January 11, 2014
A weekend in Galati: Watching out for strippers
Crossing the border between Moldova and Romania was easy. There was very little traffic and the Moldovan guy stamped my passport in no time flat. Moving on to the Romanian checkpoint I practically had to beg someone to look at my passport as all the officials were standing around chatting and ignoring me. Finally a woman took it and asked me if I had any cigarettes, which seemed a little informal of her. "I'm sorry, no" I said, "and anyway you should try to quit, they're bad for you."
The only slight difficulty I had was at the final check where I met a woman who may very well have been on her first day in the job. First she told me I had to go back to the checkpoint that I had already been through, saying that the border was that way. I convinced her that I had already been through and she took my passport and looked through it for my entry stamp from the Romanian border. She didn't speak any English and I was trying to explain to her that I didn't have a stamp only because I didn't need one, being from the EU, but she kept flicking through, getting flustered about not finding it. Finally I grabbed the passport from her and pointed to the front where it said 'European Union.' "Oh!" she said, and waved me through.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Before I began travelling by bike four years ago I worked in a warehouse in England and there I had two friends from Romania. I use the term 'friends' quite wrongly, because they took great delight in placing bets on which country I was most likely to die in during my travels. One finally decided on Mexico and the other Colombia, although this was based on the fact that I was planning to go west first, and they were both equally adament that if I ever made it as far as Romania then I would go no further. Their assertions that Mexico and Colombia are dangerous I could dismiss as mere speculations on their part, but given their first-hand experience of Romania I could give more weight to their concerns here. And so I was doubly concerned when, not one kilometre across the border, I encountered a shoot out. There were a couple of old abandoned buildings right next to the highway and I could hear gunfire from inside and around the building. On the roof of one of these buildings I saw a soldier decked out in full camoflauge uniform, something like a gas mask over his face, rifle in hand. He was firing towards a smaller building, presumably at some cheeky Moldovans trying to sneak over the border. I know that the EU border is a sensitive one but this all seemed a bit extreme. Then a soldier came staggering towards the road. He had obviously been shot, I could see blood splattered on his chest. What should I do? His blood was a strangely bright orange colour. He seemed annoyed, he was trying to wipe it off as he pulled off his mask and threw his paintball gun to the floor.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I had a place to couchsurf in the town of Galati just across the border with a Romanian couple, although the girl was away on a business trip in Luxembourg so it was just me and Traian most of the time. He was such a great host and a fantastic guy that it actually proved to be one of my favourite couchsurfs in a long time. Traian also looks exactly the same as Simon Pegg and his happy go-lucky attitude and good humour makes the comic Pegg the ideal actor for the role. Traian and his girlfriend Arta live in an apartment with two lovely cats:
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We took some walks around Galati which was unusual for Traian as he usually drives everywhere. In a way it was surprising that we got along so well because we had a lot of differences - he loves driving and eating meat and smoking and watching TV whilst I love cycling and eating jam sandwiches and fresh air and watching out for traffic in my mirror. But he was so friendly and we both love travelling (He and Arta had just got back from driving 11,000km around Europe in just 17 days) and he had an infectious enthusiasm as he told me about the town. Galati (pronounced Galatz) was essentially built to house the workers from the massive steel works and the ship builders and is consequently almost entirely made up of tower blocks and could never be considered an aesthetically beautiful place. But I found that it was certainly not without its charms, sitting as it does on the banks of the Danube. How strange it was to look out over that massive river again, now even wider than when I last saw it and here about to reach the climax of its long journey and pour into the Black Sea.
I was expecting Romania to be like Moldova and I was surprised to find that it wasn't and that corporate Europe had invaded. There were lots of German and French supermarkets (Lidl, Penny, Kaufland, Carrefour, Real) and more banks than you could shake a stick at. Almost every other building on the high street was a bank.
Traian is an only child which may explain why, even though he is in his thirties, his mother still cooks for him. All the food in his fridge came from his mum to be heated up, because Traian doesn't know how to cook. The next day we went to his parents place for lunch and I could not believe how much food was placed before us, it was an absolute feast. And the food was very good too - I began to understand why he never learnt to cook.
This painting was done by a friend of Traian, a man from France, and it is a painting with an interesting story. Traian told me that the girl is a Romanian who pretended to be in love with the French guy in order to get money from him and then ran off with it all. He said I should watch out for girls like that in Eastern Europe. I said "I'm not that bothered, if they stole all my money and bought a bus ticket with it I could catch them up at the other end of the street."
But I thought the painting was magnificent, you can really feel the emotion in it. The way that the girl looks away, almost ashamed, the darkness of the colours. But the story got worse. I asked if he met the girl in Romania.
"No," Traian said, "In France. It was in a strip club."
"Oh, well what did he expect? How old is this guy?"
"Forty-six."
"Forty-six, and he fell in love with a stripper?"
"Yes and she said her mum had cancer and needed an operation or something, to get money from him."
"What an original and believable story. Why would he doubt it? How much money did he give her?"
"I'm not sure," mused Traian, "there were a few times she asked for money. In total, maybe about a hundred thousand Euros I think."
I had my head in my hands. The painting got a whole lot more meaningful. Traian warned me again to watch out for girls like that.
"You mean the old 'I'm a stripper and my mums got cancer' story? I'll be sure to keep my guard up. Thanks buddy."
11/01/14 - 90km (17km in Romania)
12/01/14 - 11km unloaded
Today's ride: 17 km (11 miles)
Total: 12,226 km (7,592 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 4 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |