A year in Romania

I lived with a the Farcas family in Zona Dorobantilor, south of the central business district and caught the tram each morning to the University. Reflecting the strong cultural and historical ties with Germany, the trains were most recycled from Munich and other other German cities and were frequently boarded by Tzigane (Gypsy) children who would busk for money between each stop. Rather than give them a few Lei (Romanian currency) I preferred to give them fruit.

The main entrance to the University of the West, Timisoara.

The Universitatea de Vest was rated the third best University, behind Bucharest and Iasi. Though the central library suffered from a chronic shortage of books, Romanian students were very adept at using what materials were on hand. Many of the books had been donated by the American Embassy in Bucharest, and the British Library which has an library in downtown Timisoara. Higher education is very gendered in Romania: Women take medicine, the arts and social work, and men are focussed on Engineering, Theological Studies and the hard sciences. This is not the result of state policy, but a cultural difference.

A typical Stalinist-inspired tenement building in Timisoara.

Memorial sculpture to the Timisoara Martyrs of the Romanian Revolution of 1989 outside the Catedrala Mitropolitana Timis. The Cathedral was used as a hall during the Ceaucescu era.

A memorial plaque on the National Opera Building paying tribute to the few and the many revolutionaries who stood in opposition to Ceausecu's moribund regime, with one thought in their mind: a new and free Romania.

The Bega River circles Timisoara, and sunsets in the winter time were often spectacular.

Timisoara was in its heyday during the 1920s and 1940s when the autocratic Romanian Royal Family sponsored a period of prolonged cultural renewed. The dilapidated grandeur of the city can be seen in the centre of the city, and much of it is now in various states of refurbishment and gentrification.

Timisoara, is also known as the garden city. This is Parcul Rosilor (The Rose Guardian) which was always a nice detour after a day at the University.

The picturesque Piata Revolutei, looking towards the Metropolitan Cathdral from the National Opera House. This is where the dissident crowds gathered before the shooting started the December uprising of the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

Piata Unirii (Union Square) Timisoara.

The spectacular interior of the Catedrala Mitropolitana Timis.

The National Theatre and Opera House in Piata Victoriei, the symbolic epicentre of the 1989 Romanian revolution.