Walkabout

 

The crumbling grey concrete blocks of Soviet Eastern Europe

Country roads, Moldovan, Ukrainian style

Every town should have an orange building

“Polenta” field

Love these horse and wagon scenes

MY TABLE at the B&B in Suceava

Gaze deeply into my buttery depth

VERY early at the train station

Roma people still obvious sometimes

Train stations just simply look mysterious and romantic

Mom and son on the train to Timisoara

yellow and power lines and hills, nice

the sun goes down

Full moon over Romania

Moon over Timisoara

If I am not on a holiday or vacation or a fact-finding mission or a study trip what in the hell am I doing? I am on a walkabout. The dictionary (Merriam-Webster) defines walkabout as “a short period of wandering bush life engaged in by an Australian aborigine as an occasional interruption of regular work.”  How about…a short period of wandering around engaged in by a restless American woman as an occasional interruption of regular work. It is okay, I think.

 This is my fourteenth day in the Balkan region of the European world. I am in the hotel, Pansion Harmony, in the hills of Sarajevo. Down in the city center where I spent part of the day wandering and shopping it is beautiful and historic and lively. The problem is … I have now spent so many days in city centers that are “beautiful and historic and lively” that it is getting harder and harder to keep my level of enthusiasm as high as these vibrant places deserve.  The kind of city centers that we can only dream of in the US for the most part.

 The walkabout so far then: September day by day

• To Bucharest (3^rd)
• Arrive Bucharest (4^th)
• Sightsee Bucharest, arranging bus to Chisinau (5^th)
• LONG day’s bus to Chisinau (6^th)
• Chisinau walk. Museum. Afternoon bus to Odessa. Check into hotel of horrors, Zirka. (7th)
• Change hotels. LOVE Odessa (8^th)
• Odessa (9^th)
• Early bus, Odessa to Chisinau, cannot get connections on to Suceava so overnight Chisinau again.(10^th)
• Bus to Suceava, check in and dinner at B&B (11^th)
• Tour of Painted Monasteries of Bucovina (12^th)
• LONG train ride to Timisoara in hot dirty miserable train where I meet warm and friendly Romanians who feed me all day and we speak in something called “friend sign.” You know…where you smile and gesture and point and offer each other whatever you have. Overnight in Timisoara, unplanned originally (13^th)
• Second night in Timisoara, hard to get to Belgrade! (14^th)
• Early train to Belgrade, all day mini-walkabout in Belgrade, flight to Sarajevo.(15^th)
• Today in Sarajevo (16^th)

 For the record!

Doing it alone—but then aren’t all walkabouts alone? It is hard to maintain one’s level of energy and enthusiasm when traveling alone. With others you have someone to push you along when spirits flag, to remark upon at day’s end, etc. By the same token, traveling with someone else brings their moods and biases into the picture which can change your perceptions of a place or experience drastically…it’s all a trade-off of course.

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