Metropotam - Daily stuff

Dragobete - Romanian code name for Saint Valentine

Flavia — 2007-02-14T07:02:00+00:00

It surely crossed your mind that other cultures might also have some (at least remote) equivalents for the so famous American Saint Valentine's Day. We do! It is called Dragobete and we used to celebrate it openly in the rural areas on the 24th of February. Used to unfortunately, because today few people (if any at all) still care for this celebration in the traditional manner.

In this day people celebrated spring and the blossoming nature when animals leave their winter lairs and birds start building their nests in the budding trees and so on... Of course mating is one of the main aspects of natural life, that is why the pre-Christian dedicated this celebration to love. :)

Dragobete is the Romanian Cupid or Eros wearing traditional clothes, not golden bow and arrows and not necesarily intended to make people fall in love but... rather make young girls fall in love with him. He is however supposed to be the protector of lovers and partners who meet in this vary day of 24th February - that includes animals. :)

Our so funny traditional stories about Dragobete (and other popular items) also include an attempt to seduce and bewilder Virgin Mary who punished him cruelly by changing the poor guy into a weed that we call Navalnic.

No smoking in trains

CristinaP — 2006-10-17T13:31:00+00:00

No smoking on trains' hallways anymore, says the Romanian Railroads Company. Smokers united stir up and comment, very much annoyed, on the quality of travelling by train, on bribing the conductors, and in such bad conditions smoking alone beams like a ray of hope and liberation.

And yet this action follows the European and North American trend of not allowing smoking in as many public places as possible.

So far the law regulating this aspect was Law no. 349/2002 , forbidding smoking in public transportation, namely buses, trams and subway.

This is not good news for smokers, since a trip by train can last up to 8-9 hours. Will they have at least a special wagon for smoking? Or are we going to have a special train only for smokers, as they are planning for airplanes?

Mobile City

CristinaP — 2006-10-04T15:50:00+00:00

We give up. We know you cannot be constantly connected to metropotam, on your computer, browsing for events and finding out about nightlife in clubs and pubs.

For those times when you're away from your computer but you have your cell phone handy, now you have urbee, a small mobile application which works hand in hand with the calendar and feeds it with events in Bucharest, letting you know what goes on and what might be of interest.

The application is available online and can be downloaded via cell phone, bluetooth or computer. Or right click & save as directly from here.

Places in Bucharest - Casa Presei Libere

CristinaP — 2006-10-02T17:12:00+00:00

The place is beep-ing huge! If you'll excuse the abrupt beginning, but some things have to be set straight first. And now that we got it out of our system, let's get to know Casa Presei Libere (which would roughly translate as House of the Free Press), which could stand as a step sister to the People's House (Palace of the Parliament), not by architect parenthood (the Press House being designed by Nicolae Maicu and the Parliament by Anca Petrescu), and not by similarities of style, either (the Parliament abunds in details and luxury, while the hallways of the Press House are empty and shabby). They relate in accomplishing to infuse the mere man with a feeling of diminutiveness and insignificance in front of the collective human efforts of those who have built something that will hopefully dwell for centuries.

"I wonder how long it took to build this place", I was wondering while circling the building, which, by the way, is a whole lot harder than one might imagine. Although the frontispiece is impressive with its height and length, once you're past the front wings you still have a long way to go around the back. Over 200m.

The answer to my question above is 5 years, namely between 1952 and 1957. Horia Maicu drafted the blueprints being inspired by Lomonosov University in Moscow.

At the beginning, the building was called "Casa Scanteii". "Scanteia" (the spark) was the name of the official newspaper of the communist party, and what you maybe don't know is that you can still find it, and what's more, it's an electronic newspaper.

The building which is the headquarters of dozens of publications, publishing and printing houses, has a square area of 280 x 260 m. Without the television aerial, it measures 96 meters, and with it, 104m, which beats even Intercontinental Hotel, which is only 86 m high.

The Press House is a perfect example of Stalinist architecture. Huge and imposing, but practical. Not even this bastion of the old times escapes the modern trends. Right in the middle of the front end, there is a neon ad sign of the jeans designer LeeCooper. A colorful element, and maybe even a surrealistic one, considering the history of the building.

On September 21st 1960, a huge statue of Lenin, made by sculptor Boris Caragea, was erected in front of the building. Getting rid of this landmark on March 3rd 1990 was part of the healing (or getting even) process of the capital's inhabitants after the communist era ended. The base is still there, but in the statue's place there's a simple and befuddling art form.

Once you get used to the size and "gallactic" dimensions, the artistic details kick in. Such elements which, seen from a closer angle, may soften the giant of stalinist architecture. Flowery elements, carved rails and medieval fences. The turrets don't have a purpose in themselves, are mere architectural artifices. A closer look also shows that the building has another human characteristic: it's growing old. You can read its age in the rusty spots and the stones, gray with soot and dust.

The newspapers which you may read during breakfast or in the subway have their headquarters here: Adevarul, Jurnalul National, Cotidianul. Press agencies, too. Behind the building there are the printing houses, and if you're not afraid of dogs, you can enter freely. One of the most important is Coresi, the National Company of Printing Houses. It has a 55 year old tradition.

After 20 minutes of circling the building, we are still not sure we'll be able to really grasp the lonely castle of the Press House. Park Herastrau is right across the street and the green oasis makes the gray walls even duller. It is yet obvious that this building will stand tall to its fame for years, even though it is presently threatened by privatization. Casa Presei Libere is a mass media fortress in a city that feeds on information day by day, hour by hour.

Surviving Guide for Expats

CristinaP — 2006-09-29T14:17:00+00:00

An orientation seminar took place yesterday at the US Embassy in Bucharest for American researchers and professors who have come in Romania for various projects. Should you have a look at how issues have been raised, you would say that living in Romania is like an episode of Survivor or Amazing Race, without the million dollar prize.

It is funny to see what problems have identified those living here for a while now and how they presented them. First of all, the problems are of the kind that require, before a solution, sheer defence: stray dogs, pickpockets, thieves, homeless children, bad roads, birdflue...

From the survival guide: "Do not be afraid to hit the homeless children", "Be sure to have some spare biscuits in your bag for the stray dogs" "It is better not to leave home at night" "Make sure to have your antiflue shot to avoid being the missing link between human flue and bird flue", "Travel by train or airplane".

This is perfectly true. We have the drivers of hell, bad roads and stray dogs.

Apart fom that, there are not many capitals in which it is perfectly ok to walk around during nightime. "There are many things happening after midnight". Well, I, for one, have a very unpleasant memory from the Vienna subway and the people in it, at a very decent hour in the evening. And speaking of security, here's a place where "things happen" in full daylight.

And then: "Don't exchange money on the street, you might become the victims of conmen" - where in the world is it safe to exchange money ... on the streets?

"You are moving targets! Some guy may come up to you and say: I'm from the Militia! Where is your passport?" whilst you, as a law-abiding citizen, give it to him, without further questions. :) Here, "militia men" wear a uniform of a badge which give them the rights to legitimate someone. If not, you're not giving your passport to anyone. As simple as that.

On the other hand the issue of moving targets is of a very delicate nature for the Americans themselves, so we'd better not just invent problems.

Anyway, it is indeed shameful for us that - even though this is the millionth group of Americans visiting us since the revolution, our problems remained ever the same. We build something in one place and tear down in another. That's pretty much all about us.

Franco Phoney in Romania

CristinaP — 2006-09-26T14:08:00+00:00

Is it good or is it bad that the Francophone Summit is organized here in Romania? The rehearsal on Saturday showed us that our francophilia will be stuck in traffic on the main avenues. At the same time, tomorrow we'll have the country report which combined with the days of francophony, will make us shout happily "We're in Europe!"

It's a question of image after all. We are not as francophones as they want us to be, nor as Europeans as we would wish to be. But as long as apparences are kept, it's fine. In our case, disconfirming the saying "the habit does not make the monk". Francophony suits us well, like a (rain)coat and tries to make us, as a European nation, connoiseurs of French wine and fromage.

But this is not the main issue. We all accept the image rehearsal exercise, we're glad we have the opportunity to see various concerts, exhibitions, to hear our grandparents' langue de societé. The problem is that this is being forced upon us. All of a sudden all we hear is about our Romance roots, about those from the 1848 cultural revolution who studied in Paris and, inevitably, about "little Paris", as Bucharest used to be called at the beginning of 20th century.

Let's make a parallel. Do you know the kind of TV shows where they take a country girl, dress her up, apply make up, dye her hair and finally present the "big change" to the public? And usually the clothes are too trendy and the make up too violent, in strong contrast with her behaviour, attitude, and redneck skin.

The same thing happens now - we apply strong make-up to the city, hide its imperfections with some dabs of paint, teach it how say bonjour and how to give flowers to the officials. We spell "little Paris" in capitals and wear the label in plain sight. We make up phoney French words and remember Caragiale.

"The people in Bucharest are strongly recommended to avoid sudden movements", we hear in the news. Don't make sudden movements, don't be angry if you miss the plane because of the traffic jams, report to the police any suitcase forgotten in the elevator, make free entry passes for your home. Funny.

If we really want to be "little Paris" we should do a little bit more than painting a fence. And chill out a bit, because we look like an old lady receiving the visit of far relatives with important positions, and she tries so hard not to disturb them. The guests feel embarrassed and the host is stressed out.

And what will happen next? After the show, the country gal gets back her usual second hand clothes and hair combed by the wind. It's all rating and advertising.

And the city will come back the its "normal" state. The French style buidings will be just as worn out, still no one will read Baudelaire, we'll have French music concerts just as "often" as we did so far, the streets will be just as "clean" as ever, the homeless will wait patiently for the manholes and sewers to be unsealed and we'll have Ionesco in theaters again when pigs fly.

But make no mistake about it: organizing the Summit in Romania is not a bad thing all in all. It's a PR exercise meant to attract the eyes of the world upon us, despite our problems. Helps the country brand, strengthens relationships, we socialize a bit and rub elbows with high class.

If this event would bring along a real change (not that a traffic jam would be something abstract), we would not be nagging so much. So is it worth it? Make up and face-lifting jobs require time, money and lots of nerves.