#theworldisee

[theworldiseeblog-blog]

How do I possibly sum up this amazing city in just a few posts? 

I can’t and I won’t even try to. If you want to hear about it, have a bottle of red wine with me and I would love to tell the stories of the magic I found in this incredible place.

Budapest, I can’t wait to come back. 

[theworldiseeblog-blog]

It’s time to move on. A couple days in Timisoara was perfectly needed and I am excited about the town that’s next on the list.

Ever since Budapest a week ago, everyone has been talking about a town called Brasov, in Transylvania (central/eastern Romania), and recommending that I go. So today, I head 12 hours...

into the Romanian countryside today. The farther east I have gone into Europe, the worse the trains have gotten but I do appreciate the simplicity of a 12-hour train ride with no internet and nothing to do except read, write and listen to music.

It was essentially just me and a conductor going with maybe 5-6 people scattered around the train. When we crossed into Romania, police boarded at two separate stops and scanned my passport. Once, they took it with them and gave me a bit of a sweat! This was before I got used to them doing this.

(Quick conductor story: This guy was awesome. He did not speak one word of English but he would come to me throughout the 12-hour ride and bring me to a window whenever we were passing something beautiful. He would let me know exactly how long I had to explore (4-minutes, 1-minute, 10 minutes, etc) on the quick train stops across the countryside. Then, when night hit, he sat right behind me and watch a futbol game, cheering and going nuts in the completely silent train. When the other conductor came to ask him for help, he waved them off and continued watching the game.)

I didn’t know anything about this place. But, here’s what I had heard from the people who recommended it: Deep into the mountains in Transylvania, a beautiful mountain town that is surrounded by castles. Bears still run wild and it’s where the legend of Dracula came from.

I’m in.

I got a hostel before this trip (finally) and knew it was in the Old Town there. I found out when I arrived that that it was a nice 2+km walk in the freezing cold at night time. But who am I kidding... It was a lot of fun. A new town under the blinding stars with music in my ear.

I made it to the place, crashed for the night and got up early to explore with a vivid curiosity.

[theworldiseeblog-blog]

Another interesting thing about Timisoara is the Orthodox religion... To me, 

this is such a fascinating part of Eastern Europe. Here you have these very simple towns, most that are quite poor, and in the middle of them are unbelievably ornate and gaudy churches. 

The main church absolutely dominates the very simple architecture here and, when you’re walking on the sidewalk, they blast the sermons and songs on the streets so you can hear them.

When you walk inside, the weight hits you immediately. A deeply dark church that is very dimly lit but immaculately decorated. There are two guys who are reading constantly and never stop unless to sing.

Even more interesting is there is nowhere to sit. No pews or seats at all, except for just a few for the elderly in the corners and against the wall. Everyone is just scattered randomly. Some people walk up a red carpet to get to large paintings of Jesus and Mother Mary, where they kiss them. Others walk closer to the altar where they lay on the ground and kiss the floor... Then stay on their knees for long periods of time. 

I didn’t know one word that was being spoken but I just loved to sit there and feel the culture and weight of such a place. Different religions is always an interesting part of different cultures. 

[theworldiseeblog-blog]

“Growing up in a communist city (Timisoara, Romania) was very difficult and I don’t know if people know what that is like...”

“When I was a boy, my dad would go to the market for bananas and spend 20 hours waiting in line for them. We needed it so he would wait for them. 

And it was not unusual to wait 20 hours in line for fuel for your car, only to get to the front and they would be out of fuel. You would have to come back the next day and try again.

And there was lots of corruption. We had a senator who got caught stealing $200k Euros so he passed a law that it was not illegal to steal $200k Euros or less. 

So everyone in Timisoara started protesting and stealing everything, just to make a point, because he had passed this law.”

[theworldiseeblog-blog]

Timisoara, Romania.

Truly a city and country I knew absolutely nothing about when I came here...

Here’s how it went. The girl from my train walked me to this square, said goodbye and then I was left with a very uncertain feeling. I really didn’t have any concerns but we were pretty far East in Europe at this point and, again, I really didn’t know a single thing about this city or country. I was very alert, I guess we can say.

The main square was absolutely beautiful and dominated by the sight of this Orthodox church at the end. It turns out 81% of Romanians are devout Orthodox and huge churches absolutely dominated the architecture in most directions. They were all absolutely gorgeous.

I got a hostel once there and walked about 1/4km to drop my bags off. 

One of the best parts of Eastern Europe in the winter? Sometimes, you have the rooms all to yourself because no one else would be crazy enough to be there. 

Perfect opportunity to get some much needed rest and focus.

I was deeply curious about this place because it was so vastly different than any other place I had been to. Again, I knew nothing about Romania... Not the politics, the people, the food, etc. I wanted to just go explore it.

It seemed like the town, though small, had two very ornate squares where everyone congregated. At one end of the main square was the Orthodox church above and a gorgeous Opera Hall (that was built in 1871) was on the other side.

People were just outside and enjoying the weather. Live music was playing from open windows and the air seemed very, very clean. 

It was wonderful to just sit and observe how everyone interacted.

Oh, and pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons.

[theworldiseeblog-blog]

“My life since then has been quite colorful. 

I made so many decisions that changed everything. After being a waiter for a while, I worked in a hotel for three years. After that,  I went to a few other places in Scotland, worked at juke mills and then eventually decided to go to London, where I worked in a biscuit factory. 

I ended up staying there for 20 years. 

But I was a bit of a rebel in a sense I guess. 

There was many times when I would show up late to work so they took money off of my paycheck. But my work proficiency never suffered because of being late... I got the exact same amount of work everyone else did, just in less time. But my bosses didn’t care and still penalized me, which I didn’t think was fair. 

I stood up for myself and told them I wouldn’t work until they paid me. I figured they would fire me. But, to my surprise, after a lot of discussion with the personal manager and so forth, they gave me all the money I was owed. I was fine with that and went back to work but people ended up hearing about what I did and there was a lot of my superiors talking about it. 

At the same time this was happening, there was a union representative that they weren’t very happy with so they asked me if I would take over for him. Now, I had no experience with this and my English wasn’t very good so I studied up to polish it and told them I would when I was ready. 

Right away, I became the Chief Shop Steward in a factory with 1600 members and 12 Shop Stewards under me.

I did that for about a year and a half and things went well but the workers were being mistreated so I called a strike that ended up involving 5 of the factories. It was quite large so it wasn’t long before we won the recognition, meaning everyone that joined the factory had to join the union. It was a big win. They gave me an office in the factory and the company paid me more. 

I ended up doing this for 20 years and was quite successful at it. But I wanted something new. I had someone that worked in the union with me so one Christmas, in 1983, we were drunk and decided we would go treasure hunting in the ocean. I learned how to scuba dive so we could do this. 

2 years after this conversation, his wife’s aunt died and left them a lot of money so he bought a 46’ boat. And that was it. I said I would give up my job to sail the world and go treasure hunting. My wife did not mind and my son was doing so bad in school, the headmaster said ‘He’d be better on a boat.’

We left and got out on the ocean but after some time, things got difficult. Unfortunately, when you’re in close quarters like that, people don’t get along too well. It was him and his wife and me and my wife and son. The two ladies didn’t get a long with each other so, very quickly, we kind of had a fall out. 

We had sailed away in September to cross the Atlantic but by this time, the weather was too bad and, with all this in mind, we decided to pull into a port in Portugal. My partner who owned the boat said he had to go back to England quickly and sell his home so he took his wife and me and my family spent the winter in Portugal.  As soon as we had some space, I decided I have to do something else because of the friction.

So I put a deposit down on a restaurant right beside a beach in Portugal. My partner in England said he would split it with me. 

But I couldn’t speak Portuguese so I knew I would need to spend some time learning the language before I opened the doors. Unfortunately though, during this time, my partners roof burned down at his house before he could sell it and he decided to pull out.

That was it. We didn’t want to do the restaurant by ourselves so we said we would go back to England. 

I could’ve gone back to the factory but it would have been kind of like putting my tail between my legs so I thought of something else to do. I bought a moving company, taught myself how to do it and ended up being in business for 15 years until I recently retired.

I can’t help but think that, if I would have just stayed in the factory, my pension would have been that of a king. 

But, in my life, I always chose adventure.”

Me: “Do you regret your decision to choose adventure?”

“Yes and no. Financially, I would have been much better but I would not have had the adventures I had. Life would have been boring. And I don’t like looking back… It’s gone. It’s gone.”

[orujov]

Aye, hara qedirsən? #jorney #athlete #streetshow #impossibleisnothing #paris #monmartre #france #travel #wow #performace #jamaicarules #orujov #theworldisee #canon (at Monmartre)

[orujov]

Aye, hara qedirsən? #jorney #athlete #streetshow #impossibleisnothing #paris #monmartre #france #travel #wow #performace #jamaicarules #orujov #theworldisee #canon (at Monmartre)