Back in Romania

After a sabbatical of 3 years, I am now back working for Kinectrics in Romania but now in our offices in Bucharest.  It's good to be back and I have been here on/off since February. 

Clearly there's quite a difference between being in Cernavoda and in Bucharest, not least the noise, pollution and traffic.  I have a rented apartment near the office.

I hope to restart my blog and provide some views and opinions about being an expat abroad.

Stay tuned, dear reader.

PS- you can also check my other blog about craft beer in Romania, a subject dear to my heart.

My favourite subject - nuclear plant toilet facilities

Sorry to go back to this but the 'facilities' in our office block intrigue me.

I already went on about the paper quality in a previous post.  That was the start.

I hate to admit this in case my colleagues read this but I used to fill up the coffee machine from the hand basins in the bathroom.  All was well until suddenly up went a sign telling us not to drink the water. Oops.

The second development was a report that, since our block was largely inhabited by contractors (as I am) then the plant was going to buy cheaper toilet paper to save money.  This seemed odd on the basis that (a) it seemed a bizarre way to save money on a plant rated at 1.4 GW of power per day and (b) any lowering of quality would be quite an achievement in itself.  Suffice to say, the 1-molecule-thick paper hasn't shown up yet....

Thirdly, while we all have to lock our offices at night (good idea due to computers etc.) I can't figure out why the cleaners also lock up the toilets.  What are they worried out being stolen?  If you work late, it can become a bit inconvenient.

OK, subject closed. Never to be returned to.  Probably. Or I could go on about Kozloduy NPP....

Trip to Kaliakra

As the long summer weekends drag on, I decided to take a short trip to Kaliakra, a spit of land stretching southwards into the Black Sea in Bulgaria.  It was about 10 kms this side of Kavarna. The plan was to go on the Saturday and visit Kaliakra and then stay at an 'economy' hotel at Tyulenovo, a bit more north of Kaliakra.

Kaliakra

As it was the first day of the holidays (or seemed it) the motorway was heaving to Constanta and then further south to Mangalia.  Driving in such crowded situations is somewhat stressful - and don't start me on about Romanian pedestrian crossings!!

I was surprised about Mangalia, mostly due to the huge Daewoo shipyard there - good to see someone in Europe still building ships.

My kinda apartment block!

On through Vama Veche, past the border.  The crossing is relatively easy - passport and car registration if you're EU.  Then you need to buy the vignette.  A week (minimum) is 10 Leva so not likely to break the bank.

Kaliakra was impressive.  A former fort (it was clear why) now with some Bulgarian military base on it.  There were remnants of a Roman fortress and from others in between.  It was hot...with no shade, it was heavy going.  The area is really scenic - very nice, though the many wind turbines detract from the beauty a bit.  Still, the fort will outlast them.

I went to Kavarna, well known as site of Bulgaria's annual rock festival.  But not when I was there.  It seemed to be a bit non descript though the idea of living in a block with a mural of Billy Idol on the end did appeal to me.

All I did was do to a shop and stock up on Bulgarian wine...so not a wasted trip at all!

Local road and helpful road sign

Then I went back north to Tyulenovo.  Following the signs and my trusty GPS I headed off the main road.  Then I found the worst road in NE Bulgaria.  I already know most of the bad ones in NW Bulgarian so soon I may get the full set.  The Orbita hotel was basic - but in a fine cove with a good restaurant.


 I checked in and headed off for an afternoon Kaminitsa (or two).  Then a walk along the rugged coast followed by the inevitable nap.  Dinner in THE restaurant was a bit tough - full, so I didn't get my cheesy chips until about 10.30 pm.  I made do with a glass or two of wine to pass the time.

Best view on the coast

Hotel was about 17 GBP/night.  Handy for the beach (50 m) and clean. Good price for a well positioned hotel and clean bed.

Next morning, after discovering that the breakfast wasn't available on a Sunday (??), I went to Shabla to visit the lighthouse.  I also found a beach and went for a dip - warm and enjoyable.  Eventually, I headed back through the chaos of Mangalia and nearby resorts to Cernavoda.

A short, but good, trip.  Well worth a visit.

Shabla beach

Roads

In Bulgaria, the condition of the roads was always close to a driver's heart.  Driving there needed lightening quick reactions to see an imminent pothole and take evasive action.  It is a skill that all Bulgarian drivers acquire very early on. I thought I'd seen some bad roads around Kozloduy and in similar remote spot.  But now, in Romania, I have been taken to new heights.

Yesterday I returned from the coast and decided to NOT take the boring motorway but to take a more scenic route.  That was the good part of the idea. The road was clearly defined on the map (Route 86, joining E87 to 2A, near Mihail Kogălniceanu).  It started off a bit rough but then got worse - why didn't I turn back?  Because I figured it couldn't get any worse...

I thought I'd take a picture of a bad bit (see right).  However this turned out to be one of the least damaged parts of this 4 km stretch. If the rest had been like this, it would have been easy. 

It genuinely looked like it had recently been bombed by NATO in a training exercise.  The car seems to have survived though the low front end took some impacts.  It was like a test track for tanks. 

It is the season generally here for road repairs.  That, and the painting of white around tree trunks, signifies the onset of spring. The ring road around the NE and SE or Bucharest has some 'challenges', especially in the dark.  They were filling the bigger holes in recently when I did the trip.  This amounted to a moving operation where one guy identified the crater to be filled and the next shoveled in some loose tarmac.  They relied on the following cars to compress it.  I am sure those repairs will last some time.  

Road damage is everywhere in Romania.  The motorway to Cernavoda from Bucharest has such damage in the far right lane to be capable of ripping off a wheel.  They are currently patching the patches. 

And don't get me started on biking on the roads....! 

Dogs in Romania...now one less

I can now add to the earlier blog about dogs by announcing that Romania has one less - and that my car has suffered front end damage.  Co-incidence? I think not.

I never got the dog repellent spray designed for cyclists - it seems good stuff is available on eBay in the US but not available here... I have not yet figured out the real answer to what the dogs clearly see as sport here.  I have tried ignoring them, swearing at them (in English) or riding at them.  None work.

I hasten to add that the unfortunate dog who is now probably in dog heaven just decided to cross the motorway at the entrance to a tunnel at the wrong time...

Transfagarasan Highway

I took a short trip over the last few days to have another attempt at the Transfagarasan Highway which runs across the Carpathian Mountains.  I'd previously foolishly attempted this in November 2013 (see previous blog).  This time, in summer and, having checked there were no scheduled closures, we tried again.

It's a drive from here to Bucharest, then Ploiesti then Brasov as a stopping off point.  Taking the road west from there gets you to the northern point of the highway.

This is the road travelling by the Top Gear team - which they reckoned was the best road in the world for driving. I'm not sure how they came to that decision although the Romanian Tourist Board probably helped them along the way...the cars they used were probably very unsuitable for most of that road (90% probably) so it makes you wonder logistically how they did it. From N to S, it is about 120 km with some 30 (I estimate) on the pass itself.

The route up from the north is the most spectacular.  Last November it was icy with the lake at the top iced over.  Now the area around the lake was just full of stalls selling cheese, goat skins, sausage and tat.  The view was still impressive though! However, to our relief, the big iron gate in the tunnel at the top was open this time (it's a long way back down).  South of the summit was very scenic but with fewer acute bends and so less dramatic.  Eventually it leveled out along the edge of a man-made lake which, driving through trees not being able to see the lake got a bit tiring (and boring) after a while.  Despite the warning signs, no bears were seen stealing picnic baskets.

So - done. Spectacular over the top (even in a VW Passat) but a long trip, especially south heading into Curtea de Argeş which was just very industrial.  I'd seriously like to know how the TG lot got their three cars up there...they seem to gloss over such details in the programme!

A Study in Modern Dentistry

Today I went to the dentist in Constanta.  But that word 'dentist' doesn't do it justice.  I felt that I had actually stepped into a dentist equipment suppliers showroom at a worldwide dental exhibition.  I'd had toothache for a few weeks and put off a visit to the dentist in the UK for a while, pending return from holiday.  Finally, with pain and a swollen gum, I visited my collegues dentist wife in Cernavoda.  She identified root canal infection which I suspected so, after an x-ray at the plant medical centre (cost: £1.80) she decided it was too complicated and got me a referral to the place in Constanta.

This dentist had everything. Fancy lights, music, x-ray machine, computers, other machines which looked impressive but had unknown function..it still hurt a bit though!

A far cry from dear Mr. ******.

In the UK, dentists are called Mr... or Mrs..., not Dr.  Mr. ****** was an 'old school' dentist. Failed to graduate from dentist charm school.  My early visits were terrifying.  He wasn't too far away from Sir Lawrence Olivier as the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man.  He used an old steel hypodermic syringe which looked absolutely frightening (however I think anesthetic was still rationed during those visits...)  I can hear him now bellowing at me: "Open your eyes, boy! I need to know how you're feeling".  Ha! The screwed up eyes should have told him everything.

Time passed, and on to different dentists.  One of the best was a chap in Cumbria who had had a patient die on him.  Always easy to get an appointment with him, strangely.

We moved to the US in 1993 - the motherland of dentistry.  This was 180 degrees off Mr. ****** - soft music, assistants mopping up the slobber from your chin, so much anesthetic you still felt it 2 days later. Still, we all had good (and gentle) dental work there - paying out thousands for orthodontic work for the kids (sadly some undone some years later when Emily dived into a pool which wasn't as deep as expected....but more of that soon).

Next was Bulgaria.  Kozloduy was a small village in the north west, close to the Danube.  But, I had very good, cheap dental work there.  Sometimes, the language was a barrier but other times, like when a nerve was hit, not.  Once prior to a wisdom tooth extraction, she thought I was a bit tense so fed me this homeopathic relaxant.  I am 99% sure it did me no good at all but it seemed to help her. Or maybe it was the hefty assistant who wiped my mouth with what appeared to be an old flannel which kept me quiet...

So now, Romania.  This surgery in Constanta is very, very impressive.  They even had a machine which went 'ping' (ref: Monty Python).  I'll see how it goes but today was pretty good, nice music, pretty girls.  Even the bill was OK but that's before the crown.  I'll let you know.

As for Emily - she is working in India and has just had her teeth completely fixed and whitened.  And very nice too. And cheap.

So, the message appears to be this: consider dental tourism for a holiday this year.  Don't stick with your UK dentist - you'd be surprised about where you can get better treatment, at a fraction of the price.  We recently left our private practice plan in the UK.  For its cost, you could get a load of things sorted out somewhere else!