I arrived in Timisoara at 06:45, Friday morning. The train ride was tiring and long and I couldn’t sleep much, but I read and thought about stuff *same old story, same old thoughts, same old shit* and by the time the train entered the station, I was completely wasted :)
I met M. in the station and we went to the campus. It was an interesting experience staying there for 2 days, but now I’m 100% sure I couldn’t have lived in a campus, I couldn’t have shared a small room with another person, I couldn’t have got used to the idea of common showers/toilets. The room wasn’t bad and the bathroom was more than OK, but I don’t know… yes, there are a lot students there, it’s the perfect place to make friends and get to know all kinds of people, but honestly, I prefer my big, empty room :)
After we slept for, I don’t know, 1-1.5 hours, M. showed me around town. What can I say… Timisoara is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I’d been there only once before, when I was little, so I didn’t remember much of it. And then there were all these people telling me how nice the city is, how civilised, how Occidental. And it’s not that I didn’t believe them, but I had my Bucharest and it was enough for me.
Two things really amazed me: how empty the city looked and how silent it was. I mean, we walked through parks and through the main city squares and I had the impression that the people were hiding somewhere, that there’s something wrong with the place, so people-less. It was a strange feeling: after months of walking side by side with other people on the street, after cramming myself day after day into buses, being in Timisoara was like being in a completely different part of the world. And then there was the silence. Not actual silence, but I didn’t hear any honks, or people shouting at each other, or kids crying, or any other noises that are so familiar in Bucharest. The absence of noise was so complete, that it hurt. Of course, they told me that TM is also crowded and noisy, but I refused to believe them.
The buildings were incredibly beautiful. TM is actually picturesque: old buildings, lots of squares, nice people, quaint pubs and tea/coffee houses, you know, it has all the ingredients of a town you could fall in love with. And I did.
And I had lots of fun, too! M. and his friends were especially nice to me and they took me to a concert, to an Italian restaurant, to an ice cream house and to an Irish pub. I also meet a very nice blogger and we talked about books and writer and I spent a very pleasant afternoon with her *can wait to see her again! ^_^* I bought tones of chocolate, which I forgot in M.’s fridge :)) and there was this girl who smiled at me out of the blue, while I was walking down the street *well, M. says she smiled at us, but I don’t believe him - she was looking and smiling at me*, and then there was this very nice waiter who made us laugh and… everyone was sooo nice!
I was supposed to take train back to Bucharest on Sunday afternoon, but my parents called and said there were going to Bucharest as well, and they’d like to pick me up and go together, so I ended taking the train on Sunday *very early* morning to Cluj, which is 150 km away from home!!! :)) And the cool part was that both my parents and I reached Cluj at the same time :)
Well, I don’t know when I’ll visit TM again, but I hope it’s going to be soonish. It’s too nice a town not to go back there as often as I can. I heart Timisoara!
Original post: here.
Ionuca: 21, bookaholic, happy most of the time, obsessive and very talkative. Had lived in quiet little mountain town till the fall of 2006 when she moved to Bucharest, a city she’s still in love with.