Timisoara

The taxi drops us onto a busy street, two lanes of traffic each way with tram lines down the middle. Its noisy and dusty. My heart sinks. The entrance is a huge ornate metal door, we tap in the entrance code and enter a corridor. Its a huge old apartment building. The corridor has a  high ceiling, marble floors, ornate cornices. It opens onto an oasis. Slight exageration. But, its a courtyard with a flower bed through the middle. Could be better tended, but there are spring flowers and small trees breaking into leaf. Its blissfully quiet. There is even a cat in a patch of sun watching our every move. The apartment is on the first floor up a wide winding marble stair case. Its lovely. Quiet, clean, and has a BATH! Happy days. Bigger than the last bath too. Dump the bags and go out for supplies and something to eat. Small supermarket up the road for essential provisions. This is a priority as we have no water, no milk etc. Once this is done, Google tells me about a restaurant on the Bega (canal/river) just 5 minutes walk away. 

We are like zombies walking to the restaurant. Very tired, almost too tired to be hungry. Once settled with a Negroni and a JB and water, we finally take in our surroundings. Its very pretty. The restaurant is on the waters edge. The view is charming. The Bega is busy with canoeists. People are strolling or cycling along a wide path overhung with budding willows and cherry trees in full blossom. Later we find a string of parks all the way along the Bega. Flower beds and park benches. Its really very nice. Anyway, food. Norman has Zander (European pike perch fish). Lovely delicate white flesh, texture like sole, very few bones. I am boring and have a seafood salad, just desperate for green stuff. Then home to sleep. Slept solid for 9 hours! Almost unheard of for me.

Dear Google! Tourist Information first stop, except its closed for lunch. Ha ha. So, we have an iced coffee in the square while we wait. Fabulous architecture again. Blimey, do they smoke in Romania!!! Chain smoking over coffee. There is a haze over the outdoor cafe. Cigarettes are so cheap here, and they are on the menu in restaurants. Menu is: starters, salads, fish, mains, deserts, wine and beer, spirits, coffee, cigarettes. Anyway, I digress, Tourist Information next stop.

I get a map. I have to ask for it. Seems information is not given up too easily. Hey ho, perhaps she was trained in Poland! A second visit on another day was more succesful, an older lady was much more helpful. She told us about the Vaporasele (transport on the Bega river) and the once daily tourist tram 1pm from Piata Libertartii. 

The city centre is a string of lovely squares with baroque buildings and  little streets leading off. It mainly pedestrian, but be warned about the trams that cut across in places. Its prime people watching territory. Little cafes and bars everywhere. Its blissfully sunny, but the wind still has teeth. Cutting west to east across the south of the old city is the Bega river/canal. On it northern side is a string of parks. Lovely for a stroll. You would never believe you are in a city, birds singing etc. The Orthodox Cathedral with its mosaic roof lights up the skyline. It is set off beautifully by stark white poplars (or are they ghost gums? Not sure). We are lucky travelling at this time of year, with less foliage we can see more. 

I must say we enjoyed our time in Timisoara. There is lots to do and places to visit, but we were quite lazy.  We walked in the parks, enjoying the glorious weather. Sat in the squares, people watching and generally relaxed. 

People watching; last summer it seemed everyone was wearing striped trousers, usually wide legged and cropped to half way between ankle and knee. Ok if you are super slim. This year it seems to be the turn of leather or shiny leather-look tight trousers. Oh dear. It probably works on one in a thousand. The rest look like seals! I hope the fashion dies out soon. 

We met the elderly lady who lives in the apartment downstairs. A tiny little lady with a gappy smile. She couldn't have been five feet tall, her back bent, face brown and wrinkled like an old apple, she relied on her stick to get around. She didn't speak English, I don't speak Romanian, but we got on well enough. She would put a chair in a sunny spot in the courtyard and enjoy the good weather. We admired the flowers and the cat together. Her windowsills were crammed with geraniums, bet they will be a picture soon. I am sure she has some interesting stories to tell. I would love to have a picture of her, such charactor, but I hate taking pictures of people. I think its rude to take them without permission, and if you do ask the person then poses which is not what I want. On our last day we bought a pink and white pelargonium in a basket for her. You would have thought we had given her the crown jewels! 

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