Discovering Timisoara

Last weekend we drove to Timisoara for a long weekend. This was an 8 hour journey driving through some gorgeous scenery which at one point the snow capped mountains in the distance just looked like clouds. It certainly was a good way to see a bit of Romania. However the roads were a nightmare especially as we got closer to Timisoara.

Timisoara is one of the biggest cities in Romania with a population of about 400,000 and is very close to the Serbian border… it felt strange seeing road signs for Belgrade. The centre of Timisoara is stunning and reminds me a little bit of Milan. You would never have thought you were in Romania at times.

The centre is also full of history; captured by the Ottomon Empire and then taken by the Habsburg Empire it was given a nickname of Little Vienna and it just has that Italian feel about it. It was also the first European city to have electric street lights, which Lacra’s family told me with great pride.

More recent history occured in Dec 1989 when a Hungarian Calvinist Pastor was about to be deported by the Communist authorities this resulted in a large protest against the communists which involved people being killed by the police as they took shelter on the steps of a church. The army then came to the aid of the people and a week later the Communist Regime in Romania was overthrown and the dictator Ceausescu being executed.

You can still see the bullet holes beside the church where the protest occured. It was quite fasinating seeing such recent history but also history going back hundreds of years.

On Saturday we spent the day in this massive shopping mall, probably the same size as Bluewater but someone forgot to make the carpark big enough and it was just slightly bigger than a Tesco carpark (welcome to Romania!!… people told me with great joy). As you can imagine this caused absolute nightmare for parking with people finding unusual ways to park there cars. Couldnt believe the amount of 4x4s parked there…. certainly a lot of money kicking about.

On a sadder note Andy is flying back to the UK on Monday as his Dad’s condition is getting worse. He is planning to be there for a week to be with his parents but could be longer.