I’ve already confessed to exactly where I was and what I was doing in December 1989 when Romania had their revolution. I was drunk, surly and in a foul mood and when my friend ran to me, breathless, saying they had just shot Nicolae Ceausescu on television, my reply was “Who? Never heard of him.” In the intervening years, I’ve spoken to lots of people … Continue reading How Romanians Got Cheated Out of a Revolution
Literally every single time I have ever phoned a taxi service to order a cab, this is exactly how the dialogue went: Me: O masina la adresa X, va rog. Dispatcher: *grumpy snorts into phone, says nothing, keys clacking for 30 seconds* Pe ce nume? Me: Sam Dispatcher: Ce? Me: Sâm ca sîmbata Dispatcher: Ah. *keys clacking, garbled radio traffic in the background for a … Continue reading Any Given Taxi
Ok folks, more good news on the book front. The “regular” Amazon page for the paperback version is working now. It is here. PLEASE, please, if you have an account on Amazon, please log in there and write a review, even if you haven’t read the book. Just a few words mentioning that you like what I write (which hopefully you do, else why do … Continue reading Book News
Today is a big day in Romania – “Saint Nicholas’ Day”, known colloquially as Moş Nicolae, literally meaning “Old Man Nicholas”. In both Catholicism and (Romanian) Orthodox, today is a religious holiday to celebrate the acts of Saint Nicholas. In Romania, Moş Nicolae is roughly equivalent to Santa Claus (Brit: Father Christmas). Last night, little children all over Romania put boots (sometimes shoes) out for … Continue reading Moş Nicolae
Here in Romania as we head from autumn to true winter, we reach the gap where cold, freezing rain slowly but surely turns into snow. Just the other day, I heard someone use the word lapovita (lop oh-veet-za) and I knew I had to write about it on the blog. In Romanian, this word specifically refers to when it is simultaneously raining and snowing at … Continue reading Word of the Day: Lapovita
All Things Romania 