Happy (Orthodox) Easter!

Hi Everyone,

At 2 minutes to midnight on Saturday an eerie silence engulfs Bucuresti. Earlier on in the evening all the restaurants and bars closed by 10.30. The streets are deserted. Even the omnipresent cars with their noisy claxons are conspicuous by their absence. These are unique moments in this crazy city.

In the still night air two distinct elements mix, the deep chanting of the priests and the heavy scent of incense. Across the city outside the many Orthodox churches crowds stand in silence. The insides are full to the brim. Then at midnight the priest appears at the door way holding the candle symbolising the light of Easter.
He declares "Hristos a înviat!" Christ is risen!
And the crowd roars back "Adevărat a înviat!" Truly Christ is risen!

Then the light from the priest's candle is passed from person to person.

And if you are not outside on the streets or in a church, then you can watch the events on television. Virtually every Romanian TV channel had live broadcasts of the midnight services from Bucuresti, Constanta (on the Black Sea), Iasi (by the Moldovan border) and Bistrita (in the northern region of Maremures near the Ukraine).

With Midnight Mass drawing to a close, and in some churches the service will go on until 3.00 in the morning, Easter celebrations can now begin. Down the streets candles wend their way back home. Waiting in the houses is cozanac, a sweet bread with nuts, pasca, a sweet cheese pie with raisins, and of course wine, brandy and plum tuica. The 40 day fast (called Post) is over at last. Finally meat, animal products, eggs, milk, cheese can be eaten. And in the next 24 hours huge amounts will be consumed.

Across the country for the last few days in the village market places lambs and sheep have been arriving. There they are slaughtered, hung up and sold, sometimes whole or cut up. This is the meat for Resurrection Sunday. But during Holy Week the ovens have been on continuously as the wives have been baking to ensure there is enough food to feed an African nation for a month. You think we eat a huge amount an Christmas? Come to Romania and watch the experts at Easter!

And so the biggest festival of the year is in full swing. All through Sunday as you meet people on the streets you are greeted with:
"Hristos a înviat!"
and you must answer:
"Adevărat a înviat!"
Red coloured hard boiled eggs are cracked together and then eaten once the red shell has been removed. On Easter Saturday Tibi and I spent a couple of hours boiling and then colouring the eggs - not just red ones for us but multi-coloured glitter eggs!

And everywhere you go the air is full of the aroma of cooking food: miel din cuptor (lamb in the oven), mici la gratar (Romanian skinless sausages on the grill) and delicious sweet cakes.

Like in the UK, the Monday after Easter Sunday is a holiday. I am convinced this is to allow everyone to:

• sleep, as they have been celebrating for over 24 hours non stop,
• be sick, as they have been eating and drinking continuously,
• rest, as the hangovers combined with the upset stomachs have limited their relaxation.

For me, the strangest element is all this without the sight of one single chocolate egg. And thank goodness for that, just the sniff of a Cadbury's creme egg at this moment could have dire results for my already overloaded stomach!

All the best.

Andrew x

Flying High

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I've not been in touch recently.

Spring has definitely arrived here and with the clocks changing last week there is a much better atmosphere in the city. It is not that we have had a particularly bad winter, it's just that Bucharest improves immensely in warmer weather. The pavement cafes open up again (which means you can put away the breathing apparatus and escape the smoke filled rooms inside).

The Ambassador went to London for a week so I took the opportunity to have a few days off. I would like to have taken the whole week, but at the Embassy I have been given another role, that of looking after the Resident Twinning Advisers (remember that when I was here with the Customs project I was an RTA). In the middle of the Ambassador's week in London I had a Twinning Project Steering Committee meeting I had to go to. So I could only have a few days off. But I was able to get a cheap flight to Valencia so I decided to go to the house in Spain for 3 days. And what a memorable experience from beginning to end.

I went with Wizz Air from Bucharest. Like many of the low cost airlines they do not allocate seats, it's just like a bus, you get on and choose where to sit. Unfortunately this allows the Romanians to display some of their characteristics to the full. For example no Romanian is able to wait behind the other, whether they are queuing for something or driving their car. So it was an all out fight to get on the plane. One advantage we have over the average Romanian is that we have the ability to think.

So when I saw that there was a bus taking us from the terminal to the plane, I thought - if you are last on the bus, you will be first off and so first into the plane. So while watching the Romanians climbing over each other and pulling hair, gouging eyes and kneecapping the person in front I waited patiently. And of course I did walk onto the bus almost last and so was first off. When the bus doors opened it was like a dam of people bursting. The fighting started again, but this time the Wizz Air people were trying to stop people going on to allow those with small children on first. Two words.....fat chance.

Evenually, using a taser, electonic prod and machine gun they finally stopped us at the foot of the steps. One woman went past with a baby and the Romanians patience ran out. They all started scrabbling up the steps again, Wizz Air staff were shouting while collecting the eyes, bits of scalp and hair that were falling on the tarmac. Of course the whole situation resolved itself and we took off exactly on time by some miracle.

Those of you who have travelled to Romania will have experienced the ritual you go through when landing. As you touch down they all applaud, then they all switch on their mobile phones, then they all start getting their hand luggage from the overhead bins. All this before we have even reached the end of the runway and turned towards the terminal. The poor Wizz Air stewardess was shouting 3 times for everyone to please sit down.

Thankfully getting my hire car to drive down to La Marina was very straightforward. I had asked for a "compact" car (Ka or Clio). They told me I had been upgraded and indeed I had, about 7 up grades, so I drove a bendy bus out of Valencia airport! It was an enormous people carrier. But extremely comfortable and plush - I liked it.

I arrived at the house in Spain to find there was no electricity. The neighbours had it, but I didn't. A letter in the post box at the gate told me I had been cut off for non payment of bills. This was Saturday evening so there was nothing I could do until Monday morning.

When I went to the bank I asked:
"Can you give me a list of all the standing order/direct debits there is on the account?"
"Certainly" said the helpful Bank clerk.
"You have 4, one for water, one for the insurance of the house, one for SEMA and one for electricity."
"Pardon?" I asked "Did you say electricity?"
"Yes"
"So can you explain why I have been cut of for non payment of my electricity?"
"Oh" he said looking at the letter I had thrust under his nose.
After some squinting at the screen he finally said: "Ah, I see what's happened. The electricity company has two names and they have started using the other name with you for some reason. And of course the bank direct debit is set up for the first name so it didn't recognise it. Therefore your bills were not paid."

So through no fault of mine I had no electricity! Thankfully my friend Chris was able to offer me a shower and cooked food.....for the whole time I was there as the electricity never came back on. The consolation was that as I drove back to Valencia the car dashboard showed it was 28c. It had been a beautiful sunny few days.......and dry in every way!!

In the next two weeks I get two Easters, the Christian one this weekend and then the Orthodox one the following weekend. So Happy Easter, Paste Fericit, to you.

And I will try to be in touch again very soon.

Take care,

Andrew x