One
of the few signs of public kindness left in Romania is.... hitch-hiking. At the
exit of all cities you can see a few people waiting for lifts – which they will
generally get in 10 minutes or so. As you leave the car – after a trip of 50
kilometres say – you will simply put a note worth a couple of euros in the
driver’s hand as you leave. But hitch-hiking in Romania is being banned – with the guilty party now designated as the driver (as if we were the
customers of prostitutes).
So where does that place me when I am on the 6
kilometre stretch of track from the main road to the village where I live in
the summer when I encounter villagers? No justification has been given for this
stupid new law which, hopefully, will be ignored by all, not least the police
(as it was for a previous effort some years back apparently). As if Romanians were not being crushed enough!
I
referred some months back to a great book of black and white photographs of Ceaucescu‘s Romania by Andrei Pandele which got a
nice review on the BBC magazine.
The author of the piece, Tessa Dunlop, wrote a novel recently about the period –
To Romania with Love
Finally,
for those who want to know more about aspects of Romania’s history, there is an
interesting review of the second-world war dictator Antonescu here
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