Dracula's land

5.12.06
Budapest became a little heavy on our shoulders after a whole week there. I don't think it was the city itself, but rather a combination of us relaxing, then becoming too lazy. Plus the location of our flat was right on the main drag, which meant every time we stepped outside we found ourselves in the midst of glazed-eyed tourist, rabid shoppers and christmas madness. There weren't any local pubs or cafes that didn't overcharge and we were too centrally located and, again,too lazy, to really explore much beyond our vicinity. Oh dear.

We arrived in Oradea, just across the Romania-Hungary border at about 7.30 last night and already feeling impressed and invigorated to be somewhere new. There's a beautiful almost-full moon over the city, which smells like woodsmoke, all adding to the spooky I'm-almost-in-Transylvania atmosphere.

The town is wonderful. Old crumbly art nouveau buildings that haven't seen much maintenance since they were built. A main street that actually seems to be populated with locals rather than tourists, and no el-fake-oh feeling 'old town'. We wandered out to this old citadel bit, that looks quite large and formal on the map but is actually quite weird in real life. It was a citadel, first built around the year 1000, but has burnt down/had overtaking armys destroy it/been replaced several times. Now the star-shaped exterior walls are all crumbling and half covered with grass and dirt, but a central building structure, which includes a church, still stands.

They are rebuilding the bastion walls but from the 10 or so workers we saw, it looks like it could take 19 years to get it back to el-fakeo old citadel tourist-trap standard. So that's good. The buildings in the middle house the visual arts faculty of the local uni but seemed to have classrooms on one level then be extremely dilapidated on the floor above or right next-door. It's odd to see students in hallways and then look left to a tumble-down heap of red bricks and gaping holes in the structure two windows across.

Where the old walls lie in ruins is an urban wasteland. Looks something like the old bricktowers at Sydney Park but in worse repair. It'd be a great place to have a picnic in summer, complete with little kids running too close to the 20m drop and falling down holes where old passageways once were. Romania doesn't seem to worry as much about public liablity as Australia does. In fact, all through Eastern Europe we've seen dodgy work sites featuring shaky scaffolding and people without hard hats, gaping potholes in pavements and bikeriders without helmets (yes folks, it's true). Kind of prefer the freedom but coming from a place where they practically wrap the trees in cottonwool so you won't get a splinter and sue, it somemes feels daringly risky!

Have just escaped from a nasty black hole of an internet cafe to this slightly better one. Back on the train tomorrow to Sigisoara, birthplace of Vlad Tepes (Dracula) and potentially a bit more touristy than this... fingers crossed it's not though, still hoping for horse-and-cart farmers on roads and fresh eggs in the morning. Hey, it might happen!