked the ferry travelling in the wrong direction! (I think this was because I was talking to Martin on the phone at the time but I did read out the information aloud before I clicked the proceed button). Luckily there was room on the ferry and the nice lady on the desk managed to sort it out for us! We went through check in and a couple of Dutch guys directed us to the stairs and told us our cabin was down one flight. They must've had a right old laugh at us trying to carry all our luggage down the TWO flights of very steep stairs. After a well needed rest we went to explore and found that there was actually a lift that we could have took! The WEASELS!

However were soon on the move and got to work on finishing the carry out we'd brought with us! We went up onto the deck and waved goodbye to Great Britain then found our way to the bar where a man, who'd obviously been playing on ferries for a long time, strummed us a few covers and, bored as he was, made an attempt to entertain us with his patter!