For quite a few years now I and my family kept mentioning that we shall plan a trip that should be mainly focused on Timisoara and Arad which even though they are pretty close to each other, they also represent two of the very few cities we haven't explored yet.
So while we failed terribly in doing our yearly road trip around Romania in 2022 which should include these two cities, at the beginning of the year we received an opportunity that we couldn't miss.
Namely, to spend one day in Timisoara while visiting my cousin who was back in Romania for a limited time to follow some courses for his job in UK.
Perhaps there are more of you who have friends or family members abroad, but this thing is a common situation for Romanians since Romania has the most imigrants in the whole world, after Siria...which, well, we all know the reasons.
Romania is not part of a war or some sort of dangerous thing causing people to leave their country for a better living abroad, but only the corrupted system, bad salary, stupid law, and injustice met at every step.
However, this is a completely different story that perhaps would take me thousands of words to be described as it should, so I won't get too deep into it for now.
Anyway, while it's been quite a few years since we last met with my cousin, we couldn't miss the chance to travel all the way to Timisoara to meet him but to also check out the city that is known for many important historical events.
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In less than 40 days I would 'celebrate' one year since I last saw my cousin and Timisoara. And I kept postponing this post with the hope that we will get to see more of Timisoara in a future journey without being in a rush, but that moment didn't come so I thought that there is no better moment to write about it than now since one week ago I returned from Austria where I was hella surprised by all the buildings' architecture and statues that made me take no less than 920 pictures of.
I know that number sounds crazy and perhaps it will take a long while to get through all the images and sort them out for future posts, but the main thought I returned with, was asking myself:
Why other countries can preserve historical monuments and adapt them to the current times instead of destroying them and buildings new ones like it often happens in Romania?!
Actually, this is a less painful situation while at the same time there are thousands of buildings abandoned and forgotten, letting time decide on their destiny, meeting lots of ruins wherever we go.
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Happily, Timisoara represents one of the very few exceptions where you can still enjoy this kind of old buildings with a specific architectural design but also plenty of statues, each with its own story. I am not saying that the whole city and county is like that, but from our walk we noticed quite a lot of historical monuments and buildings that were well maintained, some of them being even under renovation.
It's true that we did meet some buildings which had a big padlock on the gates which made me think that the place was closed for quite a while now, but at least they weren't ruins as we are used to see while running to this kind of places.
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The place where we've spent most of the day was in the center of the city, known as Piața Unirii from where you can go all the way to Piața Victoriei which during this period it shelters one of the most beautiful Christmas Markets from Romania.
Along with the many colourful buildings surrounding the center of the city which have completely different purposes these days than what they originally represented, there is also a column placed in the middle of the square known as Coloana Ciumei (EN: The Plague Statue).
While back when we had this journey the statue didn't catch my attention very much, after my most recent trip to Vienna where I've seen something very similar, this one seems a lot more familiar now. The reason is quite simple because there it actually is a connection between Vienna and Timisoara, while The Plague Statue was built in Vienna and transported to Timisoara by water, on Danube, Tisa and Bega canals.
The plague represents one of the most terrible epidemics in history that appeared in Europe after 1300. So while Romania managed to stay away from it for quite a few years, Timisoara ended up being one of the victims for no less than three times.
All this led to no less than 1,300 deaths just in Timisoara, which made many people think that the end of the world is near due to the speed with which the disease was spreading. Through the victims Timisoara had, we remember 6 mayors which was the real proof that the disease was unforgiving.
The monument raised represents the end of the terrible period and that we should take care more of ourselves but also of our loved ones without neglecting a disease that spreads so quickly without giving enough time to the doctors to work on a remedy. Did we all learn something from that period? You tell me - after all the madness with COVID and the endless fight between wearing a mask or not, having the vaccine or not.
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While Piața Unirii has quite a lot of interesting buildings to stare at, Piața Victoriei doesn't enjoy the same popularity, the main attractions being either the theater or the Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral which is among the most photographed buildings from Timisoara.
Even though I usually don't step back from visiting churches and see how they look on the inside while praying and sitting for a few minutes in silence, this time we decided to only take a few pictures from the outside while my parents were lighting up some candles inside of it. The architecture and especially the church domes reminded me of the monastery from Săpânța which is very famous for its cemetery and all the colourful graves.
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Right next to the Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral there is a park which for me it represented the most beautiful part of the town just because is not very crowded and it looks like the right place where to chill for a bit and listen to the silence of nature even if you are in the middle of the city.
Along with the carefully tended bushes and plenty of benches to take a sit on, there are also various sculptures that you can consider checking out for some extra knowledge about the past of Romania. It's true that most of the statues are dedicated to important people of the country whose names perhaps won't tell you too much, but googling their names will help you get a little of their background.
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The park is not very big, or at least not as big as those from Bucharest which is the capital of the country, but it's enough for a chill walk and to step a little bit away from the noise of the city or the crowded parts of the town that can become pretty tiring after a while.
After we recharged our batteries with the colours and the silence of nature, we decided to have one last stop at the mall of Timisoara to enjoy dinner and do some shopping as well.
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Inside the mall, we found an exhibition that was held for just a couple of days presenting some of the biggest and rarest species of tarantulas alive, so this one can't be seen these days if you get to Timisoara, but happily, I managed to take some pictures for you.
I've never been a fan of spiders and insects in general, but I didn't neglect them either even if they represent something pretty gross for me unless we talk about butterflies or ladybugs. However, tarantulas always were one of my biggest fears along with snakes, but as I did see quite a few snakes in Romania during our trips, happily, Romania is not one of the countries where you can run into a tarantula other than seeing it on an exhibition or at the zoo.
So even though I felt quite uncomfortable walking through the aquariums that were sheltering tens of tarantulas, I was still happy that I got to see so many species in a single place which added some extra knowledge to my backpack regarding these creatures.
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After we finished our meal and doing shopping, we went back to the place where my cousin was spending the nights during his stay in Timisoara, leaving behind a city full of history which even though is amongst the biggest and most important cities of Romania, it seemed quite silent and empty when we visited it, which made me think that it's not very appreciated for its past and that it has lots of inhabitants moved to other parts of the country/world for a better living.
To make a better idea of what the town has been through, it represents the first city in Romania where the rebellion for freedom began during the communist period which extended to more cities of the country that led to a very brutal fight between the population and the communist people which started attacking the inhabitants with tanks, fire weapons and more.
Even though it represents a very painful memory for many Romanians, the blood of the brave population helped us become free from communism which comes with both good and bad parts in 2022 looking towards how bad everything goes these days.
But if there weren't these guys fighting for all of us and losing their lives in front of the communist people, most likely we would still have a communist living now with lots of restrictions.
Timisoara represents the first city from Europe that had a tramway, but also the first city from Europe and the 2nd city in the world (After New York) that introduced electric street lighting, the event happening in 1884.
In order to reach Timisoara you can do so pretty easily either if we talk about taking a train ride, driving your own car or buying a bus ticket. This one can be reached from any part of the country but also from Hungary and Serbia which are not far away from this side of Romania.
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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