Word Count: 2319 Well folks, it’s been an interesting week. A few simple comments about Odessa led to a lot of exploration and research, and so I thank everyone who contributed because it really gave me the impetus to learn a lot more about Romania during World War 2, a subject I had previously avoided because it was so ugly. I got some rather trenchant … Continue reading The Odessa Tales, Pt. 2
Word Count: 2171 Not too long ago, I had the chance to visit the beautiful city of Odessa. When I casually mentioned how weird it was that the train station in Odessa – as well as train stations in Bender and Tiraspol (part of Transnistria, the country that doesn’t exist) has a lot of armed Interior Ministry cops posted there, I started getting comments about … Continue reading Odessa Tales
WORD COUNT: 1240 Ever since writing my seminal piece about riding Romanian trains five years ago (with many follow-up tales, like this one), I’ve been burning with desire to ride some trains in (the Republic of) Moldova. Luckily, this week, I finally got my chance! There are a lot of differences, the most important being that Romania is a huge country with hundreds of train … Continue reading Choo-Choo! Riding the Rails Moldova Style
WORD COUNT: 1764 Well, I don’t think that it’s news to anyone any longer than the refugee crisis that I wrote about is now effecting serious changes on all of Europe. Last week, the EU member states (which include Romania, but not Moldova) had a vote and it split almost perfectly down the east/west axis, with western European countries voting in favor of absorbing immigrants … Continue reading Cultural Suicide
For those of you who don’t know me well, my name is Sam, and I was born and mostly raised in the United States. Then about 15 years ago, I visited Romania, and quickly fell in love with the people, the land, the music, the food, and the culture. I then moved to Romania, and learned to speak the language, and eventually even published a … Continue reading Join our Global Village
All Things Romania 