It was the final work day on the Hunedoara site so time to give my overall opinion of Romania. Firstly I said earlier in the week that the locals did not seem to smile and that still remains the same. Not just at my colleague and myself but even to each other. Normally when you speak to people and say good morning they normally reply and smile, however they do now respond with a good morning. Overall the locals and a really nice bunch of people and have a good sense of humour when you get to know them.
The countryside around here is very nice with lovely views of the Transylvanian Alps with snow tops surrounding the two towns we are travelling between. Deva the town we stay near is a very modern town with a good selection of shops and shopping mals and overlooking the town is a fort, I would have liked to have put a picture but at the moment they are doing some renovation work and it is covered by scaffolding. Just outside the town is a walking area with a large lake and apparently very popular with the locals, unfortunately due to our working patterns and the fact that we are two hours earlier than the UK we seemed to be working until 8.00 p.m and we haven’t had chance to get out there and see what all the fuss is about.
Tonight though was Deva day which basically is an anniversary weekend that the locals celebrate and we decided to get out there and have a look. So we drove into the town centre and ran straight into nothing, shops closed, very few people about and basically nothing. The one shop that was open was a supermarket so got the chance to spend a few Lei’s on little gifts for the family but as none of them read this they will still be a surprise even though everyone else knows.
We got back to the hotel with just one job to do and that was to book the airport parking for next week. With that done it was time to write the blog or so I thought. I was heading back for the room when the owner of the hotel started speaking to us, and some thirty minutes later and everything we had assumed about the locals was confirmed. The owner felt that people around here were too serious and didn’t smile enough and I thought, yes that is just what I thought but she blamed it on the changes people are seeing from the falling of communism, there are changes but not enough and not quick enough. She also mentioned that the locals are looking forward to them joining Europe but the common thought is that they don’t want to travel, they just want better times in their own country. They seem a passionate race who love their own country but who also realise what outsiders think about them and it is just stereo types that aren’t true. There country and has many beautiful aspects to it but it is not perfect and they accept that. Her hope is that the better times will come and that people will be happier and of course as she is a hotel owner, hopes that more foreigners will visit their country. She stated that only about 20% of their guests are from other countries which is very low when you look at Western European hotels.
All in all it was a nice chat and it was plain to see that she loved her country and her hotel . So I am now going to spend my final night in Romania, at least for a while. So for now it is
Night All.
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