Now moar bigger, longer and uncutter-er.
Moving (that is, our fine asses) from the Ottoman slash Phanariote outskirts of the heart of Bükreş to the Österreich-Ungarischen outskirts of Темишвар took only a tad over ten hours, via post-modern1 Rotrain. Below, the reader can admire a view of the town as seen when arriving from all directions towards the centre -- or the other way around, whichever you prefer.
Above: train residing in Timișoara Nord -- situated in the southwestern corner of town. Below: Bega, also situated (among others) in the southwestern corner.
The beautiful Timișorean parks and gardens house, in order: trees,
flowers,
little cultural "houses of reading"
and, of course, other assorted cultural layers.
In case you're curious, the photo above was taken in the Botanical Park, which, judging by the booth at the entrance, once had an entrance fee. Nowadays, however, entrance is open to allcomers, a set including, by the way, allorcs who are quite ready to turn everything they touch into shit, piss, vomit and so on. I hope you're happy with your beautiful democracy and all the benefits it gives you.
Wait, you thought we're done? Actually, we've just begun -- I did say this was going to be long, didn't I? Below: a few shots from the Timișoara town centre.
Below, Timișoara urban mural art circa 2019. If I were to structure the post, I'd say this was section one of five or something, with everything above being the prologue.
Above: we get lost in your beautiful. Below: Ion Sulea.
Above: eyes; and hands. Below: surreal stuff.
Above: place for sighing. Below: weird stuff.
Up next: we take a look at the variety of architectural designs Timișoara has on display. Below: a church of sorts.
Above: various buildings, e.g. last one belongs to the Poor Clerics of Something-or-The-Other. Below: narațiune în râmă.
Above: tune in to 88.8 FM! Below: one hell of a coloured building.
Now, for a short intermission -- below, rare sighting of a tram. Timișoara public transportation is, much like the one in Bucharest, destined entirely to locals2 and entirely absent when you actually need it. Fortunately for whoever's visiting, the town's walkable when they're not in a hurry, and when they are there are taxis aplenty.
Up next: the doors. Well,not The doors, but certainly the ones I've photographed. Below: a door leading into thin air, on the second floor of a building.
Above: door leading into nameless alley. Below: someone's being a smart-ass.
Up next: statuettes, each one more peculiar than the other. Below: she-wolf with baby human wolflings, looking at a tree.
Above, one of the baby wolflings, now grown into a man, leading his people, the Romanianans, to great success! Below: Adam, holding his favourite woman; followed by Eve and her favourite snake.
Above: child, accompanied by manouche jazz orchestra. Below: "I'm the slime oozing out of your TV set".
Above: I've no fuckin' idea.
Below, an epilogue: nonchallange.
Just in case you're thinking this was the actual "uncut" version, I'll have you know that the forty-five or so photos above were selected out of a set of more than three hundred. This being said, I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen quite the half of it, and this doesn't even include the things I've seen and haven't photographed, such as the stuff at the Art Museum. But I'm already out of space, so until next time...
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"Post-modern" here means the following: modernity being over, then so are its means and fundamental characteristics, and thusly so are sane means of transportation. Trains are a thing of the '30s and the '70s and really, who the fuck needs railways in 2020. As a consequence, they now go at the average speed of 55m/h, almost as fast as that iuțeală maximă back more than a century ago, sometimes going as low as 30. Granted, this at least gave us a good view of the Danube over at the Iron Gates and... the beauty of Oltenia, I suppose. Too bad that we chose our departing trip at night.
By now I've realized that Timișoara is better connected (both road-wise and railway-wise) to the West than it is to the capital, which makes me wonder what the fuck is it doing as part of Romania in the first place. Anyway, I shall put this here for posterity: if you ever hear me saying I'm travelling to Western Romania (or in any big town in Romania, as far as Romanian towns go) other than by plane, give me a good slapping. ↩
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How else do you explain the facts that a. tickets are only sold as electronic cards that b. can only be purchased using a valid national ID; c. aren't provided upfront, but after a bunch of days; and d. are only available at one of a few select locations that e.g. don't include the train station.
Of course, tickets aren't available for purchase in the tram itself, nor in the tram station in most places, as counter-intuitive as this might sound to civilized people. ↩
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